A divorce that split Australia
In the early 20th century, Australia was gripped by a sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants, one which was believed to play a part in Donald Bradman not being so popular among some of his team-mates
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
In the early 20th century, Australia was gripped by a sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants, one which was believed to play a part in Donald Bradman not being so popular among some of his team-mates. Before Bradman's time, cricket wasn't free of this divide and it was captured through a sensational divorce trial between a Test cricketer, Arthur Coningham and his wife Alice Dowling, who he claimed was seduced by a Catholic priest Denis O’haran in Sydney. It was a trial which changed Coningham's life, for the worse. Sriram Veera chronicles that passage in Mumbai Mirror.
So the ingredients for a pot boiler were set: A fascinating character, a divorce, a catholic priest, and a nation split in its loyalties. Alice confessed to Coningham about her affair and that the father of their third son was actually O’haran. Coninham saw it as an opportunity to make some money; he tried to blackmail the priest for compensation but when that didn’t work, he went for divorce, naming O’haran as co-respondent and claimed £5000 damages for loss of honour.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo