Charles Gavan Duffy
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy ( born April 12, 1816 in Monaghan, † February 9, 1903 in Nice ) was an Irish nationalist and Australian colonial politician. He was the eighth Prime Minister of Victoria.
Charles Duffy was born the son of a Catholic Ladenbesitzerst, but lost in childhood his parents. One of his uncles, a Catholic priest, took charge of his. He was able to complete his education at St Malachy 's College in Belfast and was admitted to the bar in 1845.
Already in 1942 he had married, but his wife died three years later. From a 1846 closed second marriage six children were born.
He concluded quite early Irish nationalist circles, which advocated independence of Ireland. He also became an important person in Irish literature circles and also emerged as a publisher of Irish literature. He and others founded the Irish newspaper The Nation and was part of the association " Young Ireland " on. He campaigned for land reform in Ireland and was elected in 1852 as the representative of New Ross in the British House of Commons.
Out of desperation about the poor prospects for Irish independence he gave in 1856 to a seat in parliament and emigrated with his family to Australia, where he settled in the newly formed colony of Victoria. First he was there, dreaded his literary and political ambitions of the English Protestant establishment and hated. But in the same year he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Western District of Victoria. 1857 was another Irish Catholic, John O'Shanassy, Prime Minister of Victoria Duffy and his deputy. In 1871, he was then even the eighth Prime Minister, however, had held this office for only one year. 1877-1880 he was then Speaker of the Parliament of Victoria. He then retired to southern France, where he died in 1903 at the age of 86 years.
1873 Duffy had been knighted, 1877 he was a member of the British Order of St. Michael and George. In 1881 he married a third time and had four more children. Even in exile he was interested in running for his home and his country of choice. Two of his sons held high political office in Australia and one, George Gavan Duffy, Irish politician was the Sinn Féin and President of the High Court of Ireland.
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- Duffy, Charles Gavan. Four Years of Irish History 1845-1849, Robertson, Melbourne, 1883. ( Autobiography and recollections )
- Garden, Don. Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984.
- McCarthy, Justin. History of Our Own Times, Vols 1-4, 1895.
- McCaughey, Davis. et al. Victoria 's Colonial Governors 1839-1900, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1993.
- O'Brien, Antony. Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields: the 1859 election, Artillery Publishing, Hartwell, 2005, ( p. xi & Ch.2 )
- Thompson, Kathleen and Serle, Geoffrey. A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856-1900, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972.
- Wright, Raymond. A People 's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856-1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992.