Author(s): Brenda Niall

Biography

In 1922, at the height of Ireland's tragic civil war, Irish Jesuit William Hackett was transferred to Australia by his order. Assigned to a minor teaching post, this seemingly unremarkable newcomer caused no stir. Yet Father Hackett had been close to the centre of the provisional Irish Republic's struggle for independence from Britain; part of the network of Irish nationalists who carried intelligence, ministered to republican troops, spoke on republican platforms, and helped to publicise British injustices and atrocities in Ireland. Now, he was effectively an exile. A major figure in the biography, Archbishop Daniel Mannix is seen for the first time in close-up, through Hackett's privileged insight into the private self of the famously aloof and powerful prelate.