Gerald O'Donovan, pseudonym of Jeremiah O'donovan Biography

Irish novelist, born in Co. Down. He entered the seminary at Maynooth and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1895. Posted to a parish in Loughrea, Co. Galway, he became active in the Gaelic League and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. Through his connections with key figures in the Irish cultural revival, such as Edward Martyn, O'Donovan enlisted the support of Jack B. Yeats in the building of a new cathedral. His prominence and popularity made him a strong candidate for the bishopric of Tuam but, disillusioned by the Church's reluctance to modernize, he left the priesthood in 1904, moving to Dublin and then to London, signifying a desire to break with the past by calling himself Gerald O'Donovan. His first and most renowned novel, Father Ralph (1913), is a largely autobiographical work about a young priest's inability to accept the papal encyclical against reform. His other novels include Waiting (1914), How They Did It (1920), and The Holy Tree (1922) which portrays a character based upon his close friend, Rose Macauley. O'Donovan's novels have been recognized for their unique representation of a pre-Independence Ireland.