He was born to Maurice Dowley and Nora Corbett in 1788, Ballyknock, outside Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Waterford.
He was Junior then Senior appointed Dean of Maynooth College but left it in 1834 to help set up the Vincentians in Dublin.
[2] They set up a school in Ushers Quay in Dublin, but also a congregation house in Phibsboro, and St. Vincent's Castleknock College.
[3] He acted as president of the seminary in Castleknock from its foundation, and stayed in the provincial residence at the college.
[citation needed] He died in Castleknock on 31 January 1864 and was succeeded by Father Thomas McNamara CM.