Australia’s ‘Irish’ Prime Minister’s

A recorded history of Australia’s ‘Irish’ PMs

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Anthony Albanese

is Australia’s 31st Prime Minister since the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 and he is the latest in a long line of Australian PM’s who can lay claim to Irish heritage. That said they have been thin on the ground in recent years. You have to go back to Kevin Rudd (PM 20072010 and again briefly in 2013) to find the most recent PM with that distinction – and he was a recent convert, so to speak. In 2008 the Mormon church researched his family history and presented it to him while he was in office. Their genealogical gift showed that his greatgrandparents on his mother’s side – Owen Cashin and Hannah Maher – were both Irish born and married in 1887 in Brisbane. Skip Rudd’s predecessor John Howard (19962007) and you find a similar story with Paul Keating (1991-1996). Keating was born in Sydney, one of four kids, to Minnie (née Chapman) and Matthew John Keating. He was descended from Irish immigrants born in counties Galway, Roscommon, and Tipperary on his father’s side while on his mother’s side, he was of mixed English and Irish descent. His maternal grandfather, Fred Chapman, was the son of two convicts, John Chapman and Sarah Gallagher who were transported for theft in the 1830s. Before Keating there was Bob Hawke (19831991) who did not have any Irish blood at all but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm and there was plenty to go around. “Some Australians have not a drop of Irish blood flowing in their veins,” were his opening words at a gala dinner to welcome Taoiseach Charles Haughey to Australia in July 1998. “Some Australians have rectified that shortcoming by marrying into an Irish family and I include myself in this category. “And some of us have the great good fortune of being able to claim Irish blood by birth or ancestry. Indeed almost one in every three Australians can make the proud boast of having been born in Ireland or into an Irish family.” Indeed they made up a significant proportion of the Australian population, more than anywhere else. “So Australia is the principal province of that Irish empire having been endowed as no other country has been with the hard work and determination of generations of Irish men and women”. If this is true, as I firmly believe it to be, then surely the epicentre of that Irish empire in Australia must be the Australian trade union movement and the Australian Labor Party which I have the honour to lead.” Go back two more leaders and you have

William McMahon

who held the top job from 1971-1972.

McMahon was born in Sydney to William

Daniel McMahon

– a Catholic with a weakness for heavy driker and gambling – and Mary (née Walder) an Anglican of English and Irish descent. McMahon’s grandfather on his dad’s side was one James “Butty” McMahon who was born in Co. Clare, who came to Australia as a child and and married Mary Coyle fron Co. Fermanagh . Before McMahon John Gorton led an Australian government (1968-1971). Gorton did not have a birth certificate but is said to have been born in Wellington, New Zealand, to John Rose Gorton and an Alice Sinn (whose mum was Irish). Gorton’s father may have had a soft spot for Irish girls. His first wife (in he UK) was one Kathleen O’Brien. His predecessor was John McEwen (1967-1968) whose father was David MacEwan (he changed this name later) from Mountnorris, Co. Armagh who was a successful pharmacist in Belfast before he migrated to Melbourne in 1889 where he continued his trade as a chemist in the gold boom town of Chiltern. Before him Harold Holt (1966-1967) had some Irish ancestry from his mother, who was born in Eudunda, South Australia and also had Cornish, English and German heritage. For most of the 1940’s Australia was led by PMs of strong Irish stock. Ben Chifley (1945-49) had a grandfather Patrick and grandmother Mary from Tipperary. He was very conscious of his Irishness. “I am a descendant of a race that fought a long and bitter fight against perjurers, pimps and liars and I should be very ashamed to stand for any principle that did not give the ordinary men and women of the community the right to know what they are charged with,” Chifley said a speech against the Communist Party Dissolution Bill. Australian born Franke Forde was PM for just eight days in 1945, stepping into the breach on the death of John (Jack) Curtin. His father John Forde was from Ballinaglera, Co. Leitrim while his mother Ellen (née Quirk) hailed from Co. Tipperary. Because of his deep connection with Western Australian John Curtin is probably the prime minister of Irish parentage that most people might know.

Curtin’s courageous leadership of the country during the war years of 1941-45 earned him

the eternal respect and gratitute of generations of Australians and the status as one of the nation’s greatest leaders. Sadly he died not long after the war in Europe finished and six weeks beofre the Japanese were defeated in the Pacific, in Australia’s backyard. Curtin was born in Victoria and christened John Jospeh Ambrose by his parents John and Catherine Agnes Bourke (known as “Kate”) – both from Cork – but he dropped these names and wanted to be known as John or Jack. Arthur Fadden was Australia’s 13th PM in 1941 for ‘40 days and 40 nights’. He was the eldest of ten children of parents Annie (née Moorhead) from Co. Tyrone and Richard John Fadden from Co. Galway. Going back to 1932 and 1939 Joseph Lyons was PM. He was one of eight children to parents Ellen (née Carroll) and Michael Henry Lyons. She was born in Co. Kildare and was taken to Australia when she was a young child. Michael was born in Tasmania to immigrants from Co. Galway who arrived in 1843. James Scullin (1929-32) had the distinction of being the first Australian born, and Catholic, Labor prime minister. He had the responsibility of leadership during the years of the Great Depression. He was the fifth of nine children to John Scullin and Ann Logan, both immigrants from Derry. His family’s recollections of hard times in their native Ireland, combined with his own witnessing of poverty in rural Victoria are said to have shaped his views on the active role of government in improving the lives of citizens. In the six years leading up to Scullin’s adminisration the regins of power were held by Stanley Bruce. His father John Munro Bruce was born to Scottish parents in Co. Leitrim while his mum Mary Ann Henderson was born in Ireland. They were cousins who married in Australia in 1872. Under the brief term of Chris Watson Australia became the first country in the world to have a labour prime minister. The country’s third PM he only held office for four months in 1904.

He had an interesting background and was born the son of a German Chilean seaman and an Irish born mother Martha (née Minchin or Skinner) who later remarried. So out of the 31 PM’s Australia has had to date, 13 of them were the offspring or descendants of marriages with at least one Irish parent or grandparents.