Matthew Gibney - Illustrious Bishop of Perth

The Young Fr. Matthew Gibney

Matthew Gibney was born at Aghaknock, Cornafean, County Cavan, Ireland, on 2 November 1837, son of Michael Gibney, a farmer, and his wife Alice, nee Prunty. He was educated in Kilmore Academy and studied for the priesthood at the Preparatory Seminary at Stillorgan and from 1857 at the All Hallows College in Dublin.  He was ordained on 14 June 1863 and arrived on the “Tartar” in Perth on the 12^th December of the same year.

Father Gibney was a man of great energy and charity. In 1868 he opened the Catholic Girls Orphanage in Perth and in 1871 the Clontarf Orphanage for boys in Subiaco. In 1873 he was appointed Vicar-General to Bishop Martin Griver. There are many legends about him from this time, including accounts of his resilience when riding for days without water: his swimming flooded rivers to administer the sacraments, and the incident when he almost died from arsenic poisoning when a farmers wife mistook it for carbonate of soda.

Photos of the Ned Kelly Siege (1880) (courtesy State Library of Victoria)

A photo of the burning Hotel in Glenrowan, taken at the time Fr. Gibney entered.

The burning Hotel just as the fire started.

In 1880, he set off for the Eastern Colonies to collect funds needed to rebuild the boys’ orphanage. In Victoria on the 28^th June 1880, while travelling by train from Benalla to Albury, he learned that the outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang had been surrounded at Mrs. Jones’ Glenrowan hotel, and that a shoot-out with the police was underway.  Gibney left his train and tended the seemingly seriously wounded Kelly, heard his confession and gave him the Last Rites. Against the bushranger’s advice, Gibney entered the now burning hotel to administer to the remainder of the gang, only to find their dead bodies. Back home in Perth, Gibney was widely regarded as a hero for his courage in this situation.

In 1886 he became Coadjutor Bishop of Perth, and in the following year was consecrated Bishop after the death of Dr. Griver.  During his episcopate, he expanded greatly the numbers of churches, schools, and orphanages within the diocese and also established a number of hospitals and a monastery. In 1898 he divided the diocese and created the diocese of Geraldton.

Gibney strongly defended the aboriginal people in the North-West. His was one of the first people of his status to take a practical interest in them, at a time when they were receiving little sympathy elsewhere.  He had first visited them in 1878, when he admired their culture and was horrified at their treatment by white settlers. He was concerned at the decline of their population since the arrival of Europeans, and resolved to open a mission. By 1890 he secured land at Beagle Bay from the government, and this was occupied by missionaries from the Trappist order. 

Bishop Gibney

St. Mary's Cathedral, Perth, where Bishop Gibney is buried.

Ten years later the missionaries departed and this caused a crisis, as he had 10,000 acres of freehold on condition that £5000 worth of improvements be made. These had not materialised and the diocese stood to forego ownership of the lands. In 1900, in his 63^rd year, he went to the mission with Canon Martelli and Daisey Bates, and personally dug, hoed and cleared paddocks to retain the mission for the aboriginals.  Next year the Pallotine Order took it over.

 Gibney identified himself closely with the political and social aspirations of his fellow Irishmen in Australia. He had been partly responsible for the 1871 Elementary Education Act by which the subsidisation of religious education was extended to the catholic schools.  In the Perth by-election of 1888 Catholics voted en bloc for John Horgan, Gibney’s Solicitor. Gibney deplored the restrictions which disqualified many of the people from voting, and publicly condemned the electoral system on several occasions.

In the 1894 elections the principle of government aid to Catholic schools was defeated, despite the Bishop’s efforts to mobilise votes for candidates supporting it.  Next year the ecclesiastical grant was abolished; he requested £50,000 in compensation and received £5,000.

This caused a financial crisis for the diocese, which was worsened by some ill-advised investments. From the late 1890’s the church bought many shops, offices houses and a hotel in the city of Perth.  In 1905 he acquired control of the Morning Herald, he banned horse racing information from it, circulation dropped and the paper went into liquidation in 1909.

By 1908 the Church was seriously in debt and two years later Gibney retired after an inquiry instigated by Cardinal Moran of Sydney.  Father Patrick Clune succeeded him.  Matthew died at his North Perth home, from cancer on 22^nd June 1925.  He was buried under the nave of St. Mary's Cathedral, Perth.