People Australia

A. J. O'Connell (?-?) miner and trade union official

Birth: details unknown. Death: details unknown. 

• In January 1890 he was defeated as secretary of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association (AMA) in Broken Hill by T. H. Winnett. But in elections on 24 March 1890, heavily supported by the voters of the British Mine, he defeated Winnett to become secretary of the reconstituted AMA branch. A meeting the following day voted to pay the secretary £4 per week. He  was also chosen as treasurer of the newly formed Broken Hill Domestic Servants’ Union in 1890, with J. H. Cann as president.
• In 1892, as secretary of the Underground branch of the AMA at Broken Hill, he visited Adelaide as representatives of the miners on strike.
• In evidence to a board of inquiry at Broken Hill in 1892 he stated that during fourteen months of work in the mines he had twice suffered from lead poisoning. Ceased being secretary of AMA, Broken Hill, in July 1895, replaced by William J. Wise. That year he was secretary of the reception committee for the Irish social reformer Michael Davitt. And secretary of the Engine Drivers’ and Firemen’s Association.
• In July 1895 he was described as a mate — from the early days on the Barrier, when they worked together at the British Mine at Broken Hill — of John Lee, one of the eight men killed in a disaster at the South Mine.
• O’Connell was a prominent member of the Silverton Cricket Club, and was elected secretary and treasurer in October 1895. In 1896 he was a delegate to a meeting of the Barrier Ranges Football Association at Wilcannia.
• To date nothing further has been found about him.

Sources
George Dale, The industrial history of Broken Hill, (Melbourne, 1918) p 69.