Background
A descendant of the Ó hÍceadha family of physicians, he was the eldest son of Review Ambrose Hickey, Church of Ireland rector of Murragh, County Cork.
A descendant of the Ó hÍceadha family of physicians, he was the eldest son of Review Ambrose Hickey, Church of Ireland rector of Murragh, County Cork.
He graduated from Saint John"s College, Cambridge, and received his Master of Arts
From the University of Dublin. He was ordained in 1811 and appoined curate of Dunleckny, County Carlow. Between then and 1834 he served at Bannow, Kilcormick, Wexford and Mulrankin, remaining at the latter till his death.
A Compendium of Irish Biography says of him: "When at Bannow he started the South Wexford Agricultural Society and the Bannow Agricultural School, both of which flourished while under his superintendence.
He commenced his career as a writer in 1817, his first work being a pamphlet on the State of the Poor in Ireland. Afterwards followed a series of letters under the pseudonym of "Martin Doyle," under which he continued to write.
He t.. was a regular contributor to Blackwood"s Agricultural Magazine, Chambers" Journal, and other periodicals. His latest production, published a few years before his death, was Notes and Gleanings of the County Wexford.
In all his writings he took the broadest philanthropic views, studiously avoiding religious and political controversy.
He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Dublin Society, in recognition of his services to Ireland, and enjoyed a pension from the Literary Fund. He was a man of an eminently charitable and feeling nature, and died comparatively poor, 24th October 1875, aged 87. These particulars of his life have been furnished by George Griffiths, author of Chronicles of the County of Wexford, one of the best authorities upon biographical and archaeological lore of that part of Ireland.".