Daniel Delany DD (February 1747, in Paddock, Mountrath, Laois, Ireland – 9 July 1814, in Tullow, County Carlow) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.

His mother, Elizabeth Delany (née Fitzpatrick) sent him to her sisters, who had a shop in the nearby town of Mountrath, to gain a better education.

[1] As the public practice of Catholicism was outlawed by British Law at the time, in 1763, with the help of a good Protestant friend, the sixteen-year-old Delany was smuggled out of Ireland to Paris to study for the priesthood at the Irish College in Paris.

In April 1783, Delany was appointed Coadjutor to Bishop James O'Keeffe of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin,[3] choosing as his motto Fortiter et Suaviter.

With some relaxation of the Penal Laws in 1782, many Irish priests including Bishops O'Keeffe and Delany worked to rebuild churches, monasteries, convents and schools.

In 1782 O'Keeffe and Delany began planning for the establishment of a tertiary college for the education of both lay students and those studying for the priesthood.

St. Patrick's College was originally planned for Tullow but in the end, had to be situated in Carlow fifteen kilometres away.

It was left to Bishop Delany and Fr Henry Staunton of Carlow to get the college finished.

[3] The Delany Archive which holds the archives of the diocese of Kildare & Leighlin, the Patrician Brothers, Brigidine Sisters and Carlow College is located in Carlow College[7] The Patrician Brothers in Sydney named the Delany Foundation after him.