Edmund Finn, Chronicles of Early Melbourne 1835–1852 by ‘Garryowen’, (Melbourne: Fergusson and Mitchell 1888), pp. 125.
19 ibid., pp. 647, 652, 650.
20 Port Phillip Patriot, (21 September 1846).
21 Port Phillip Herald, (24 March 1846).
22 ibid., (18 March 1846).
23 ibid., (19 March 1846).
24 Edmund Finn, St Patrick’s Societies, Their Principles and Purposes, (Melbourne: Walker May and Co, 1860), p. 4.
25 Finn, Chronicles of Early Melbourne, pp. 637, 652.
26 Port Phillip Herald, (5 June 1846).
27 Port Phillip Gazette, (15 July 1846).
28 Finn, Chronicles of Early Melbourne p. 684.
29 Argus, (24 July 1846).
30 Port Phillip Gazette, (15 July 1846).
31 Argus, (24 July 1846).
32 ibid., (14 August 1846).
33 ibid., (25 August 1846).
34 Brian Condon (transcr.) Diary James Alipius Goold, April 26, May 25 1853, (Adelaide: University South Australia, 2000), www.library.unisa.edu.au/condon/Goold
35 Argus, (13 September 1849).
36 Melbourne Daily News, (13 September 1849).
37 Condon, Diary James Goold, 11 April 1851.
38 Ballarat Star, (27 March 1868).
4
Henry, the unpriestly
Celibacy and drunkenness cause the blackest of crimes all over the world among the Catholic priesthood.
— Peter O’Farrell
Henry O’Farrell was well on his way to becoming a priest. As he readied for a ‘finishing’ education in theology at the ancient Irish colleges of France, Italy, Belgium and Ireland, the Catholic hierarchy in Australia sent introductory letters to their European network, although some hinted at nervousness about his intense manner. His priest Fr. Patrick Geoghegan mentioned to Bishop Goold that he might ‘mention to Shiel (privately of course) O’F’s application’, referring to Fr. Laurence Bonaventure Shiel, who had just arrived as president of the St Francis seminary, later St Patrick‘s College.1 Perhaps O‘Farrell’s youthful intensity about Irish matters was on their minds. He would inevitably be exposed in Europe to discussion about the relationship of Dublin and Rome, and the role of the Catholic Church in the plight of Ireland and its emigrants in colonies like Australia. In the Melbourne he was leaving, Irish immigrants were still accused of being idle, ignorant and immoral and denied the same opportunities as the English and Scotch. And divisions within the Catholic Church were also becoming more evident. Local papers reprinted the open letter of Dublin’s Father Thaddeus O’Malley to Irish Catholic clergy, ‘What will the Priests do now for Ireland?’ He challenged those who would do nothing while Ireland tottered to hopeless ruin due to pestilence and famine visited on them by ‘the perverse will of an insolent dominant faction’.
Henry’s words to the St Patrick’s Society that educated men who did nothing were worse than the ignorant were amplified by Fr. O’Malley. In the death struggle of the Irish, he said, those who did nothing to save them were ‘virtually the abettors of that proud and cruel domination that presses its armed heel upon their neck’.2
Priests ought not be instruments of repression, but seek a voice in national politics to help deliver equality and compatibility. The ‘duties of patriotism require a sacrifice…for priest or layman…the priest is free from the enthralments of domestic ties, and has no family but his flock, for whom as a faithful shepherd he is ever ready to sacrifice even his own life’.
Rome had acquiesced to the argument of English Benedictine monks like Archbishop Polding that the Catholic Church in the new world of Australia had to be accommodated within an English administration, and his fear that increased Irish Catholicism risked sectarian troubles. But Henry’s Irish mentors wanted their Church in Australia to move away from its English orientation, and in Ireland the Catholic Church was becoming more unified, nationalist and assertive under the leadership of Archbishop Paul Cullen at All Hallows College in Dublin, the single biggest source of Irish priests to Australia. Here O’Farrell could have expected to mix with ‘graduates of a robustly nationalist, even Fenian, outlook’.3
Henry would have much time to reflect on how English power had much to answer for, and the need for those of education, power and influence to do more. There would also be time for the free-spirited nature of Paris to challenge his commitment to celibacy and the Church.
Whatever his mind was making of all this, in the winter of 1854 he received word his father had died, aged 62, at his brother’s home Maritemo in South Melbourne.
Henry and his brother might have anticipated a financial windfall.
On 27 July, The Argus referenced ‘the will of William O’Farrell, late of the City of Melbourne, in the Colony of Victoria, gentleman, deceased’, naming Henry’s brother Peter Andrew Charles O’Farrell, ‘gentleman’, and brother-in-law William Lane, ‘merchant’, as executors. They moved within days to dissolve the estate. On 1 August, the Argus advertised O’Farrell’s properties at ‘extremely low prices (with) liberal credit’: 12 newly built two-bedroom brick cottages in Stuart Street, near Swanston Street North; 42 acres of land in Prahran near St Kilda racecourse; 945 acres on the Merri Creek at Plenty; 200 acres in East Brighton; and building allotments in Kyneton, Kilmore, Gisborne and Wangaratta.
The will provided several legacies for various Catholic charities and associations, and £300 for the ‘sole and exclusive use and benefit’ of Bishop Goold, along with £800 for a nuns convent, St Patrick’s cathedral, St Francis Church, St Francis Seminary, Friendly Brothers and Catholic Association.4 Goold had ministered to William O’Farrell in his declining health before departing for a trip to Rome to present some Victorian gold to Pope Pius IV, utilised Peter O’Farrell for legal and financial advice, and mentored Henry O‘Farrell.
Peter O’Farrell did not delay sending the Bishop a cheque for the total £11005 on the basis, he said, it would be refunded if it was found the estate’s assets were insufficient. Which is what they found. ‘My father was thought to be rich and he would have died well off but for ruinous speculations’, Peter O’Farrell would write, claiming he and his family were financially disadvantaged as a result of the speculative deals and debts.6
Back in Australia, Henry was without his father and a diminution of the financial support which had sustained his education, priestly training and travel. And somewhere in Europe, or immediately after his return to Melbourne, his priestly destiny was lost.
Some said he ‘suddenly disappeared’ from a college in France ‘without making any communication to the superior’ before re-appearing in Australia7. Others reported he had been ready to take holy orders ‘but falling in love with a young lady prevented him from following this course, and he accordingly turned his attention to more practical pursuits’.8
A veteran Ballarat merchant and Catholic, James Tappin, said ill-health was not the issue, as the Ballarat Star had suggested. ‘The fact was his educational superiors both here and abroad rejected his candidature, considering
