John Handy
Title:
First Name:
John
Middle Names:
Killeen
Preferred Name:
Surname:
Handy
Order:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Co Westmeath
Country of Birth:
Ireland
Date of Ordination:
Place of Ordination:
Country of Ordination:
Ordination Diocese:
Seminary:
Date of Death:
Place of Death:
Brisbane QLD
Country of Death:
Australia
Date of Burial:
Place of Burial:
Toowong, Brisbane QLD
Country of Burial:
Australia
Find A Grave URL:
Appointments Table
Diocese | Place | Role | Start Day | Start Month | Start Year | End Day | End Month | End Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | Tamworth | Mar | 1862 | Oct | 1862 | Campbell, Necrology |
Biographical Notes
On completion of seminary studies, he was ordained priest on 28.3.1857 and went to San Francisco, California. He served in various places, but by 1862 his health failed.
He left for Sydney aboard the ”Nimrod” 1.2.1862, and became a priest of that archdiocese. 1863 found him at Tamworth.
After leaving the priesthood in January 1863, he studied law at the University of Melbourne (1863-1865), came to Queensland in 1865 as Crown Prosecutor, and became a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly – Mitchell (June 1870-Sept. 1871), North Brisbane (Jan. 1872-Nov. 1873).
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Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, p 59:
Philip Corrigan
[...] Another who was laid to rest at Milton in 1874 had been a priest, Fr John Killeen Handy, but he gave it up to study law, married, and embarked on a political career. He was reconciled on his deathbed by Bishop Quinn. A story persisted for many a year that in the depths of the night after the funeral, the Bishop and Fr James Horan were driven out by carriage to bless the grave of this 'disgraced priest'.
(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)
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T.W. Campbell, The Priests of the Diocese of Armidale: A Necrology, Braddon ACT, 2005:
Handy, John Killeen
Born in County Westmeath, Ireland 1834, exact date unknown. Details of education unknown. Studied for the priesthood in Paris, and was ordained 28 March 1857 by Jose Alemany, Archbishop of San Francisco. Place of ordination unknown. He then spent five years in San Francisco Archdiocese as assistant priest at the city's St Mary's cathedral. He left San Francisco on 5 November 1861 as a priest in good standing on a long trip back to Ireland via Australia, arrived in Sydney, met with Archbishop Polding, and was appointed to Tamworth about March 1862. He departed from Tamworth in October 1862, publicly for reasons of ill health, abandoned the priesthood, and married Isobel Kendall in the Church of England, Pyrmont on 12 February 1863. The bride had been a teacher at the school established by Handy in Tamworth; Handy had met her soon after his arrival in Sydney in January 1862. He then commenced law studies at the University of Melbourne, then moved to Brisbane on completion, where he practised. He won a seat in the Queensland Parliament on 18 June 1870, defeating the incumbent Attorney General. His election was unsuccessfully challenged on the grounds he was a Catholic priest. He died in Brisbane on 24 January 1874 and is buried in Paddington cemetery. His widow survived him.
(Sources: Farrell, FJ 2 Apr 1862 p 5, Peter McEniery, One Life, Brisbane, Boolarong Publications, 1990, M A Endicott, 'John Killeen Handy: Clergyman, Parliamentarian, and Barrister', Footprints, August 1987 pp 18 ff, MDHC A-Z H17)
Reproduced by permission of Tom Campbell.