cartoonist, was born in Ireland in 1958; he came to Australia in 1960. He signs his cartoons 'Leahy’, e.g. 'Fraser’s Unemployment’, West Australian 16 October 1980 (included by Christine Dixon, not ill.). After working as editorial cartoonist for the West Australian (from 1975) and for the Sunday Independent in Perth and contributing to the Bulletin , he was appointed political cartoonist for the Courier-Mail in the 1980s, where he remains (2005).
Two Leahy cartoons are included in Kaz Cooke (ed.), Beyond a Joke: The Anti-Bicentenary Cartoon Book (Penguin Books, 1988): one, reprinted from the Bulletin , shows white men raising the British flag in 1788 and saying: “Well, that’s the land rights and national flag debate started – how about culling some kangaroos?” (p.5) and the other a black death in custody gag reprinted from the Courier Mail (p.99). He drew a cartoon for the 1991 'Quit’ [smoking] campaign (original ML PxD 672/17). Since 1998 he has been drawing the 'Beyond the Black Stump’ strip in Canberra’s Sunday Times , presumably syndicated from the Courier Mail .
Howard’s republic stand (Queen asking Howard – on all fours holding up a tea-tray – where he stands on the Republic) and Legislate for Certainty (on Aboriginal/white relations), published Courier Mail 21 June 1997 and 27 January 1997, were exhibited in Bringing the House Down: 12 Months of Australian Political Humour (Canberra: National Museum of Australia/ Old Parliament House exhibition, 1997), cats 41, 85. He had 2 cartoons in Bringing the House Down 2001 et al.
Under a good self-portrait in the Australian (1-7 April 1999) 'Sean Leahey’ [sic] stated:
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen threatened to sue me during the Fitzgerald inquiry in the late 1980s, but eventually thought better of the idea and backed off. Some of my readers thanked me for saying in my cartoons the sort of things they had been too intimidated to utter for years. Of course, being from Western Australia I didn’t know any better…
The panel says:
The artist: “A brush worker in the Frank Benier/ Bill Mitchell vein. Consistently funny.”
The politician: “The Courier-Mail wouldn’t be the same without this bloke. Often cruel, always funny.”
His work has also appeared in Time Magazine (Australia) .
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
