A major new biography is inviting readers to reconsider the life of Fr John Joseph Therry, one of the pioneering priests of colonial Australia. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Written by award-winning historian Damian Gleeson, John Joseph Therry: Irish Landlord, Merchant and Priest in the Australian Colonies is billed as the first full-length scholarly biography of Fr Therry by a professional historian.
Drawing on thousands of previously unpublished letters and archival documents from Ireland and Australia, Dr Gleeson argues that the new evidence presents a fresh perspective on more than a century of largely uncritical biography.
Fr Therry arrived in Sydney from Cork in 1820 with Fr Philip Conolly as one of Australia’s first official Catholic chaplains.
For more than four decades he ministered to convicts, settlers and Aboriginal communities across New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, and is widely regarded as one of the founders of the Catholic Church in Australia.
Dr Gleeson, a former Australian Religious History Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales, spent several years researching the extensive Therry Collection held by the library.
His earlier work has examined the experiences of Irish Catholics, convicts and the early colonial church.
Dr Gleeson says the biography explores not only Fr Therry’s celebrated pastoral ministry but also his role as a landholder, merchant and influential colonial figure, examining disputes over property, conflicts with church authorities and the complex legacy he left behind.
The book is published by Colonial Press.
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New biography revisits the story of one of Australia’s pioneering priests (The Catholic Weekly)
