Thomas O'Neill

Walter E. Pidgeon, Illustration from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni, Sunnybrook Press, 1942, offset print.
Art Gallery of Ballarat, purchased 1994.

Memorial to those who died as a result of the Eureka Stockade located in the Eureka Stockade Memorial Park. Photography: Clare Gervasoni 2013.

Background

Thomas O'Neill was born at County Kilkenny, Ireland. The death certificate of Thomas O'Neil records that he was born around 1824 Paulstown, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Thomas O'Neill was killed during the storming of the Eureka Stockade on 03 December 1854. His father's name was John O'Neil/O'Neill.

Thomas said he was a farmer, and immigrated to Victoria in 1851. He was a pikeman, who had two broken legs and a musket ball in his body but was still using his pike when he was killed. The informant on his death certificate was Dennis Keys, a storekeeper. O'Neill Drive in the Ballaarat Old Cemetery is named after Thomas O'Neil/O'Neill.

Storekeeper Dennis Keys was the informant on the death certificates of Edward McGlynn and Thomas O'Neill, who were both killed as the result of the Eureka Stockade battle.

See also

Eureka Stockade

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

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