The Irish convict doctor who delivered Dick Atkin—Dr O'Doherty

Selden Society lecture series Australia

Lord Atkin's first encounter with a doctor was in 1867, when Dr Kevin O'Doherty attended his birth in Brisbane. Twenty years earlier O'Doherty had been transported to Tasmania for his advocacy of Irish nationalism. By 1867 he was a leading surgeon in Brisbane, and, like his friend Robert Atkin, an advocate of liberal democracy. He was one of the first presidents of the Queensland Medical Society and carried out extensive honorary work at Catholic hospitals. As an MP he introduced Queensland's first Public Health Act, championed the improvement of public health and as an opponent of the traffic in Kanakas sponsored the bill to stop their recruitment. He was a member of Queensland's Parliament until 1886 when he returned to Ireland and was elected to the House of Commons in that country. Soon after that, political differences in Dublin led him to return to Brisbane.
Learn more about this lecture on the Supreme Court Library Queensland website, https://legalheritage.sclqld.org.au/2018-lecture-three

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