Vol. 4: Lyons, J.B.

Type: Article

Lyons, J.B. ‘Sylvester O’Halloran, 1728-1807’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 4 (1989), pp 65-74.

Sylvester O’Halloran was a surgeon, antiquarian and prolific letter writer, whose publications contributed to the medical advancement of Ireland in the eighteenth-century. He was one of the few who managed to turn the prohibition on catholic education in Ireland to his advantage, and went abroad to study surgery. He returned to Ireland and set up practice in Limerick. This article discusses O’Halloran’s life and career as a “cultured, well-informed catholic gentleman”, his various publications, and his letters to Edmund Burke and Charles O’Conor of Belangare. O’Halloran’s work was featured in The Medical Review (1775), and Thomas Ó Míocháin wrote a poem in his honour.