Patrick Sheedy

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Patrick Sheedy (1815 - 1885)

Shortly after the Eureka rebellion Patrick Sheedy was living near Killarney: here he spent his remaining years at 'Bird Hill' (the family property named for his birthplace). He married in 1855 at Warrnambool to Ellen O'Connell of Cappelaheen, county Clare (a relative of The Liberator). Patrick initially laboured on farms of the famed Farnham Survey but soon himself became a Rutledge tenant: in 1874 he was offered the staggering sum of £1000 for his entire crop of potatoes. Patrick and his wife raised thirteen children at Killarney: James (of Trentham), Bridget (Mrs John McLaughlan), Margaret (Mrs Jeremiah Gallagher), Patrick (1860-1865), John (died Deniliquin, NSW), Mary (Mrs Thomas Joyce), Ellen (Mrs Charles Kane), Martin (of Killarney), Michael (Melb),Catherine (Mrs Hugh Carmody), Ann (Mrs Andrew Gallagher), Agnes (nm) and Elizabeth (Mrs Bernard Kane). The Sheedy boys played in the highly successful 'Golden Crown' Tower Hill football team. Patrick Sheedy's rebel upbringing was consistent among the Sheedy families in Ireland; they were regularly involved with secret societies and insurrection. Irish church records confirm that Patrick was born at Birdhill near Nenagh on the 3rd of December 1815. His father John Sheedy was a farmer, at nearby Oakhampton, and his mother was Mary Burke. Whether to hide his convict background or his involvement as a Whiteboy Patrick's death certificate details are most irregular. The local Registrar who had lived near Sheedy for over thirty years recorded that Patrick was just 45 years of age instead of his real age of 70 year; his children's ages were altered so that he could appear a much younger man; incorrect parents were recorded; and his marriage, birthplace and burial details were all altered. But Sheedy was not the only rebel who lived in the Irish stronghold at Killarney whose history was a deliberately covered. Patrick Sheedy died on the 26th December 1885 and was laid to rest in the Tower Hill.

Background

Patrick had been transported to Hobart in 1845 aboard the Ratcliffe after attempting to ambush a party of soldiers at O' Brien's Bridge, near Newport in County Tipperary. Ireland. Sheedy was one of the notorious 'Whiteboys' of County Tipperary: despite the increased security at the Nenagh gaol at the time of his arrest his cell mate managed to lower himself from his cell and escape the compound. Sheedy was sentenced to 14 years transportation with hard labour, which he served at Saltwater River after arriving at Hobart on the 29th August 1845. He appeared a model prisoner for the first five years but was only biding his time for an opportunity to escape. In September of 1850 he was given a pass to visit Richard Waycroft, the innkeeper who was also visited by John Mitchel immediately prior to his escape from Tasmania. This was followed by two visits to a James Ross and then shortly after Sheedy absconded from Tasmania (a reward a reward for his capture were still posted in the Gazette as late as 1857).

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Patrick Sheedy was arrested at the Eureka Stockade rebellion and brought before the Police Court along with Joseph Ellis, Pergo (a Spaniard) and Romeo (an Italian). Michael McAdam, a private in the 40th swore that he saw Sheedy taken 'convanient' to a tent 200 yards from the stockade, but Patrick Lynot (also a private in the 40th) swore that Sheedy came out of his tent about 500 yards from the stockade 'only to see what was happening'. An unconvincing account given that a full-scale battle had just taken place.

Both Pergo and Romeo were discharged along with Patrick Sheedy but Joseph Ellis was remanded for further examination. Fortunate for Sheedy that police had little time for background checks on those arrested, as he was a convict absconder from Tasmania.

See also

http://www.hotkey.net.au/~jwilliams4/patrick1.htm

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

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