| Born in Dublin, Ireland on the 12th May 1841, Murphy was apprenticed to his uncle as a cabinet maker. In 1865 he migrated to Melbourne and became an active member of the Cabinet Makers' Association. By 1877 he was Secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Committee. He continued in this role and oversaw the transformation of the Committee into the Melbourne Trades Hall Council in 1884, becoming its first Secretary. Despite successes in helping to organise and win the tailoresses' strike of 1882, the bootmakers' strike of 1885 and the Melbourne wharf labourers' strike of 1886, in which he advocated private arbitration between the employers and employees, Murphy was removed from office in September 1886. After dabbling in politics he rejoined the Trades Hall Council by 1889, although never again as Secretary. Holding various offices, Murphy was perhaps most prominent in those later years for his efforts in organising the funds required for the establishement of a working men's college in Melbourne. Murphy died at Daylesford on the 26th February 1921. |
