From Ballycahill to Melbourne: John O’Shanassy, Tipperary emigrant to Australia, died on this day in 1883.
In a hugely successful political career, he was Premier of Victoria on three separate occasions.
In 1866, he made a triumphal return home to Tipperary. In 1866, he made a triumphal return home to Tipperary and was greeted with great acclaim and fanfare.
O’Shanassy was born in 1818 at Ballinahow near Thurles, one of four children of John O’Shanassy and Margaret Dwyer. In 1839, he married Margaret McDonnell of Thurles and they emigrated to Australia that same year. After initially farming, he opened a drapery shop in Melbourne in 1845. By 1846 he entered politics and won a by-election to become a member of Melbourne Council. He soon became identified with popular agitations such as the separation movement (which sought to separate the colonies of Victoria from that of New South Wales) and opposition to any revival of transportation of convicts to Australia.
In 1851, he was returned as a Member for Melbourne in the first legislative council elections following the separation of Victoria and New South Wales by Queen Victoria. This separation was the result of a decade of advocacy and was greeted with days of jubilant celebrations across Melbourne. For the next five years, O’Shanassy was the virtual leader of the opposition in Victoria.
O'Shanassy became premier (prime minister) of Victoria for the first time on 11 March 1857. However, his was a fragile coalition and he resigned after just seven weeks His second spell as Premier came between March and October 1858 and his third and final administration, which was his most successful, was between November 1861 and June 1863. His government passed legislation on local government, crown lands, the civil service, and electoral reform. Charles Gavan Duffy, the Young Irelander, formed part of O’Shanassy’s government.
In 1866 O'Shanassy spent a year abroad and returned to Tipperary as a successful emigrant. He arrived in Drangan, where his uncle Edward was Parish Priest, on 13 August that year. There were 400 people as well as a band there to greet him according to an article in The Nation newspaper. Following a speech by O’Shanassy at 7pm, there was a bonfire and celebrations into the night. Curiously the newspaper also mentioned that ‘there were about twenty police present from the surrounding stations and not a single case of drunkenness was observed’.
From Drangan, O’Shanassy made his way to Kilkenny and the Kilkenny Journal described him as ‘one of the most distinguished Irishman of our generation’. The Journal reported that he made the most of his time in Kilkenny by visiting the churches, abbeys and memorials but that ‘he left, almost unknown, the city that would have been proud to pay him public honours’.
Banquets were also held in Clonmel and Tipperary Town to honour O’Shanassy. The Nenagh Guardian described the remarkable reception afforded to the returning Ballinahow man at Tipperary Town- the Chairman of the banquet lauded O’Shanassy’s ‘successful, honourable and brilliant career…and showed how he had won fame and fortune in the distant land of his adoption by perseverance, industry, principle and every other quality for which the honourable gentleman has been conspicuous. After dwelling for a long time on the many and admirable characteristics of the honourable and excellent host, the Chairman proposed his health, which was drunk amid indescribable enthusiasm, the whole company standing, and the excitement and cheering being of the most vehement description, the band playing ‘Gallant Tipperary O’”.
Back in Australia however, O’Shanassy’s’ influence was on the wane and he became more and more conservative as he got older. Even his Catholic Irish support declined when he came out against the Land War in Ireland. He refused to have any association with John Redmond, future leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, when he visited Australia in 1883 and in March 1883, O’Shanassy contested and lost his last election.
He died in May 1883 and is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. Former government colleague Charles Gavan Duffy said of him ‘he was an eloquent and able man, and a very devoted Catholic’.
Sources:
https://www.dib.ie/biography/oshanassy-john-a7041
The Nation 1842-1897, Saturday, August 18, 1866; Page: 15
Freemans Journal 1763-1924, Thursday, August 23, 1866; Page: 4
Nenagh Guardian 1838-current, Wednesday, August 16, 1854; Page: 4
