Curran, Thomas (1840–1913), MP and businessman, was born in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, and educated in the local national school. In 1868 he travelled to Australia, and founded a successful merchant company. He later opened a hotel in Sydney, ‘Pfhalert’s, became a JP, and was appointed to the public school board of New South Wales in 1873. Active in the Australian Home Rule Association, he acted as the host of John (qv) and William Redmond (qv) during their fund-raising tour of Australia in 1883. Because of the press coverage of the Phoenix Park murder trials, the Redmond brothers faced much hostility and Curran's hotel was one of the few places where they could find lodgings. However, Curran viewed with some disdain their courting of the daughters of James Dalton, a wealthy local trader of Irish stock, and publicly expressed the view that the Redmonds were fortune hunters. This ill-feeling came to a very public conclusion in September 1883 when he physically ejected them from his hotel on the eve of John's marriage to Johanna Dalton.
Curran continued to be active in public affairs, representing New South Wales in the Indian and Colonial Exhibition (1886) and the Melbourne Exhibition (1888). He was persuaded to stand as the Irish parliamentary party candidate in the general election of 1892 for South Sligo, considered a safe nationalist seat. This was largely a fund-raising exercise – Curran had just loaned the hard-pressed party £10,000 – and an effort to raise the level of interest in Australia in Irish affairs. Three Irish-Australians, Thomas Curran, his son, Thomas Bartholomew Curran, and J. F. Hogan (1855–1924) won seats. While in Ireland Curran was made a JP in Co. Donegal. Successfully defending his seat in the election of July 1895, he retired from politics in 1900, and lived at Derryfad House, Letterkenny, and 71 Oxford Gardens, London. He died 13 August 1913 in London.
In 1867 he married Mary Coll from Co. Donegal. His son Thomas Bartholomew Curran (1870–1929), MP and barrister, was born in Sydney. He was educated at the Jesuit College, Sydney, Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare (1886–7) and Oxford University, where he studied law. Interrupting his legal studies, he was elected MP for Kilkenny City (1892–5). While his father supported Justin McCarthy (qv) and later John Dillon (qv) as party leader, Thomas backed the clericalist T. M. Healy (qv). At the contentious party convention of 19 June 1894 he supported Healy's motion that the Blake/Dickson papers, which advised that certain seats in Ulster should not be contested, be published. His father opposed the idea and, after it was voted down, some ill-feeling remained between the two. Thomas B. was elected MP for Donegal North in 1895 and retired from politics in 1900. Resuming his legal studies, he was called to the English bar in 1900 and returned to Sydney. He was appointed deputy crown prosecutor of Sydney, serving for five terms, but returned to London to practise law in 1905. He died in October 1929 in London. In 1893 he married Marie Brooke of Melbourne, Australia. His main residences were Derryfad House, Letterkenny, and 2 Cloisters Temple, East Cheam, London.