Hugh MAHON was my great-grandfather. In 1882 he fled Ireland after a 2nd warrant for his arrest was issued by the British authorities under the "Protection of People and Property" Act which had been enacted specifically to use against political activists. He had been arrested on 27th October, 1881, along with Charles Stewart PARNELL and others for their Land League activities. He was never charged with any offence. He developed tuberculosis whilst incarcerated. He was released from Kilmainham gaol on 7th January,1882, because of his lungs and under the proviso that he discontinued his political activism. Upon release he immediately re-commenced his activities and learned that a second warrant of apprehension had been sworn against him. He then fled to Australia and first went to Sydney. He worked for several newspapers. He married a Melbourne woman Mary Alice Quin L'ESTRANGE in Sydney in 1888. In 1890, Hugh and Mary relocated to Melbourne. He was very active in the Catholic community and played an important part in the REDMOND brothers' tour. He also ventured west to the goldfields in Western Australia and owned/operated a newspaper at Menzies in Western Australia. Australia became a republic in 1901 and Hugh MAHON was an inaugural member of the Federal Parliament which, at that time, sat in Melbourne. He was a member of the Austrlian Labor Party and over the next two decades held senior ministerial positions in Goverment. On 11th November, 1920, he was sensationally expelled from the Federal Parliament. A few days earlier he had addressed a large crowd in Richmond, Victoria, and criticised the Englilsh Government over the death of the Mayor of Cork Terence MacSWINEY. Hugh MAHON'S political oppponents used this as a catalyst to have him expelled for "seditious" remarks against the Crown. The expulsion was the first and only one of its kind in Australian history. Inquiries since that event have concluded that what happened to Hugh MAHON was an abuse of process by the Australian Goverment. The law was changed so that it could not occur again. Barrister and historian Dr. Jeff KILDEA has conducted a huge amount of research into the life of Hugh MAHON and published two biographical volumes - "Hugh Mahon Patriot, Pressman, Politician" - Volume 1 and "Hugh Mahon Patriot, Pressman, Politician" - Volume 2. They are both important historical reference manuals.
Ken MAHON
