He was made Bishop of Dromore in 1697, the same year as the enactment of the 1697 Banishment Act which was intended to clear out all Roman Catholic clergy from Ireland.
[1] Patrick Donnelly was born in Desertcreat in Tyrone, and a slab in the graveyard there, almost worn away, is inscribed with a mitre and sceptre and what appears to be the name 'Phelim Brady'.
Oh list to the lay of a poor Irish harper, And scorn not the strings in his old withered hands, But remember those fingers, they once could move sharper, To raise up the strains of his dear native land.
When I was a young lad, King Jamie did flourish And I followed the wars in my brogues bound with straw And all the fair colleens from Wexford to Durrish Called me bold Phelim Brady, the Bard of Armagh.
It was long before the shamrock, the dear isle's loved emblem, Was crushed in its beauty by the Saxon lion's paw, I was called by the colleens around me assembling Their bold Phelim Brady, the Bard of Armagh.