Eris Michael O'Brien was born in Condobolin, New South Wales, the eldest of three children of Terence O'Brien, a native-born police constable, and his Irish-born wife Bertha, née Conroy. The family moved to Sydney and Eris studied at St Aloysius' College. After training at St Patrick's Seminary, Manly he was ordained a priest in 1918.[1]
Priesthood
O'Brien served in several Sydney parishes and wrote two books on the history of the Catholic Church in nineteenth-century Australia, The Life and Letters of Archpriest John Joseph Therry (1922, also titled The Foundation of Catholicism in Australia), and The Dawn of Catholicism in Australia, the story of Fr Jeremiah O'Flynn (1928).
O'Brien was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney in 1948. The same year he was a member of the Australian delegation to the third session of the United Nations General Assembly in Paris and sat on the committee dealing with human rights. He became Auxiliary Archbishop of Sydney in 1951.
Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn
O'Brien was made Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn in 1953 and dealt with rapid expansion of church parishes and schools in Canberra. He cautiously supported the Goulburn School Strike in 1962, which protested against lack of subsidies to Church schools and played a role in gaining state aid for Church schools
^E. Johnston, Eris O'Brien, historian and scholar, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 24 (2003), 17-30; B. Nairn, Eris Michael O'Brien (1895-1974): obituary, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 12 (1990), 21-24; E. Campion, A scholar and a gentleman: Eris O'BrienArchived 16 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Madonna Jan/Feb 2004.
^E. O'Brien, Australian Catholic Historical Society inaugural address, 28 Nov 1940, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 12 (1990), 6-19.