“ His affectionate heart was open to every genuine tale of distress, and in the matter of erecting a little memorial over a forgotten grave, or secretly helping on a struggling family or community, or aiding some poor friendless youth, none was ever a truer friend than he. ”

“ Many have treated of this latter subject, but Canon O'Rourke is the only author who has given a connected account of the Famine, one of the most terrible inflictions a country ever underwent, and one that has revolutionised the social state. ”

“ He had been for seventeen years one of the curates of Kingstown, and for 17 years parish priest of Maynooth. Besides his parochial duties he was an active literary labourer. In early life before he entered Maynooth as a student in that celebrated place of education for the Church, he published anonymously a small work called "Holly and Ivy" which retains its place to this day, many copies being continually called for and supplied to the United States of America. It was Canon O'Rourke that wrote the Centenary Life of O'Connell about the year 1875. ”