James T. Donovan (Tom Roberts, 1892)

James T Donovan (1861–1922), journalist, Catholic historian and amateur singer, was born into an Irish Catholic family in Sydney. His father had a shop that was the first outlet for the Freeman’s Journal, a Sydney-based journal of Irish and Catholic news and affairs. James began work for the paper at a young age; he was its sub-editor for many years, as well as a contributor to several other Sydney and Melbourne newspapers. While in his early twenties, he wrote The most Rev. Roger Bede Vaughan, D.D., O.S.B., Archbishop of Sydney, life and labours: containing an account of his career from opening to close, a review of his writings, speeches and ecclesiastical work: together with some personal sketches never before published (1883). His biography of Moran, His Eminence, Australia