t is a difficult task to f3erernialj Bekurnan the whole were of the very wq&t try to write briefly description'. Small wonder that, being about the first lrish si~ljogof Pimerick thus regarded, more than forty of them Catholic missionar- Famine years. were summarily flogged while the ship ies to Australia. They left from Cork too. The was still at sea. A lot has been writ- Freeman's Journal for 26 February, The tide of transportation became ten alreadv about 1791, tells us of how 'the Jailer from greater after the Rebellion of 1798, as those priests, notably in Father Eris Limerick set off for Cork with a number also did the contempt in which the O'Brien's The Dawn of Catholicism in of prisoners, where a large transport is unfortunate transportees were held. Australia, Cardinal Moran's History of preparing to carry all the convicts in the In 1801 the Governor of the Sydney the Catholic Church in Australia, Kingdom to Botany Bay'. area record~dthat a vessel from Water- Archbishop Ullathorne's Catholic Mis- Most of the early lrish emigrants ford brought 'one hundred and thirty- sion to Australia, J.F. Hogan's Thelrish were Catholic convicts. The first seven of the most desperate and in Australia, 'John O'Brien's The Men Irishmen are said to have been trans- diabolical characters that could be of '38, and other volumes. ported in 1791 and the first selected throughout the kingdom ... Still, there are a few more scattered to carry political prisoners from Ireland together with a Catholic priest of the references that can yet be assembled to Australia -the Marquis Cornwallis - most notorious, seditious and rebelli- into a fascinating study, in particular left from Cove in 1795. There must have ous principles'. relating to the Munster and indeed the been some lrish there however even This was Fr. Peter O'Neil, a native of Limerick connection with Australia. earlier than 1791. For, although it is not Ballymacoda, Co. Cork, who, even It is seldom realised that the bulk of widely known, it is a fact that a Kilkenny before being sent from Ireland, had lrish emigration to Australia after the priest, Father James Walsh, sought received two hundred and seventy-five Famine came from a midland area, permission to travel with the lashes of the cat. Perhaps indeed he embracing Clare, Limerick, Tipperary to be with his countrymen, but was was a rebel, as some sixty or so years and Kilkenny. Many of the emigrants refused. after, his grand-nephew, Peter O'Neil had their passages paid for by lrish The first Catholic political convicts Crowley, a Fenian leader, was killed in landlords such as Lord Monteagle of were members of the Whiteboys or the uprising of 1867. Or which was the Mount Trenchard, Co. Limerick, better Levellers, who had sown the seeds of cause of which ...? known here as Thomas Spring Rice. rebellion in Tipperary as early as 1761, Fr. O'Wl was accompanied by two Prior to that, great numbers were and the Ulster Catholic Defenders. It other lrish fellow-priests. The three thither from Limerick port, was said of the Marquis Cornwallis that were the first lrish Catholic mis- from which the tall ships sailed with of the men on board "several ... were sionaries to Australia, celebrating their human cargoes like later on in the known by the name of Defenders, and Mass with a chalice made of tin by one

- The Custom House andpart of the oldpott of Limerick, --S : the earliest kno wn picture.

of their fellow-convicts and wearing enlightened but autocratic Governor It is almost uneblievable but true vestments fashioned out of some cast- Macquarie had him returned to Europe, that, while a priest in the brutal convict away curtains. again leaving behind Catholics - settlement of , (near the It was not too long before their minis- almost all of them lrish -without a pas- more famous Pitcairn Island), McEn- try was terminated, owing to the tor. Macquarie was probably influ- croe managed to write a book, entitled authorities' fear that their congrega- enced by the English Catholic Vicar- (perhaps suitably) The Wanderings of tions were gatherings for the subter- Apostolic of London, Dr. Poynter, the Human Mind in Searching the fuges of traitors. Two of them (one under whose religious jurisdiction all Scriptures, printed in Sydney in 1841. being Fr. O'Neil) were allowed to return the British colonies had been placed, Cardinal Moran wrote that it was prob- home in 1803, the other sent to Van and who was none too happy with ably the only work ever written in that Diemen's Land, or Tasmania as it is bet- O'Flynn's assignment. fearsome penal enclave. I have a feel- ter known. For nearly ten years after The Antipodes also saw other and ing that some spiritual writing in the 1808 Catholics in Australia were with- very different lrish 'characters' during lrish language came from the convicts out a priest, though there were at least the 19th century. One such was the in Australia, but whether from Norfolk six thousand of them there by 1816. Corkman - married to a Quaker - who Island I am not sure. The first priests were succeeded by a had eph shipped from Cork to keep McEncroe was followed in 1837 by rather extraordinary man, Fr. Jeremiah away-snakes! Another was Lola Montez, another group of priests and by still O'Flynn. Born near Tralee in 1788, he born a Gilbert in Co. Limerick, who another in 1838, after the establish- became a Trappist monk in England. entranced audiences in Melbourne, ment of All Hallows College. Among After a varied and colourful career, he Adelaide and Ballarat with her dancing. the latter was a Fr. Slattery from eventually went to Australia, to which The early missionaries of whom we Limerick. Having received a good edu- he had been appointed by Rome as Pre- have been speaking were followed in cation in one of the principal classical fect-Apostolic of Bottanibe (sic). He 1819 or 1820, first by Fr. John Joseph schools for which Co. Limerick was landed in in 1817. Therry, a native of Cork, who became a renowned, he was ordained in May- By all accounts he was a rather legend in his day. Then came the most nooth in 1837 and in January of thefol- uncouth individual. How effective he flamboyant of them all, John McEn- lowing year sailed for Sydney. was is open to doubt. Fr. Eris O'Brien croe, a native of Rathsalla, or Ardsalla, His first major appointment was in describes him as 'clumsy' and 'rash'. Co. Tipperary. Bathurst and the next in Western Vic- Nevertheless, O'Brien goes on to say Maynooth-educated, McEncroe had toria. Later on, the Warnambool Stan- that 'he was the only type of man who been recruited by Therry when he vis- dardwas to say of him: 'At thattime his could have succeeded in his mission. ited that college in 1815. Mcm-s;left mission extended from Colac to the An adroit and politic expert would have in 1822for New South Wales,where his- South Australian Border, and from the failed'. mission was fruitful and his memory is Ocean to the Dividing Range. With no Yet, aftey,.hnly a short time, the still fresh. roads, and settlements miles apart, his duties must have been of the most nature, but his indomitable courage and untiring zeal overcame all difficulties. Old residents can tell of his braving the storms of winter, often swimming his horse in the djirkness of the night across flooded rivers, and cheerfully undergoing the many other hardships incidental to an unsettled district, when oh his way to celebrate Mass or to bring consolation to a departing soul'. Around 1860, he became Dean of the Diocese of Mel- bourne (a separate See since 1848). The same paper went on to say: 'Dean Slattery was the pioneer of Catholicity in the Western district, and the result of his exertions may be seen in the number of priests, churches, and Catholic scholastic institutions now here. He took an active interest in local affairs and has always been ready and willing to aid the cause of charity, 'did good by stealth and blushed to find it fame', and many families have reason to bless the priest who so generously Hobart Town in the 1830s. assisted them in their necessities'. Dean Slattery died in 1882. great part to the presence there of became one afterwards and donated Catholic priests, one of whom, Fr. the then great sum of £10,000 to the Michael Brennan from Limerick, was building of a cathedral in Hobart. Itwas stationed at Yass and encouraged by there that Thomas Francis Meagher the people to build its first church,start- and other lrish political exiles after the ing in 1837. 1848 debacle resided. When, in 1834, an Englishman, Dr. Polding, was appointed the first Catholic Bishop in Australia (in Syd- ney), he turned his attention to and in 1843, sent two priests and a catechist there to work among the Aborigines. One of the three men was Father John Brady from Cavan (of the 1838 group) and the catechist an lrish youth named Patrick O'Reilly. These were the first Catholic mis- sionaries ever to set foot in Western Australia. lrish priests were also to become some of the first bishops in Australia. Dean Thomas Slattery. Fr. Francis Murphy, who had arrived in 1838, went on to become the first Bishop of Adelaide in 1844. Fr. Brady It is interesting to note that the book became the first Bishop of Perth in from which the foregoing quotations 1845. Fr. Goold from Cork, who had are derived, that is, TheMen of '38, was also come in 1838, was appointed the written by 'John O'Brien'and published first Bishop of ~elbocrnein 1848. Inci- In Kilmore, Victoria, in 1975, edited by dentally, the latter is said to have lacked Father Patrick Joseph Hartigan ('John O'Brien% his nephew Fr. Frank Mecham. I am the all 'bush sense' and frequently travel- 'best known for his gentle rhyming in Round the Proud possessor of a copy presented to led around in circles, on one occasion Boree Loa: me in 1977 by Fr. Mecham. leaving Yass for a station forty miles 'John O'Brien', known best for his away and arriving 'there' some ten Then there was Governor Sir Richard gentle rhyming in Around the Boree hours later only to find that he was back Bourke, although not a Catholic himself Log, was born Patrick Joseph Hartigan in Yass! but having many relatives and friends in October, 1878, at Yass, New South Surprising though it must have been in Limerick; he was most likely a Wales. With a name like Hartigan, one at the time, these lrish priests had pow- kinsman of Sir John Bourke of Brittas, can be pretty sure of Limerick connec- erful lay friends in Australia, both a martyr for his faith in 1607. Bourke's tions, although his immediate family Catholic and Protestant. One of the first coming to bustralia put an end to the came from Lissycasey, Co. Clare. That was Roderick O'Connor who, in 1824, prevailing anti-Catholic policy of the the family, and therefore himself, man- chartered a ship to bring lrish settlersto civil authorities. aged to retain their religion, if not in Australia. O'Connor, a brother of the . a%re was also Sir Terence Aubrey today's'ou'tback' then without doubt in Chartist leader, Fergus O'Connor, was Murray;who was born at Balliston, Co. that of the time, must have been due in not at that time a Catholic, but he Limerick, in 1810. Some of his family St. Francis Church, Melbourne, c. 1860.

had followed James I and later I would like to conclude with a per- Congregation for the Evangelization of Sarsfield. After serving under Wel- sonal reminiscence, not that I was one Peoples) to that of the Congregation for lington in Spain, his father, Captain of the early missionaries(!) but because Catholic Education, and the latter Terence Murray, had transferred to the it is amusing and not hitherto recorded. wanted to get up-to-date information 48th Regiment and went with it to In September, 1977,l was appointed on the situation. Australia, where he acquired some by Rome as Apostolic Visitator to the As it turned out, the visit was eventu- land. seminaries of Australia and the ally a very pleasant one and the results Returning to Ireland in 1826, he had Theological Faculty at Manly. The appear to have satisfied both the Vati- brought back with him to Australia his notification sent by the Congregation can and the Australian Hierarchy. I can- son, Terence Aubrey, who was to for Catholic Education to the Australian not resist though saying facetiously become an intrepid developer of the Bishops was short and there was con- that it marked the end of 'early' lrish countryside on both sides of the Mur- siderable suspicion Down Under as to evangelization in Australia! ray River. Appointed a magistrate by what might be the purpose of my visit. Governor Bourke, he later became a Fancy my surprise when I arrived to member of a fledging House of Rep- find in The Bulletin (the Australian resentatives, and eventually a minister equivelant of Time or Magill) in its 29th in the colonial government. OctobetGssue an item headed 'Vatican It is notable that his first public 007 on the way': 'The Vatican is send- A. Bourke,'The Mission tothe Aborigines in Western speech was made on the steps of old ing Jeremiah Newman, Bishop of Australia', in The lrish Ecclesiastical Recod St. Mary's in Sydney, when he sup- Limerick and former president of the Third Series,Vol. V, 1884. ported Fr. Therry in the latter's appeal priests' training college at Maynooth, J.F. Hogan, Thelrishin Australia, London, 1887. to restore the church after burning. He here to do a secret study of the Catholic T.F. Meehan, 'The lrish in Australia', in The Catholic was a real friend to the priests of the Church'. Encyclopedia, Volume Eight, 1910. area. It went on to expound a number of D.N. Hehir, 'The First Catholic Missionary to One dares to wonder about the situa- possibilities as to what I might be up to. Australia', in Studies, December, 1928. tion when the then Governor was prop- While remaining puzzled, it found A.P. Cosgrave, 'The Influence of the lrish on the His- osing the expulsion of Fr. Jeremiah some consolation in retailing that the tory of the Church in Australia', in The lrish OfFlynn,and two hundred Catholic sol- visitor 'is not ranked as a conserva- Ecclesiastical Record, Fifth Series, Vol. LXIX, diers of the 48th Regiment signed a tive ...' 1947. written petition on the side of Fr. In reality, there was nothing sinister 'John O'Brien', The Men of '38, Edited by T.J. Linane O'Flynn, even if that might only have about the visit. The fact was that at that and F.A. Mecham, Kilmore, Victoria, 1975. - % made his situation worse! One won- time, Australian Catholic edu-l C. Kiernan (ed.),Ireland and Australia, (Thomas ders if Terence Aubrey Murray was institutions had passed from being - Davis Lectures),Cork, 1984. involved, everpdirectly? under the aegis of Propaganda (the R. Hughes The Fatalshore, London, 1987.