Patrick Augustine Sheehan (1852–1913) was an Irish Catholic priest and novelist. He served in parish ministry for many years while also writing literature as a priest, drawing much of his material from the religious life and everyday affairs of Irish country towns. His representative work, My New Curate, depicts relations between clergy and parishioners in a narrative style marked by gentle humor and realism. Writing for ordinary readers in plain language, Sheehan emphasized character portrayal and local manners, and he holds a place in Irish Catholic literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public information about him is limited, and details of his life and the full range of his works remain insufficiently documented; readers may turn to his fiction for a sense of his style and outlook.
