[1] It is uncertain where exactly he was born but believed to be in either the townlands of Tonylion or Kilnaleck in the civil parish of Crosserlough, County Cavan, Ireland on 1 August 1842.
At the invitation of several Irish bishops the order came to Ireland in the 1870s and many of the early priests were already diocesan clergy.
[2] Boylan felt a calling to the values of the order and was professed a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on 15 October 1888.
[5] He travelled extensively to Italy, the United States and the Philippines and it was little surprise that, when the vacancy occurred, when he was nominated for his native diocese as Bishop of Kilmore.
Boylan's episcopal consecration took place on 19 May 1907; the principal consecrator was Cardinal Michael Logue, Archbishop of Armagh, and the principal co-consecrators were Joseph Hoare, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise and Henry Henry, Bishop of Down and Connor.