[1] His early schooling took place at South Earl Street, where, between the years 1744–1747, he "was associated with the Gaelic language and cultural circle which had formed around Tadhg Ó Neachtain, scion of a Connacht bardic family who had settled in Dublin.
[2] During his early pastoral career, he gained a reputation as an elegant preacher and a zealous catechist who had built three schools for the poor and orphaned and managed to stay above diocesan party politics.
"[5] Archbishop Carpenter held the parish of St Nicholas as his mensal, and "resided in a large house on Usher's Island...[saying] Mass in Francis Street every Sunday at eight o'clock."
Enjoying the support of his clergy, Archbishop Carpenter's first act was "to ensure that collections taken up at the church door were properly divided between parish priests and assistants."
Commenting further on these aspects of his ministry, his entry in the 2004 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says of him: "An assiduous administrator, Archbishop Carpenter visited his diocese regularly and his first publication was a set of provincial and synodal constitutions.
In 1773 he was admitted to the Royal Dublin Society, an event described by Charles O'Conor as 'a revolution in our moral and civil affairs the more extraordinary, as in my own days such a man would only be spoken to through the medium of a warrant and constable.'
A firm defender of property, and law and order, he denounced oath-bound secret societies such as those of Dublin workers who used industrial strife to gain concessions and working rights.