Among the pioneer ecclesiastics were Father William Kelly of
Melbourne and Father John McEncroe, a native of Tipperary and a
Maynooth man, who for thirty years and more was a prominent figure in
the religious and civic life of New South Wales. Father John Brady,
another pioneer priest, became Bishop of Perth. Irish names occupy a
conspicuous and honored place in the roster of the Australian
episcopate. Notable on the list are Bishop Francis Murphy of
Adelaide, who was born in Co. Meath, and Archbishop Daniel Murphy of
Sydney, a native of Cork, the man who delivered the eulogy on the
occasion of Daniel O'Connell's funeral at Rome. But scant reference
can here be made to the illustrious primate of Australia, Cardinal
Moran, archbishop of Sydney from 1884 to 1911, who was such a potent
force in the land of his adoption, and whose masterly _History of the
Catholic Church in Australasia_ puts him in the forefront of
ecclesiastical historians. On his death he was succeeded in the see
of Sydney by another Irishman, Archbishop Michael Kelly of Waterford.
Archbishop O'Reily of Adelaide is a recognized authority on music,
and has written several pamphlets on that subject. A Galway man, Dr.
T. J. Carr, a great educator, is now (1914) archbishop of Melbourne,
and a Clare man, Dr. J. P. Clune, holds sway in Perth.
Irishmen in Australia have figured largely in the iron and coal
industries, in the irrigation projects, in the manufacturing
activities, and in the working of the gold mines. But they have
likewise distinguished themselves in other fields of endeavor.
Prominent on the beadroll of Australian fame stand the names of Sir
Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), founder of the _Nation_ newspaper in
Dublin, member of the British house of commons, and afterwards
premier of Victoria and speaker of the legislative assembly, and his
sons, John Gavan Duffy and Frank Gavan Duffy, public-spirited
citizens and authorities on legal matters. The Currans, father and
son, active in the public life of Sydney, were afterwards members of
the British parliament. Distinguished in the records of the
Australian judiciary are Judges Quinlan, Casey, Brennan, and O'Dowd.
The Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.S., is a geologist who has achieved
more than local fame. Other Irishmen who have loomed large in
Australasian affairs are Daniel Brophy, John Cumin, Augustus Leo
Kenny, James Coghlan, Sir Patrick Buckley, Sir John O'Shannessy, and
Nicholas Fitzgerald. Louis C. Brennan, C.B., who was born in Ireland
in 1852, emigrated to Australia when a boy and while working in a
civil engineer's office in Melbourne conceived the idea of the
"Brennan Torpedo", which he afterwards perfected, and then in 1897
sold the invention to the British Admiralty for £110,000. Another
Brennan, Frank by name, is president of the Knights of Our Lady of
the Southern Cross and has been a labor member of the federal
parliament since 1911; a third, Christopher John, is assistant
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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