A contemporary of this distinguished Irish-Australian missionary has summed up his character and career in a sentence: "Neither time, nor distance, nor danger—and his duties were often performed at the real peril of life—ever impeded or obstructed him in the zealous performance of the sacred duties of his mission." It was his custom on Christmas-day to celebrate his midnight mass in Sydney, a second mass in Liverpool, and a third at Campbelltown, spending the whole of the subsequent week amongst the scattered Catholic families in the interior. Wherever he went, every door was ready to receive him, and Protestants vied with Catholics in extending assistance and hospitality to the general favourite. Disputes arising between neighbours were as a rule referred to him for arbitration, and Father Therry's decision was invariably accepted as final by both parties. Truly has it been said of him that "in the days of transportation he was the chief comforter and friend of the convicts of his creed, and no minister has enjoyed, in a larger measure than this truly reverend man has done throughout his long career, the confidence and affection of both bond and free."
In 1826 Ireland sent the indefatigable pioneer a helper in the person of Father Daniel Power, and, a few years afterwards, a still more important acquisition arrived, the Rev. John (subsequently Archdeacon) McEncroe. A native of Rathsalla, near Cashel, in Tipperary, Father McEncroe devoted the early years of his priesthood to missionary work under Bishop England in the United States. There for seven years he preached and lectured, established a Catholic newspaper, and combated the now overthrown institution of slavery with a vigour and determination that made him an object of numerous threats from the exasperated dealers
