Matthew Gibney, Irish-born metropolitan bishop in Australia and the third Roman Catholic Bishop of Perth (1886-1910), dies on June 22, 1925, in Perth, Western Australia. He is perhaps best known for giving notorious bushranger Ned Kelly his last rites following a shootout at Glenrowan, Victoria, in 1880.

Gibney is born in Killeshandra, County Cavan, and is raised on the family farm in Killygorman townland, parish of Kildallan, County Cavan. He studies for the priesthood at the preparatory seminary at Stillorgan and from 1857 at All Hallows Missionary College in Drumcondra, Dublin. He is ordained a priest in 1863 and arrives in Perth, Western Australia, later in the year.

On an 1880 trip through the Colony of Victoria, Gibney is traveling by train between Benalla and Albury when at Glenrowan, he disembarks to offer assistance during the Siege of Glenrowan. Ned Kelly and his gang have been cornered by the police in a local hotel, which the police set afire in order to draw out the remaining bushrangers. Gibney enters the burning building in an attempt to rescue anyone inside, and finds the bodies of gang members Joe Byrne, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, as well as the mortally wounded hostage Martin Cherry, who he helps retrieve and to whom he gives the last rites. He also tends to the injured Ned Kelly following his capture, hears his confession and gives him the last rites.

In January 1887, Gibney is consecrated as Bishop of Perth. His episcopate is marked by a number of poor investment decisions as the diocese purchases shops, offices, houses, and a hotel in Perth as well as a newspaper, exerting editorial influence by banning the publication of horse racing information, which leads to the paper’s eventual demise. As the diocese’s debts mount, he is forced to resign in May 1910. During his episcopate he is closely involved with the founding of the Beagle Bay Aboriginal community north of Broome, along with what eventually becomes St. John of God Health Care.

Gibney dies of cancer in Perth on June 22, 1925, and was buried in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Perth.

During restoration work in the cathedral from 2003 to 2006, the brick and plaster crypt containing the coffins of Gibney and Bishop Martin Griver are discovered by archaeologists under the floorboards of the cathedral.

Gibney is played by John Fernside in The Glenrowan Affair (1951).