Ecclesiastical. Diocese of Bathurst, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 27 April 1867, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119440354:

[...] On Palm Sunday the Rev. James McGirr was ordained Priest, and as this was the first occasion on which such a ceremony had been ever witnessed in Bathurst, vast crowds had assembled from town and country to be present. The cathedral was crowded, and amongst the vast congregation we observed many persons of other religious persuasions, attracted, no doubt, by the desire of witnessing so solemn and impressive a scene. At the ordination service the Rev. J. P. Byrne was Archdeacon, and the Rev. Thomas J. Walsh, Master of Ceremonies.

On Wednesday evening commenced the office of Tenebrae, and as this also was the first occasion of its being chanted in Bathurst, the people flocked in crowds to the cathedral. The Lamentations were sung by his Lordship, and Fathers Byrne and Walsh, and the lessons alternately by Fathers Byrne, McGrath, Ryan, Walsh, and McGirr. [...] On Holy Thursday the usual ceremonies prescribed by the rubrics in the blessing of the Chrism and Holy Oils were carried out with great solemnity. On this occasion the celebrant was of course the Bishop. Deacon, Rev. P. J. Byrne, Sub-deacon Rev. James McGirr [...]

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Educational. College of St. Stanislaus, Bathurst, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 11 January 1868, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119439189:

The pension is at present £40 per annum, payable quarterly in advance. For further particulars application may be made to His Lordship the Bishop of Bathurst ; to the Rev. J. McGirr, Prefect of Studies; [...]

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Empire, Sydney, 20 July 1868, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60855320:

On Sunday last, after divine service at the Catholic Church, Dubbo, the officiating clergyman, the Rev. Mr. McGirr, head-master of St. Stanislaus High School, Bathurst (who is on a temporary visit to this district), read a pastoral letter from his Lordship Dr. Quinn, and a letter from the Pope to the Bishop. [...]

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Diocese of Bathurst, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 10 February 1872, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120727031:

The following clerical changes have been made in the Bathurst diocese. The Rev. Father McGirr, late president of St. Stanislaus College, to the important mission of Forbes; the Rev. Father Nugent, late of Forbes, to Fort Bourke; the Rev. Father Kelly, from Fort Bourke, to Bathurst; the Rev. Father Walsh, from Tambaroora, to Orange. The Rev. Father Horan, succeeds the Rev J.J. McGirr as president of St. Stanislaus College. He will be assisted by the Rev. Father Foran.

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Currajong, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 17 May 1873, p 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128806568:

[...] Bushman's, at all events, does not seem to fear the rivalry of the late dominions of the "Great O'Dan," as may be inferred from the number of dwellings and other buildings that have recently been erected here. There are two houses of worship— in addition to the Roman Catholic Church, some twelve months' in existence—in course of completion: the Church of England and the United Presbyterian; two fair samples of bush architecture. The only attempt at imparting a look of permanency to any of these edifices has been made by the active and persevering Catholic Pastor of the district, the Rev. Mr. McGirr, by whose untiring energy, combined with the co-operation of members of his communion, a handsome Presbytery has been erected contiguous to his church ; and other works—such as clearing and fencing-in the Church grounds, erecting out-offices, &c.—are going on under the personal supervision of the Rev. gentleman. In short, the town is increasing in extent and political importance, and may now, after a test of two years, be regarded as another of those established and permanent realities brought into existence by the exhumation of the mighty wizard—Gold.

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Deaths, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 13 June 1874, p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128806033:

McGirr—At Orange, on the 8th instant, Rev. James J. McGirr, Roman Catholic Pastor of Parkes. He was a native of Westport, County Mayo, Ireland. He studied at St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, under the care of Archbishop McHale, and afterwards in the Royal College of Maynooth, where he much distinguished himself. He was for several years the President of St. Stanislaus' College, Bathurst. He was about forty-five years of age. Requiescat in pace.

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Bathurst, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 13 June 1874, p 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128806021:

(From our Correspondent.)
The death of Rev. Father McGirr has cast a gloom over the Catholic people here, with whom he was a great favourite. He died at Orange on the 8th instant. He had been ailing since last August, but seemed to be rallying as he was able to celebrate Mass on Sunday at Orange. Everyone remarked a strange look in his features during the service, indicative of some physical change. To some it presaged a speedy convalescence, whilst to others more versed in the study of features it spoke of death and dissolution. He went to bed in good spirits, but during the night was seized with cramps and spasms. He grew gradually weaker and weaker and finally dozed off into a calm kind of slumber from which he never awoke. Father Walsh, in whose house he was residing, attended to him with the care of a father, and everything that was possible to be done to rouse him from the comatose state into which he finally fell, was done. He was aware of the critical state he was in, and received the last rites of the Church from the hands of Father Walsh in hope and humility.

As soon as it was known through the town, the good people of Orange testified their grief and respect by every means in their power. His body was waked in the Church which was thronged until morning with people. About 10 o'clock a.m., the hearse started from Orange to Bathurst, where it was his last expressed wish to be buried, as he had spent many happy years in that city, and where he received the Sacrament of Holy Orders at the hands of Dr. Quinn. The leading citizens of Orange accompanied the hearse as far as Parker's, where the hearse from Bathurst was in waiting. A large concourse of horsemen and vehicles met the procession about five miles from Bathurst and then proceeded to the Cathedral. His corpse was placed on the catafalque, an Office was said; and a continuous stream of visitors kept visiting the Church during the night. At 10 o'clock this morning a solemn office for the dead was recited, the following priests being present, viz:—Fathers Walsh, Horan, Ryan, McGrath, Cooke, Davern, Nugent, and Kelly. A Requiem High Mass then followed, Father Cooke being celebrant.

The funeral then was organized as follows, viz:—The clergy in front, next the hearse, next the students of St. Stanislaus' College, the boys of the denominational schools, orphan schools, members of the Guild, pedestrians, vehicles, and horsemen. It was the largest funeral ever seen in this city, reaching fully a mile in length; and composed of persons of all denominations, as the deceased was highly respected by all. His Lordship and several of the clergy had gone to Sydney before the intelligence had arrived of Father McGirr's demise.

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Evening News, Sydney, 13 June 1874, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107137722:

The remains of the Rev. Father McGirr were conveyed to the Bathurst cemetery on Wednesday afternoon, followed by the largest concourse of people seen for some time in the town.

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Orange, Empire, Sydney, 15 June 1874, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60989003:

June 9.
The Rev. Mr. McGirr, R. C. priest, died here yesterday (Monday) morning. The reverend gentleman celebrated mass on Sunday morning, and although seriously indisposed at the time, his decease was not anticipated in so short a time. He had, however, been in failing health for some time past. A solemn requiem mass was celebrated in St. Joseph's Church last evening. The remains of the reverend gentleman will be conveyed to Bathurst to-day. The deceased was well-known throughout the Western district, and was, I believe, formerly connected with the R. C. College in Bathurst, but his failing health prevented a continuance of his duties there of late.

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Last Two Days' Mails, Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 19 June 1874, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article188979739:

The Rev. Father McGirr, while on a visit to Orange, for the benefit of his health, died last week.

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The Late Father McGirr, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 4 July 1874, p 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115478424:

We beg to call the attention of our readers in the Western district to the advertisement in this day's issue relative to the solemn office, and High Mass, that will take place in the Cathedral on Wednesday next at Bathurst, for the everlasting repose of the soul of the late Rev. James McGirr. As most of the clergy of the diocese will be present, and as the deceased was well and favourably known in the western district, it is certain that a large congregation will be present.

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Bathurst, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 18 July 1874, p 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115476114:

(From a Correspondent.)
On Wednesday, the 8th instant, a solemn High Mass and Office pro defunctis took place in the Cathedral for the everlasting repose of the soul of the late Rev. James J. McGirr. It was on that day month his spirit passed away from earth, and the clergy of the diocese, in response to the invitation of the Very Rev. the Administrator, Father Byrne, signified their intention of being present at the Month's Memory on the occasion above referred to. Owing to the inclement state of the weather, which rendered travelling all but impossible, several of the clergy could not reach Bathurst in time to be present at the solemn service. Those who could attend were there, although several of them had to cross dangerous and swollen creeks, and plough their way through all but impassable roads.

The Office commenced at half-past 10 o'clock a.m., followed by High Mass. The Cathedral was draped, as is usual on such solemn occasions, and everything wore the semblance of woe and sorrow. The Rev. Father Cooke, of Rockly, officiated as High Priest, Fathers Byrne and Nugent as deacon and sub-deacon. Father Horan acted as master of ceremonies. Chanters—Fathers O'Donovan of Mudgee, and Walsh of Orange ; Priests in the sanctuary, Fathers P. Ryan, Carcoar ; D. A. McGrath of the Fish River ; P. Davern, Hill End, and P. D. Ryan. The laity attended in crowds thronging the Cathedral. This was only naturally to be expected as the dear departed was for many years familiar with the Bathurst people, being the founder under Dr. Quinn, of St. Stanislaus' College. Besides he was the first and only priest yet ordained in the Bathurst diocese, and when dying left it as an injunction on his executors to have him buried in the Catholic Cemetery here. It may not be out of place also to mention that he left all his personal property to the Bishop of Bathurst for the purpose of founding a male Catholic Orphanage in this city.

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Colin Fowler, Disentangling the McGirrs of Colonial New South Wales, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 40 2019, 23–38 [footnotes not included]:

[...] Three priests bearing the name ‘J. McGirr’ ministered in colonial NSW between 1855 and 1874; one was John, two were James. Contemporary newspapers conflated the details of their lives, and secondary sources compounded the confusion.

[...]

The relationships between three of the colonial McGirrs is clearly stated in two obituaries in Sydney’s Freeman’s Journal: that of a ‘fine old Irishwoman’ in October 1887 and of Michael McGirr in February 1890. The ‘old Irishwoman’ was the centenarian Mrs. Margaret McGirr of the Westport district of County Mayo. As well as celebrating how ‘in hard famine days of forty-seven ‘tis well remembered how she was wont to feed the starving and dying poor, and to coffin, with her own hands, the friendless dead’, the obituary, reprinted from the Mayo Examiner, recorded family details:

She had six sons and three daughters — the second eldest son, the late Rev. James M’Girr, CC Moylough, for some time in India and Australia, and whom she had for long the happiness to see minister at the altar. Her fourth son, Mr. Michael M’Girr, still lives, and is in Australia, proprietor of the Sydney Freeman’s Journal, and while he is an honour to the new land of his adoption, he is still true unto the old land of his birth.

The obituary of her son Michael confirmed him as a sibling of Reverend James and added the information that the brothers were cousins to the younger Reverend James: ‘The deceased had one brother a priest (the late Rev. James McGirr), and two cousins, the late Rev. James McGirr, of Bathurst, and Father Peter McGirr, now of Cong, Ireland’.

It is to be noted that the Reverend John McGirr was not mentioned in either obituary. This evidence convincingly contradicts sources that claim him as a brother of James. A 1947 reminiscence in the Melbourne Catholic newspaper, the Advocate, described Rev. John McGirr as a grand-uncle of the Honourable James McGirr, premier of NSW. The same relationship is elsewhere claimed for the two other reverends, which makes John a cousin to them. These are the family relationships assumed in this article. Their estimated dates of birth were: John 1818; James 1822; James Joseph 1829; Michael 1833.

The McGirr clan was originally from County Armagh, but following the 1795 ‘Battle of the Diamond’, a deadly attack by the Protestant population on Catholic neighbours, there was a mass migration of Catholics to the Province of Connaught, where members of the McGirr family settled in Culleen and afterwards in Louisburgh, a new ‘planned town’ built by the Earl of Altamont on his West Mayo estate in 1795.

Having established the relationships between the colonial McGirrs, it will be of interest to review their careers in order of arrival in New South Wales: John 1856, Michael 1857, James 1860, James Joseph 1864.

[...]

His young cousin, Father James Joseph McGirr, had died at Orange in New South Wales in 1874 at the age of 45. He had arrived in Sydney in June 1864, and began ecclesiastical studies at Lyndhurst College, where his cousin had been President.53 He was ordained at Bathurst on Palm Sunday in 1867. His was the first ordination by Matthew Quinn, the newly installed first bishop of Bathurst.

James was immediately appointed as Rector of St. Stanislaus College, newly founded high school for boys in Bathurst. His cousin Michael and his wife, teachers in the parochial school, provided accommodation for St. Stanislaus scholars in their home. An advertisement for the college was carried in the Freeman’s Journal in January 1868, placing it in competition with Sydney’s Lyndhurst College:

COLLEGE OF ST STANISLAUS, BATHURST. Under the patronage and immediate superintendence of His Lordship the Bishop of. Bathurst. The studies of the College will be resumed Monday, JANUARY 20th, and will comprise besides the usual branches of a sound English commercial education, all that may be obtained in the first class Catholic Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland …
The Mathematical department is conducted by P. M’Hale, Esq. of the College of St. Jarlath, Tuam, and the English department is under the superintendence of Mr. Michael M. M’Girr …
For further particulars application may be made to His Lordship the Bishop of Bathurst; to the Rev. J. M’Girr, Prefect of Studies …

Three members of the college staff were cousins: James and Michael McGirr and P. McHale. More relatives were to arrive from County Mayo within a few years. Soon after James’ transfer in 1872 from Bathurst to the township of Bushman’s, in the Lachlan gold fields, two of his nephews, James and John McGirr, joined him from Ireland. In 1873 the township was renamed Parkes, in honour of a visit by Henry Parkes, Premier of the Colony.

After his transfer to Orange in 1874 for health reasons, Father McGirr was honoured in Parkes by the naming of the new parish church: His Lordship Bishop Quinn solemnly blessed and dedicated our church under the name and invocation of St. Jarlath, the patron Saint of the Archdiocese of Tuam, over which the illustrious Dr. M’Hale, the ‘Lion of the fold of Judah’, as O’Connell designated him, has so nobly ruled for a full half century … Father M’Girr who drew the first of his ecclesiastical aspirations at the shrine of St. Jarlath … chose the patron of his youthful studies to be the heavenly guardian of his missionary labours, and so, for all future time, our church will be known as St. Jarlath’s.

The name of St Jarlath did not survive ‘for all future time’ in Parkes. In 1942 the patronage of the parish was changed to the Holy Family. The Catholic Weekly, the successor to Sydney’s Freeman’s Journal, reported: ‘[The Anglican minister] did not know who was responsible for changing the name of the new church from St. Jarlath’s to the Church of the Holy Family, but as a humble leader of another Church, he congratulated Dr. Fox [bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes] on the change.’

In May 1874 the Reverend James, in the McGirr litigious tradition, brought a charge against his own nephews:

Mr. F. Dalton, the gold-commissioner … has been engaged two days this week hearing a charge which has been preferred against two brothers, viz. James and John M’Girr, and the wife of John, Mary M’Girr, by the Rev. James M’Girr, their uncle, for selling sixty-seven head of cattle, which had been let to James on terms from week to week. The only plea they have put in as yet is, that he had given them the cattle, and they thought they were at liberty to do as they chose with them. But prosecutor produced an agreement, showing that he had only let them from week to week. Mrs. M’Girr has been discharged, but the two men have been remanded for further evidence.

In November the case was resolved in favour of the nephews: ‘On the charge of stealing head of cattle, the property of James Joseph M’Girr, in the W. district, Jas. and John M’Girr have been acquitted.’

In the meantime, James Joseph had died at Orange. The Freeman’s Journal coverage of the death and obsequies was reprinted in the Mayo Examiner: ‘The death of Rev. Father M’Girr has cast a gloom over the Catholic people here, with whom he was a great favourite. He died at Orange on the 8th instant … As soon as it was known through the town, the good people of Orange testified their grief and respect by every means in their power.’ The death certificate stated that the cause of death was disease of the liver; the informant was his cousin Michael Mullins McGirr of Sydney and former colleague at St. Stanislaus College. The deceased was said to have been 45 years of age and 11 years resident in the Australasian colonies.