Appeal for info on Sligo native Michael O’Hara
As a boarding student at St. Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, during the years 1951- 54, I had as my teacher of English a man called Michael O’Hara.
He was a man of great sensitivity and enormous learning and left an influence on me that lasts to this day ( I am now 79). He also taught ancient Greek.
My search for information on his career has yielded little. From an Augustinian publication by Thomas C. Butler, O. S. A., Journey of an Abbey ( 1292- 1972): History of the Augustinians in Dungarvan ( 1973), pp. 45- 6, I learn that he was a native of Sligo, joined the staff in Dungarvan in 1924, and “had just missed a professorship at the university”.
Enigmatically the writer does not name the university. One of his priestly colleagues has told me that Michael came to Dungarvan from Glasgow, where, as I assume, he had taught Classics at a second- level college.
However, enquiries I have made at Catholic colleges where I thought he might have worked have proved fruitless.
He may have cousins in Sligo. Hence I take the liberty of turning to you for some help. I would like to insert a brief request for information on Michael in your paper and I should welcome any guidance that anyone can offer me as to how I might proceed with a search that has simply run into a cul- de- sac.
Michael was married but he did not have any children.