Patrick Michael McGirr (25 December 1874 – 13 April 1957) was an Australian politician. He was born in

Parkes Parkes may refer to: * Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896), Australian politician, one of the earliest and most prominent advocates for Australian federation Named for Henry Parkes * Parkes, New South Wales, a regional town * Parkes Observatory, a radi ...

to farmer John Patrick McGirr and Mary O'Sullivan, and was educated at St. Joseph's Convent. He left school at a young age to work in shearing sheds, funding the education of his brothers and future parliamentarians,

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

and

Greg Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (sometimes spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people *Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canadian b ...

; he also became an active 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 pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...

. He later became a successful businessman, dealing in cattle and owning a number of pastoral estates in the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

area, including at various times the Grawlin, Ralrida and Bundaburra estates, while also acquiring substantial property and business interests in Forbes township. He was an alderman of the Municipality of Parkes until 1917, a member of the Parkes Land Board from 1913 until 1917, and the vice-president of the Parkes branch of the Political Labor League. He was elected to 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 ...

as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for Macquarie in a 1917 by-election caused by the death of Labor MP

Thomas Thrower Thomas Henry Thrower (28 June 1870 – 21 June 1917) was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1904 to 1907 and 1910 to 1917, representing the electorate of Macqua ...

. He was narrowly defeated in 1920 running for the multi-member seat of Murrumbidgee, but in 1921 he was appointed to the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. Along with the New South Wales Legislative As ...

, in which he served until his retirement in 1955. Despite serving in the Legislative Council for 34 years, he remained a lifelong supporter of its abolition. He remained an active farmer until 1950, when he retired to Bellevue Hill. He died there in 1957.

References

1874 births 1957 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales People from Parkes, New South Wales {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub