Daniel Mannix

Ecclesiastical career On 1 July 1912, Mannix was consecrated titular bishop of Pharsalia and coadjutor bishop to Archbishop Carr of Melbourne at Maynooth College Chapel. Mannix was not consulted about his appointment. When the Australian Labor Party government of Billy Hughes tried to introduce conscription for the war, Mannix campaigned against it and it was defeated. He spoke out more frequently about the 1917 referendum, which was also defeated. This campaign included a speech before a huge crowd of perhaps 100,000 at the Richmond Racecourse, which was provided by John Wren. However, shortly before the RMS Baltic was due to arrive in Cork Harbour, it was stopped by two Royal Navy destroyers, whose crews boarded the ship and detained Mannix before depositing him at Penzance, Cornwall.

By the end of the war, Mannix was the recognised leader of the Irish community in Australia, idolised by Catholics but detested by others, including those in power federally and in Victoria. He had spoken against the Treaty of Versailles, saying it would lead to a greater war than the one just ended. For many years he was ostracised and not invited to the official functions his position would have entitled him to attend. Mannix formed the Irish Relief Fund, which provided financial support for the families of Irish people who were killed or imprisoned during the Irish War of Independence. When he left Australia in 1920 to visit Rome and the United States, the British government refused him permission to visit Ireland or British cities with large Irish populations, which resulted in an extended stay in Penzance. There was also a serious, though unsuccessful, move to prevent him from returning to Australia. Mannix surprised many of his supporters by opposing this, on the grounds that the bill was totalitarianism, which in his view was worse than communism: his may have been a decisive influence in the referendum's narrow defeat. This alliance with the Labor leader, H. V. Evatt, was short-lived.

The Labor Party split again in 1954 over attitudes to Communism and the Cold War. Santamaria's supporters were expelled and formed the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). Mannix covertly supported the DLP and allowed many priests and religious to work openly for it. This involvement in politics was opposed by Cardinal Sir Norman Gilroy, Archbishop of Sydney, who worked with the Catholic Premier of New South Wales, Joseph Cahill, to hold together the Labor Party in that state, and also by the Vatican which, in 1957, ruled that the Movement should not interfere in politics.

He continued his friendship with long-time Irish leader Éamon de Valera, with the two men continuing their correspondence when Mannix was aged 98 years.

In 1960, Calwell became Labor leader and sought Mannix's support to bring about a reconciliation between Labor and the DLP, essential if the Menzies government was to be defeated. Some figures in the DLP supported this idea, but Mannix supported Santamaria in his resistance to such suggestions. The negotiations fell through and Menzies was re-elected in 1961. Mannix and Calwell became permanently estranged.

By the 1960s the distinct identity of the Irish community in Melbourne was fading, and Irish Catholics were increasingly outnumbered by Italian, Croatian, Polish, Maltese and other postwar immigrant Catholic communities. Mannix, who turned 90 in 1954, remained active and in full authority, but he was no longer a central figure in the city's politics.

Death Mannix died suddenly on 7 November 1963, aged 99, while he was preparing to celebrate his 100th birthday. A requiem mass was held at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne on Tuesday 12 November. He was buried in the crypt of St Patrick's Cathedral.

It was reported that over 2,000 bishops recited prayers for him in the Ecumenical Council in the Vatican when his death was announced.

Legacy Mannix in 1926Mannix's legacy to the Roman Catholic Church in Australia is substantial. Over fifty years during his episcopacy, the number of archdiocesan parishioners increased from 150,000 to 600,000; churches from 160 to 300; students in Catholic primary schools from 21,792 to 73,695; secondary pupils from 3,126 to 28,395; priests increased by 237, brothers by 181, nuns by 736; 10 new male and 14 female orders were introduced; 10 seminaries and 7 new hospitals, 3 orphanages, homes for delinquents, the blind and deaf, hostels for girls, and a range of other church facilities. The statue replaced an existing one of Daniel O'Connell.

A number of facilities are named in his honour, others were established by Mannix, as listed below:

Established by Mannix Corpus Christi College, Australia's oldest surviving seminary, was founded by Mannix on Christmas Day, 1922. Mannix had envisaged a national seminary along the lines of Maynooth, but had to abandon plans to reform St Patrick's Seminary, Manly, New South Wales, when the Holy See ruled in favour of regional seminaries for Australia. Tarrawarra Abbey, Yarra Glen, was founded in 1954 under Mannix's episcopacy with archdiocesan assistance.

Named in honour of Mannix

Australia Newman College at the University of Melbourne holds the annual Archbishop Daniel Mannix Memorial Lecture. The Australian Catholic Students Association each hold annual public lectures in his name. Mannix College is a residential college at Monash University. Mannix was a key supporter of the foundation of St Kevin's College, Melbourne in 1918 and was a guest speaker at its opening Mass of that year. In honour of his influence, a tutor group at the college's Year 9 campus, Waterford, is named Mannix. Year 7 and 8 Mannix campus at the Salesian College, Chadstone. Mannix Library, Catholic Theological College, Melbourne Mannix House at Nazareth College. Mannix House is represented by the colour green from his Irish connections Mannix House and Mannix Building at Xavier College in Kew, Melbourne. The Daniel Mannix Building in the Australian Catholic University's Melbourne campus houses the university's college of health science. Mazenod College, Mulgrave, Victoria, has home rooms named after Mannix. Mannix House (with the colour of yellow) at Loyola College, Melbourne

Ireland Dr Mannix Gaelic Athletic Sportsfield is named after him. It is the home sports field for the Charleville Hurling and Football clubs and is one of the premier hurling and football venues in North Cork. Dr Mannix Road, Dr Mannix Drive and Dr Mannix Avenue in Salthill, Galway, are named for him.

United Kingdom Nazareth House Camberwell was established in 1929, after Mannix was taken in by the Sisters of Nazareth in Hammersmith, London, when refused entry into Ireland in 1920. A guest room is named in his honour.

In literature In his 1950 novel Power Without Glory, Frank Hardy presented a loose caricature of Mannix in the character of Archbishop Malone. Malone was played by Michael Pate in the book's 1976 miniseries dramatisation.