Mary Lily May Quirk (7 December 1880 – 4 March 1952) was an Australian politician. Born in

Coonamble Coonamble is a town on the central-western plains of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the Castlereagh Highway north-west of Gilgandra. At the 2016 census, Coonamble had a population of 2,750. It is the regional hub for wheat growing and ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

to farmer Julius Deal and his wife Emma Margaretta White, she was educated at

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle si ...

before commencing work as a domestic servant. She was later employed as a shop assistant with

Grace Brothers Grace Bros was an Australian department store chain, founded in 1885. It was bought by Myer (later Coles Myer) in 1983. There were 25 stores across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory plus a few in Victoria, until they were re ...

, leading to her membership of the Shop Assistants' Union. On 28 September 1898 she married John Kelly, with whom she had three daughters and a son. After Kelly's death in 1926, she married Labor Party politician John Quirk on 9 February 1927. Following her husband's death in 1938, Quirk was elected in 1939 to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

for the seat of Balmain, which she represented until 1950. She died soon after in 1952, and was buried in Field of Mars Cemetery from St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Rozelle.

References

1880 births 1952 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 19th-century Australian women 20th-century Australian women politicians {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub