Henry James O'Farrell
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Henry James O'Farrell is the first recorded man in Australia's history to attempt a political assassination.
In 1868, as part of a world tour, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh the second son of Queen Victoria, visited Australia. This was the first royal tour to Australia and included planned stops to Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney among many others.
On March 12, 1868, while the duke was picnicking in the beachfront suburb of Clontarf, Henry James O'Farrell fired a revolver into the Duke’s back. O'Farrell was only just saved from being lynched by a crowd that gathered.
The attack caused great embarrassment in the colony led to a wave of anti-Irish sentiment, directed at all Irish people, including Protestant Loyalists. A day after the shooting, 20,000 Australians attended a meeting in response to “yesterday’s outrage”.
O'Farrell first claimed, falsely, to be under orders from the Fenian Brotherhood [1]. The solicitor Butler Cole Aspinall, who had represented members of the Eureka Stockade, defended O'Farrell and used a defence strategy of innocence on the grounds of insanity: O’Farrell had recently been released from a mental asylum and had a history of mental illness.
However, despite Prince Alfred's attempts to intercede to save his would-be killer, and his questionable state of mind, O’Farrell was tried and hanged on 21 April 1868, less than two months after the shooting.
Prince Alfred soon recovered and was able to resume command of his ship and return home in early April, 1868. However the impact of the shooting is still felt today. The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was built using funds from a public conscription in order “to raise a permanent and substantial monument in testimony of the heartfelt gratitude of the community at the recovery of HRH”.
