Personal Life
O'Leary never married, although he had an early love affair with a young woman who is thought to have later entered a convent. He acted as best man for James Stephens in 1864. He was brought up a Catholic but abandoned the religion for all of his life until close to his death, when he was reconciled to the church around Christmas 1906. He inherited property from his family in the town of Tipperary and for most of his life this provided a reasonably comfortable income, so that he did not have to earn money and was able to assist fellow separatists financially. However, he did become a victim of agitation during the Plan of Campaign in 1889-91, when rental payments to him largely ceased. He was remembered in the town of Tipperary as a 'hard landlord'.
Read more about this topic: John O'Leary (Fenian)
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