On 29 December 1956, O'Farrell married Deirdre Genevieve MacShane, and the couple went on to have five children.[2]
Academic career
O'Farrell was appointed as a lecturer in history at the University of New South Wales in 1959, rising to become a professor in 1972.[2] On his retirement in 1990, he was conferred with the title of professor emeritus.
O'Farrell's first research interests were in Labour history with the 1964 publication of a work on Harry Holland. The appearance in 1968 of his book The Catholic Church in Australia led to his recognition as the leading historian of the Catholic Church and community in Australia. He subsequently also became well known for his major contributions to the writing of Irish history and of Irish Australian history.[5] As an opponent of social history 'from below', he initiated a polemic against oral history in the 1980s.
^Revised edition of The Catholic church in Australia (1968).
^Revised edition of The Catholic church and community in Australia : a history (1977).
Further reading
Finnane, Mark. "Patrick O'Farrell (1933-2003)"(PDF). Proceedings of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. 28 (2003): 48–51. Archived from the original(PDF) on 11 April 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2009.