Port Fairy, Kilmore, Hamilton, St. Kilda, Vic

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Melbourne, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 24 July 1861, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115760274:

The inhabitants of Belfast have lately given substantial proof of the esteem in which they hold the late Catholic Pastor there, the Rev. Edward McCarthy, to whom they have presented a purse of upwards of one hundred sovereigns on the occasion of his being removed to the mission of Kilmore. The rev. gentleman is succeeded at Belfast by his brother, who will doubtless efficiently fill his place, as he also has rendered himself so popular amongst the people to Ballarat, where he was previously stationed, as to be about to receive at their hands a similar mark of esteem.

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Deaths, The Argus, Melbourne, 19 January 1863, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6482765:

McCarthy.—On the 13th inst., Rev. Edward McCarthy, aged twenty-eight years, at the residence of his brother, Rev. Eugene McCarthy, of Nelson-street, Prahran.

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Border Watch, Mount Gambier, 6 February 1863, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77078979:

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of the Rev. Edward McCarthy, who for four years was R.C. Pastor of this district. No particulars of his death have reached us, but in the Argus of the 14th inst., appears the announcement of his funeral, which was to have taken place on that day. The deceased was but in his 28th year, and was a man of very considerable ability, both natural and acquired. Through his exertions the R.C. Church here, which was many years in the hands of his predecessors without making much progress, was speedily erected, and he contributed a large portion of his income to the building fund, an example worthy of imitation—and it is to be hoped that though he lies far away from his congregation, a suitable monument to his memory will be erected within that temple.—Belfast Banner.

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Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 1, 1979, p 50: "McCarthy, Edward / Ir. / AH, Melb / Melb. d. 1863".

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Kevin Condon, CM, The Missionary College of All Hallows 1842-1891, Dublin, 1986. Appendix: Matricula 1842-91:

No. 275: Edward McCarthy, 1850, St Vincent's, Cork; aged 16 (brother of last-named.) To Melbourne, 4.4.1856: Geelong - Belfast - Hamilton. Died on 12.1.1863 after a fall from a horse.

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 62:
Fr Eugene McCarthy

This priest is mentioned in Pugh’s Almanac as being in Toowoomba in 1864 and in Dalby in 1865. The Toowoomba Prayer Calendar for deceased priests mentions that Fr McCarthy could have been the priest who died in Victoria on 7 November 1865.(1)

An obituary for Fr Eugene McCarthy reveals something of the presence of him in the diocese of Brisbane which sees him recorded as D McCarthy in the Sick and Infirm Priests Society listing of deceased priests who served in the diocese of Brisbane.

Fr Eugene was one of three brothers who came to Archdiocese of Melbourne as priests. Another brother was a priest in his native Ireland. Each of the three brothers in Australia died young.(2) Fr Edward died at Hamilton in Victoria in January 1863 as the result of a fall from a horse. A younger brother Francis died at Beechworth in June 1867.

Eugene McCarthy was born at Ballyheigue in County Kerry on 1 April 1832. He was the son of Francis and Juliana (nee Stack) McCarthy.

He entered All Hallows Missionary College in 1850 with his brother Edward who was two years younger. They came to All Hallows from St Vincent’s College Cork. Eugene was ordained for the Melbourne diocese on 29 June 1855. His brother Edward arrived in Melbourne in April 1866.(3)

Fr Eugene’s first appointment was at Geelong. In April 1859 he was transferred to Ballarat where he worked with Dr Sheil ofm who, in 1866, became bishop of Adelaide. The parishioners of Geelong gave Fr Eugene a gold watch at a farewell from that parish, held in the presbytery on 1 April 1859.(4)

While in the vast district covered by the Ballarat parish, extending from Daylesford to Meredith, he laboured generously.

The several labors of the mission compelled him at last, at the urgent advice of medical and ecclesiastical friends, to relinquish for a season his pastoral duties, and to seek in the milder climate of Queensland that total relaxation of mind and body so necessary for the renewal of an overworked constitution. Having spent some eighteen months in that beautiful climate, he returned here last January, with a renewed fund of health, to resume his priestly offices. He was appointed to the care of Richmond.(5)

Queensland records show that after a short time in Toowoomba Fr McCarthy was the first resident priest in Dalby where he was assisted by Fr William Bowe,(6) who was the first priest to die in Brisbane diocese.

Fr Eugene McCarthy died at St Mary’s Presbytery in Geelong at 7pm on 7 November 1865. This was the parish in which he began his Australian ministry nearly ten years previously.(7)

Footnotes
1. Prayer Calendar, Deceased priest who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts. 1864-2007, 2007.
2. Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, 18 Nov 1865, p.730.
3. Kevin Condon, Missionary College of All Hallows 1841 to 1891, students 274 and 275, p.300
4. Geelong Advertiser, 2 Apr 1859, p. 2.
5. Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, op. cit.18 Nov 1865, p.730.
6. Dalby parish history, twb.catholic.org.au/parish.
7. Ibid.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.