Dr. Daniel Delaney D.D. - Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin
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By Patrick F. Meehan
Extracted from "Laois Yearbook" 1983
The Most Rev. Dr. Daniel Delaney, Lord Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, was born in Mountrath in 1747, the son of wealthy Catholic landlord parents. Educated on the continent at St. Omers and the Irish College, Parish, where he was ordained. He returned to Ireland in 1777 and was sent as curate in Tullow to help the Bishop, Dr. Keeffe, who was also Parish priest. In 1783 Dr. Keeffe had Fr. Delaney appointed coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin and administrator of Tullow where the Bishops lived at that time.
Dr. Delaney was a member of the old Catholic Ascendancy and his cousin Dr. Butler was a time Lord Archbishop of Cashel and Metropolitan of Munster. Dr. Butler introduced into his archdiocese the first Eucharistic processions in Ireland since the downfall of King James II.
Dr. Delaney decided to follow his lead and on Corpus Christi, 1784 held the Corpus Christi Procession in Tullow and it was to become a yearly event. The following year in Tullow he founded the confraternity of the Sacred Heart. He condemned the 1798 rising as unnecessary slaughter, which could do nothing but harm the church and people.
On the 18th September 1787
Dr. O'Keefe died and Dr. Delaney succeeded him as Bishop. He decided to
found a Presentation Convent in Tullow but the nuns could not come. So
in 1788 he re-founded the Brigidine Order and in 1805 the building of
the church and convent in Tullow began. He then decided to found an order
of monks to teach young boys and the Patrician Brothers was the final
result of his efforts. Before his death the two orders expanded over Ireland.
Dr. Delaney died on the 9th, August, 1814.
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