Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rev Stephen McDonough, died 21 Jan 1912

Stephen Henry McDonough (or McDonagh, the spelling does vary) was born in Ireland on 25th December, 1837, the son of a medical practitioner, Patrick Vincent McDonough, and his wife, Margaret McNamara, of Ennis Co.Clare. (Two of his sisters also came to Queensland). After education in Ireland he went to the University of Liege, Belgium, where he completed his studies for the priesthood. Answering Bishop James Quinn's appeal for priests for his new Diocese, McDonough arrived in Moreton Bay on the "Great Victoria", in the company of Frs Byrne, Hogan and O'Reilly, on 31st December, 1865. On arrival he was sent to the Warwick district to assist Giovanni Cani. He remained there until 1876. In the course of time he fell out with Quinn, as did so many, and transferred to the Vicariate of Cooktown in 1876, serving in Cooktown, Charters Towers and Bowen. When Cani was named first Bishop of Rockhampton, he transferred to that Diocese, and remained working there until his death, first as Administrator of the Cathedral, then in the Central West at Clermont and Emerald and finally at Mount Morgan (1910-1912). He died at Mt Morgan, aged 73, and is buried in Rockhampton's, Dawson Road Cemetery. It is to be regretted that, before his death, no one sought to set down a record of the ministry of this pioneering priest. This deficiency was noted by Bishop Duhig (then of Rockhampton), who observed at his requiem Mass, "We cannot but regard the passing of this venerable and beloved priest as a snapping of a precious link with the past. That past which, although we live so near to, we know so little of. Men like Father McDonough have not left us diaries or autobiographies with accounts of the privations and trials and hardships inseparable from Missionary work in the pioneering days. No, they were too busy, too intent on their Master's work...We, who as young men, received from them oral traditions regarding the past, do not feel the want of this written record so much as it will be felt by future generations.." All that we are left with, as Duhig was, is our imagination of what it might have been like then. He is buried in the Rockhampton Cemetery. Father Tynan has listed his death as 1921, but the earlier date is more consistent with other records.
(Ref. Brisbane Archives, Linane Mc55 and Tynan, p 14)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.

---

Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, pp 138-139:
Stephen Henry McDonough

Fr Stephen McDonough was a pioneer priest of the diocese of Brisbane spending fifteen years in the diocese until his incardination in the new diocese Rockhampton in 1882.

Stephan Henry McDonough was the son of Patrick Vaughan and Margaret (nee McNamara) McDonough of Feakle in County Clare where he was born on Christmas day 1838. His father was a medical doctor who practiced in Ennis the capital of County Clare. Following his early education in the local national school and in preparatory colleges in Ireland Stephen passed to the University of Liege in Belgium to complete his studies for the priesthood.(1)

This report at the time of his death conflicts with a report in Fr Kevin Condon story of All Hallows College in Dublin which records that student number 698 Stephen Henry McDonough entered All Hallows from St Munchin's College Limerick in 1860 and was ordained at All Hallows on 29 June 1865.(2)

Volunteering for the Brisbane mission Fr McDonough was accepted by Bishop Quinn. He arrived in Moreton Bay on 31 December 1865, with Fathers Denis Byrne, Thaddeus Hogan and John O'Reilly aboard the Great Victoria,(3) touching land in Brisbane on 3 January 1866 Fr McDonough spent some time in Brisbane then succeeded Fr John O'Reilly in Warwick in 1869. This appointment was under Dr Robert Dunne, the parish priest-in charge of the Toowoomba mission as Warwick and Dalby were still part of the Toowoomba mission.(4)

Fr McDonough's sisters, Margaret Agnes and Mary Anne, migrated to Australia. They were living in his home in Warwick. Mary Anne married Francis Barron Wood of Warwick in 1873 and they had one child born in 1878. Margaret Agnes continued to housekeep for Stephen. In 1889 she married Daniel Paul Cleary and they had three children.

Fr Robert Dunne, in Toowoomba, was concerned by the rule of McDonough in Warwick:

Stephen McDonough, with the aid of his housekeeper-sister, was determined to exclude Benedetto Scortechini and Jerome Davadi from any effective say in the running of the Stanthorpe/Warwick district.(5)

In May 1874 McDonough was the cross-bearer at the blessing and opening of St Stephen's Cathedral by Dr Vaughan the co-adjutor Archbishop of Sydney. He had also welcomed the Archbishop when he his train stopped at Warwick on the way to Brisbane.

On 29 October 1874 Fr McDonough welcomed four Sisters of Mercy to Warwick. The sisters moved into a brick residence on the corner of Percy and Albion streets. They took over the school conducted by lay-teachers which had been established by Fr John O'Reilly in November 1867. At that time the church was used for classes.(6)

McDonough was an Irish nationalist, anti-royal and anti-protestant, who initiated strong public debates and was outspoken on the education question; clashing with his bishop.(7)

In January 1876 Robert Dunne, in passing the Warwick and Dalby missions under their own priests in charge, advised the bishop to transfer McDonough from Warwick. McDonough went to Cooktown. From 1880 to 1883 he was stationed in Bowen and Charters Towers which were in the pro-vicariate of Cooktown until 1882.

When Dr Cani was named first bishop of Rockhampton Fr McDonough became incardinated in that diocese. At the end of 1882 Fr McDonough was at the opening of St Patrick's Fortitude Valley where he was sub-deacon at the Mass and chantor at Vespers.(8)

From 1884 to 1891 McDonough was administrator of Rockhampton Cathedral accompanying the bishop to Mt Morgan in 1887 for the opening of a church. He served in the Central West based at Clermont 1891-1901, Emerald 1904-1907, Barcaldine and Mount Morgan 1910-1912. He worked under four bishops – James Quinn, John Cani, Joseph Higgins and James Duhig.

About three years before his death Bishop Duhig invited Father McDonough to relinquish work in the Central-west, where the night train travelling was telling on his health, and take up duty at Mount Morgan.(9)

Fr Stephen McDonough, aged 74 and had been 46 years in Australia, died at 2.00am on Sunday 21 January 1912 in the Sacred Heart Presbytery, Gordon Street, Mount Morgan.

This is an extract from Bishop Duhig's rather flattering eulogy at Fr McDonough's funeral:

It is withal to be regretted that no continuous record of the labours and discomfort of pioneer priest have been kept… Father McDonough belonged to a family noted for their devotion to religion… During the long course of his missionary life in Queensland he worked in almost every portion of it, from Cooktown to the border of New South Wales. I leave you to imagine what trials and hardships and discomforts devoted priests had to undergo in those bygone days when there were no railways, and it was nothing extraordinary to get a sick call entailing a journey of some hundreds of miles on horseback… I begged of him to come to Mount Morgan, where he would have no night journey, and where his duties would allow him the rest and quiet needed for his declining health. He came but his old love of work accompanied him, and he strove to the last to do his duty to the people. On the morning of the very last day that he took to his bed he had gathered all remaining strength to say Mass for the assembled people. Although highly cultured in every respect… His life was extremely simple, and his faith was as child-like, as it was strong, whilst his charity to the poor was well-known. … After celebrating Mass last Friday morning, I visited his sick room to say a last goodbye and to thank him for the good work he had done for the diocese, I asked him if he had any wish to express, and he said he had none, he was merely waiting the call of his Divine Master, for which his whole life had been a preparation.(10)

The funeral took place, following Divine Office and Requiem Mass, from St Joseph's cathedral in Rockhampton on Monday 22nd January, followed by burial in the Dawson Road Rockhampton Cemetery.

Footnotes
1. Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, 22 Jan 1912, p. 4. [This was republished in Catholic newspapers in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth]
2. Kevin Condon cm, The Missionary College of All Hallows 1841-1891, 1986, p. 317.
3. Brisbane Courier, 3 Jan 1866, p.2.
4. Pugh's Almanac, Brisbane 1866 to 1870.
5. Neil Byrne, Robert Dunne Archbishop of Brisbane, 1991, p. 78.
6. Joseph McKey, The Light of Other Days, 1978, pp. 25 and 155.
7. Neil Byrne, op. cit. p. 104.
8. Brisbane Courier, 4 Dec 1882, p. 5.
9. Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton, 22 Jan 1912, op. cit.
10. Ibid.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.