This is the third in a series on ‘Lives of the Engineers’. James O’Grady seems little known as few items of his output survive, although his foundry and engineering works had a reputation for a very high standard of workmanship.

James William O’Grady was born in the rural hamlet of O’Briensbridge, on the border between County Clare and County Limerick, Ireland, and baptised on 6 November 1850.¹ He was the first child of farmer Michael O’Grady and Catherine O’Grady, nee Hickey.² It is believed that James travelled to Australia in the company of his father aboard the immigrant ship Atalanta, sailing on 24 March 1858 and arriving in Melbourne on 9 June 1858.³ Presumably, Catherine, along with James’ three younger siblings arrived once the older menfolk were settled in the new land. Little is known of James’ early life but, in 1870, he gave his occupation as ‘engineer’ of South Melbourne when he married Irish schoolmistress Bridget Maguire (a widow ten years his senior) at St Ignatius Catholic Church in Richmond.⁴ James would be a staunch supporter of Irish-Catholic interests in his new land.⁵