Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan

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Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan (1816–1903). Duffy had a strange career. The son of a shopkeeper from Monaghan, he moved to Dublin as a journalist in 1836 and in 1842 launched the Nation as the mouthpiece of Young Ireland. He broke with O'Connell in 1846 over the issue of moral force and in 1848 was implicated in the rising. Though put on trial, he was not convicted, and resumed his editorship of the Nation, but placing the emphasis on land reform. In 1852 he was elected to Parliament but, despairing of making progress, left for Australia in 1855. There he pursued his second career in Victoria, serving as legislator, minister, and 1871–2 as prime minister. He was knighted in 1873 and acted as Speaker 1876–80. Leaving Australia in that year, he spent most of the remainder of his life in southern Europe.

J. A. Cannon

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Sir Charles Gavan Duffy

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