Roderick Flanagan (1 April 1828 - 13 March 1862) was an Irish historian, anthropologist, poet, newspaper proprietor, and journalist. He was born in Elphin, County Roscommon, Ireland and died when he was 34 years of age in East London, after spending 22 years in Australia. However, in that short span he made a major contribution to the understanding of Indigenous Australians, established a newspaper in Melbourne, wrote many poems and prose about his adopted land, and wrote a major history of New South Wales which into the beginning of the 20th century was considered to be the main reference work on the early European presence in Australia.Born in Ireland on 1 April 1828 to Patrick Flanagan (hatter and woolsorter) and Martha Dufficy (daughter of Henry Dufficy - farmer), he and his family emigrated to Australia aboard the emigrant ship Crusader on 15 January 1840 to escape the overpopulation and famine which was raging throughout Ireland.