Henry O'Farrell
Henry James O'Farrell | |
|---|---|
Henry James O'Farrell, Sydney, about 1868, by Eugene Montagu Scott | |
| Born | 1833 Arran Quay, Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 21 April 1868 Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, Australia |
| Occupation | Produce merchant |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction | Attempted murder of Prince Alfred |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Henry James O'Farrell (1833 – 21 April 1868) was the first person to attempt a political assassination in Australia. On 12 March 1868, he shot and wounded Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria.
Henry O'Farrell was from an Irish-Australian family who had migrated to Melbourne in the early 1840s. He was heavily influenced by Catholicism and Irish nationalism. By the early 1860s, O'Farrell was showing signs of mental instability, exacerbated by heavy drinking. O'Farrell travelled to Sydney during the tour of Australian colonies by Prince Alfred, where he made an attempt to kill the royal visitor at a public picnic at the harbour-side suburb of Clontarf.
O'Farrell's attempted assassination of Prince Alfred produced a wave of public sympathy and outrage in Australia. The veteran New South Wales politician, Henry Parkes, took advantage of sectarian discord to push through repressive legislation and raise concerns of a secret cohort of Fenian conspirators in Australia. Parkes' failure to prove such a conspiracy signalled a temporary decline in his political influence.