William Ponsonby McMahon (1852 – June 1933) was founder of a Catholic newspaper ''Tribune'' in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia in 1870. It failed to thrive, but after a second ''Tribune'' was founded in 1900, he was appointed its publisher and editor, in which positions he served for 19 years.

History

McMahon was born in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, and started adult life as a schoolteacher, and moved to

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, where he spent several years as a newspaperman. In November 1870 McMahon founded the original ''Tribune'' newspaper for Melbourne Catholics, but it failed at an early date. He then found employment working for the Melbourne '' Argus''. The title was revived in 1900 with ''The Tribune'', subtitled "A Journal of Information and Literature" as a Catholic weekly, and McMahon was with the company from the start, or shortly after, and served as publisher and editor for 19 years.

Later life

McMahon was closely associated with the

Catholic Young Men's Society 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 ...

. He spent several years in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, helping establish the

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

newspaper, and helping the Catholic fight against the

Vaughan government The Vaughan ministry was the 49th ministry of the Government of South Australia, led by Crawford Vaughan. It commenced on 3 April 1915, following the victory of Vaughan's Labor Party at the 1915 state election. In February 1917, Vaughan, his ent ...

's Education bill. For his work on behalf of the Catholic cause, he received warm praise from

Archbishop Mannix Daniel Patrick Mannix (4 March 1864 – 6 November 1963) was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th-century Australia. Early lif ...

. In his last years he served as organising secretary of the

Australian Catholic Federation Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

Family

McMahon married Tasmanian-born Mary Catherine Murphy ( – 7 July 1909), and lived at 35 Gipps Street, East Melbourne. Their family included: *Eileen Mary McMahon (1888–1981) *Geraldine Julia McMahon (1889–1958) *Kathleen Clare McMahon (born 1890)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, William 1852 births 1933 deaths Australian newspaper editors Australian Roman Catholics