Patrick Murphy (giant)

{{short description|Irish giant}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{one source|date = January 2011}}

Patrick Murphy (1834–1862) was an Irish giant, born in County Down 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. He had always billed himself as being {{cvt|246.4|cm|ftin|order=flip}} and in some circles as much as 9'3". In about 1860, he was measured by Dr. Virchow as being {{cvt|222|cm|ftin|order=flip}} tall.{{Citation |title=Patrick Murphy |url=http://www.thetallestman.com/patrickmurphy.htm |access-date=2022-10-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110602112140/http://www.thetallestman.com/patrickmurphy.htm |archive-date=2011-06-02 |url-status=usurped }}

In May 1857 the Emperor and Empress of Austria invited the towering native of Ireland to visit their kingdom.{{cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8419022.stm#giant | title=Typhoid Mary and other curiosities in Irish biography | publisher=BBC | date=18 December 2009 | accessdate=August 29, 2012}} On April 18, 1862, while he was on tour throughout Europe, he died of smallpox in Marseilles at the age of twenty-eight.{{cite web | url=https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18620726-01.2.39&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- | title=Pilot, Volume 25, Number 30, 26 July 1862 | publisher=Boston College Libraries| date=26 July 1862 | accessdate=2022-05-07}}