Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, pp 217-219:
Mons. Edmond Keating

[...]

Edmond, or 'Ted' as he was always known, came from the Darling Downs. He was one of the eight Keating children and was born at the family home Fairview at Cabarlah outside Toowoomba in 1898. Four of the children were to embrace the religious life.

[...]

There were two other Fr Keatings in the Archdiocese but they were not related. They were Dr Thomas Keatinge who departed from Bishop Quinn for the United States and died in 1877. And there was the young Paul Keating, curate at Sth Brisbane, who died in July 1919. His Parish Priest, Francis Dorrigan, followed him to the grave two weeks later. Both were victims of the pneumonic influenza which swept the world.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)

---

Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 156:
Fr Paul Keating BA

Tragically Fr Paul Keating had a very short time in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Paul Keating was born in County Limerick on 6 July 1893. He studied for the priesthood at All Hallows College and took his arts degree from the National University of Dublin. After a brilliant scholastic career he was ordained a priest in May 1918.(1) Later he left for Brisbane as a chaplain on a returning troopship after the Great War.

On arrival in Brisbane he was appointed to assist Fr Dorrigan at South Brisbane. A young priest of great promise he was appointed a lecturer at St Leo's University College in which he took a great interest. His time there was so short.

During the Spanish influenza epidemic he took ill ten days before his death. He was admitted to the Mater Misericordiae hospital and died at 1.00am on Saturday 5 July 1919.

As no funeral could be held on the Sunday, it was decided to have his funeral at 1.30pm on the day of his death. Over twenty priests and a large number of the laity attended the funeral conducted by Archbishop James Duhig. Father Paul had been in Brisbane for just seven months.

The Age newspaper reported:

The church was crowded with sorrowing parishioners. The occasion was rendered all the more sad by the reason of the serious illness of Very Rev Father Dorrigan, VF, PP, of St Mary's.(2)

Just fourteen days later, Fr Dorrigan with whom Fr Paul had been residing succumbed to the same influenza.

On arrival at Nudgee children from the orphanage accompanied by Sisters of Mercy preceded the hearse to the graveside. Archbishop Duhig assisted by a large number of priests officiated. A few wreaths were forwarded including one from his loving mother.(3)

The Daily Standard, reflecting on events effecting Australia at the time, referred to the impact of the drought of 1919 in Queensland and the reality that most military personnel had returned from aboard after the First World War:

Nearly every country of the world suffered great loss of life from an extraordinary epidemic of influenza, probably of a different character from the usual disease. Generally described as Spanish influenza and by the Commonwealth medical authorities as pneumonic influenza, the visitation was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. In Australia the largest numbers of victims were in Melbourne and Sydney.(4)

Fathers Keating and Dorrigan were victims of this influenza. Their fellow priests in the Archdiocese would have officiated at the funerals of many men, women and children who were victims of this plague. May they all rest in peace.

Footnotes
1. Age, Brisbane 12 Jul 1914,
2. Ibid.
3. Telegraph, Brisbane, 5 Jul 1919, p. 5. And Daily Mail, Brisbane, 7 July 1919, p. 6.
4. Daily Standard, Brisbane, 31 Dec 1919, p. 5.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.