Ní dóigh go raibh Gaeilge aige ach is cuid é a shaothar staire den iarracht leanúnach a bhí ar siúl ag Caítlicigh san 18ú haois chun leaganacha staire na bunaíochta a bhréagnú; ina chás-san is é stair Éirí Amach 1641 is mó a bhí i gceist. Tá cuntas air in Dictionary of National Biography agus ag Alfred Webb in A Compendium of Irish biography: comprising sketches of distinguished Irishmen, and of eminent persons connected with Ireland by office or by their writings, 1878; tugann Thomas Wall eolas faoi in The Sign of Dr. Hay’s Head, 1958. Bhain sé le seanteaghlach Uí Chorra a chaill a gcuid tailte i gContae an Chabháin i rith 1641–52 agus 1689–91. Bhí a sheanathair i gceannas ar mharcshlua in arm Shéamuis II agus maraíodh é ag Eachroim. Chuaigh a athair le cúrsaí gnó.

I mBaile Átha Cliath a rugadh é agus cuireadh oilíúint dochtúra air i bPáras ar dtús. Cháiligh sé in Reims agus bhain clú mar dhochtúir amach i measc Chaitlicigh Bhaile Átha Cliath. Thugadh sé féin agus John Fergus cuairteanna deonacha, dhá uair sa tseachtain, ar na heasláin sa Charitable Infirmary. Bhí cónaí air i Lána na Bó, i dtuaisceart na cathrach, ‘adjoining Phrapper Lane, and adjacent to Mary’s Lane, Pill Lane and Mass Lane, an ancient quarter of the city, somewhat decayed and occupied for the most part by Catholics’ (Wall). In A Directory of Dublin for the year 1738..., 2000 tá James Curry liostaithe ach ní thugtar a ghnó ná a cheird. Promhadh uacht John Curry, M.D. i mBaile Átha Cliath i 1780 nuair a bhí cónaí air ar Chnoc an tSamhraidh nó Summerhill sa chathair. Is dóigh gurbh é an fear s’againne é (Arthur Vicars, Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536–1810).

Shíl Caitlicigh na linne gur den chríonnacht fanacht ina dtost. Deir Wall agus é ag tagairt don Athair Nioclás Ó Síthigh a cuireadh chun báis i 1766: ‘And the Catholic apologists of the time, Dr John Curry and Charles O’Conor [Cathal Ó Conchubhair q.v.]. though sympathetic with him in their hearts and knowing well the multitudinous grievances which had goaded him into fiery speech, felt constrained to rebuke his foolhardiness and deplore his lack of discretion.... Charles O’Conor, complaining of the silence of the English Catholic gentry in 1766, claimed that he and his friend, Dr John Curry, were the only two who had “dared to break silence amidst a million of distressed mutes, and mutes for seventy years past”.’

Tugann Ó Conchubhair cuntas ar an eachtra a dhírigh aigne Uí Chorra ar stair na gCaitliceach. Bhíodh seanmóirí ina n-aghaidh á dtabhairt in eaglaisí Protastúnacha lá comórtha Éirí Amach 1641. ‘In October, 1746, as he passed through the Castle-yard on the memorial day of the Irish rebellion of 1641, he met two ladies, and a girl of about eight years of age, who, stepping on a little before them, turned about suddenly, and, with uplifted hands and horror in her countenance, exclaimed. “Are there many of those bloody Papists in Dublin?” This incident, which to a different hearer would be laughable, filled the doctor with anxious reflections. He immediately inferred that the child’s terror proceeded from the impression made on her mind by the sermon preached that day in Christ Church, whence those ladies proceeded; and having procured a copy of the sermon, he found that his surmise was well founded’ (sa réamhrá le A Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland agus i gcló in A Compendium of Irish Biography).

Mar Phrotastúnach liobrálach a scríobhadh sé, mar dhea. Chun scaipeadh a chur ar an gclaonadh seo in aghaidh na gCaitliceach a scríobh sé Brief account from the most authentic Protestant Writers of the causes, motives, and mischiefs of the Irish rebellion on the 23rd day of October, 1641, delivered in a dialogue between a Dissenter and a member of the Church of Ireland as by law established, 1749; ní raibh ainm údair ná clódóra leis. D’aithin Walter Harris cérbh é an t-údar agus d’ionsaigh an leabhar in Faction unmasked, or an answer to a dialogue, lately published by a Popish Physician, and pretended to have passed between a Dissenter and a member of the Church of Ireland; wherein the causes motives and mischiefs of the Irish Rebellion and Massacres in 1641 are laid thick upon the Protestants, 1752. D’fhreagair Curry é le Historical Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion in the year 1641; extracted from Parliamentary Journals, State acts, and the most eminent Protestants historians, 1758. Ó Conchubhair a scríobh an réamhrá ach níor chuir ceachtar díobh a ainm leis an leabhar. I gcomhar le Ó Conchubhair scríobh sé Observations on the Popery Laws, 1771. Shíl Thomas Addis Emmet (1764–1827) gurbh é tionchar an leabhair sin a thug ar Éireannaigh Aontaithe Bhaile Átha Cliatha bheith go hiomlán ar son Fhuascailt na gCaitliceach.

Scríobh sé eagrán méadaithe de Historical Memoirs faoin teideal A Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland, 1775; iarracht ba ea é ar scéalta Thomas Leland (History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II, 1773) faoi mharú na bProtastúnach i 1641 a bhréagnú. D’ullmhaigh Ó Conchubhair eagrán úr i 1786 agus rogha dá scríbhinní i 1793.

Bhí sé ar dhuine de bhunaitheoirí an Choiste Chaitlicigh i 1760. Scríobh Thomas Wyse, bunaitheoir eile, in Historical Sketches of the late Catholic Association of Ireland: ‘Dr. Curry in any period of Irish history would have been a remarkable man.... His whole life was a series of the most judicious and active benevolence.... To his country true, a disinterested politician, unswayed by the puny vanities of little men, feeling deeply his country’s wrongs but never speculating upon them for distinction and honours to himself, ... [he] seemed particularly and especially framed for times the most difficult in our history.’

Scríobh sé freisin An Essay on Ordinary Fevers. And the methods to be used, to prevent their becoming so grevious, and mortal, as they are often found to be, 1743 agus Some thoughts on the nature of fevers, on the causes of their becoming so frequently mortal and on the means to prevent it, 1774. Tá cuntas ar an taobh sin dá shaol ag J.B. Lyons in Brief Lives of Irish Doctors 1600–1965, 1978. Bhí beirt mhac leis ina n-oifigigh in arm na hOstaire. D’éag sé ina theach i gCnoc an tSamhraidh, Baile Átha Cliath, 17 Márta 1780.

Tá tuilleadh eolais faoin mbeatha seo ar fáil ar shuíomh gréasáin Dictionary of Irish Biography anseo.

Diarmuid Breathnach

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