The Irish in Australia

James Francis Hogan (1855-1924) was a teacher, journalist, author, Member of Parliament for Mid Tipperary between 1893-1900, and an Irish history professor at University College, Cork. He was born in County Tipperary and the following year his family emigrated to Melbourne, settling in Geelong where Hogan attended St Mary's Catholic School before studying for a year at St Patrick's College, Melbourne. After graduation he took up teaching in 1872 and began writing for local newspapers on Catholic topics, but in 1881 abandoned teaching to move to Melbourne where he became sub-editior of the Victorian Review and soon joined the Argus. In 1884 he joined the Victorian Catholic Young Men's Society and campaigned to erect a memorial to Daniel O'Connell, the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. After his return to England in 1887, Hogan published works on the Irish colonisation of Australia, including his best-known work The Irish in Australia (1887) which ran to three editions, and later The Gladstone Colony: An Unwritten Chapter of Australian History (1898). Hogan contributed to many journals and became recognized as an authority on Australian affairs. In 1893 he was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as MP for Mid Tipperary, and served as secretary of the Colonial Party under Sir Charles Dilke. Following his retirement as an MP in 1900, he moved to Ireland to teach at University College, Cork where he became associated with the Blueshirt movement, advocating a Christian democracy which clashed with the more right-wing aims of their leader Eoin O'Duffy.