deans+Father+John+Therry

=﻿Father John Therry=

The son of John Therry and his wife Eliza Connolly, John Joseph Therry was born in Cork, Ireland in 1790. He was educated privately and at St Patrick's College, Carlow. Ordained a priest in 1815, he was assigned to parish work in Dublin and then Cork. Recommended by his own bishop as a capable, Therry sailed from Cork under a senior priest, Father Philip Conolly, in the Janus, which carried more than a hundred prisoners. They arrived in Sydney, in May 1820, authorised by both church and state. Therry described his life in Australia over the next forty-four years. Popular, energetic and restless, he appreciated from the beginning the delicacy of his role. Fr Conolly went on to Van Diemen's Land in 1821 leaving Therry as the only priest on the mainland for five seminal years. Articulate and thorough, he set himself the task of attending to every aspect of the moral and religious life of the Catholics. He travelled unceasingly, living with his scattered people wherever they were to be found, sometimes using three or four horses in a day. . His influence was impressive among the Protestant settlers and outstanding among the convicts.