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The fourth Bishop of Rockhampton, Joseph Shiel, originally came from Ireland to the Australian mission for five years. He was to devote the remainder of his life to the Australian Catholic Church.
Bishop Shiel was born at Swainstown, Kilmessan, County Meath, Ireland on 17th February 1873.
Joseph Shiel began his education at the local National School. Having shown signs of a vocation to the priesthood, he did his secondary education at St Finian’s College and then at Navan, and in June 1892, won one of the few available places at the great Irish Seminary of Maynooth, St Patrick’s College, which primarily trains priests for the Irish dioceses. His links with Maynooth were many. He was ordained there on 19th June 1889 by the Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh.
He served at Melbourne and Geelong and when his initial five years were up, obtained permission from his bishop in Ireland to stay in Australia. Early in 1904 he accepted an invitation from the then Bishop of Rockhampton, Bishop Higgins, to go north. At first he was administrator at Mt Morgan, then in February 1905, he was appointed administrator of St Joseph’s Cathedral, Rockhampton. Bishop Higgins was appointed Bishop of Ballarat and in March 1906. Father Joseph Shiel joined him there. He later became administrator of the cathedral at Ballarat.
When holidaying in Ireland in 1912, Father Shiel was notified of his appointment as Bishop of Rockhampton in succession to James Duhig who had been made Coadjutor Archbishop of Brisbane. After his consecration at Maynooth by Archbishop Mannix, Bishop Shiel sailed from Dover, England on 15th February 1913 on the RMS Orana with Archbishop Mannix and Archbishop Mannix’s cousin, Dean Foley, afterwards Bishop of Ballarat.
His lifetime of service given to the Australian church was a busy one. When enthroned as bishop in St Joseph’s Cathedral he was forty. When he died in Rockhampton in April 1931, he was fifty-eight. |
