“Irish” Joe Hegarty

Joseph Haggerty (also Haggarty, Hagarty, Heggarty), aka “Irish” Joe, was one of Lightning Ridge’s early opal miners. Joe was born around 1870 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Hegarty formed a lifelong partnership with fellow miner Walter Bradley, a veteran of the British Army. The two men worked together for over forty years without ever a quarrel, living in a shared camp.

Hegarty and Bradley worked on several fields including Bald Hill, Hawk’s Nest, Phil Herbert’s Field, Cleared Line, and Vertical Bill’s. Their most famous discovery was the Flame Queen, found at Bald Hill in 1916 working with Jack Phillips. This remarkable stone was gouged out by Bradley after the three men followed a trace through old diggings. Although they sold it for only £93, it later became one of the most famous opals in the world.

At Hawk’s Nest, Hegarty and Bradley held the best-producing claim on the field, at one point filling a treacle tin with cut stones.

Hegarty appears to have remained in Lightning Ridge well into the 1940s.

Article: Research by Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Walgett Spectator, 25 February 1926; The Opal Book, Frank Leechman, 1961, p. 236; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, p. 38-39; Lightning Ridge - The Home of the Black Opal: Unique to the World, Gan Bruce, 1983, pp. 78-79, 88.