The title "Callan Curates" was given to Fr. Tom O'Shea and Fr. Matt O'Keeffee because of their work in setting up the Callan Tenant Protection Society. The aim of the Society was to protect small land holders, cottiers and landless labourers against eviction by unscrupulous landlords who at that time saw grass land and cattle production more profitable to him than the rents paid by such people. These people had no self defence, no civil rights against such behaviour. The immediate decision to set up the Society arose as a result of a particularly harsh eviction of a widow and her children who were left on the roadside.
The Society was set up by the two priests in The Town Hall in Callan on 14th October 1849 with a Committee and a Plan of Action.
The principal aims were:
To use every legal and moral means to obtain fair rents to both landlord and tenant. To secure tenant rights - that a tenant could not be evicted if he paid his rent, and would be compensated for improvements made by himself to his holding. To provide for the industrial employment of the labouring classes. The Society was successful and helped to provide a platform for the Tenant League. Its influence continued leading up to the Land League and the solution of current Irish land problems.