Patrick Murphy (giant)
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source.(January 2011) |
Patrick Murphy (1834–1862) was an Irishgiant, born in Killowen, County Down on 15th June 1834 of parents James Murphy and mother Peggy (née Cunningham), who exhibited himself as a means of income. He originally worked on the docks in Liverpool, England and later became a waiter at a hotel. Because he was a man of extraordinary height, Murphy attracted crowds everywhere he went. He eventually decided that he could make an honest living being tall. Sources at the time list his height between 7 ft 5.5 in (227.3 cm) and 8 ft 10 in (269 cm). In about 1860, he was measured by Dr. Virchow as being 7 ft 3 in (222 cm) tall.[1]
In May 1857 the Emperor and Empress of Austria invited the towering native of Ireland to visit their kingdom.[2] On April 18, 1862, while he was on tour throughout Europe, he died of smallpox in Marseille at the age of twenty-eight.[3]
References
- ^Patrick Murphy, archived from the original on 2 June 2011, retrieved 3 October 2022
- ^"Typhoid Mary and other curiosities in Irish biography". BBC. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
- ^"Pilot, Volume 25, Number 30, 26 July 1862". Boston College Libraries. 26 July 1862. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
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