Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, pp 20-21:
Fr William Hely (Healy)

William Hely was born in the townland of Carrignafoy, County Cork in September 1837. He was educated at Mt Melleray and Maynooth, with a distinguished scholastic reputation. Ordained for the diocese of Cloyne on 25 June 1861 he served in Aghina, Grenagh and Charleville. In 1869 and 1870 he was 'a Professor at one of the Catholic Colleges in Ireland'.(1)

Fr William Hely, accompanying students for the priesthood Michael Murray and Thomas O'Brien, arrived in Moreton Bay aboard the Ramsay on 25 June 1871. He spent a short time in Rockhampton before moving to Clermont as his movement as a registered marriage celebrant appeared in the newspaper in November 1871.(2)

He returned to England and probably his native Queenstown. In London he purchased at the firm of Seattles a valuable watch with gold accessories, an item destined to be in his keeping at life's sad end.(3)

Fr William Hely arrived back in Brisbane about May 1873. While attached to the Cathedral staff his main area of mission was in the Waterford/Logan area, ministering in such districts as Beaudesert, Beenleigh, Boonah and Southport.

The Brisbane Courier reported that he intended leaving there late in 1874.

The Rev Father Healy being about to leave the Logan district of which he has been for some time the Parish Priest has been presented by his parishioners with a very complimentary address … and a considerable sum of money. Since his arrival in Queensland he has laboured hard and unostentatiously in his vocation. He has, we are informed, determined to leave for Europe. We know that we only express the general feeling of the Roman Catholic community in saying that they regard his departure with great regret.(4)

Bishop Quinn wrote in January 1875: 'Fr Healy (sic) ... quitted the diocese … Fr Scortechini (sic) is in his place and the people are greatly pleased with him.'

There seems to be no record of Fr Hely's whereabouts from November 1874 until April 1876. Did Hely, as the Brisbane Courier article suggested, return to Europe in those years; or was he a 'shepherd in the mist'? Was his illness something more than sunstroke? Fr Linane poses the possibility of his leaving the diocese because of the unrest in the Brisbane church at the time, when some Irish clergy were critical of the administration of the diocese by Dr Cani during the eighteen months that Bishop Quinn was in Europe, England and Ireland seeking priests and more religious for his mission. He goes on to inform us that:

Somehow, somewhere, and sometime in the years 1874-1875 the priest with the high reputation among his 'own' in the Logan contacted the first Bishop of the newly-formed See of Sandhurst, Dr Martin Crane OSA, who was installed in May 1875. Bishops, like beggars, can't be choosers when it comes to filling manpower and pastoral needs. And so the volunteer from Queenstown, once in Queensland, was a welcome addition to the half dozen working in Crane's domain.(5)

Fr Hely had arrived in Wangaratta by April 1876. Accompanied Fr John Laurence Scanlon he celebrated the Easter ceremonies at Beechworth in the absence of the pastor Fr William Tierney. In Wangaratta there was tension between the parish priest, Fr Thomas Egan, and Fr Hely. On May 24 Fr Hely 'mysteriously disappeared'. For ten weeks he roamed through various parts of the Sandhurst diocese and southern New South Wales. He was referred to by many as a 'strange man', as he roamed through these areas, dressed as a priest, refusing to give his real name to anyone. On Sunday morning 6 August he was at Deepwater, when police were searching for John Turner who had committed a crime at Toganmain, near Hay. Information came to the police that this 'strange man' could be Turner. They raided the room at the Belmore Inn, occupied by Fr Hely, and in the confusion Fr Hely was shot by the police sergeant who believed Hely was Turner. Critically wounded he was taken to Wagga, where he died in a police cell. This was not before he asked for a priest. The priest who ministered to him was Fr Thomas Long, whom Hely had known as a student, when he spent 1869-1870 teaching at Mt Melleray. Fr Hely was buried in a pauper's grave in Wagga with Fr Long officiating. Fr Long appears to have been confused by the whole affair, believing the police's version of events, even though his Latin breviary was by his bedside in the inn at Deepwater. Later Fr Hely's body was disinterred and buried in Wangaratta, where a marble prie-dieu was erected as a memorial over his grave.(6)

The introduction to an article in a local newspaper refers to questions being asked:

The Deepwater Tragedy
The shooting of the late Rev William Healy, at the Belmore Inn, Deepwater, on the morning of Sunday, the 6th of August last, by two members of the police force stationed at Narrandera, is one of those official blunders – a blunder is worse than a crime – which demands the reasonable comments of the journalists of the southern district. In fact it is the privilege of every colonist, now that the case is no longer sub judice, to be outspoken on the subject. When any person is shot down and deprived of life unjustly or illegally, the public ought to perceive that the case of the victim today becomes that of the entire community tomorrow.(7)

While Fr Hely was stationed in the diocese of Sandhurst at the time of his death, he began his Australian ministry in the diocese of Brisbane. The story of his death is a very sad one indeed. Much has been written about Fr Hely: his life, his death, the inquest into his death, court cases that followed.

Fr Thomas Long, a native of Dovea in co Tipperary, was a student at Mt Melleray and All Hallows. He died as the esteemed parish priest of Lewisham on 11 September 1898.(8)

The most complete research and subsequent story is by Fr Tom Linane, in the Melbourne Diocesan Historical Committee magazine Footprints, in 1979 and 1980 – Volume 3, No's 7–10 and Volume 4, Nos 1 & 2.

Footnotes
1. Yass Courier, 13 Apr 1877: quoted by Fr Tom Linane in Footprints, Mar 1979, Vol 3 No 2, p. 5.
2. 54 Brisbane Courier, 6 Nov 1871, p. 3
3. Fr Tom Linane, Footprints, Mar 1979, p. 5: quoting Fr Paul Healion of Rockhampton diocese.
4. Brisbane Courier, 17 Nov 1874, p. 2.
5. Fr Tom Linane, op. cit. Mar 1979, p. 6.
6. Thomas Linane, With Revolver and Breviary, the title of six articles in Footprints
7. Riverina Grazier, Hay, 25 Apr 1877, p.2.
8. Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 17 Sep 1898, p. 17

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.