John Joseph Gregory McGirr (11 October 1879 – 23 March 1949) was an Australian politician who served in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

from 1913 to 1925, representing the Labor Party. He served as the party's leader (and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

) for little over a month in 1923, during an internal dispute. He had earlier served as deputy leader and as Minister for Public Health under James Dooley.

Early life

The second son of John Patrick McGirr, a farmer, and Mary (née O'Sullivan) McGirr, both Irish emigrants, Greg McGirr was born in

Parkes, New South Wales Parkes is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the main settlement in the local government in Australia, local government area of Parkes Shire. Parkes had a population of 9,83 ...

, and educated at St Joseph's Convent, Parkes, and St Stanislaus' College, Bathurst. He graduated in pharmacy from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

in 1904.

James McGirr James McGirr (6 February 1890 – 27 October 1957) was an Australian politician. He served as premier of New South Wales from 1947 to 1952, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He led the party to victory at the 1947 an ...

, Premier of that state from 1947 to 1952, was one of his younger brothers. Another brother,

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

, was also a New South Wales politician. McGirr opened chemist shops at Parkes, Peak Hill,

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

Narromine Narromine (Help:IPA/English, /næroʊmaɪn/) is a rural Australian town located approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of Dubbo in the Orana, New South Wales, Orana region of New South Wales. The town is at the centre of Narromine Shire. ...

, and eventually

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. He was heavily involved in land and stock trading.

Politics

McGirr joined the Labor Party and in 1910 ran unsuccessfully for the seat of

. He won Yass at a by-election in 1913. In 1914 he married Rachel Rittenburg Miller, a schoolteacher. The couple had nine children. He was ALP whip from 1916 until 1917. At the 1920 election

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

was introduced and the Yass electorate was absorbed into an expanded multi-member

electoral district of Cootamundra Cootamundra is an New South Wales Legislative Assembly electoral districts, electoral district of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. Cootamundra is a regional electorate e ...

, and he won a seat, helping to defeat the former Labor leader, turned

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

William Holman William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split o ...

. Labor won the election he became Minister for Public Health and Motherhood until the defeat of the Government in the 1922 election. He was named deputy party leader after the death of John Storey in 1921. McGirr was supported by Jack Bailey, an influential member of the

Australian Workers Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members. Acc ...

that dominated the State Executive of the Labor Party, who helped McGirr win Labor pre-selection for

. McGirr won a seat at the 1922 election, at the expense of Michael Burke, who was popular within the Labor Party. James Dooley, the former premier and leader of the Labor Party accused the State Executive of corruption and the State Executive responded by expelling Dooley from the party in March 1923 and appointing McGirr as the new leader. His leadership was brief however as in April 1923 the Federal Executive intervened in the NSW branch and Bill Dunn was appointed interim leader, pending a caucus vote. At the 1923 conference, Dooley was re-admitted to the party, and the State Executive was replaced. Jack Lang became party leader in July 1923. Bailey was accused of being involved with a ballot box scandal that would end in his expulsion from the Labor Party. Without the support of Bailey and the AWU on the State Executive, McGirr was isolated and resigned from the party in July 1923 and established the " Young Australia Party". He was defeated at the 1925 election and subsequently concentrated on his business interests, except for an unsuccessful attempt to win Calare for the State (Hughes-Evans) Labor Party in September 1940.

Death

He died in Sydney, aged 69, survived by his wife and eight of their nine children. He was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. One of his daughters, Trixie, moved to Britain where she became a Conservative politician and is the only Australian woman to date to have been made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as the Baroness Gardner of Parkes. His grandson,

Joe McGirr Joseph Gregory McGirr (born 19 June 1960) is an Australian independent politician, and a physician and former associate dean of the University of Notre Dame Australia. He has been the member for Wagga Wagga in the New South Wales Legislative A ...

, was elected to the Parliament of New South Wales in 2018, as an independent.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGirr, Greg 1879 births 1949 deaths Australian people of Irish descent Australian Roman Catholics Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Leaders of the opposition in New South Wales Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales People from Parkes, New South Wales People educated at St Stanislaus' College (Bathurst) Ministers for health (New South Wales)