On Tuesday 19 April 1955, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, in his House of Representatives speech, paid tribute to the recently deceased Sheehan, crediting him with having "possessed the most remarkable charm and generosity." Menzies went further to illustrate that Mr Sheehan who had sat in the House for eighteen years "[had] no enemies." ALP leader H. V. Evatt described Sheehan, on the same occasion, as "kindness itself to new members." Robert Joshua, leader of the Democratic Labor Party, and Sheehan's great friend Fred Daly (Labor member for the electorate of Grayndler), also expressed their sympathies.
On the same day Mr Sheehan was spoken about warmly in the Australian Senate by Senators O' Sullivan (Queensland), McKenna (Tasmania), and Armstrong (NSW). Mr Armstrong said that "He lavished on his family an affection that I have never seen equalled, an affection that would be impossible to describe to this chamber."