Western Australia’s
Vol 19 Number 3
www.irishscene.com.au
Registered with Australia Post PP100003914
March April 2017
PARADE
de to Yo u r G u i
ENTS V E Y A D CK'S I R T A P T S
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BUSINESS CONTACTS BAGGAGE (UNACCOMPANIED) 84 Aust. International Express 9243 0808 69 Exportair Tel: Geoff 9477 1080 BOOKKEEPING: 10 First Class Accounts: Tel 0432 790229 BUTCHERS 96 McLoughlin’s Meats Tel: 9249 8039 63 Meat Connoisseur Tel: 9309 9992 CABINET MAKERS: 34 CanDo Cabinets: 0434 622422 CAFE/DELI: 68 Adams Lunch Bar Tel: 93498287 47 Mooney’s Sandwich Bar Tel: 9221 4872 CAR RETAILERS: John Hughes, Vic Park - Tel: 9415 0110 CELEBRANT: Marian Bryne Tel: 0410 345 224 COMMUNITY GROUPS: 60 Australian Irish Heritage Assoc 39 The Claddagh Assoc: Tel 9345 1713 DENTISTS: 25 West Perth Dental: Tel 9321 6928 EMPLOYMENT: All Force Labour Sol. Tel: 0457824916 ENTERTAINMENT: Fiddlestick - David 0413 259 547 FINANCE/ADVICE: 58 The Loans Café Tel: 0402 284594 FREIGHT HANDLERS: 84 Australian International Express 9243 0808 69 Exportair - Tim Hawdon Tel: 9477 1080 FUNERALS: 56 McKee Funerals Tel: 9401 1900 IMMIGRATION ADVICE: 9 EasiVisa: Carol-Ann Lynch 9429 8860 IRISH FOOD & GIFTS: 47 Mooney’s Irish Sandwich Bar: 9221 4872 JEWELLERS: 6 Tighe Jewellery: Graham 0414 309274 KILT HIRE: 73 House of Tartan: Tel 9371 2211 MECHANICS: 13 Advance Auto Tune: 9409 9500 1 Killarney Autos - Neil 0439 996 764 60 BVM Autos - Mike 0413 889 501
PUBS, CLUBS & RESTAURANTS: 23 A'Caverna Restaurant 92214806 An Sibin Tel: 9328 8930 93 Breakwater, Hillarys Tel: 9448 5000 56 Celtic Club, West Perth Tel: 9322 2299 20 Durty Nelly’s, Perth Tel: 9226 0233 18 Fenian’s/Novotel Tel: 9425 1634 61 Irish Club of WA, Subiaco Tel: 9381 5213 JB O’Reilly’s, Leederville Tel: 9382 4555 30 National Hotel, Fremantle Tel: 9335 6688 Orla's, West Perth Tel: 0449 168 667 78 Paddy Malone’s Joondalup Tel: 9300 9966 2 Rosie O’Grady’s Northbridge 9328 1488 12 The Mighty Quinn, Tuart Hill Tel: 9349 9600 17 The Vic, Subiaco Tel: 6380 8222 75 Woodvale Tavern, Woodvale 9309 4288 27 Woodbridge Hotel, Guildford Tel: 9377 1199 REAL ESTATE: O’Rourke Real Estate Tel: 9341 6611 15 Professionals Kelly Team Tel: 9344 5544 ROOF PLUMBING Mick’s Maintenance 0418 917 050 SCAFFOLDING: 31 Eire Scaffolding: Tel 6465 4293 SHOE REPAIR / NEW SHOES: 57 Reids Bootmakers: Tel 9361 5301 SOLICITORS & LEGAL: 19,82 Kavanagh Lawyers - 9218 8422 43 Your LegalHQ Tel: 94459200 SPORT - CLUBS AND INFORMATION: 92,93 GAA - 0458 954 052 95 Irish Golf Club - Peter 0447 258 000 94 Shamrock Rovers THEATRE: 86 Irish Theatre Players TRAVEL & TOURISM: 44 British Travel Tel: 9285 8182 TYRES, BATTERIES, BRAKES WHEELS:
34 Tyrepower Perth City Fiona 9322 2214 WEDDING RECEPTIONS / FUNCTIONS:
56 The Celtic Club Tel: 9322 2299 9, 29 Masonmill Gardens - Tel: 9293 5112
THE IRISH SCENE
Publisher/Advertising: Fred Rea 0418 943 832 Editor: Lloyd Gorman 0479 047 250 Proof Reading: Jack Cullen and Imelda Gorman Publisher: Gaelforce Promotions, 12 Dysart Court, Kingsley WA 6026 Email: fred@irishscene.com.au Tel/Fax 9309 3167 www.irishscene.com.au Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by contributors in articles, reproduced articles, advertisements or any other printed material contained in Irish Scene magazine or on www.irishscene.com.au are those of the individual contributors or authors and as such are not necessarily those of Gaelforce Promotions. The publisher and editor reserve the right to accept, reject, edit or amend submitted material in order to make it appropriate or suitable for publication. Irish Scene welcomes submissions, ideas and suggestions for articles and features as well as photographs of events happening around and within the Irish community in Western Australia.
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Page Index
Irish Anzac Day Stories 4 Ireland in the Hills 9 Ambassadors Message 10 Irish Consul’s message 14 A Minute with Synnott 16 PRO Orchestra 19 Paths of Glory -Peter Conole 21 Easter Commemoration 24 Michael O’Donnell VC 26 Art of Persuasion 30 Meet Fiddler Dezi Donnelly 31 Ulster Rambles - David MacConnell 33 Isteach sa Teach - Lloyd Gorman 35 Northern Suburbs Seniors 36 A view From Home with Cluskey 37 Irish Families in Perth 38 Lloyd’s Travels to Ireland 40 G’Day from Melbourne with Bowen 42 Poem: When I Am Old 43 Jim McNulty Tribute 44 Irish Music – Tommy O’Brien 51 Dermot Quiz Page 53 TeleStationTeleNation with Lloyd 54 Perth Comhaltas 57 John Hurt Tribute - Lloyd Gorman 58 St Patrick’s Day Mass 59 John Dillon Tribute 59 Veronica Byrne Tribute 59 AIHA 60 WA Irish Dancing 62 Land of Milk & Honey with Sally 63 Claddagh Association 64 Stan Briggs Story - Lloyd Gorman 65 Ireland’s John King - John Hagan 67 Beckett Play Preview 70 God’s Green Land with Bill Daly 71 Marguerite’s Recipe’s 72 The Shanahan Family 74 Lillian Turns 100 74 Fairbridge Preview 76 Marguerite’s Kitchen Rules 77 Rose of Tralee 78 Food Review – The Vic 79 Paula from Tasmania 80 WAGS 81 Paddy Gordon Story 83 Around the Irish Scene 84 Dara O Brianin Preview 85 Irish Theatre Players 86 Book Reviews 87 Famine Commemoration 89 Meet Nollaig of GAAWA 91 GAAWA with Tom Murphy 92 Shamrock Rovers 94 Perth Irish Rugby 95 Irish Golf Club 95
ANZAC DAY By Lloyd Gorman
‘Anzac Day’ meets St. Patrick’s Day One of the most remarkable St. Patrick’s Day parades in Australian history took part in Melbourne in 1920. While World War One ended in 1918 there had not been a parade in the first year of peacetime because of a deadly outbreak of Influenza - that killed millions - and public gatherings were forbidden in case it would further spread the deadly disease. If St Patrick’s Day parades had been absent from the streets of Melbourne for some time then March 17 1920 would see it make a spectacular return. The war years stirred up some sentiment and suspicion against the Irish and Catholic communities. Support for the 1916 Rising in Ireland by the Irish community in Melbourne and Australia was seen by many quarters as disloyalty against the crown and empire, the very things Australian’s were fighting to protect. Melbourne’s Irish born (Charleville, Co. Cork) Archbishop Daniel Mannix had condemned the violence of the Easter Rising but he had also campaigned against conscription in a referendum into the issue, another highly charged and emotive subject for the Australian population. St Patrick’s Day was an established and ready made platform that Mannix could use to demonstrate the loyalty of the Irish population to Australia while also supporting the cause of Irish Independence. Archbishop Mannix drove in an open top car at the head of a massive procession, which included 10,000 returned soldiers marching behind his vehicle, in front of 100,000 people. As if that display was not enough, the guard of hon-
our for his car was made up of 14 Victoria Cross medal winners - including Private John Carroll and Lieutenant Lawrence Dominic McCarthy from Western Australia - with each of these war heros rode white chargers. The parade started from St. Patrick’s Hall in Bourke Street and continued to the Exhibition Building grounds. Bourke Street was railed off and “thick masses” congregated all along the route. Hundreds of people even perched on top of buildings – including the front of Parliament House – to get a better vantage point. As well the the formidable military element to the Parade, the procession was also joined by tens of thousands of civilian and cultural groups. When they reached the end of the parade and entered the exhibition buildings and oval some 60,000 people took part in those events, including a display by 4,000 girls from convent schools, an amateur sports carnival and Irish dancing. The Advocate newspaper reported that “the crowds, however, had been amply repaid by seeing the magnificent procession, well carried-out sports in the afternoon and the attractive schools’ display”. Scenes from the parade were recorded for the 1920’s Australian film ‘Ireland will be free’, which was partly censored at the time by Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes - with whom Mannix had banged heads about the conscription debate. According to Australian histo4
rian Jeff Kildea the film was shown in all capital cities (except Perth) and in regional centres in Victoria and Queensland. The film’s final public screenings were in Melbourne in August 1921 on Mannix’s return to Australia. With the truce in Ireland the previous month having raised hopes that the film’s prophetic title would soon be realised, Mannix told the crowd that welcomed him home at Melbourne’s Stadium, “I have not brought back a message that Ireland is free, but Ireland will be free, and that, I hope, before long.” The full length version of the film was digitally remastered and screened again last year in Melbourne as part of the activities to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
ANZAC DAY By Lloyd Gorman
Martin O'Meara marches off following the presentation of his Victoria Cross.
MARTIN’S MEDAL 100 YEARS ON April 25, Anzac Day, is an occasion when Australia remembers its war dead, those who answered the call of duty and those in military service to the nation today. There are different ways soldiers can be recognised for their service but the highest decoration that can be awarded to a (then) soldier of the Commonwealth was and still is today for the Australian Defence Forces - the Victoria Cross. It is given to personnel who display bravery in the face of the enemy above and beyond what is expected of them. Sixty four VC’s were won by Australian troops in World War 1. Many of these were Australians of Irish extraction, such as John Carroll and Hugo Throssell and Lieutenant Dominic McCarthy. But only one was born in Ireland (Lorrha, Tipperary 1885) and later migrated to Australia as a young man. He came to Western Australia in 1914 and worked as a labourer in Pinjarra before going to Collie where
he worked as a railway sleeper cutter. He signed up with the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915 and was assigned to the 16th Battalion. He, and many others, sailed out from Fremantle on the troopship Ajana in December 1915. The Ajana landed in Egypt but it was France where O’Meara and his counterparts would see most of their action. Between August 9 to 12 1916 the 16th Battalion attacked German defences at Mouquet Farm near Pozieres and a bloody battle ensued. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography: “During this (four day) period O’Meara, then acting as a stretcher-bearer, behaved in a manner which led one officer to describe him as ‘the most fearless and gallant soldier I have ever seen’. He was credited with having saved the lives of over twenty-five wounded men by carrying them in from no man’s land ‘under conditions that are undescribable’. Even after the battalion was relieved its commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel E. Drake-Brockman, saw O’Meara returning to the front line through the bombardment to rescue two wounded comrades despite having himself ‘reached a position of comparative safety’. At other times he had, on his own initiative, brought up much-needed supplies of grenades, ammunition and food. For these actions O’Meara was awarded the Victoria Cross.” O’Meara was wounded during
this action, and again on other occasions and was allowed to recuperate away from the front lines. During this period (1917) he returned to Ireland and his village where he was fêted by the locals as a hero. Money was collected for him which he donated back to the local church. Perhaps uncomfortable with all the attention O’Meara slipped away from his birthplace never to return. In just a few months time, on July 21, it will be exactly 100 years since he travelled to London where he was presented with his VC medal by King George V, along side other recipients of the decoration. In the following year, O’Meara was one of a number of VC winners sent back to Australia to help encourage and recruit new soldiers for the AIF. From that point on and for the rest of his life (he died in Greylands mental hospital in 1935, aged 50) was a tragedy because of mental breakdown. Another Tipperary man and veteran of WWI Father Frank Fahey celebrated his funeral in the Catholic section of Karrakatta cemetery at which his burial was given full military honours, including three other VC winners acted as pallbearers for his coffin. In 1986 his Victoria Cross was donated to the West Australian Army Museum where it remains.
Martin O'Meara's VC medals at the Perth Army Museun in Fremantle
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ANZAC DAY By Lloyd Gorman
A Kerryman was second Irish VC in Australian uniform If Martin O’Meara was the only Irish born VC winner in Australian uniform from WW1, then Richard Kelliher shares a similar status from WWII. Kelliher was born on September 1, 1910 at Ballybranagh, near Tralee, Co. Kerry. His father Michael was a labourer and his mother was Mary Anne, née Talbot. He went to technical college at Tralee and worked as a mechanic in his brother’s garage. In 1929 he and his 15 year old sister Norah emigrated to Brisbane. He enlisted in the AIF in February 1941 and was assigned to the 2nd/25th Battalion and sailed to the Middle East. He was stationed in Syria for a short time but returned to Australia in March 1942. Six months later he rejoined his unit in Papua where they were fighting the Japanese. He returned to Australia again in January and in June was admitted to hospital with Malaria. In August he was sent back to Papua and then month later to Nadzab, New Guinea where his Battalion was advancing on the enemy forces. He was only there a short time when the action for which he won his VC happened. In September his platoon came under heavy fire from a hidden machine gun nest which killed five and wounded three. Kelliher reposed to the attack by charging the machine gun post and threw grenades at the enemy position which killed some of them before he was forced to retreat back to his own lines. Once there he grabbed a Bren-gun and ran
to within 30 yards of the enemy machine gun post and shot the remaining enemy soldiers dead. Still under enemy fire he then crawled to his section leader who had been wounded and dragged him back to safety. Kelliher’s health was dogged by malaria and he would be discharged from the AIF in August 1945. In the following year he was chosen to take part in the Australian section of the Victory Parade in London. King George VI presented him with his Photograph of teenage Richard Kelliher VC and the Kelliher family from Co. Courtesy Dr Christopher Noon. Ireland Kerry attended the investiture. celebrations. On each occasion He returned to London in he visited Tralee according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Kelliher married after the war and they moved to Melbourne where he worked as a gardener. He died in January 1963 and is buried in Springvale cemetery. In 1966 his widow (who remarried) sold his VC and campaign medals to his battalion association which donated them to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea. Private R. Kelliher VC, a member of the 2/25th Australian infantry battalion, 7th Australian Division, who gained his award for conspicious gallantry in new guinea, photographed in bed at the 2/5th Australian general hospital.
1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and again in 1956 for the Victoria Cross centenary 7
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them."
ANZAC DAY By Lloyd Gorman
Medaling with the past! 6PR radio listeners on February 3 might have heard the story of another Irish Victoria Cross medal winner, Thomas Grady. Presenter Simon Beaumont was talking about precious things that people had that should be in a museum. Scott called in to say that he had a replica of a Victoria Cross won by Grady, who was his great great grandfather or something similar. Scott said he was the first Irish born winner of the Victoria Cross and had been presented with it by Queen Victoria (after who it is named) herself. “He came over here on the convict ship Norwood as a pensioner guard. [The Norwood arrived into Fremantle on June 9,
1862] and four years later he set sail for Melbourne. Grady, who was born September 18 1835 in Claddagh, Galway, died on May 19, 1891 in Melbourne. “He actually won two Victoria Crosses, but they didn’t give him two, they gave him one VC for two things,” said Scott. Military records show Grady was badly wounded during the Crimean War and declared unfit for service as a result. The citation for his medal reads: “For having, on the 18th October, 1854, volunteered to repair the embrasures of the Sailors’ Battery on the Left Attack, and effected the same, with the assistance of one other volunteer, under a very heavy fire from a line
of batteries. “For gallant conduct on the 22nd November, 1854, in the repulse of the Russian attack on the advanced trench of the Left Attack, when, on being severely wounded, he refused to quit the front, encouraging, by such determined bearing, the weak force engaged with the enemy to maintain its position. [London Gazette 23 June 1857]. The caller, immediately after Scott, had another Irish related story to share. Speaking with a strong Irish accent, Gerry said he had a penknife with an inscription on it to his great grandfather. The story went something like this, his ancestor was a sailor or fisherman from Dublin who had come to the rescue of a pilot who crashed presumably into the Irish Sea, while trying to fly around England. The pilot turned out to be the Australian aviation pioneer Harry Hawker. Something of a mechanical genius and adventurer Hawker was born in Victoria in 1889 but relocated to England in 1911 where his flying career really took off (pardon the pun). One of his wins was a £1,000 prize from the Daily Mail for a circuit of Britain Waterplane race in August 1913. Gerry thought it was about 1916 or 1917 when his antecedent saved Hawker whose influence over the aviation industry would be huge. “If my great grandfather didn’t save him that day the company Hawker Havilliand (makers of the Harrier jet) might not have existed,” said Frank. “And the bi-plane that he produced (Sopwith) took down the Red Baron.” Gerry said he has the pen-knife in a top drawer at home with his old phones and one day hoped to 8
Thomas Grady VC
donate it to an aviation museum in his honour. Simon Beaumont introduced the next caller by asking: “John, you’re not from Ireland as well are you?”, to which the answer was a yes, at least of sorts. “I am,” said John. “I’m from here but my parents are both Irish.” He said his grandfather (who you would assume is Irish according to the detail of his opening remark) got a silver dollar from an airman while he was in India. “That dollar coin went to my mum, and she gave it to me and I gave it to my son when he was about 12. (Recently) I was watching that TV show Pawn Stars with him and that same dollar coin came in, made in Philadelphia, and they valued the coin at nearly $90,000. I fell off my tree, I just gave my son a fortune. He’s 17 now and realises the value of it and has it put away safely.” Signing off on that segment of the show Beaumont commented they had had “three Irish stories in a row”.
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A bit of Ireland in the Perth Hills! Visit the new Irish Village and enjoy beer on tap in a beautiful relaxed setting in Masonmill in the Perth hills. Masonmill have just opened their Irish Village. I visited recently and enjoyed a cool Guinness in the Irish Village Beer Garden. Owner Carl has done a wonderful job with the village and plans the best Irish hooley in Perth on St Patrick's Day with lots of Irish music and Irish dancing. Masonmill Gardens and Restaurant is situated just 25 minutes from Perth city, straight up Welshpool Road, with ten acres of colourful and inspirational gardens surrounded by the peaceful Jarrah forest of Carmel. This breathtaking hills location is an ideal wedding venue as well as being a popular tourist attraction to stop off for
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lunch or dinner. Carl said, "We pride ourselves on being a family venue, with easy parking, accessibility for prams and for persons with mobility issues. We have a beautiful nature-play playground, a mini golf course with a bouncy castle and a fabulous Koi pond for the kids to enjoy. The Masonmill Craft and Gift shop is now open and well worth a visit."
Carl added, "Our Irish village and beer garden is a great spot to enjoy a drink and soak in the friendly atmosphere". We agree! Masonmill Family Restaurant is a fully licensed venue and is now open till late Friday and Saturday evenings with our kitchens now staying open until 4:00pm on Sundays.
Masonmill Irish Village BEER GARDEN
masonmillgardens.com.au 99
Is mór agam deis a bheith agam gach dea-ghuí a chur go pobal Gaelach Iarthar na hAstráile do Lá na Féile Pádraig. Tá súil agam go mbaineann gach duine agaibh ard-taitneamh as an gceiliúradh. It is my distinct pleasure and privilege to send my fondest greetings and best wishes to the Irish community and friends of Ireland in Western Australia for a most enjoyable St Patrick’s Day celebration. St Patrick’s Day is a unique phenomenon in that it is the national day everyone in the world wants to be part of – the global celebration of the friendliest people on the planet! When my wife, Carmel, and I visited Perth last year, we were deeply impressed by the commitment of the Irish community of Western Australia to celebrating and enriching its Irish heritage. We were proud to meet so many women and men who dedicate their energy to the promotion of Irish culture, music, song, dance, literature and language amongst those of Irish descent and all others who value the rich treasures of Irish culture. For centuries, Western Australia has been a welcoming destination for Irish emigrants and continues so today. We appreciate the welcome still extended to the Irish to the region and the ongoing economic ties that we are determined to foster and help grow.
Saint Patrick’s Day Message From the Irish Ambassador
Of course, Western Australia can also claim a particularly unique role in the history of Ireland’s move towards independence with the famous 1876 escape of the Fenian leaders on the US whaler ship ‘The Catalpa’. So friends of Ireland, celebrate March 17th with a deep sense of pride and responsibility in your Irish heritage. Le mór-mheas Breandán Ó Caollaí Ambasadóir na hÉireann/Ambassador of Ireland
Follow the Irish Embassy on Twitter: @irlembaustralia PATRICK'S COLOR IS BLUE.
The original color associated with St. Patrick is blue, not green as commonly believed. In several artworks depicting the saint, he is shown wearing blue vestments. King Henry VIII used the Irish harp in gold on a blue flag to represent the country. Since that time, and possibly before, blue has been a popular color to represent the country on flags, coats-of-arms, and even sports jerseys. Green was associated with the country later, presumably because of the greenness of the countryside, which is so because Ireland receives plentiful rainfall. Today, the country is also referred to as the "Emerald Isle."
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Mighty Quinn TAVERN
HELP US HELP LITTLE CHARLOTTE!
112 Wanneroo Road Tuart Hill 9349 9600
The Mighty Quinn Tavern and the Monday night singers club are happy to be part of Charlotte’s Charity HELPING TO RAISE FUNDS. It was only in August 2012 that Charlotte’s parents got a diagnosis of Rett Syndrome. A rare neurological syndrome, causing apraxia or dyspraxia, the inability to perform motor functions, therefore affecting the ability to speak, gaze, walk, eat, drink, digest, talk, breathe and live independently. There is a high risk of scholiosis and seizures and an average lifespan of 40 years. A child with Rett Syndrome usually has a very normal 6 to 18 months of life,with some children even walking and talking before a loss of ability as well developing repetitive hand wringing or mouthing as well as potential breathing problems or seizures. Despite all this however, early intervention of speech, phsiotherapy and occupational therapy have helped Charlotte regain some of her eye gaze and the ability to stand and very recently take a few steps.
Friday 17 March
Bryan Dalton & Friends Session 12-6 Trinity Irish Dancers - 3, 4 & 5pm The Lost Backpackers 8-11pm Special St Patrick's Day Gaelic Food Menu available from 12-9pm. Check our Website & Facebook page for promotions & updates.
For Charlotte, Rett Syndrome means she can’t talk, walk, use her hands, has a sluggish and sometimes painful digestion and sometimes an irregular sleeping pattern.
MONDAYS Mighty Mexican Specials $20.00 TUESDAYS Chicken Parmigiana Night $20.00 WEDNESDAY Quiz Night (Free Entry, Giveaways, Cash Prizes) (Quiz Starts 8pm - Till 10pm). THURSDAY Mighty Curry Night $19.50 FRIDAY Mighty Slider Specials $20.00 (Friday Entertainment by The Lost Backpackers). SATURDAY Mighty Pie Night $20.00 (Sat Entertainment alts The Lost Backpackers, Bryan Dalton, Jonny Reid & Dave Cummins). SUNDAY Mighty Roast Dinner $18.50 Dalton in Beer Garden 3 - 6pm) Check out(Bryan our New (Sunday Session in Lounge Bar 6-10pm)
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May your blessings outnumber The shamrocks that grow, And may trouble avoid you Wherever you go.
The Mighty Quinn proud sponsors of Sarsfields Hurling Club Perth. Western Australian Hurling Champions for 2016
~Irish Blessing
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Advancing Service to a new level... Advance Auto Tune Service and Repair Centre strives to be the best at what they do. “We pride ourselves in giving 100% customer satisfaction and getting the job done right the first time – every time”, owner Nathan McMahon told the Irish Scene. Nathan comes from Swords in North County Dublin and has been here in Australia for over five years. He completed his qualification in Dublin as a mechanic, auto electrician and an air conditioning specialist. In Nathan’s 17 year history in the motor trade he has won Apprentice of the Year, was awarded Mechanic of the Year, completed two years in car sales, advanced to Senior Technical Advisor and Workshop Foreman whilst working for
Peugeot/Citroen/Renault in Dublin, all this while following his dream of building and racing drift cars. Nathan brought this experience with him to Australia managing workshops in Perth until he was ready to open his own business to serve the Irish and Australian community. "This is my second year in business and I am looking to meeting Irish people in Perth who would like to avail of a quality Service” “At Advance Auto Tune we specialise in both European and Australian vehicles using the very best diagnostic equipment on site so you know that you’re getting the right treatment for your vehicle with our state of the art equipment”. At Advance Auto Tune they have very experienced and hands on
technicians who are ready to help with your every mechanical need including log book servicing. “When you book in for a service with us, you can avoid the hassle of arranging alternative transport by pre-booking one of our courtesy vehicles, plus we will give your vehicle a vacuum, window clean and air freshener so your vehicle will feel nice and fresh when you come to pick it up”. They are open daily from 8am, including Saturday and have NIGHT DROP AVAILABLE. The workshop is located at 5 Chokolich Street, Wangara. For more information or to book your vehicle in for a quality service call Nathan today at 9409 9500 or visit them on: advanceautotune.com.au High performance servicing, time and time again… Fred Rea
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ADVANCE AUTO TUNE Service & Repair Centre 13
SUPPORTI N THE WA G
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Martin Kavanagh Honorary Consul of Ireland
My thanks to Fred Rea for allowing me the opportunity to say a few words on our National Day. Here are a few ideas to help you enjoy the day (or should we say week). If you know of other community events please let us know and we will do our best to include your event on our website:
St Patrick’s Day means different things to different people. For me, it’s about celebrating who we are as a people - our diversity, our diaspora and sense of being Irish. I’m always mindful of Brendan Behan’s caution that “the Irish are very popular among themselves” - so we must be careful not to have too many ‘tickets ’on ourselves. However, we have a lot we can be justifiably proud of. When I talk to leaders of business, politics and community in WA the overwhelming impression is of a hard-working, creative, decent and life loving people. The Irish community in WA is very large, well-established and contributes very significantly to the economy and enriches our local culture and society. On our national day, Richard and I wish to once again welcome our Ambassador Breandan and Carmel to Australia and to thank them for their unrelenting commitment to WA. We are very much looking forward to welcoming a Government Minister to WA during St Patrick’s week. Most importantly I want to thank the many volunteers who will make the St Patrick's Parade a resounding success. I’m sure we all appreciate the enormous effort and commitment that goes into such an important event. I also thank the many volunteers in our community who help those in need, and those who volunteer in sporting and artistic groups to promote and develop our sense of being Irish. Finally, a big thank you to the City of Perth, Elizabeth Quay, the Bell Tower and Main Roads for their efforts to green Council House, the Bell Tower, Elizabeth Quay and the Airport Gateway on 16 and 17 March 2017. Please take the opportunity to bathe in a sea of green.
LOOK: Watch the greening of Elizabeth Quay, The Bell Tower, Council House and Airport Gateway on 16 and 17 March. PARADE: Enjoy the parade in Leederville and the free family day out on 12 March 2017 www.stpatricksfestivalwa.com BREAKFAST: Most of the Irish pubs are doing breakfast and much more - so check out the many Irish venues. Good to hear that St Patrick's breakfast returns to the Irish Club in Subiaco this year. http://www.irishclubofwa.com.au LUNCH: Enjoy lunch and network with the business community at the Ireland WA Forum lunch on 17 March. http://irelandwaforum.org MASS: St Patrick's Day Mass at St Mary's Cathedral at 10am 17 March. perthcatholic.org. au/Parish.htm?parish_id=-50499898 EVENSONG: St Patricks Evensong at St George's Cathedral Perth at 5pm 19 March 2017. www.perthcathedral.org Perth Office: 1/100 Terrace Road East Perth WA 6004 Tel: (08) 6557 5802 - Fax: (08) 9218 8433 Email: info@consulateofirelandwa.com.au Website: www.consulateofirelandwa.com.au Office Hours: Mon-Fri 10.30 - 2.00pm by appointment only
I wish you all the very best for St Patrick’s Day. Sona Lá Fhéile Pádraig
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Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine Happy St Patrick's Day
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with Synnott Meet Paul North of JB O'Reilly's. Makes very interesting reading... How far can your memory go back to? Yesterday! No really I think I was probably about four when I got my first trouncing from my darling ma. I had a propensity to put salt in the sugar, just to see her spit her tea out and the look on her face. It was all very fine the first three or five times, but after that she lost her sense of humour, which thankfully she regained after a good session of exercising her hand on my arse. And so the game continued ad nauseam. Sugar, salt, spitting, beating, sugar, salt, spitting, expletive, beating… I wish I could pull the stunt on her now, however she is no longer here or there. She passed away three years ago – a fine woman who had a fine husband, who actively encouraged the game! How far did you go in your schooling? Well after I finished at Cambridge University I woke up to being asked not to return to CBS in Wexford to be accepted in St Peter's College where I failed my Leaving Cert with distinction. I then went on to Waterford Regional Technical College to study computer programming aka playing pool across the road at Trayer’s Pub, on Berwick Street, where I rented a bedsit. I left Waterford pretty handy at pool, but didn’t know a computer if it bit me on the arse. Made a few bob out of playing pool though! Unwittingly, preparing myself for my future as
a publican, funny how things go. Did you play many sports when you were young? Yes, I was quite the athlete, unbeknownst to most of my Australian friends….pool, darts, girl chasing (which I was very bad at). But on a serious level, hurling was the sport I loved. I played for the Christian Brothers schoolboy’s team. We even got a spin on Croke Park one day for puck around against some Kilkenny college. That was a very proud day, even though we lost on the day. Our trainer was a man called Brother Cusack who was from Waterford – I’m not saying that’s why we lost, but he was still from Waterford. What year did come to Australia and why? Jez, Tony that’s a hard one…1992 or 1993 and I came with two kids and their mother in tow. Shelley was very homesick for Australia, so under much duress I conceded to come for two years. Subsequently, I fell in love with the place I now live and call home – Australia. You would have many friends, who stands out? Tony, that’s a loaded gun of a question. All my friends are important to me, for different reasons. Everybody has a gift that they can share – you just have to find it. It would be unfair to mention any one person, so many people have helped me on my journey in Australia. They know who they are and that’s all that matters Are you a film buff? What film sticks out and why? I’m not really a film buff. I enjoy going to the movies, but I restrict myself to comedies – definitely not the romantic ones. I suppose the funniest one I ever saw was The Exorcist – remember the one where the child’s head spun around….I laughed myself silly. It reminded me of my sister having a tantrum. The Irish Scene plays a big part in advertising – what’s your opinion of Fred and his team? Now you’re trying to make me be serious – it’s not going to work. The Irish Scene has done and continues to do a great service for the Irish community in Perth. There are a lot of substantial expat communities here in Perth, but none 16
have their own locally written magazine as we do with the Irish Scene. Fred and his team through his style and literary wisdom have risen above to give themselves and beyond a voice in Perth. It has drawn the Irish community closer and made us more understood by the general community. Well done to the Rea family. Do you ever regret coming to Perth? Honestly? One word….No. You are well known for your green suit. You do stand out and why? My green suit! God Bless us all. It only gets an airing once a year…St Patrick’s Day. After all why wouldn’t I wear a green suit on St Patrick’s Day? I am proud of where I’ve come from. I’m proud to be Irish and proud to celebrate that in Perth, Western Australia. You have been a great man in the Irish community with your generosity. What makes you tick? Are you telling me I’m thick? Having a laugh is certainly a good part of it. Look Tony we were all put on this earth to help each other, to look after each other…. Seeing people smile…..you know how it goes “when Irish eyes are smiling - Sure they’d steal your heart away’ that’s a big part of what makes me tick. You are Paul North…who are you in reality? Saint Paul North….Just a lad from Wexford getting on with life, taking the good with the bad, having the craic. If there was anything you could change in this world, what would it be? I’d have all the protestants shot. So there you are Tommy Walker! No really, I think more than anything, I’d like to see an exit from religious smuggery from every race in the world. It has single-handily caused more trouble than the love it pontificates. Where in the world is your dream to go to one day? More than any place I’d like to go Tony, would be to a united Ireland, free from anger, bigotry and with hope in its heart. In the meantime, I’m off to Cuba…..to see fine ladies there, as the Little Musgrave said!!
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St Patrick's Day
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Live Bands every Fri, Sat and Sun
Novotel Perth Langley - 221 Adelaide Terrace T. 9425 1634 • E: h1764-fb2@accor.com • www.novotelperthlangley.com.au 18 18
Show Preview
er Family Trio and PCO Strings, soloists Paul Wright and Rob Zielinski on the Irish Fiddle and world champion Kavanagh Irish dancers. In a show of welcoming Irish hospitality, two small dishes of authentic Irish food will be served to guests along with a complimentary drink on arrival. Other drinks will be available from the cash bar, including Irish favourites – Guinness and Magners. Program highlights will include Sibelius Impromptu for String Orchestra and the final movement from the Bartok Divertimento for Strings. The traditional sounds of Irish fiddle legend Rob Zielinski with tunes including Man o'the House, and Bryan Rice Dalton’s spell binding voice in a rendition of 'Green Among the Gold' in collaboration with the PCO strings. Many of these pieces are rarely performed in concert and will evoke nationalistic pride, exemplifying the power of music to create a ‘feel’ of a nation. Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with PCO’s unique blend of orchestra meets traditional Irish band for an evocative fusion of genres and styles in one rousing performance.
PERTH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS
AN IRISH NIGHT:
Strings, Stout and Storytelling In 1876 the Catalpa Rescue was a significant occurrence in the shared history of Western Australia and Ireland when six Irish Fenian prisoners escaped from the British penal colony of WA. The Perth Chamber Orchestra (PCO) will re-tell this story of determination and bravery against a backdrop of the most powerful nationalistic classical music in the country. Narrated by Irishman Bryan Rice Dalton, singers, dancers and musicians plus an Irish menu and drinks to boot, PCO will transport its audience to the heart of the Emerald Isle. From jigs to reels, Guinness to bush bands, the impact of the Irish on Australian history is a legacy that defines our nation. PCO will host this historical concert bringing to life an array of Irish music of every genre, from Enya to traditional reels. Under the baton of Chief conductor Jessica Gethin and concertmaster Paul Wright, An Irish Night will be staged within the stunning surrounds of the Fremantle Town Hall. A number of guest musicians and performers will join PCO to immerse the audience in a commemorative and celebrative evening of Irish history and culture including music from Riverdance performed by the Walk-
When: 7pm (doors 6.30pm), Wed 15 March 2017 Where: Fremantle Town Hall
Tickets: On sale now - available from $85, inclusive of two serves of food and one drink.
To book visit www.perthsymphony.com
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Meagher’s dramatic decision to resign from the Union Army was accepted by the War Department, but surviving officers and men of the Irish Brigade protested bitterly in the press. The general himself had second thoughts during the July 1863 crisis, when a Confederate Army invaded Pennsylvania. On July 13 Meagher wrote to his enemy Edwin Stanton, still Secretary of War, requesting permission to withdraw his resignation. He also wrote directly to President Abraham Lincoln – a breach of protocol – asking for permission to recruit and prepare more soldiers. Lincoln responded with enthusiasm: “shall be very glad for you to raise 3000 Irish troops”. Mr Stanton simply ignored Meagher and arranged for the ‘downsizing’ of his former brigade. Public protests followed plus expressions of support from influential people and organisations in New York and elsewhere. The citizens of Philadelphia decorated Meagher with a new medal, the Kearney Cross for valour. Through all of this Meagher remained rock solid in his loyalty to Lincoln, even to the point of backing the introduction of conscription. An act to draft men into the army had been passed in March 1863; it came into effect in New York on July 11, just two days before Meagher wrote his letter. The timing was terrible, for in general terms forced service was bitterly resented by the New York Irish. The end result was four days of atrocious, bloody rioting which cost hundreds of lives and came to an end only when several regiments of soldiers turned up. Meagher remained silent during the riots but stated his commitment to Lincoln’s Republican Party afterwards, a move that drew fire from sections of the Irish community. Recruiting efforts ended in failure and ended his chances of rejoining the army at the head of a revamped Irish Brigade. By now Meagher was under severe stress and some folk noticed he was drinking more. He continued to defend Lincoln, vigorously attacking the Democrats and anybody who opposed the war effort or the abolition of slavery. In
(Part Four) by Peter Conole
October 1863 he wrote a shocker of a letter to Colonel Patrick Guiney stating that to the discredit of many Irishmen ”they have suffered themselves to be bamboozled into being obstinate herds in the political field”. Towards the end of the year this hellish period in his life came to an end. His resignation from the army was cancelled on December 23. Meagher and his wife celebrated with surviving officers and men of the old Irish Brigade over the Christmas period. The War Department still kept the general in limbo. The vindictive Stanton’s influence may have been a factor. General Meagher was not sent to Washington to resume duty until nearly the end of spring, 1864. His masters then kept him waiting again, pending orders to report to the headquarters of the senior Federal (ie, Union) general Ulysses S. Grant at City Point, Virginia. Those instructions did not arrive until August. The effect on the committed, eager Meagher’s state of mind may be imagined. There are reliable reports to the effect that his use of alcohol had now become a potentially serious problem. The general’s stay at headquarters was enlivened by a well-attended celebration to mark the third anniversary of the Irish Brigade. Then came more woe, for Grant sent him west on September 11, 1864 to serve under another known enemy, General William T. 21
Sherman. A severe blow fell when he arrived at Nashville, Tennessee – somebody obtained and published the letter he had written to Colonel Guiney. The Irish American press went wild and turned on Meagher, one journal going so far as to claim ”between the people who loved and trusted him once he has opened a gap which he can never bridge over”. Meagher held his nerve and campaigned for Lincoln in the American presidential elections. General Sherman, possibly out of malice, kept the Irishman waiting for weeks and then foisted him onto another senior man. On November 25, 1864 General Meagher finally received a new command. He was to lead the ‘Provisional Division of the Army of the Tennessee’, a force of about 7000 convalescent troops. Their primary task was to guard, patrol and generally protect the vital railroads extending through Union-controlled Tennessee and northern Georgia. Meagher took his role seriously, worked hard and ‘delivered’. Transport and communication networks were unharmed by rebel raiders and guerrillas. On January 12, 1865 a veteran officer (General James Steedman) praised Meagher for “splendid success…and the harmony and good order maintained throughout the district”. In that same month the general was ordered to move his division east to Pittsburgh and then to the coast for some new assignment. The result was a total fiasco, for whatever his virtues Meagher was no professional when it came to logistics, supplies and the large scale movement of troops. Everything possible went wrong and vile weather conditions added to the chaos. Worst of all, army officials took note that Meagher was drinking heavily and unable to resolve the problems. Thomas Meagher was relieved of his duties and told to return home on February 24, 1865. A sad end to his military career, but at least he was spared the indignity of a court martial and public disgrace. He resigned from the Union Army for the second and last time on May 12. Memory of his occasional war time misfortunes has tended to fade, for nobody could gainsay the
achievements, glory and fame of the general and his Irish Brigade. From June 1865 Meagher resided in New York with his family whilst lobbying for new employment. He developed an interest in the opening of the American West, collected a lot of information about the frontiers, paid a visit and eventually came to believe that the territories of Idaho and Montana would be fine places for Irish people to settle. He was somewhat disillusioned with the cities of the eastern coast and had the support of the Irish Immigration Society, which hailed him as an Irish patriot and war hero at a function in St Paul, Minnesota. By now Meagher was wavering in his Republican Party convictions and more willing to negotiate and compromise with Democrats, despite bitter feuds of the past. He lobbied without success to obtain a governorship in one of the western territories. Instead President Andrew Johnson appointed him territorial secretary of Montana, a salaried position that carried with it with both influence and responsibility. Meagher arrived in Bannack City, then the capital of the territory, during September 1865. Almost immediately, doubtless to his own amazement, Governor Sidney Edgerton handed over all official files to him and headed back east to lobby in Washington and place his children in suitable schools! Acting Governor Meagher was now the man in charge – but he could draw no salary and was thus always short of funds. The reason: only the territorial secretary could sign government vouchers and Meagher was not allowed to carry out the duties of both jobs. Gilbert and Sullivan would doubtless have had a field day with the situation, but for Meagher it was a disaster. Nevertheless he threw himself into the work and accomplished much. As one historian commented “he functioned well and fully” and “his involvement in the affairs of the territory was conspicuous and regular”. To this day he is regarded by many as the true founding father of the state of Montana. Citizens keep his memory green and a fine statue of General Meagher was unveiled in the city of Helena during
1905. His labours during his terms as acting governor were difficult and at times complicated by brief visits from the actual governors, when they could be bothered to leave the comfortable east. He clashed very sharply with the most powerful group in the territory, the Vigilantes, who acted as an unofficial law and order body and lynched dozens of known or suspected criminals and outlaws. In December 1865 Meagher released an accused murderer from custody, only to learn soon afterwards that the Vigilantes publicly hanged the man as soon as he arrived in Helena. They pinned a warning note to Meagher on the dead man’s coat. The most prominent of the Vigilantes turned into a dangerous enemy of the acting governor. His name was Wilbur Sanders. In another spectacular early episode Meagher journeyed up the Missouri River with a few men in November 1865 and helped to negotiate a treaty with four indian tribes. The deal eventually fell apart and in April 1867 Meagher called out the militia when a fullscale war with the Blackfeet tribe seemed likely. His charming old foe General William T. Sherman (based at St Louis) was not very helpful and the acting governor, having limited funds to draw on, found it hard to raise and arm fighting men. The people of Montana were fortunate that nothing too serious happened. Even simple law making and administration was difficult. Acting Governor Meagher decided that a legislature was needed and he convened an ‘extraordinary session’ in March 1866, members being those elected during Edgerton’s brief period as governor. He called them together again later in the same year, only to run into a legal road block. Several progressive acts of Meagher’s two special sessions (along with a constitution for the territory) were later declared invalid by the US Congress in Washington – a doubtful, destructive call that certainly impeded Montana’s development. Despite the presence of his family and a reasonable degree of support from the community, Thomas Meagher was at a 22
Meagher memorial in his native Waterford
crossroads by mid-1867. His term as territorial secretary was about to expire and the actual governor, G. C. Smith, actually turned up to do his duty in June. Meagher was now out of work, tired, financially broke and physically ill. He travelled to Fort Benton on the Missouri River and embarked on the steamer ‘G.A.Thompson’, which was headed to an army camp downriver. Meagher was on his way to collect an overdue consignment of rifles. He never arrived. Thomas Meagher was certainly not in a happy frame of mind on July 1, 1867. At about 10.00pm that night he disappeared overboard under circumstances that have never been satisfactorily explained. Meagher’s body was lost; his wife Elizabeth waited in the territory for two months until searchers gave up all hope. Conflicting reports and claims cite the cause of his mysterious demise as murder, suicide or a drunken accident. Given his strong religious beliefs, suicide is very unlikely. A drunken fall? It is possible that a drinking bout led to an accident and a couple of witnesses claimed he was inebriated that night. However, there is a distinct possibility of foul play. One of Meagher’s most violent opponents, Wilbur Sanders, was also on board the vessel. A staged coroner’s inquest held in Montana in June 2012 came to the conclusion that Sanders murdered General Meagher. Be that as it may the warrior has a safe place in the pantheon of Irish heroes. In 2004 the people of Waterford erected a large equestrian statue of Thomas Francis Meagher near the entrance to their city.
A’Caverna Restaurant owner, Michael Gibson told the Irish Scene that East Perth is on the rise, new buildings, new businesses and new experiences! Michael said, “A’Caverna is proud to be part of growth and development. My wife, Danielle is from Brazil, and every event or family gathering comprised of dozens of Brazilians coming together, and cooking beautifully flavoured food. It inspired us to share this food with family, friends and the people of Perth”. You know they say the ‘best thing that came out of Longford is the main road!’ But did you know that Mel Gibson was named after St Mel’s Cathedral and his mum is from Longford! His mother, an Irish born Australian hailed from Longford. Even his name is not what it first appears to be and rather than being inspired by a woman, Mel is actually derived from Saint Mel who along with his best mate Saint Patrick came over and gave us a good dose of religion. And in what could be seen as a tribute too far, his second name is Colmcille - the name of his mother’s parish in Ardagh (just a little bit of trivia for you).
Céad Míle Fáilte Bom Dia G’Day Mate Michael, being a Longford man was reared far from exotic foods and flavours. “Danielle and I decided to combine different foods, tastes and cultures… where South American flavour meets European cuisine. Taste can only bring you so far, we have a concept, one we believe in, the P-P-P concept!” PRICE: Michael suggested readers visit their web page, instagram or Facebook, see their menu, compare prices, “A’Caverna offers great value, good prices, value for money, and unbeatable daily specials." PRODUCT: No packs or container food at A’Caverna, all dishes made in house from scratch, to the highest of standards. “We have great suppliers, the Chef and kitchen staff are very experienced, and they
serve ‘manly’ size portions”. PERSONALITY: In the present climate it seems to be over looked, bottom of the list, just not so important. “Surprisingly enough, it’s the corner stone of any business - customer service! It’s the corner stone of our business, A’Caverna”. So if you are looking for something different and want a new Perth experience, visit A’Caverna, it’s definitely worth it! Slan, Tchau, C’Ya Mate! “Explore the Flavour and have a great St. Patrick’s Day”
Monday/Tuesday 11am - 6pm • Wednesday/Thursday 11am - 8pm Friday 10am - 11.59pm • Saturday 6pm - 11.59pm • Sunday - Closed
A'CAVERNA RESTAURANT 566 Hay Street, Perth (08) 9221 4806 acavernaperth@gmail.com • www.acaverna.com.au
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GLORY O! GLORY O! TO THE BOLD FENIAN MEN... 150th Anniversary of the Fenian Uprising of 1867 John Dorney of The Irish Story remembers the abortive republican insurrection of 1867. Very early on the morning of March 5th 1867, many thousands of young men, some of them well armed, others not, set off from Dublin towards the hills overlooking the village of Tallaght. The police noted that a large number of (horse-drawn) cars left the Combe and Kevin Street area for the countryside. Others walked to Tallaght. The police sergeant at Crumlin reported that, “the Dublin road is crowded with young men, all taking the direction of Tallaght”. The young men, who may have numbered up to 8,000, were Fenians – members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and this was the day of a long-planned-for insurrection aimed at toppling British rule and establishing an James Stephens leader of the Irish Irish Republic. Republican Brotherhood Most of them were there by (National Archives) choice, having been ordered by the “centre” or commander or their IRB “circle”, or unit of 800 men, but those who were reluctant to go were given encouragement; “If you don’t go, by God you’ll be shot”, one was told. As many as 10,000 armed Fenians came out in rebellion. Up to 7,000 assembled at Tallaght. William Domville Handcock, a Tallaght landowner and Magistrate for County Dublin, recalled later, “At my uncle’s place at Kiltalown, the family were in a great fright. They saw numbers of Fenians walking about the lawn all night, and they expected to be attacked
Easter Rising 1916
EASTER RISING C O M M E M O RAT I O N
Easter Monday - 17th April 2017 The Irish Club of WA from 2pm Live Music with Sean Roche Food available at the Club! 24
every moment”. Slightly further east in the Dublin hills, another band of some 200 Fenians attacked and took a string of Irish Constabulary barracks, at Dundrum, Stepaside and Glencullen. In Drogheda, as many as 1,000 Fenians assembled in the Market Square, armed with pikes and rifles and refused an order from 28 policemen to disperse. In Cork, about 4,000 insurgents gathered at Fair Hill and proceeded to Limerick train Junction, in the process attacking and burning several police barracks. The Fenians, led by James Stephens, a charismatic republican revolutionary, exiled in Paris, where he associated with like-minded radicals, issued a Proclamation of the Irish Republic: “Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who, treating us as foes, usurped our lands and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. We appeal to force as a last resort… unable to endure any longer the curse of a monarchical government, we aim at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour. The soil of Ireland, at present in possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people and to us it must be restored. We declare also in favour of absolute liberty of conscience and the separation of Church and State. We intend no war against the people of England; our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields”. But by the following day, the Rising, what the unionist Irish Times described as, “this wretched conspiracy”, was over. The Fenians, over 10,000 strong, had been dispersed and were being hunted through the hills by the Irish Constabulary and the British Army. The uprising led to 62 Irishmen, including John Boyle O’Reilly, being transported to Western Australia on the last convict ship the Hougoumont to arrive in the colony. Source: www.theirishstory.com
MEET MY DENTIST...
Dr Brian McElhinney
Brian is from Cork City in Ireland and emigrated to Perth in 2004 with his family. He has owned the West Perth Dental Centre for over 12 years and shares the building with his wife Dr Gerrardine McElhinney, also from Cork, who runs a specialist Periodontal practice. He is a keen golfer and loves to travel. Brian is known and loved by his patients and has a great reputation as a very approachable person with a great sense of humour, a lovely manner whilst providing excellent dentistry. The writer can vouch for that! West Perth Dental Centre is a HBF Preferred Member Plus Provider. They offer a very wide range of excellent dental services to their patients. These services include: Initial examinations, consultations, recall appointments & radiographs, Scaling, polishing and Oral Hygiene Instruction, Tooth coloured restorations/
fillings, Dental Fissure Sealants, Crowns, Bridges & Veneers, Dental Implants, Root Canal Treatments, Extractions (including Wisdom Teeth), Teeth Whitening (in chair and home kits), dentures – partial and full, Mouthguards, TMJ Dysfunction including fitting of night guards for grinding/jaw pain. If you have any dental queries I recommend you call Brian on 9321 6928. Fred Rea
Dr Brian McElhinney & Assoc. West Perth Dental Centre
39 Colin Street, West Perth WA 6005
T: 9321 6928 E: wpdc@bigpond.net.au
Welcome to Our Practice From the moment you walk in the door you will feel comfortable. We pride ourselves on providing our patients with a warm, caring and friendly environment; whilst providing the best dentistry in a professional and timely manner.
waiting area is very bright and airy; and really feels like a home rather than a dental office. We are within minutes of Perth CBD and Subiaco. Our location is serviced by TransPerth CAT buses (red, yellow and green) and buses also go from Kings Park road along St Georges Terrace. We are also close to the Leederville Joondalup/Mandurah Line), City West (Fremantle Line) and Perth train station.
You will be met by one of our friendly staff who will make you feel at home and assist you in a respectful yet nurturing manner.
We do have limited parking spaces at the rear of the building but there is ample street parking (which is metered) on Colin Street, Richardson and Ord Streets.
We welcome new patients and generally our long standing patients are the main source of our growing practice as they are more than happy to spread the word and refer their family, friends and work colleagues.
We are an HBF Member Plus provider ( where you can claim back between 60%-80% rebate if eligible) and we are able to claim through to most health funds via “Hicaps” claiming at the time of your visit... saving you a trip to your health fund.
We have a practice policy of seeing same-day emergencies...so if you have a toothache, broken tooth or just concern regarding your teeth...we can usually help you that same day!
We accept most credit cards (Visa, MasterCard and American Express), EFTPOS, cash and cheques.
We are located at 39 Colin Street, West Perth in a restored old federation home. Our office and 25
Michael O’Donnell’s incredible battle to fight for Australia By Irma Walter
Growing concern over Australia’s lack of defence led to the 1911 Defence Act, making it compulsory for all boys aged 14-18 years to participate in military training. Although there was disagreement from some quarters over militarism of minors, there was general agreement that the discipline would be beneficial to these young lads. Boys who passed their medical test had to enlist in the Citizen Forces, and faced court if they failed to regularly attend training sessions. Since most boys were in the work force from the age of 14 years, many found it difficult to keep up with the requirements. Michael O’Donnell was born in Victoria in 1888. His father David George O’Donnell (18601946, eldest son of Irish parents Michael O’Donnell, farmer and former prison warder, and his wife Johanna, née Barry) was a top detective in Melbourne, while his uncle was Dr Nicholas O’Donnell, widely respected among the Irish community as an authority on Irish culture. From an early age Michael developed a keen interest in all
things military. He enjoyed cadet training at school then joined the Commonwealth Military Forces in 1908, serving two years as a drill instructor to all the Christian Brothers’ Colleges and schools around Melbourne. There was a need for 250 Area Officers to take command of training centres around Australia, and in January 1911 Lieutenant Michael O’Donnell was sent to Leonora in outback WA - not an easy posting for a 22 year-old. Following his marriage to Mary Veronica Glover in 1912, he was pleased to be offered a post in Bunbury, where the situation was said to be shambolic. There he proved to be an energetic and popular leader who soon established order within the group. Michael had previously gained fame when he led a group of 85 junior cadets on a muchpublicised 160-mile march from Melbourne to Bendigo and back. He got permission to do something similar in WA, leading the Bunbury boys on a 115-mile march to Perth, where they staged a charity concert before returning home by train. However he was kept at Bunbury, even though his leadership qualities were acknowledged. His frustration increased when his brother enlisted in NSW in September 1915 and was sent to Egypt. Finally Michael decided to go to Perth to enlist as a private, sure in his own mind that once his previous training was recognised, he would quickly be promoted through the ranks. While at Blackboy Hill training camp (now in Greenmount, Western Australia) he applied for officer school and passed his examinations, but found that he was being held back from active service. No-one doubted his capabilities, in charge of the 6/12th reinforcements as instructor in everything from squad drill to musketry and field training, but he soon found that men who 26
had been trained under him were being promoted and sent off, while he remained at Blackboy Hill. He was warned that Lt. Colonel Charles Battye, a member of the selection committee, had stated that as far as he was concerned, O’Donnell would never get a promotion. (It was later revealed that there had previously been an angry exchange between Battye and O’Donnell at a Bunbury hotel over a personal matter.) O’Donnell got a leave pass, but instead of returning to camp he took off for Adelaide, where he enlisted under the name of Michael McPherson. In South Australia he was given the rank of sergeant-major within a week and was put in charge of highly important training operations. He was selected for officer training. Unfortunately he was recognised by a visiting West Australian soldier, who, on his return to Perth, informed Lt. Col. Battye about O’Donnell’s whereabouts. Michael decided to come back to WA and face the music, but was arrested at Fremantle wharf on arrival and was held in strict confinement pending his trial for desertion. Initially the court proceedings proved ludicrous, with O’Donnell’s defence lawyer Dwyer pointing out legal flaws in the procedures and declaring that the regulations had not been properly observed. Evidence was given that O’Donnell was a man of exceptional military ability and should not have been held back from promotion. O’Donnell’s statement that Battye had shown vindictiveness towards him seemed supported by the facts. Meanwhile support was growing in the community, demanding justice for a man who only wanted the chance of doing battle against the enemy. Meetings were held not only in WA but also in the Eastern States. Occurring in the year of the
Receiving his commission as 2nd Lieutenant, he left with the Australian Imperial Force for the front in September 1916. Following rifle training in England he departed for France in February 1917. Two months later he was declared missing in the field at the Battle of Bullecourt. After many letters of inquiry by his wife Mary, it was finally confirmed that 2nd Lieutenant Michael O’Donnell, Reg. No. 7535, was one of the 10,000 Australians killed in action at Bullecourt, as a result of major blunders on the part of the British command. Charles Bean, official war historian later wrote: “The Second Bullecourt Battle was, in some ways, the stoutest achievement of the Australian soldier in France.”
1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, with demand for Home Rule at its peak, the O’Donnell case was seen by Irish Australians as discrimination against one of their own. A large meeting organised in the Perth Town Hall called for an immediate investigation into O’Donnell’s treatment, who by this time had been confined for 70 days in the lock-up. In Melbourne the pro-Irish newspaper ‘The Advocate’ published a letter dated 29 January 1916: “We know who O’Donnell is, we know what he is. Is he being trampled upon because he is an O’Donnell and a Mick? That seems to be his only offence. The whole show is, to my mind, given away in the fact that as McPherson his military abilities were recognised, while as O’Donnell he got no show. — Yours, etc., JOHN P. FITZGERALD. South Melbourne.” The Court finally concluded that O’Donnell should have the rank restored to him of Company SergeantMajor, which, as an unknown man, he had attained in South Australia. Michael’s mother arrived in WA just as the hearing ended, accompanied by her brother-in-law Dr Nicholas O’Donnell, widely respected as Australia’s most distinguished son of Irish culture, a patriot and philanthropist. They were given a rapturous welcome and were fêted by the various Hibernian Societies in Perth. Transferred to the Victorian military district, O’Donnell entered Duntroon College, and passed the officers’ course of instruction.
Sources: Australian War Memorial website National Archives of Australia National Library of Australia, trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper
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pram down the steep steps once I had told my story to the nice man in the street. The salesmen were not quite as eager to help so I settled down to the job of convincing them that I had no intention of going away quietly this time. Soon it was time to feed the baby his bottle. I borrowed a chair from a sales station and gave baby David some biscuits to eat while I fed his little brother. Then it was time to change nappies as both babies were wet. That was easy as there were flat top washing machines all around me. But once David had been released from his position in the pram he would not go back, he wanted to explore the new exciting territory around him. As it was now mid morning the store was populated by a sizable crowd of keen customers, that was, until they encountered a large pram blocking the main pathway through the display area. I, by this stage was engaged running after my older son who was extremely agile at climbing over everything in sight. It was not long before a frazzled department head begged me to go, promising my washing machine would be fixed that afternoon. I went, because I knew that this time it would.
By Marie Moloney
The year was 1961, I was a young woman of twenty two living in Kilburn London and the mother of two boys. David was seventeen months and Ian was five weeks old at the time. Kilburn in the early 1960’s was colourful, well that is one way of describing it. Life was often frantic but never dull, however it was at times a challenge. When I decided to have a home birth the second time around we “Called the Midwife” and although it was a cut above Poplar, where the entertaining TV program is set, it was a rather harrowing experience. The midwife was a tall angular woman of about fifty who had never had children. That was immediately obvious as she set about her job helping the baby machine operate. No nonsense, no compassion. The birth process was quick and my second son was born without incident. However, with two babies before the era of disposal nappies, washing, hand wringing and getting items dry in October, in the northern hemisphere, was a never ending task. The need for a washing machine was clear. The walk to the Department Store on the Kilburn High Road was less than ten minutes from our home. I chose a Hoover washing machine with a hand wringer on top and was assured by the salesman that it would serve me well. My elation knew no bounds when the prized acquisition arrived the following day. Life was so much easier after that, for at least two weeks! One cold wet morning with icy particles clinging to the outside of the windows my new home help refused to work. Having filled it with hot water via a hose from the hot water tap, I pressed the switch and the empty unresponsive silence was thundering. As we did not have a phone I packed my babies into the pram and went to the store to report this. The department head promised a repair man would be at my house first thing the next day. He did not arrive, and one week and two trips to the store later he still had not arrived, in essence my work load had increased. It was, I decided, time for drastic measures. In a carefully orchestrated manner I prepared everything I would need and at nine o’clock one morning I pushed my babies in their pram down to the store. The white goods section was in the basement, however there was no problem getting help to carry the big Rolls Royce style
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s e l b m a R with David MacConnell
Bout yeese all again and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day Well there’s no point in me telling you (AGAIN) about St. Patrick’s story. I googled it (AGAIN) and found a girl who was asking info on what to do on the great day. She got replies from all over Ireland but most were from Ulster. We seem now to know a hell of a lot more about what he did and where he travelled than we did thirty years ago. Now that I think of it more than we did this time last year. If you are interested, look it up for yourselves. No use me writing about it here to bore those that are not interested. And now on to something completely different! I have always liked Van the man’s mention of Coney Island in his song ‘Coney Island’…. He begins ‘Coming down from Downpatrick Stopping off at St. John's Point Out all day birdwatching And the craic was good’ Now bird watching when I lived in Shrigley was actually naming the feathered varieties. Well I was seven years old. Later on when living in Bangor, I then realised Van was probably not really interested in the flying variety. Well, I was eighteen years old by then. ‘Stopped off at Strangford Lough Early in the morning Drove through Shrigley taking pictures’ It’s great what other people see in the run-down village you live in. I didn’t have a camera in those days but even if I did, I certainly wouldn’t want to have taken a picture of the tannery which dominated the village. (See above …. sorry that actually is a clock near the tannery! The Chimney of
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the mill you can just see in the background in the other photograph) ‘And on to Killyleagh’ Now that was and still is some place; a great castle, near the sea, and, yes, lots of shops; also where famous people were born. For example, Sir Hans Sloane (founder of the British Museum), sorry well you knew who he was!
I never liked Downpatrick. OK there was the cathedral where St. Patrick himself supposedly was buried and lots of other stuff they have recently claimed about the good man but no one mentioned any of that when my sister lived there. She wisely moved out but unfortunately, Crossgar was not much of an improvement. Me? I went to Bangor; a definite improvement. ‘Stopped off for Sunday papers at the Lecale District, Just before Coney Island’ Ah Coney Island. I have always wanted to go there. It sounded and still sounds so cool. Yeah all right cold as well. ‘On and on, over the hill to Ardglass In the jam jar, autumn sunshine, magnificent And all shining through Stop off at Ardglass for a couple of jars of Mussels and some potted herrings in case We get famished before dinner.’ Not my cup of tea or plate of fish for that matter. ‘On and on, over the hill and the craic is good Heading towards Coney Island’ Now when I lived in the good old sod, I always
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wanted to look over Strangford Lough and observe this fascinating island. It would have been on my bucket list if I had known then what a bucket list was. How disappointed I was when some fifty years later (yesterday) I googled it to find out there are four Coney Islands in Ulster and four in the South. Further bad news was to be revealed. The Coney Island of Van’s song is not an island at all! As Wikipedia so succinctly puts it…… Coney Island is a small seaside hamlet of 48 acres in County Down between the villages of Ardglass and Killough. There is a small caravan park at Coney Island. It is not actually an island but includes a narrow peninsula which may at one time have been cut off by the sea. The name of the townland is recorded as Conningsiland in 1635, as Cony Is in 1640 and as Conny-Island in 1669. Coney or Cony is a medieval English word meaning rabbit. So I can forget about going there. WHY? Because I have been there several times, though did not spot any rabbits. How do I know I was there you might well ask? Well, I played golf at Ardglass and the golf course is right next to this famous island (sorry) peninsula. Thank you Google! You have saved me many dollars and I have wisely wiped it off my bucket list; whatever that is. I do love the bit about the small caravan park. In Ireland, I guess that means two caravans; one for the site manager and one for everyone else who might rock up. Back to Van! ‘Streaming through the window in the autumn sunshine And all the time going to Coney Island I'm thinking, Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time.’ I can’t agree more.
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Part of a little Irish song I wrote a few years ago. I will be singing it with my band Fiddlesticks at Lakelands Country Club on Sunday 19th March. Not the right day but near enough! Well here we are then we’ve left our homeland We’re celebrating one of the best days I’m going to tell you all about Patrick Who tended lambs and sheep and lived all by himself
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Now good St. Patrick that Trinity story How he converted the Kings Christianity We’re in Australia but we’re happy here Good olde St. Patrick’s Day in All of the year. A simple story a Saxon slave On the Antrim hill side in a lonely cave. He liked his shamrock we were told And all of the people to and saved their souls
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Happy St Patrick's Day David MacConnell. 34
By Lloyd Gorman
ISTEACH SA TEACH Celebrate March 17 but don’t forget February 1
So Taoiseach Enda Kenny is set to travel to Washington DC to present Donald Trump with a Waterford Crystal bowl of Shamrock in the Oval office. No doubt a lot of Irish voters will think he shouldn’t rub shoulders with Trump at all, especially after Mr Kenny called Trump “racist and dangerous” while he was a candidate for the presidency. But the opportunity to stand beside the world’s most powerful man and spread the gospel about how great Ireland and the Irish are is too big an opportunity for any leader to pass up. The origins of the ritual have been traced by historians back to 1952 when John J Hearne, the Irish ambassador to the US, sent a box of shamrock to the White House and while then President Harry Truman was not around at the time apparently the gesture was noticed by some WhiteHouse staff. It was nearly ten years later in 1961 when President John F Kennedy happily received a crystal bowl from Ambassador Tommy Kiernan. Since then the occasion has developed deep roots. Mr Kenny understands the symbolic power of the shamrock and our patron saint better than most. He has been Taoiseach since 2011 and every year since then he has been hanging out with Barrack O’Bama (who claims Irish ancestry in Moneygall, Co. Offaly) for the occasion. He has been there so often that he probably knows more about the Oval office than most. And he might as well go. Mr Kenny
is already Father of the House – having first entered Leinster House in 1975 he is now the oldest and longest serving TD (MP) in the Irish parliament (Dail) – and has been leader of the opposition (Fine Gael since 2002). He has been around a long time and survived multiple crisis that may have levelled another leader. But it now seems his time at the top is running on borrowed time as he faces mounting pressure and leadership rumblings from within his own political party, Fine Gael. If his time is up, Mr Kenny can reflect on a long career. He laid the foundations for one of his enduring legacies during his time as minister for tourism, between 1994 and 1997. He transformed St. Patrick’s Day from being a one day spectacle into a week long festival and event that still continues today. Another modern St. Patrick’s Day tradition is for Irish ministers to jet out to foreign climes and represent the Irish government to Irish Diaspora communities and would be overseas business interests looking for somewhere friendly to invest their cash with low tax benefits. Practically every member of government is asked to step up for the occasion. The Irish government has this year taken a slightly different approach to its global Paddy's Day mission Down under. Normally one deputy is dispatched for the task, but this year two will come. East Cork TD David Stanton is destined for Western Australia. Mr Stanton – who is a junior minister for Justice – will combine a 35
stopover in Jakarta, Indonesia with his tour of Perth. Meanwhile, the eastern states and New Zealand will be visited by another junior minister – this time for sports and tourism – by Limerick TD Patrick O’Donovan. So far we have only heard about men celebrating a male saint but the Australian Senate was reminded recently by the daughter of two Irish immigrants that this is only half the story. “I want to put on the record a very important event that happened on Friday evening,” New South Wales Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill told the chamber. “I know that people think of St Patrick’s Day as the big day of Irish celebration, but the Irish have a second patron saint: a woman, St Brigid, whose feast day is 1 February. This event on Friday evening recognised 12 remarkable Irish-Australian women from the community who are also very active in the Labor movement and the union movement. We were very pleased to receive notification of support for that event from Sabina Higgins—the equivalent of the first lady of Ireland, as the wife of Michael D Higgins—who wrote about the important place that St Brigid holds in terms of women who take action with compassion and practical action to support the community. This is what all these women that we awarded really demonstrated.”
Northern Suburbs Seniors’ Gathering We held our first Gathering on Thursday, 16th February at St Anthony’s Parish Hall in Wanneroo. The event was a great success, with over 45 senior citizens from Perth, Northern Suburbs, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Republic Ireland. A big thank you to our Team Leader, Jim Egan, for registering attendees, organising the raffle and Two-Up-Competition. Trisha and Bernie who assisted with the catering. Fred Rea and Joe Carroll kept the audience fully entertained for two hours with great old favourite songs and stories, memories of our Irish homeland, good Irish Banter and ‘craic’. The Gathering gave our Senior Citizens the opportunity to socialise, meet old/new friends, share memories during the break and tell a joke or two. We look forward to welcoming new members to our next Gathering, which will be held on the 23 March 2017 from 10.30am to 1.00 p.m. at St Anthony’s Parish hall, 18 Dundebar Road, Wanneroo. Thank you to all our friends who supported and assisted in making this a wonderful 1st Gathering. Look forward to seeing you all at our next Gathering. Regards Sean McDonagh 0431 018 388 36
By Michael Cluskey
Hello All,
My God, we may only be a small country, with a small population, but are we punching above our weight!! The change now happening within all aspects of Irish life is immense, currently over Dublin city you will notice the building boom taking place with over 60 building cranes hard at it, and it seems the Dublin skyline will continue to be like this for the foreseeable future. This is one sign that the economic
A View from Home growth in Ireland is truly building (pardon the pun). With a stream of companies from all over the world willing to set up in all counties, all is looking good for the future, especially in the I.T. sector. The only blip in the last while being the closure of the HP plant in Leixlip Co Kildare with the loss of 500 jobs. Other news is that the reintroduction of Border Posts and crossings between the North and the South is still under discussion between the Irish and British governments and
the European Parliament. This is due to the Brexit situation, where the only land border Britain has between itself and Europe is the one with the Republic. Therefore when Brexit does take place issues like the movement of people, livestock and all goods must be traceable. Undoubtedly the biggest story with huge implications at the moment is that of Garda Maurice McCabe, a Garda Sgt who in 2012 became a whistle-blower alleging Garda misconduct, with allegations of well-known individuals having had their driving penalty points wiped. Since then it has been alleged that a deliberate smear campaign was conducted to undermine the credibility of the Garda. Leading to an announcement by the Taoiseach Mr Enda Kenny on Feb 14th that a public tribunal of inquiry will be established to find out if there was a smear campaign against Sgt Maurice McCabe orchestrated by senior Gardai. Finally to all, enjoy the St Patrick's celebrations!! Best Regards, Mike.
Irish diplomacy is the ability to tell a man to go to hell so that he looks forward to making the trip.
The John Boyle O’Reilly Association 2017
COMMEMORATION WEEKEND
Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 March 2017 Full Details: https://jboreilly.org.au/ 37
Irish Families in Perth
Western Australia Irish Families in Perth” is a voluntary, non-profit organisation with almost 13,000 members. We provide Irish emigrants with advice on how to best assimilate into the Western Australian culture and lifestyle. We communicate with our subscribers through a social media where topics such as housing, jobs, visa enquiries and social events are covered. It is a vibrant, active forum that provides a wealth of knowledge to young families and single individuals immigrating to Western Australia. Irish Families in Perth (IFIP) contribute to a cohesive Irish community by working in conjunction with the many wonderful groups in Perth that support Irish culture & heritage. IFIP aims to -Coordinate Irish family events around Perth Including weekly playgroups. - Support Irish families along with The Claddagh Association - Develop Irish culture & heritage: Gaelic Games, Irish Music, and Irish Language & Irish Folklore - Help Irish families with any problems that might arise by providing a link to Australian & Irish support services You can find our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishfamiliesinperth THE LATE PATRICK GORDON R.I.P. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved who helped us find the late Patrick Gordons family in Ireland. The positive power of social media was on display with over 515,000 views and 6,200 shares of our post. We had very little to go by only that he came from a very large family from Co Galway and his date of birth. We had almost 200 private messages within a few hours of posting. We would especially like to thank the wonderful Galway community, Maria McDonnell, Tom Quinn and Billy McGarvey who all got the ball rolling so to speak. Patrick’s family are eternally grateful for all your help.
IRISH MAM’S PERTH (NOR) A fantastic group of Irish Mam’s providing day to day support to each other, both online and face to face. It is an opportunity to create new friendships not only for ourselves but also for our little ones which is so important when most of us are new to Perth, and far
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from family and have partners who are working away. Our page, offers a supportive safe forum to seek advice and have a bit of craic along with details of the following meet ups/events: Our IFIP sponsored Playgroups are back and better than ever with almost 50 families. After a major upgrade, we have opened our doors again - massive thanks to our Mam’s for all the hard work involved in making this happen. It is a purpose built playgroup centre with which has a covered/ shaded playground area around the building, which is fenced with a locked gate. There is plenty for the older ones to do outside and a playroom set up with lots of toys inside alongside another room for our babies along with a kitchen for a cuppa and a baby changing room with toddler toilets! We have a great mixture of ages from bumps to 5 years, all are welcome. We meet on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 9am at Padbury Playgroup, Caley Rd. WA 6025. We also have evening and weekend events for Mam’s and families. For any new families, we have some spaces - the first two weeks are free (gives you a chance to make sure it suits you.) CONDOLENCES Our deepest condolences to Sean, Debbie, Erin and Danny on the loss of Sean’s beloved father. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam. Congratulations Martina Havern Costello on the safe arrival of baby Senan. SLAN Bon Voyage to the Doherty family who are returning home to the Emerald Isle. Best wishes from all at IFIP and the Irish Mam's Group. IFIP would like to take this opportunity to thank superwoman herself Linda Morton for her Trojan work with the playgroups. See you all at the parade! Eimear Beattie
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Did you ever feel like a
By Lloyd Gorman Touching down in versation with a chap sitting on his own. Turns out this Dublin airport early guy - I think his name was Michael (Daly) but I could be in the morning on a wrong about that - works in the horse racing sector. Our cold December day conversation turned to Vincent O’Brien who split his was an emotional ex- time between Ireland and Perth and while I didn’t know perience. Aside from Vincent, I did get to know and admire his lovely wife just being glad to Jacqueline, a West Australian girl, and we both toasted get off the plane af- her good memory. ter an eighteen hour The Storehouse is apparently one of if not the top flight and walk on tourist attractions in Ireland. They have a lot of historsolid ground again ic material to work with (including the lease signed in it was two and a 1759 for 9,000 years to the James Gate property) and half years since our brewing equipment and paraphernalia to lay on an imlast homecoming, a pressive display. A slightly familiar face in one of the long enough sepa- many videos and images, caught my attention. Up on ration especially for the screen was Fergal Murray, brew master for Guinour three young, but ness, a man who came to Perth about four years ago and quickly growing chil- who I managed to sit down with in The Breakwater in dren. If it felt like we Hillarys and interview for Irish Scene. were well and truly From Dublin we travelled by intercity train to Belfast Touchdown at Dublin Airport where my back ‘home’ what I to stay with my wife’s sister and her family for a few folks were waiting for us... didn’t realise at that days. We booked our seats online in advance and when stage was that our adopted home of Western Australia we boarded the train found our places, with our names hadn’t been left behind entirely either. on display. Even though the carriage was practically Our first few days were spent at the empty there was another name booked in for Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street, Dubone of the seats in our section. The name was lin’s main street. Getting off the bus from Hugh Sheridan. While he doesn’t have a moDublin airport that stopped directly outnopoly on the name of course we couldn’t help side the Gresham the first place I noticed but wonder if somehow it wasn’t the Australidirectly opposite the hotel was the Ned an actor of Packed to the Rafters fame. WhethKelly sports bar. The Australian influence er it was or not we’ll never know because Hugh was there from day one of the holiday and Sheridan - whoever he is - never turned up to it would shadow most of our trip. take his place. Virtually everyone you meet in Ireland In the days just before Christmas the media has some connection - past or present would throw up two very different versions with Australia, and very many of them of Perth. In its December 23 edition, The Irish Ned Kelly's Sport Bar with Western Australia in particular. DeDaily Mirror ran a full page story under the termined to do a bit of sighting seeing in Dublin we de- headline, Oz man quizzed over the murder of Ciara. The cided to go to the Guinness Storehouse and jumped in a tabloid picked up on breaking taxi. Our driver was a chap called Colin Hanley and after news in Perth of the arrest of a he found out we were on tour from Perth he asked if suspect in the Claremont seriwe might know friends of his, Laura and Larry Grimes. al murder killings. The Ciara in I said I didn’t but hinted to him that I might have a way question, as a vast majority of of getting word to them, so I hope at least one of you Irish Scene readers will already reads this edition of Irish Scene and realise that some- be aware, was Ciara Glennon, the one back in Ireland is thinking of ye. daughter of Irish emigrants MiOn our final night in the Gresham I popped down to chael from Westport, Co. Mayo the hotel bar for a drink to take back to the room. In and Una, from Monaghan. The the few minutes I was standing there I struck up a con- Mirror reported the 50 year old 40
suspect from the Perth suburb of Kewdale was being four years ago. Their son Jesse, who couldn’t be coaxed quizzed over the murder of Ciara and two other womto join them on the trip, unexpectedly caught a flight en. She went missing while she was out celebrating St. to Ireland to surprise them and to reunite the family Patrick’s Day in 1997 and her body was only discovered for the first time in years. On top of that they also ran weeks later in thick bushland. The article even meninto two different sets of tioned the POST newspaper - where I work - in relation neighbours and friends to a story it had published about the murder mystery from Perth who were in the year before. Another full page article much along Dublin by sheer chance. the same lines was reprinted in the same newspaper The trip home was the day after. also a rare chance to The same day - Christmas Eve morning about breakcatch up with old friends fast time - I happened to see something familiar on the from Perth, who have screen. UTV’s morning show was doing a live cross moved back to Ireland. to Cottesloe beach Our six year old daughwhere rows of hapter Molly’s best friend Molly and Matilda py and shiny former and former school mate Matilda left WA more than 18 residents of Northern months ago with mum and dad, Anne and Brendan, and Ireland were lined up her new-born sister Clodagh. For the duration of the and screaming for the time between their departure and our planned arrival benefit of the camera. on holiday, Molly talked about meeting her friend again. Just a few miles away As the holiday neared its end it was a rendezvous that from where Ciara needed to happen. We drove from Limerick City into Glennon was last seen the southern part of Tipperary the beach scene was and expected to have a pleasL-R Mick and Julie Buckley with Ciara and a world away from ant few hours with them and Pat O'Driscoll in the Four Elms Pub that tragic story, but a a chance for the girls to bond place of happiness for many others (including my chilagain. Such was the warmth of dren for whom Cottesloe is their favourite beach). their welcome and hospitality A night out with two of my brother in laws – Vinnie and the beauty of their home and Eoin – in Limerick to watch Munster play rugby and hilly surrounds (which took us to the Four Elms pub in Drombanna. As is so saw some snow) we ended up often the case in an Irish pub the boys met people that staying overnight, and having they knew from Cork. Sisters Julie and Ciara are maran almighty night and sing ried to Mick (Buckley) and Pat O’Driscoll respectively. St Ann's Church Dawson Street song with them. For all of us, The girl’s sister Aoife lives in Bunbury and is married to holds an Anzac Day service adults and children, having Sean McGreal, and they recently had a new baby ‘Pop- every year been friends in Perth but meetpy’. Mick’s brother Johnny Buckley and his wife Karen ing again in Ireland made the get together that bit more are also resident in WA, in Duncraig. Julie and Mick special. themselves lived in Perth, near to Johnny and Karen, for We spent a mighty weekend in the Connaught Hoa stint. They came out in 2011 but returned to Ireland tel (formerly Ryan’s Hotel) in Galway, catching up with in 2012. Needless to say there was a lot to talk about family. One evening while waiting at the bar to order and compare notes. a round I thought I heard Australian accents from an This holiday was also a little bit different in that older couple already sitting at the counter. I said G’day we both had family and we struck up a bit of a members living in chat while the barman went to Perth back in Ireland work on my order. They were or with us for much from Bundaberg in Queensof the time. Perhaps land and the husband had this contributed to surprised her with a trip to that sense of connecIreland where they had always tion with WA. As it longed to go and they were happens my side of loving their time in Ireland. the family, Trevor and The couple had also spent Sonia Farrell, came some time in Perth some The Farrell Clan (Sonia, Lois, Jesse and back around the same years ago through misfortune. Trevor) reunited as a family in Dublin. time as us to their They were on a cruise several Poet Patrick Kavanagh Canal native Dublin, and to see their family and friends, inyears ago when she badly in- Bank sculpture sits in front of the cluding Lois who returned to Dublin from Perth about jured her back and had to be Australian Embassy in Dublin. 41
taken from the ship at Exmouth and flown to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital where she would spent six months in a hospital bed. Luckily enough for them their An advertisement on a son was living in Dublin Bus appeals to locals to come Down Perth at the time under. and her husband was able to stay with him, making a difficult time a little bit easier. I was able to share a little bit of trivia with them that connected their experience there to their trip now. As it happens, the former Governor of Western Australia after who the hospital is named was brought up in Co. Galway. She seemed to appreciate this little tit bit of information and connection between the two experiences. With just a few days to go before we flew home RTE broadcast an episode of Garda Down Under, which is all about former Gardai working in Perth and across WA as police officers. About the same time I spotted a little ‘quick’ story in a daily paper about a Quokka escaping from Rottnest on a barge carrying rubbish from the island to the mainland and knew it was time to go back ‘home’. A bit like that misplaced marsupial we too would be leaving our native island environment for Perth.
This little Rottnest critter recently became an internet sensation (Poste on Instagram by Cambojones2020).
’ G da FROM MELBOURNE.
By Mike Bowen
Get the champers out we have things to talk about; well it’s almost here, that special day when everyone who is, or would like to be Irish is upon us. Thank God for sending Saint Patrick to Ireland instead of somewhere else, such as Israel, or Afghanistan. Look at the state we Irish would be in if J.C. gave us a different Saint instead of St Patrick. Let’s say he gave us a St Temperance, maybe all pubs might have to be closed for the day and not a drink in sight. Holy Mary mother of God and look at the state we would be in. What would we do on March 17th without an excuse to celebrate our national day? Really who would want to celebrate a St Temperance Day? Can you imagine us Irish sitting around with cups of tea or glasses or water on our day of days our most precious day on the calendar Did I say we? Bloody Hell, what about the rest of the world who join us every year and become Irish for one day on St Pats Day. All round the world there are millions, who become Irish for the day, before going home late after a great day of celebration and experience what it’s like to kick off your shoes and have one hell of a Hooley, once Can you Imagine New York having a normal day, on March 17th, without a Saint Patricks day parade? Of course not, never. Look at all the money that all the Irish watering holes around the world would lose if we had no excuse to celebrate. Maybe Guinness would lose their best trading day of the year and might have to revert to other forms of making money, such as selling novena books for St Tem42
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perance’s special events. To some of us Irish St Patricks Day is on par with Christmas day, always a wonderful day to look forward to. This will be my second St Pats at home in Australia after spending the previous five in a mix of Ireland and Japan. I know a couple of my friends in Perth won’t be having an early night, particularly Fred Rea as he won’t stop singing until the lights are turned off and the last man has left the establishment. Jim Egan will I suspect will be his wing man on the night. I am so looking forward to the day and having a real Irish breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages along with plenty of Clonakilty black pudding accompanied with a large glass of the black stuff and what better way to start our national day of celebration. The Irish will be out in all their colours here in Melbourne proudly showing the Australians how to celebrate and adding lots of voice and music to make the locals envious. As we will no doubt be, having a real Hooley here in Melbourne, let me wish all my Irish comrades a happy and safe, Saint Patrick’s Day wherever you are in the world. On my bucket list is an unfulfilled promise I made to my friends in New York and myself that I will spend at least one or two St Patrick’s Days there in the next few years. Maybe I’m just worried, that if I go into Emmons bar and grill on St Pat’s day I won’t come out for a week knowing the hospitality they show me on my visits there. Being St Patrick's week this week I have had a real nostalgic time reminiscing on a time when music made us feel someone was writing songs for us instead of the
boom boom music that I regularly hear blasting out from cars at traffic lights. The Boom Boom irritating sounds tells me to get away from the lights at pedal to the metal speed in case I damage my eardrums. Maybe I am getting old and grumpy, so what I have earned the right. Back to the beautiful music, I listened to Corks Sinead Lohan’s 1995 album “Who Do You Think I Am”. Galway’s, Juliet Turner year 2000 album “Burn the Black Suit”. I also love the undated album ‘First Impressions’ of Luan and of course there is no missing the Black sisters albums of Marys “The Holy Ground “and Frances “Talk to Me”, just to mention a few of the wonderful female writers and singers that Ireland produced . Yes, of course I listened to the guys stuff also. Rory Gallagher gets top billing on my list followed by Van Morrison then Phil Lynette always gets a spin with The Very best of Thin Lizzy followed by West Life’s greatest hits. Yes, I do have a wide stretch of the imagination when it comes to music especially Irish singers and songwriters and no I never ever get enough of good Irish music. Yea I will admit that I always get nostalgic around this time of year, it must be the smell of the approaching shamrock. It’s beginning to look a lot like Ireland here at the moment with all the rain we have had, in spite of it being summer and it’s a bit of a mystery to all, where all the water is coming from considering we are a nation known mostly for having droughts rather than floods. I should say unlike Ireland at least it’s hot rain. I swore when I came to Australia many years ago I would never complain about the weather here especially after the weather I put up with, growing up in Ireland and so I won’t. Until I talk to you again be good to those who love you and Sainte from Melbourne. Mike
When I Am Old
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me, And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired, And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells, And run my stick along the public railings, And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick the flowers in other people's gardens, And learn to spit. You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat, And eat three pounds of sausages at a go, Or only bread and pickle for a week, And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats and things in boxes. But now we must have clothes that keep us dry, And pay our rent and not swear in the street, And set a good example for the children. We will have friends to dinner and read the papers. But maybe I ought to practise a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised, When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple! Jenny Joseph
Visiting Ireland?
Gerry & Elsie Tully will give a great welcome!
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An Irish doctor who lifted the lid on Australia’s asbestos shame By Lloyd Gorman
medical officer and chest physician at For generations of Australians he Kalgoorlie Hospital. was the courageous and undaunted His job was to diagnose TB and medical whistle-blower who exposed miner’s dust diseases and he pushed the health dangers of asbestos and hard to get the powerful mines redefined Australian public health department to introduce better dust policy. sampling equipment and tighter His children and loved ones controls. remember him as a devoted dad and He once said he felt like “John the loving family man who took them to Baptist bleating in the wilderness” Rottnest every year. trying to influence the department to He was also proud of his Irish make changes. heritage and nurtured the link with his But it was his work into Wittenoom country of origin in his adopted home that eventually shot him to national land. prominence. James “Jim” McNulty died in Perth A mobile X-ray unit attached to his on January 27, aged 91. unit at Kalgoorlie returned from the Born in Belfast he got his medical mining town 1100km northeast of degree from Queens University in Perth with results from miners that Belfast and shortly after graduation he alarmed him. worked as a chest physician in England. “[They] showed a very considerable It was during his time on the other James “Jim” McNulty degree of lung disease due to asbestos,” side of the Irish Sea that Jim met he told a Worksafe documentary in 2011 from his the woman who would become his wife. Daughter Floreat home. Margaret said they met when they were both staying “It was so bad in fact there were X-ray changes due at the Poulgorm (Blue Pool) Hotel in Glengariff, West to asbestos in lungs of miners who had only been there Cork. for two years, which would be quite incredible by any “Mum met Dad in Glengariff in 1955,” said Margaret. occupational health standard.” “She was on a driving holiday with a girlfriend and Dad, By then a medical superintendent he visited who was working in England at the time, was holidaying Wittenoom and was horrified by the conditions there. with his two elderly aunts. Coincidentally, they stayed “The whole town was laid with asbestos tailings as at the same hotel. He told in later life that he loved Mum road surfacing, when you stepped off the plane there from the moment he saw her. It was certainly the start of was a flurry of dust which contained asbestos fibres,” a great love story and a great adventure that would take he said. them across to the other side of the world.” (Carmel, “We drove up in the car to the pub to stay the night Betty’s sister would go on to marry the grandson of the and as the car stopped the dust become airborne and hotel owners, the Muldowneys). you could feel the dust in your teeth almost, so every Betty was born in Dublin, the 3rd eldest of eight movement stirred up dust which contained asbestos children. The family lived on the Naas Road and her fibres.” father was a long time employee at Guinness, where He found the mines were full of dust and even the he worked until he retired at 65. “Mum left school at dust extractor, which pumped dust back into the mine 15 and went to secretarial college,” added Margaret. and dumped dust on lawns outside it, made it even “She ended up working for many years until she was more dangerous to be outside than inside it. married, as personal assistant to the bookmaker P.J. Despite the issue being highlighted by the Public Kilmartin. Although they courted for about 8 months, Health Department in its1959 annual report it did not they only saw each other for about four or five weeks, have the power to close the mine. as he was still working in England. They were engaged Between 1957 and 1962 he repeated warnings to the in October 1956, married in the December and after a Colonial Sugar Refinery that owned the mine about the short honeymoon in London, left Dublin for Australia dangers to miners and town residents went unheeded. in February 1957. Despite a lack of action or response by the state NOT ONE TO LET THE DUST SETTLE government and mine owners, he continued to push In WA, Jim worked in the Tuberculosis Control for better conditions and controls. Branch of the Public Health Department as mines 44
Wittenoom - which had a population of about 20,000 people - was closed as a mine in 1966 but power to the township was not turned off until 2006. The first court wins for victims of mesothelioma from Wittenoom came in 1988. The court ruled that CSR had acted with a “continuous, conscious and contumelious disregard for its workers safety” and the company accepted liability for asbestos related diseases there. Over the next decade or so he was frequently called to give evidence in claims for compensation by people who had contracted asbestos diseases. He said it haunted him that there was always something more he could have done to help victims. Jim became executive director of Public Health and Scientific Services and retired in 1987, after 31 years in public service. Margaret said he was proud of his achievements and his family. “He said this, and even wrote it down, that his wife, his children and grandchildren all brought him the greatest joy in life,” Margaret said. “That was the focus in his life.” Last year the McNulty clan joined him to celebrate his 90th birthday and 60th wedding anniversary. Dr McNulty is survived by his wife Betty, five of their six children and 13 great grandchildren.
Jim and Betty's wedding
ISLAND RETREAT Margaret said they all had fond memories of him.
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“We had a holiday at Rottnest for a week, every year for 35 years,” she said. “We started off with just one house when it was the eight of us but it became five houses with 30 people as the family expanded.” She also recalls that he was “very proud” of his ancestry and he never lost his Belfast accent. “Mum and Dad made frequent trips home to see their families,” she added. “Dad only had one brother left in Belfast as the others had moved to the south (Republic of Ireland), England and the U.S. They went back to Belfast several times but in their later trips, stayed mainly in Dublin with Mum’s family. Whilst Mum’s family were fond of Dad from the start, they were also devastated at the time she was leaving them (to come to Australia). Her mother had been in poor health and Mum had practically raised her younger siblings for many years. Mum and dad's regular trips back home to Ireland helped to soften the separation. There has also been a constant flow of visitors from Ireland, staying at Mum and Dad’s over the years, and lots of great memories of both. Dad and Mum were members of the Celtic Club and the Irish Club and in days gone by would regularly socialise there with their Irish friends. Dad was a great lover of literature in all forms, but had a particular love of the Irish writers including James Joyce and Oscar Wilde to name a few. I recall him participating in Bloomsday at the Irish Club on several occasions, probably back in the 80’s. Whilst he always spoke fondly of Ireland and loved to visit, he always said he could never live there again because of
the weather. He enjoyed the sun and I think that’s why summer holidays at Rottnest were so special to him”.
AN IRISH NEIGHBOURHOOD The couple moved to their Floreat home in May 1965 and lived there ever since. Even back then the area of Floreat close to where they settled must have seemed inviting and welcoming for another reason. If you are ever driving to Perth from West Coast Highway down The Boulevard on the opposite side to the Wembley golf course you might have noticed street signs for Cork Rd, Thurles Rd, Clonmel Rd and Ulster Rd. Hidden behind these residential streets and Oceanic Drive on the other side is an enclave of streets with other Irish names. These include Donegal Road, Glengariff Drive, Callan Rd, Glenties Rd, Tralee Rd, Lifford Rd, Athlone Rd, Shannon St, Dundalk Rd, Tullow Rd, Roscommon Rd, Kildare Rd, Benwee Rd, Louth Rd and Kilkenny Rd. The biggest park in the area is also called Roscommon Park. Cambridge Council’s municipal heritage inventory and townscape study (1997) outlines the planning origins of this part of Floreat. According to the council document the area was subdivided and settled after World War 11. Planning for the new neighbourhood was - like other parts of Floreat - based on Garden Suburb principles with considerable
focus on public open space and parkland. The area was released for sale in the 1950's and 1960's. “The area was originally designed to be served by a trolley bus service, with buses circling the reserve at the eastern end of the precinct, bounded by Lifford and Roscommon Roads and with a terminus on Oceanic Drive.” Most of the houses there were built from the 1950’s and early 1960's. Cambridge library was able to shed some light on why the area has such a strong Irish them. “When the blocks were released for sale they were in order of West of the Forum (or where the forum would later be built) East of the Forum, South of the Forum and North of the Forum,” said Leesa Chean, acting manager library services. “As the town was built on an English plan and the main road (Cambridge - after the University) were all named accordingly. West - all Irish names, East - all English, North - all Scottish, South - all notable residents of Perth names e.g.: Selby, Orrel, Bournville etc.” The funeral mass for Dr McNulty was celebrated in St. Cecilia's Catholic Church, Floreat on February 2, where he and Betty were active members of the church community. St Cecilia's was built in the early 1960’s, not long before the McNulty family moved into the area.
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A citizen of two worlds By Caoimhe Hamilton Eating melt in your mouth roast beef Eating fluffy delish pancakes Waiting for the salt and vinegar to dissolve Going to the mouthwatering McDonald's Putting the yummy icing on a cupcake as it cools Cutting into the crumbly cake The jelly wobbling on the spoon (hunger solved) Smelling the fresh sawdust coming of the saw The luxurious shepherd’s pie coming out of the oven The barbeque steam coming up from the barby Fresh cut grass as it comes out of the mower The smelly brown slurry coming out of the tractor Black and white cows on the grass they knaw Hearing the beautiful waves crash onto shore Listening to hear the car starting Hearing the busy streets pile up like it's peek time Waiting for the local bus to come past The two trailor truck passing the door Tractors beeping on the way past Sirens going to help people hearting Seeing the dinner in the oven The bus crowded that you can’t breathe as it's jammed Bumper to bumper on the M3 Seeing the motorbike speed past The children chatting, laughing, dancing and lovin’ The green, green, grass of Ireland.
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Citizen, pioneer and melody maker by Fred Rea/Lloyd Gorman
Corkman Tommy O’Brien landed in Western Australia in January 2012 and almost exactly five years later became an Australian in Perth. He said his arrival coincided with the start of what was the latest wave of emigration, a trend which has slowed down in recent times. In his case making the move to WA was helped by the fact that his mother’s brother - Gerry Gannon - and Aunt Maryann were already established here. “It was great to have them to come out to and to stay with,” said Tommy. Almost as soon as he got here he set about finding his way in the local music landscape. “It took me a while to get playing,” he said. “I played in Ireland, I did gigs at home in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. I started off early on, playing fiddle in the Comhaltas group in Mitchelstown. I did the Fleadh Cheoil and the competitions and all of that. Then I got playing the guitar, which I found gives you more options. If you’re a fiddle player you could fit in with a session but playing a guitar and being able to sing gives you a lot more scope for picking up gigs, especially at home when things had gotten quiet with the pubs, so they were more likely to put on a soloist than a band or group and I found that stood me here.”
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Tommy was also available to hire for private functions and events around Mitchelstown. “There’d always be something on, birthdays, christenings and someone would always hear you play. It’s a great way to meet people. I don’t drink; I’m a pioneer, so I wouldn’t go into a pub anyway. But I still find pubs are a great meeting place for people to come together, have a chat, sing a song, it’s very enjoyable. The first session I went to over here was the Monday night Comhaltas session in the Irish Club. I came into that and met Sean Doherty, Jen and all that crew. Then I started playing in The Cure Bar, which had just opened and I joined with a rebel band called Clover. It wasn’t the stuff I wanted to be playing particularly but at the time the crowds were getting bigger and bigger and every Sunday the place was packed and a lot of people who wanted a certain kind of music. I like playing folk songs and ballads with a story. Obviously there’s a time and a place for a lot of these rebel songs but I found since I came here it’s almost like the further away from home people get the more patriotic they become.” Tommy thinks the centenary of the 1916 Rising last year in Ireland was well done. It wasn’t geared towards one group or hijacked by anyone he said which meant it could be truly inclusive and meaningful. “Eventually I started playing solo gigs and you can play your own stuff,” he added. “A lot of it is dictated to you by who’s in the pub. You could have a load of Australians who ask you for certain songs and it’s good to be able to play for them. Another night you could play completely Irish songs. I could play completely old stuff, it depends on the crowd. I’ve never had a set list, I ask if anyone has any requests and someone will hear that and think of something different to play. I get a lot of requests for Cold Chisel, Daryl Braithwaite and other Australian acts. It’s not the kind of stuff I would have been exposed to at home or would have listened to but I must sit down and learn some of them. I find Australians are very protective and proud of the musicians they have, like Savage Garden and Paul Kelly. I find, particularly at the start with the Irish community, if you were working or gigging in an Irish pub you might as well be at home, because you’re meeting Irish people all the time and talking to Irish people. I think it's diluted now, a lot have gone home, I think you’ll find a lot of Irish pubs are getting Australian's and it has levelled out a bit as
this wave of emigration has died down.” Tommy met his fiancée Anne Marie, a native of Scariff, East Clare, within the first two or three months of landing here. “Anne Marie works in Curtin University, with Sean from the Irish Club,” he said. “We got engaged about a year and a half ago and we became citizens in January of this year. My uncle Gerry was the MC and the mayor of South Perth was there too. We read the oath/ affirmation and that was it, we were citizens! Becoming Australian's was the right thing to do and a practical thing to do for the kids and grandchildren.” As it happens Tommy and Anne Marie’s citizenship ceremony and Gerry came in for a special mention in the first day of parliament in Canberra in 2017. Speaking on February 7 in the House of Representative Steve Irons the member for the Swan Electorate said the summer recess allowed members of parliament to spend time with the people they represent. “One of my favourite occasions to do this is on Australia Day each year,” Mr Irons said in the chamber. “This year was no different. The local MC at the city’s South Perth foreshore ceremony, Gerry Gannon, who is also a local radio identity, had the same sentiments. Australia day is a very important day for me, and it gives us all time to reflect on just how lucky we are to be part of this great nation.” Tommy came out on a 417 Visa. To extend the 12 months allowed on this visa he did three months of regional work. “I worked in hay shed in Muchea (North of Perth). I was there around September time so the heat wasn’t too bad thankfully. Anyhow I left there on the Friday and on the Monday it burnt down, I was lucky.” He spent some time working up north but for the last year or so he has worked for a mining company - West-
Tommy and Anne Marie
ern Plant Hire - who are based in a naval base near Kwinana. Now he spends most of his time in the city, which he enjoys more. Tommy and Anne Marie went on to get their permanent residency and then aced the test people have to take to become citizens. “We both got 20 out of 20,” laughed Tommy. No sooner have the couple cleared the hurdle of citizenship than they are facing into their next milestone. “We’re getting married in July and we need to apply as quickly as possible to get our Australian passports,” he said. “My sister came out here nine months after me and she got married at home last year and she got her citizenship with us. They may be going back in the next year or so but Gerry, Nicola and my cousins are here.” Meanwhile, after taking a break from the music scene, Tommy is getting back into it. “I’m doing a gig a week now, which I feel is good. I pick one up here and there.” Friends celebrate with Tommy
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home. AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL PROVERB
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Dermot Byrne
The Irish Quiz Wiz! a.k.a. Dermot from Lesmurdie on ABC radio Nightlife program. This being the St Patrick's Day edition Dermot has a challenging quiz for you. Not surprisingly, the emphasis is on Ireland and no doubt you will get them right before peeking at the answers. Dermot tells me the rules have changes on the ABC Nightlife Program and they are restricting his appearances. His ABC Fan Club will be very disappointed I am sure. There will always be a place for you in our Irish Scene Dermot and we all appreciate your contribution. Editor! Dublin in the Rare 1. Of the four provinces of Ireland which one has the most counties? Old Times... 2. To which city would you go to see the Treaty Stone? One for you 3. Which county has the shortest coast line? Dermot, you sing 4. Who is Ireland’s female patron saint? about it often 5. In which City would you find the Spanish Arch? enough, tell us 6. In which county is the source of the River Shannon? when the Theatre 7. What is the longest single word place name in Ireland? Royal in Dublin was 8. In which county would you be in if you were kissing the Blarney Stone? pulled down... 9. How many pillars are there in front of the G.P.O.in Dublin? Happy St Patrick's 10. Where in Ireland are the most northerly and the most southerly points? Day mate!
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Answers: 1.Leinster, 2.Limerick, 3.Leitrim, 4.St. Bridget, 5.Galway, 6.Co.Cavan, 7.Newtownmountkennedy, Co.Wicklow, 8.Co.Cork, 9.Six, 10.Malin Head Donegal & Mizen Head Cork.
Word Sleuth for the Young S R Q P A M D S R E L A N F I R U E X U D E R M O T N E B R I R A R O C H E G R C N I R N T U P J S L E R A L I N R N H P H B S I E A A A A S R E L A Y O S M I C K D N S L A N D N R S E E Y A D I S R B E D N E S R E A G A R S R H L Y N I S I F L S G I S R A L A N L S C R L A H S S R I I A N L S K E I R E H O R L E I L Y Y R D L A N C S R E L A N D S R O S I E L S C E N E N M A L O N E N U S R E L A N G O R M A N D B
FIND WORDS: MURPHY SLAN ROCHE LIMERICK REA ABHAILE DERMOT EIRE ROSIE JBOREILLY SIBIN CLADDAGH SCENE QUINN MICK MALONE FENIAN NELLIE PADDY FRED PERTH END GORMAN IRISHCLUB
Who said: Shakespeare said pretty well everything and what he left out, James Joyce, with a judge from meself, put in.
Lateral Thinking Quiz:
1. You can use three identical digits in a simple addition sum so that the total is 12. You cannot use the digit 4 so what is the answer? 2. In a hot air balloon off the coast of Ireland, Ben dropped two bottles of soda over the side, one empty and one full. Which smashed to the ground first? 3. Divide 40 by half and add ten. What is the answer? 4. A man is dozing during mass. He is dreaming about the French revolution and the guillotine. His wife, seeing that he is nodding off taps him on the back of the neck. He has a heart attack and dies instantly. True or false? Give a reason. 5. A man marries twenty women in his village but isn't charged with polygamy. Why? 6. There is a man who guesses the score of every football game before kick-off. How can he do this? Answers below. No peeking!
Answer: Brendan Behan
1.11 + 1 = 12 / 2.Neither. Ben was over the sea./ 3.90 / 4.False.If he had died, how would we know what he was dreaming of? 5.He is the priest. 6.Before kick-off the score is always 0-0.
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By Lloyd Gorman
TeleStationTeleNation
Telly Nation didn’t get the chance to watch a lot of TV in Ireland while on holidays there over Christmas, but there were some Aussie moments. Early Christmas Eve morning on UTV’s This Morning Live breakfast show for example started with a live cross over to Cottesloe Beach where scores of former Northern Ireland families were lined up and screaming and waving to the camera that zoomed past them. The sun was blazing, the sand and sea looked inviting and with the iconic Indiana Tea House all framing a typical picture of how Irish and other imagine life in Australia. [Just as an aside, Cottesloe does have an Irish connection. It is named after Thomas Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe. According to Wikipedia he was “ Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1845 and 1846. He was sworn into the British Privy Council in 1844 and of the Irish Privy Council in 1845. Fremantle left the House of Commons in 1846 and was afterwards Deputy Chairman of the Board of Customs between 1846 and 1847 and Chairman between 1847 and 1874. He was also as a Justice of the Peace. In 1874 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cottesloe, of Swanbourne and Hardwick in the County of Buckingham, in recognition of his services.”] Later that day my kids watched The Rescuers Down Under, a sequel to the original animated movie, with this one set in the Australian
outback. One of the programmes I managed to catch was a favourite of mine before emigrating to Australia. I caught one episode of David Willis in action in Irish Paint Magic on TG4 (Irish language TV). The show is in English or perhaps it would be better to say it is Willis Vision as this 85 year old former builder turned painter has almost a language and way of his own that is very Irish and very entertaining, including his own set of noises and spoken instructions to the paint itself, and the contents of his brilliant paintings, which on this occasion was a hooker in Galway Bay. This episode rounded off with a version of the song Ireland my Ireland by Sean McGuinness and Pierce Plunkett from the Dublin City Ramblers. If you have never seen David painting on TV it is a real pleasure to watch and listen to him do his “magic”. Thankfully if you google him you will be able to find episodes, well worth 30 minutes of anyone’s time. About three days before we flew out of Dublin RTE2 screened an episode from its Garda Down Under series that follows the professional and personal lives of seven former Gardai who are now on the beat in Western Australia, the largest police district in the world. This episode offered insights into the workings of the officers in stations across the state, from Kununurra to Perth and Fremantle and Palymra. Cottesloe Beach got another look in as well. Garda 54
Down Under which was made by RTE on location in WA in 2016 was so good that Australian broadcaster Nine bought the rights to it. Similarily, Googlebox, the show about people watching TV and their reactions to what they see on the box, which started life in Australia in 2015 and has proved to be very successful for Channel TEN, has now been taken up by Irish, with the format being screened on TV3 in 2016 and into 2017. A few days after we returned from Ireland on January 21 NITV carried an Irish language drama series about a hard nosed newspaper reporter digging up stories that tend to rock the boat and upset the authorities. There aren’t many opportunities to hear Irish spoken on Australian TV so I tend to take them when they come, but more than that Corp agus Anam is a good show in its own right and the captions make it easy to follow what's going on and being said. Earlier that day I noticed that the Jim Henson kids show Pajanimals is made with no small assistance from Belfast based production company Sweet 16 production company and the Northern Ireland Film Board. Just another in a growing and long list of children’s programming which has input from Irish animation and production companies. On January 22 on the Food Channel Donal Skehan’s mixed food and travel programme Follow Donal to.... took him to Vietnam. On January 26 we were back in Australia with a local film that
has featured in the pages of TSTN before. Beneath Clouds is a film about the meaning of identity, family and place. Lena is the daughter of an aboriginal mother and an Irish father who goes in search of her dad who apparently lives in Sydney. She carries with her a book of photos of her father in Ireland and landscape pictures. When asked by Vaughan – the other lead character who breaks out of prison to see his dying mother – why she carries it, she says: “It's where I belong”. This is a slow moving but thoughtful flick that would be a good one to include in a film festival. On January 27, on Nine, the 1994 film Blown Away, follows the struggle between a former Republican (Jeff Bridges) who goes to work for the bomb squad in America and his psychotic once comrade in arms (Tommy Lee Jones). While there are some dodgy Irish accents put on for this American movie the entire soundtrack is provided by U2. Over on Channel Seven that same day they aired Centurion, an action movie about a small group of Roman soldiers trying to escape the murderous and menacing Scottish Celts pursuing them. Interestingly the Celts speak in “Irish” and one of the films main characters is Irish/German actor Michael Fassbendar who even gets to speak a bit of Gaeilge himself. Ripper Street continues to be shown on One during January and February, seasons which are all set in turn of century London, but filmed in Dublin. Probably not one of the better films he was in but Immortal was screened on Seven on January 28, just days after John Hurt died (SEE PAGE 58 ). Despite the film itself Hurt plays his role to perfection. Reign of Fire which is set in a future where fire breathing dragons are at war with mankind was on 7Mate, January 29. This 2002 British film was shot in Co. Wicklow. Season 4 of Vikings - which is
also largely shot in Co. Wicklow - returned simultaneously to RTE in Ireland and SBS in Australia about January 11. The pace of action in this season has so far surrendered its usual veracity to an ever increasingly complex and intriguing storyline, but watching it so far one can’t help but think the whole thing is heading for the biggest and bloodiest battle scenes yet as the Vikings assemble their largest army and raiding party in history. Australian actor Guy Pearce has portrayed some incredible characters in his impressive stage and screen career. The role of Jack Irish is one that suits him - a former lawyer mixed up but always on the side of good in some very shady situations. The name itself conjures up a lot of interest in the drama series and while it has no actual Irish connection the show does allow little glimpses of Irishness, with, for example, Jack finding an important clue to a murder at a house in Sligo Lane in the episode shown on ABC on February 2. The Great Train Robbery on 9Gem on February 4 was shown last year on the same network but it is a movie you could watch and watch again. With Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland as the two leading men this is a gentle action and crime film with a great plot and acting. Add to that the fact that most of the film - particularly the various train station scenes and shots with the steam engine surging through the countryside were all set in Ireland. Acknowledgements at the end of the film thanked Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE), the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, Chubb and Sons Lock and Safe Co and the National Film Studios of Ireland. The first episode of Roy - the story of Ireland’s only cartoon kid at 55
home and school in the real world - O’Brien was shown on ABC on February 4 and it was great to see the beginning of this show which entertains the kids, but has enough Irish humour in it as well for adults to grasp. Roy has proved to be very popular with audiences in Ireland, England and Australia and has now even spawned a spin off show - Little Roy - which will start on ABC from February 27. The Graham Norton Show on Channel Eleven on February 5 was a repeat of the show screened on New Years Eve. The show - which takes its name from its Cork born host - often has a strong Irish theme, but this one especially so. Irish German actor Michael Fassbender is a regular on the show and is always good value. On this occasion he got a bit of a slagging about his “thick Kerry accent” from other guests on the couch, Skibbereen brothers and rowers Gary and Paul O’Donovan who powered ahead in the Olympics and charmed the world with their easy going and larrikin attitude to life. Made even more famous with their now famous saying - Pull Like a Dog - the boys were as entertaining and gregarious under studio lights as they were being interviewed by TV crews in Rio. If the Cork lads were quick to have a dig at a Kerryman, they were also ready to slag off the other guest on the show, English writer and comedian Frank Skinner. Skinner, who is pretty quick witted and fast with his tongue, tried to retell his one and only rowing story, to which the brothers put him down as not having a very good story to tell at all. Skinner was forced to acknowledge that he had been bettered by a pair of rowers. But on the Irish side of things it came out on the show that he had won an artistic competition and that his
Tony and Veronica McKee PO Box 994 Hillarys WA 6923
entry - a portrait of Graham Norton himself - would be going on display in the National Gallery of Ireland. Finally on February 28 ABC2 showed The Joy, the first of a four part documentary about day to day life in Ireland’s biggest prison. The other parts will be on March 7, 14 and 21 and will offer an insight into a world most of us thankfully will never need to know first hand. That is after all one of the powers of TV.
info@mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au www.mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au
Tel (08) 9401 1900 • Fax: 9401 1911 • Mob: 0413 337 785
The
Celtic Club • Perth •
• BAR • • R E S TA U R A N T • • FUNCTIONS
48 Ord Street, West Perth, WA 6005 9322 2299 celtic.club@bigpond.com www.celticclubperth.com
M TH O
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Rich
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HAY ST
FRIDAY 17th MARCH
St Patrick's Day Lunch with entertainment from the Dublin Rogues, $70 pp (Lunch & Entertainlent) Doors open 11am- Lunch 12.30pm
Includes 3 Course Lunch. Book a table early to avoid disappointment. Please note that this is a Club event and the Club will be closed to non attendees.
Start enjoying this great Club and become a member today! 56
WEEKLY IRISH TRAD MUSIC SESSION
Seán Doherty Branch
Dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music and dancing world wide.
Page Sponsored by: Reid’s Bootmakers
Sausage Sizzle Fund Raiser
Sausage Sizzle fundraiser at Bunnings Homebase Wembley on Saturday 25 March and also on Saturday 27 May .
Music Camp 2017
Music Camp is being held from 12-14 May 2017 at Bickley Outdoor Recreation Camp. More details for our facebook re: timetables for music, singing and dancing workshops, sessions etc...
RETURN TO MONDAY AT IRISH CLUB
Comhaltas will be returning to Monday evenings at the Irish Club from March 2017. Dympna Finch, Secretary
EVERY MONDAY AT THE IRISH CLUB
Comhaltas Perth meets on Monday nights. Come and learn a tune. 7pm in the committee room or join in the session. You don’t have to be a member of Comhaltas to join in. There is also set dancing most Mondays about 8.30 pm. It’s great fun, beginners welcome.
Seamus Liam Doherty
5 September 1969 11 February 2017
Condolences to Sean and family
The Chair and committee along with the members would like to express our sincere condolences to Sean Doherty on the loss of his son Seamus recently. Seamus passed away peacefully at home after a long illness on 11th February 2017. Seamus was farewelled at a beautiful Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Thornlie and later at Fremantle Cemetery where the mourners and family were joined by a large group of his Police colleagues. Seamus is survived by his loving wife Maria, children Cara and Cian, stepchildren Jacinta and Alison along with father Sean and stepmother Trinidad sister Fiona, brothers Kieran, Andrew and Brendan. Seamus was dearly loved and will be sadly missed by all. Ar dheas Dé go raibh a anam.
For news updates visit: www.facebook.com/perthcomhaltas
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John Hurt, the late and great actor, was a powerhouse of the stage, television and big screen. He played some amazing and unforgettable characters, including, to mention just two examples as the deformed John Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980) and the film version of George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour, released in the same year it's author had written the novel about back in 1949. Hurt was always outstanding and convincing as the characters he played. One of my personal favourites was his depiction of “The Bird” O’Donnell in The Field (1990), an adaptation of John B. Keane’s 1965 play of the same name. Hurt played the sniffling and sneaky sidekick to the Bull McCabe brilliantly and had an important role in that tragic Irish tale. But one of the most moving and touching moments this writer can recall involving him was not as someone else, but a deeply personal insight into the man himself. It happened here in Perth, about two or three years ago. SBS were screening the popular BBC genealogical series Who do you think you are? from the 2007 season. On this occasion Hurt was the ‘celebrity’ whose family history and skeletons in the cupboard were to be explored, or should that be exposed? Hurt spoke about the long held family belief that his great-grandmother had been born as the illegitimate daughter of a Marquess of Sligo. The English actor valued his Irish ancestry and held this to be a fact, but went looking for proof. But as hard as the programmes researchers and other
When it Hurts not to be Irish?
A brother of Hurts converted to Roman Catholicism and became a monk and a writer at Glenstal Abbey, the Benedictine monastery in Murroe, County Limerick. Hurt would visit the Abbey and his brother in his TV quest to find out more about their family past. Apparently their sister would become a teacher in Australia, but where exactly I don’t know. Long before he captured and portrayed “The Bird” in 1990, Hurt had
By Lloyd Gorman
experts searched they could find no Irish connection at all. In fact they traced his ‘Irish’ ancestor back to Grimsby, taking him up a genealogical cul-de-sac in the quest for some Irish DNA. Speaking to camera a devastated Hurt could not contain his disappointment. Indeed he was physically shaken and seemed to be grieving for something deep that he had lost. Aged 67, discovering he was not ‘Irish’ was almost a mortal blow for him. It would have been akin to telling a devout Catholic that they had proved God did not exist. Perhaps armed with a lifelong sense that he was a little bit Irish and had a familial stake in the country Hurt always felt comfortable, even “at home”, in Ireland. Indeed, Ireland was home for some time. He lived in Ireland for seven years, five of those spent in Co Wicklow and two spent in Bunclody, Co Wexford and even had an Irish wife, one of a few loved by the charismatic actor.
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much earlier (1974) played the lead role of “Christy Mahon” in John Millington Synge’s drama The Playboy of the Western World. In the mid 2000’s Hurt also played the dark role of Jellon Lamb, a bounty hunter in "The Proposition", a deeply Australian Irish movie set in the 1880’s. One of his lines in that was: “What is an aboriginal but an Irishman turned inside out?”. Perhaps Hurt felt a bit turned inside out when he realised he didn’t have a drop of Irish blood in his veins but hopefully before he died in January of this year he came to know he was Irish in his heart and an honorary Irishman in the truest way.
Frank Murphy presents
Call Nik Silsby on 0402 284 594 107.9fm Fremantle Radio Saturday 8am to 10am Lic No 387131
IRISH MUSIC • INTERVIEWS • LOCAL & IRISH NEWS
nsilsby@loanscafe.com 58
FAREWELL VERONICA JOHN DILLON
Passed away in Bunbury in January. To our good friends Sr Roberta and Tom and the rest of the Dillon families our deepest sympathy.
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. May the rain fall softly upon your fields until we meet again, And may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Jimmy Byrne writes…. It is so sad to have to tell my friends that my beautiful wife Veronica passed away on Friday 30th December, 2016. She was my life and she was my everything. While I’m heartbroken I am also comforted by the very happy memories which she has left me with. Our life has been a lovely journey; almost like a worldwide cruise. What I never expected was that she would get off the ship first; leaving me behind. However she left me with the best memories, fun and laughter. Veronica you were the best thing that ever happened to me and I know that we will still be sharing so much as time goes on. You were everything to me, our children and our grandkids. May you enjoy the company of your mum, dad and younger brothers. God bless you and rest in peace my beautiful wife. Jimmy xxx
St Patrick’s Day Mass Australia 2012Western Western Australia
Organised by The Irish Community of WA working with The Archdiocese of Perth Organised by The irish COmmuniTy Of Wa WOrking WiTh The arChdiOCese Of PerTh
Homilist: Principal Celebrant Celebrant& & Homilist:
RevFr FrVincent Vincent Conroy Glynn -O-oSt Mary’s Cathedral, Perth
Victoria Square, Perth St Mary ’S Cathedral , Perth on St Patrick’s Day Saturday thMarch MarCh 2012 atam 10 aM Friday17 17th 2017 at 10
and getting to the Mass: PleaseParking Note: There is Limited Parking at the Cathedral There is parking for 90 cars under the Cathedral.
PARKING GETTING TO THE MASS: Other parkingAND is available at PCC Parking Stations in the vicinity.
The light may have gone out but the glow is still there. Such a lovely special lady who can never fade away. All our lives will never be the same but we will gain from the lovely memories of Veronica, the very best wife and mother. Jimmy, Linda, Garry, Sinead and Ceire. To Jimmy, Linda, Garry, Sinead and Ceire our deepest condolences.
There is parking for a limited number of cars at the Cathedral. Other parking available at PCC Parking Stations in theregularly. vicinity. The “Red Cat” is Free Bus Service runs past the Cathedral
It stops manyBus convenient locations from West Perth The “Red Cat”atFree Service runs past the Cathedral regularly. particularly Perth Central Railway Stationlocations stoppingfrom at theWest doorPerth of the Cathedral It stops at many convenient
particularly Perth Central Railway Station stopping at the door of the Cathedral
Mass Enquiries
Mass Address: Mail 56 Address: 56 Lombardy Woodlands Mail Address: Lombardy Street,Street, Woodlands WA WA 60186018 Tel: 9446 3784 Email: paultanham@tpg.com.au
Tel: 9446 3784 Email: pltanham@tpg.com.au
After St Patrick's Day Mass
CELEBRATE SAN PATRICIO DAY
Having celebrated Mass at our local cathedral, come join us for an early Irish lunch and a traditional Irish coffee at
A'Caverna Restaurant 566 Hay Street Perth Lets celebrate San Patricio Day together. A short walk from the cathedral.
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HERITAGE
Australian-Irish Heritage Association
HE AIHA IRISH ‘BUSH POETS’ GATHERING
AIHA HISTORY MEETING IRISH CLUB, THURSDAY MARCH 30TH 7.45pm
The AIHA will be holding an Irish “Bush Poets” gathering sometime near the end of April. A lot of Irish poets ended up having what you might call a “university” education especially during the ascendency period of Irish History. The post WW2 improvement of Irish Education standards has left us with a system which has produced a plethora of excellent Irish poets. Being a small agricultural economy most children in the ‘bush’ may not have been able to reach the heights or standards of education as the city dwelling children. Suffice to say that their work is held in very high esteem and popularity. Many would be poets in the country areas worked hard on the land usually scratched around with pencil and paper in near darkness in their little cabins at night, sometimes suffering jesting and ridicule for their art. We will look at several of these poets read some of their words and discuss their work. More information will be forthcoming later.
Denis Bratton will discuss the life of Irish immigrant Margaret Haughery, who immigrated to America in 1818 and became known as the ‘Angel of New Orleans. Born on Christmas Day 1813 in Tully Co Leitrim, the Haughery family of father, mother and six young children lived a life faced with extreme poverty, religious persecution and the constant failure of crops forced the family to immigrate to America in 1818. Tens of thousands emigrated in this year; climatic conditions had produced a succession of wet summers followed by cold winter and history records this time as “the year without summer” and “the year of the malty flour”. His family finally boarded a ship bound for Boston. The final parting was, as one can imagine, fraught with great sorrow on the dockside, however what was most distressing was the leaving of the three eldest children behind in the care of an uncle until they might be sent for. Not a very auspicious beginning to their new life. The family’s arrival in Boston didn’t have a happy beginning as sister Kathleen, mother and father died Her older brother Kevin disappeared she never had any contact with him again. Some observer has suggested that if Dickens had written her life story it would have become more famous than any of his novels.
THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB
Meets last Tuesday of the month with exception of December. Irish Club Committee Room, MEMBERSHIP 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco RENEWAL DUE Free. All welcome. Light 1ST JANUARY, refreshments complimentary 2017 tea & coffee Maureen on 9279 5959
AUSTRALIAN-IRISH HERITAGE ASSOCIATION Non Political-Non Sectarian-Emphatically Australian PO Box 1583 Subiaco 6904. Tel: 08 9345 3530. Email: aiha@irishheritage.net Web Page: www.irishheritage.net Membership Due in 1st January. Family membership $65, Concession $55, Membership fee includes tax deductible donation of $20
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The Australian-Irish Heritage Association was founded in 1993 as an inclusive organisation which encourages and promotes an awareness of Australia’s Irish Heritage and Culture. To this end, the AIHA creates opportunities for all to learn about, participate in and enjoy this distinctive heritage.
Licence No MRB 3939
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The Irish Club is a members only club, and we welcome new members. Application forms can be downloaded from the website.
Join LUB C E H T
61
AIDA WA EXECUTIVE 2017
President: Hilary McKenna ADCRG Vice President: Eileen Ashley ADCRG Vice President & AIDA Inc Delegate: Teresa Fenton TCRG Secretary: Samantha McAleer TCRG Minute Secretary: Kara O’Dea TCRG Treas./Booking Secretary: Deirdre McGorry TCRG Venue Sec: Sinead Hoare TCRG Registrar: Caroline O’Connor TCRG Grade Exam Co-ordinator: Rose O’Brien ADCRG
SCHOOL CONTACTS
SCOIL RINCE NI BHAIRD Lynwood Tony Ward TCRG - 0427 273 596 SCOIL RINCE NI CEIDE/UPTON Subiaco, Wangara, and Pearsall Samantha McAleer TCRG Alison Johnson TCRG 9405 6255 / 0414 188 784 Lara Upton TCRG Kalamunda 0409 474 557 EIREANN SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCING Como, Jandakot & Rockingham Siobhan Cummins TCRG 0422 075 300 KAVANAGH STUDIO OF IRISH DANCE Osborne Park www.kavanaghirishdance.com.au Teresa McGorry TCRG 0412 155 318 Deirdre McGorry TCRG Caroline McCarthy TCRG O'BRIEN ACADEMY OF IRISH DANCING Butler, Ocean Keys, Connolly/ Ocean Reef and Karrinyup www.obrienacademy.com Rose O'Brien ADCRG Martina O'Brien TCRG 0423 932 866 / 0423 382 706 O'HARE SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCING Wembley Downs & Osborne Park Jenny O'Hare TCRG 0422 239 440 THREE CROWNS SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCE Wangara & Padbury www.threecrownsirishdancing.com Eleanor Rooney TCRG 0449 961 669 TRINITY STUDIO OF IRISH DANCING Morley - Eileen Ashley ADCRG Katherine Travers TCRG Siobhan Collis TCRG 0413 511 595 WA ACADEMY OF IRISH DANCING Malaga - Glenalee Bromilow ADCRG 9276 3737/0410 584 051 Sue Hayes TMRF 9377 5600
Australian Irish Dancing Association Inc.
A huge congratulations to Dakota Courtney for her amazing result of 5th place at the All Scotland Irish Dancing Championships in Glasgow during February. GOOD LUCK to the following Perth Irish dancers who are heading off to Ireland, for the World Irish Dancing Championships held at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin, from Sunday 9th to Sunday 16th April 2017. Sinead Daly (12yrs) Ceide/Upton Jade Ryan (12yrs) Ceide/Upton Caoimhe McGuigan (12yrs) Ceide/Upton Caoimhe McAleer (14yrs) Ceide/Upton Jade McLaughlin (15yrs) Ceide/Upton Caitlin Bone (17yrs) Ceide/Upton Ciara-Mae Crone (17yrs) Ceide/Upton Jeremiah Oliveri (18yrs) Ceide/Upton Stella Ashley (12yrs) Trinity Studio Isobel Ashley (14yrs) Trinity Studio Georgia McDonald (Senior Ladies) Ceide/Upton Niamh Glynn (13yrs) Kavanagh Studio Shannon Kennedy (Senior Ladies) Kavanagh Dakota Courtney (18yrs) O’Brien Academy Keiva Young (18yrs) Trinity Studio Sian Fitzgerald (Senior Ladies) Trinity Studio Taylor Pymm (19yrs) WA Academy
Dancing Championships in Dublin (April), the Australian International Oireactas in Queensland (June) and the National Australian Championships in Adelaide (September/October). It’s not easy being an Irish dancer living in the world’s most isolated city.
Look out for the Irish dancers performing at your local pub or St Patrick’s Day event and make sure you put a couple of pennies in the jug as it comes around. Perth dancers will be fundraising for their travels to the World Irish
Sr Brendan is Shadow Minister for Mental Health; congratulated Disability Services & Child Protection by the Italian PO Box 2440, SOUTH HEDLAND members WA 6722 of the stephen.dawsonmp@mp.wa.gov.au community (08) 9172 2648 • 1800 199 344 (toll free) 62
SUPPORT IN THE WA G
IRISH COMMUMITY
land of
&
honey
“It’s a Wonderful World” ???? I was reluctantly dusting week old dust not long ago when over the radio came the gravelly voice of Mr Louis Armstrong telling me it was a wonderful world and my reaction surprised even me. “What utter bunkum, I thought furiously. The thought troubled me. Where along the road had I become a Cynic??” When the world demands little of you, it becomes habit to move to the beat of its drum. Even necessary tasks begin to impinge on your state of lethargy masquerading as contentment. I recognise the state - I do not like it one little bit. It must stop. Even frenzied meaningless activity is
Ireland
preferable. I would like an excuse for this “Stop don’t Go” state of mind and blame it partly on the weather (always a good scapegoat) and partly on the fact that I have spent a month watching Television and reading Newspapers, neither of which are good tools for mood lifting. I had a bad case of Blasket Island Blues. “Put that to music Mr Armstrong,” I thought furiously. My mind and thoughts were full of frightened, displaced, emaciated people carrying traumatised children from place to place desperately looking for shelter. This “wonderful” world is ruled, on one side, by an unattractive and loud mouthed megalomaniac, on the other by a professional thug and in the middle by a little oompa-loompa man who is busy assassinating anyone who disagrees with him, preferably relatives. In between all of this Shakespearian -like drama there are Religions, Sects and Covens all claiming omnipotence for their particular Deity and supporting their beliefs by slaughtering each other. It is really true that “whom The Gods would destroy, they first make mad”. Well they are mad enough. Now what do we do with them??
9309 9992
Woodvale Boulevard Shopping Centre Whitfords Ave, Woodvale 63
None of us are really guilt free, are we? ….We are all merely players in this dance of time. We participate, sometimes unknowingly, in this charade of long held traditional bigotries and we are all of us threatened by The New. Well in the midst of this self-dug black hole I had the good fortune to come across a programme called The Human Condition (never underestimate the power of The Box) and there was Brian Cox full of transmittable enthusiasm for the beauty of the world. He is a young Professor of Physics, as you are all probably aware. The love for the subject if, tangible, the explanation of the little spot we inhabit in an enormous galaxy is based on verifiable research and when a little doubt is necessary he is the first to admit that he hopes but doesn’t know if there are ‘Others’ somewhere. He is quite happy with the idea that maybe we were never meant to know. The magic of our existence on this tiny blue dot is inspirational. The fault is in ourselves. The World is truly wonderful. Sally Desmond
Products include: McLoughlin’s Irish Pork Sausages Black and White Pudding Irish Bacon and Gammon Joints Potato Bread and Soda Bread Barry’s Tea and Club Orange Odlums Brown and White Bread Mix Chef Brown and Red sauce Opening hours: Mon - Wed 8:00am to 6:00pm Thursday 8:00am to 7:30pm Friday 8:00am to 6:00pm Saturday 8:00am to 5:00pm Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm
Anniversary Day Report
What an exciting start to 2017 with our recent 20th Anniversary Community Day. We were delighted to host an event for all of the community to enjoy and we thank our wonderful volunteers, community groups, Irish businesses and entertainers on the day for making it such a success.
St Patrick’s Parade
We look forward to being part of the St Patrick’s celebrations on 11th March and if anyone is interested in walking with The Claddagh as part of the parade CALL 9345 1713.
Senior's Christmas in July
We are continually building on our seniors' programme and welcome new members. Our next event is Christmas in July on Monday 23rd July, 2017 at The Mighty Quinn Tavern in Tuart Hill. For bookings call our office 9345 1713.
Senior's Irish Theatre Event
The Irish Theatre Players’ have kindly offered 2 matinee's in March & May.
Senior’s Bus Trip Details to follow
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Stan Briggs the ultimate handyman At the recent Shamrock Rovers golf day Fred Rea had a chat with Stan Briggs and before long it was clear that Stan had a great story to tell, a story our readers will find most interesting. Dubliner, Stan Briggs first job out of secondary school was in a city centre bank branch in Dublin. But rather than settling into what would have been considered a “job for life” with the financial institution his career path and life choices would take him down some unconventional and colourful avenues. “Two months before I left school - Wesley College which was in Stephen’s Green in those days - I got a job with the then Royal Bank of Ireland in Grafton Street,” said Stan. “It was absolutely fantastic because in those days the bank opened at 9am and closed for an hour for lunch. Grafton St was also the cool place at the time, so at lunchtime myself and my mates would stand in Grafton Street, look cool and watch all the choices walking up and down.” Stan, then aged 17, recalls buying a packet of ‘black cigarettes’ that he thought would help him look good. “I don’t smoke but it was seen as the cool and trendy cigarette of the time so I bought a pack and stood holding one in my hands in Grafton St without actually smoking it.” He was a teller in the bank and remembers an early encounter with one of Ireland’s best known broadcasters. “Terry Wogan worked in the Royal Bank of Ireland,” ex-
By Fred Rea/ Lloyd Gorman
plained Stan. “In our branch we had the RTE bank account and he got to know some of the people and after work, about 4.30pm, he’d go up to RTE and read the news at 6 o’clock, that’s how he started.” Music was Stan’s passion and away from the rigid confines of the banking sector he threw himself into this world. “A mate of mine was forming a band and they needed someone to play bass, so I took up bass and started playing and that was basically it,” he said. “In those days we played a lot of the Protestant halls, the community halls next to the church, and funny enough I was the only Protestant in the band.” There were three main types of music in demand at the time - Showbands, traditional Irish and rock - and for the musicians there was no crossing of boundaries. “They all hated each other,” laughed Stan. “I was into Rock. The first band I was
son (above). Another band used to come over from the UK, Long John Baldry, (below) again this was very early days and there was this guy, about six foot five who used to wear
in was called The Gnumphs (above), then I went into another rock band called The Others, who were really popular and we used to play regularly in a place called Stella House in Mount Merrion (Dublin). A couple of bands used to come down from Belfast and in one of them the bass player didn’t show up or couldn’t play and they asked me to fill in. It was the very early days of this group who were a sort of blues group with no name at the time. I had a bit of a chat with the lead singer and he was a total ass hole. I knew him as Ivan and you’d know him as Van Morri-
a pink, one piece knitted outfit and we’d be thinking, how strange is that? We’d be sitting in the changing room chatting with the guys from the band, including Reg the keyboard player who was a nice guy, quiet, but nice. He was Reg Dwight but you’d know him as Elton John. Another band from the UK was The Yardbirds who played the Stella when they were all young guys and before they were anybody.”
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Eric Clapton was another young and upcoming contemporary who performed at the Dublin venue. In those early and formative days the Irish music scene was a nursery for some of the country’s best acts. Stan and his bandmates practised at a school where his cousin was a teacher. “There was another band playing punk music in a room beside us,” said Stan. “We finished up first and packed up but in the hall the other guys were coming past us and I said to them “Stop playing the punk music lads”. It was U2. They were young teenagers then.” Stan has an association with another well-known Irish group and even came close to being a band member. “Gary Roberts was a good mate of mine, and I knew (Bob) Geldof too, he came along a couple of times to the band I used to play in. Anyhow, the Boomtown Rats were formed in Gary’s kitchen and at the time they were putting the band together Gary was looking for me to play bass with them, but I was living in Africa, so he couldn’t find me.” He recalls that Geldof was originally going to be their manager but he would of course become the front man. “In those days Geldof saw himself as Ireland’s Mick Jagger,” added Stan. Stan, from Ranelagh, Dublin, returned to Ireland in October (2016). “When I went back I took my son and showed him around some of the places I used to play in. I went to Finnegan’s Pub in Dalkey and I walked in the door and straight away this guy started shouting at me, STAN, STAN, STAN. He was a guy I played with in a band 45 years ago and he remembered me. He said this was Bono’s local and that the week before Bono was in here having a pint with Bruce Springsteen, how’s that?” Of course, no trip home would be complete without a visit to another old haunt, Grafton Street. Stan remained at the bank until about 1968/69 but he would branch out into other areas. He became a hand model and did hundreds of advertisements and jobs. “I just got on well with the agent Mary Woodburn and did all my own hand make up and manicures and stuff like that. I did one ad for Irish whiskey, I was holding a glass and the caption was ‘Wrap your hand around a hot Irish’. It was a massive poster of my hand that hung at Dublin airport for about three years.” On another occasion Stan was hired to do a TV commercial for Cadburys. The scene that took just one take was one of the easiest and most lucrative gigs of his life. “I got paid twelve hundred pounds for 30 seconds work that was back in the seventies.” Shooting for the commercial began at 6am in the morning but my bit happened at midnight, I just walked in did the scene and that was it. So I got paid from 6am in the morning, which went to double time at 4pm, then triple time from 6pm and quadruple time from 8am.” On other occasion he was a “hand in” for Sean Connery in a movie. “It was a film they made in Ardmore Studios, in Wicklow, they shot the whole thing over six weeks but they needed somebody to take a sword out of a sheath for a close up shot. So they put me in the same
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costume as Sean Connery and filmed my hand taking a sword out of its sheath.” Stan did a stint with the National Cash Register Company in Dublin and after that went to Africa where he worked for an Irish company in Zambia, South Africa and other parts. When he returned to Ireland he got another ‘money related’ job, this time with De La Rue Smurfit (based in Bray, Co. Wicklow) who print currencies, passports and that kind of thing.. “I remember one time I was sent over to the office in the UK and they had a whole load of currencies from around the world, hundreds and hundreds of notes including American dollars. The guy there said to me, ‘pick the fake ones out’, and then said they were all fakes. He said the American dollar was the easiest note in the world to forge.” Stan moved to the UK in 1983 and continued to play in bands. He was a neighbour of the house where Princess Diana was born and lived.” Always on the lookout for a good opportunity Stan dreamed up a very successful business idea. “There was a poster that came out called Doors of Dublin and I thought that was a great idea. I set up Sunset Posters in Ireland and I did posters like pubs of Ireland and all that sort of stuff. I even did one of me flashing called Expose yourself to Ireland which was a big one. I thought to myself, why not start the same thing in the UK, because nobody was doing it in England. I called it Images of Britain.” Stan came to Australia about ten years ago and lives here with his two sons, Sean and Ryan. Here he owns the ‘Real Aussie Company. ‘If you go down to Hillary's Harbour and you go into the souvenir shop in the middle of the shop you’ll see a lot of my postcards there.” Stan also works as an actor and does role play in universities, prisons, for police and other training simulations. For the last two years, Stan joined our own Ulster Rambler, David MacConnell at the Midwest Irish Club to entertain the local Irish community on St Patrick’s Day. He also dons the guise of a very special and much loved seasonal character. “I do Santa Claus as well. I enjoy doing it. I’ve been doing it now for ten years. Last year this kid said to me, “Santa, how come you’ve got an Irish accent?”, which completely threw me, so I said, “When I was coming down from the North Pole I stopped off in Ireland to see what a pint of Guinness tastes like and I like the Irish accent and that’s why I have one and the kid just went, OK, and walked off and I thought that was great.”
Ireland’s John King Extraordinary Adventurer, Forgotten Hero By John Hagan
Height: 5 feet 1 inch Hair: Brown Complexion: Fresh Eyes: Hazel Next of kin: William and Samuel King (brothers, 70th regiment) Date o f birth: December 15th 1838. Aged fourteen years and one month, John King recorded these personal details in his regimental account book. Eight months later he joined the 70th infantry regiment in India. His remarkable adventure had begun. John was one of four children born to Henry King, a soldier in the 95th Highlanders, and his wife Ellen, who lived in the village of Moy (County Tyrone). During his boyhood, John experienced the ravages of the potato famine as he, and his family, were forced to exist largely on a diet of ‘skilly’, and by the time he was eight, John would have witnessed the horrors of starvation, disease and death. Such experiences undoubtly shaped the man he was to become, and helped him cope with life in India and the privations he was to face in the Australian bush. Thanks to Quaker generosity, King was educated locally, before becoming a pupil at the Royal Hibernian Military School (RHMS) in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. His Quaker education, with its emphasis on seeing something of God in everyone, and treating all men as equals, undoubtly helped King deal with people and situations he would later experience. India was peaceful when John King arrived in 1853. After a few months service, and thanks to the tutor-monitor arrangement which had been a part of the educational system at RHMS, King was experienced enough to be appointed to teach literacy to army children, soldiers and native sepoys (Indian soldiers under British command). When fighting erupted in 1857, King saw action with the 70th regiment which helped subdue an Indian mutiny, with troops under the command of a fellow Ulsterman, the legendary Colonel John Nicholson, crushing the unrest. Nicholson then proceeded to make an example of 40 of the mutineers by strapping them to the muzzles of field guns and detonating the charge. Such barbarity proved too much for King who suffered depression, exacerbated by the initial stages of consumption, resulting in him being sent to Karachi to convalesce. It was during this period of recovery that King met George Landells, who had been ordered to India to purchase camels for a great Australian expedition. Landells was impressed
by King’s ability to speak the various dialects of the Indian camel handlers who were to accompany him back to Australia. It wasn’t long before Landells convinced King to join them. An army discharge was duly purchased, and King embarked with Landells, the Indian handlers and the camels, for Australia. King may also have been motivated by the opportunity to see his older sister, Elizabeth, who had emigrated from Moy and was now living in Melbourne’s, St Kilda. Amid enormous fanfare, on 20 August 1860, led by Galway man Robert O’Hara Burke, the great discovery expedition, consisting of 26 camels, 23 horses, six wagons and 19 men (including King and Landells), departed Melbourne’s Royal Park bound for the Gulf of Carpentaria. Ahead lay 2414km of largely unexplored, rugged, Australian outback and desert. By the time it reached Menindee, some 750km north of Melbourne, the expedition was already in disarray. Of the 19 original recruits, 11 had resigned or been dismissed. One of these was Landells, whom Burke had accused of selling the expedition’s rum to settlers along the route. With Landells departure, King was put in charge of the camels, while William Wills, the expedition surveyor, was promoted to the post of deputy leader. At Cooper’s Creek, with the Gulf still some 644km away, Burke decided to split the expedition, leaving four men, under the command of William Brahe, to await their return. King, Wills and Charley Gray, who had been recruited along the way, were chosen by Burke for the final push to the Gulf. On 16 December 1860, accompanied by five camels and a horse, the intrepid four departed Cooper’s Creek for the Gulf. King was intensely proud that Burke had selected him for the final leg. Now a competent camel handler, Burke undoubtly saw the value of this skill, as well as King’s mental toughness, discipline, and ability to get on with others, as positive factors in helping the expedition reach its intended
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Presentation to John King courtesy State Library of Victoria
destination. The party arrived in the Gulf country at the worst possible time of the year. With the monsoon late, the humidity climbed and breathing became difficult. Food rotted quickly, and despite King’s cajoling, the camels became fretful and listless. On 11 February 1861, their goal was finally reached. King later recalled, ‘We did not hear the sound of the sea, but we noticed the rise and fall of the tide’. After three days rest, the march back to Cooper’s Creek began. Rations, including water, were now severely depleted. Fatigue intensified, and on 17 April 1861, Charley Grey died in suspicious circumstances. By now the party was so low in rations that they were forced to kill and eat their only horse, ‘Orange Billy’. At sundown on 21 April, the exhausted and famished trio finally arrived back at Cooper’s Creek, expecting a welcome from the other members of the party left to await their return. As they approached the camp there was no sign of life. Brahe had surmised that Burke and his comrades had perished and had set out for Menindee, taking most of the supplies with him. Burke had missed them by just seven hours. Carved on a tree, Burke read the instruction, ‘Dig, 3ft. N.W.’ Beneath the sand was a trunk containing some food, a water bottle and a letter stating that Brahe had returned to Menindee. By now King’s scrawny and debilitated camels were too weak to try to catch the departed group. After a few days rest, Burke decided, against the wishes of both King and Wills, that the only hope of survival was to try to reach the settlement at Mount Hopeless, which was closer than Menindee, but still 3250km distant. After two weeks hard slog, during which they covered a mere 88km, Burke decided to return to Cooper’s Creek in the hope that a search party would have been sent to rescue them. Initially prospects for survival looked promising, thanks to the kindness of the local Yandruwandha aboriginal tribe who supplied the explorers with fish and nardoo (an aquatic fern, resembling a four-leaf clover) which was ground up to make a thin porridge. Despite their compassion, Burke did not trust ‘the blacks’, and when they again approached the Cooper’s Creek encampment, he fired a volley of shots and
drove them off. The Yandruwandha melted away into the bush and all food donations ceased. By his action, Burke alienated the very people who could have helped the trio to survive. The continuing diet of nardoo, which they still collected, caused Burke and Wills to suffer stomach cramps and constipation. King was less affected, perhaps because, as a youth in Moy, he had subsisted on a somewhat similar diet of thin gruel (skilly), during the potato famine. Late in June 1861, both Burke and Wills died. Burke asked King to place his pistol in his right hand and then whispered, ‘I hope you will remain with me until I am quite dead --- when I am dead, it is my wish that you leave me unburied as I lie’. These were Burke’s last coherent words. In one of the two letters written by Burke while awaiting death, he concluded with this tribute, ‘King has behaved nobly. I hope he will be properly cared for’. With Burke gone, King records in his narrative, ‘I was very lonely, and at night I usually slept in deserted wurleys belonging to the natives’. King’s only hope of survival was to again establish contact with the tribe who had built those shelters. Days later, while attempting to shoot crows, King was approached by the Yandruwandha who genuinely seemed pleased to see their ‘old friend’. He was invited back to their campsite where they supplied him with food and shelter. In time, King was eventually accepted as a member of the tribe. Thanks to his Quaker upbringing King shared similar values to the peace-loving aboriginal tribe and was able to welcome them as brothers and equals. On September 15th 1861, Edwin Welsh, a member of Alfred Howlitt’s rescue party, which had been dispatched to search for Burke, discovered a scarecrow-like figure along Cooper’s Creek. Completely startled, Welsh asked, ‘Who in the name of wonder are you?’ ‘King’, was the reply, ‘the last man of the Exploring Expedition’. King was saved, and to give thanks, thereafter celebrated his birthday on 15th September, believing that it was the day on which God returned life to him. King arrived back in Melbourne on 29 November 1861 to a hero’s acclaim. Flags, bunting and an ador-
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Unaccompanied baggage
The finding of John King
ing public welcomed him, as did the Governor of Victoria and local dignitaries. Here was someone who had faced unimaginable hardships, lived amongst ‘savages’, was the sole survivor of the ‘great expedition’, and had been snatched from the jaws of death. King was presented with an inscribed watch (now in the possession of a relative in Larne, Co Antrim) and was awarded a pension of £180/year. Unfortunately, the privations of the expedition had taken their toll on King’s health. He was shattered in mind and body and never recovered ‘a semblance of health or spirits’. He lived with his sister, Elizabeth, in St Kilda and became something of a recluse. In August 1871, he married his cousin, Mary Richmond, in the Wesley Chapel on Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. During late 1871 his health quickly deteriorated and he died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 15TH January 1872, aged just 34 years. Following a modest funeral, King was buried in the Quaker section of Melbourne Cemetery. In the years after his return to Melbourne, King remained modest and stoic. He refused to become embroiled in the all the furore surrounding the alleged ‘incompetent’ leadership of the expedition, nor did he seek to profit by selling his story to the newspapers or participating in lucrative speaking tours to recount his experiences. Now largely forgotten, both in Australia and his native County Tyrone, this humble man should be acclaimed and revered as being the first white man to traverse Australia from South to North and back. Next edition: Why has Burke become a legend while King has largely been airbrushed from history?
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which he helped establish in 1991 - and the upcoming production of Endgame he is close to realising that lifelong ambition. Two years later, but not under his watch, Black Swan did produce Godot. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the director, and audiences, to indulge in the black pleasure of Beckett. A veteran cast will help portray the depths of this mid-century literary masterpiece that anticipates impending nuclear holocaust. The character of Clov, who cannot sit, is at the beck and call of his blind and cantankerous master who is unable to stand. Hamms decrepit parents live and appear in rubbish bins make meaningless contributions to life and the pitiless plot including the line: “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. ... Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world”. The four roles will be played by Geoff Kelso for who this will be his 23rd play with the company, George Shevtsov and Caroline McKenzie who have both appeared many times over the years and Kelton Pell, one of Australia’s leading aboriginal actors whose work includes Redfern Now. The impact of Endgame also depends in no small part to the genius of lighting director Mark Howett and set and costume designer Tyler Hill. Their collective talents - and those of the other members of the company - should do justice to this rarely seen play. The themes explored in Endgame and Beckett’s other works are universal to humanity, but the path that led him to certain conclusions was in some ways was influenced by his being Irish. He was born
End it like Beckett! By Lloyd Gorman
Black Swan founder Andrew Ross quite literally shares a deep understanding and empathy with the timeless angst of a stage character in one of Samuel Beckett’s plays, such as Waiting for Godot. ‘Godot’ was Beckett’s first major theatrical work in the early 1950’s and launched him worldwide acclaim as a playwright and later as a theatrical director and remains his best known and most produced play. By comparison, the Irish born writers next play Endgame which followed several years later is also well known and in a similar vein but is sparingly seen on stage. Even an endless amount of waiting around offers zero assurance of the opportunity to see it performed live ‘on the boards’. Endgame was (to the best of this writers knowledge) last performed in Perth in 1984 when the famous San Quentin Drama Workshop toured three Beckett plays at the Octagon Theatre, including Godot and Krapps Last Tape. So when it returns to the Heath Ledger Theatre from May 27 to June 11 courtesy of the Black Swan Theatre it will be a rare chance to peer into this micro-universe of human despair and even humour in the face of impending doom and futility. Andrew Ross admits to having always wanted to direct ‘a Beckett’ and with his return to Black Swan RA
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BLACK SWAN STATE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
ENDGAME BY Samuel Beckett
H E AT H L E D G E R T H E AT R E
27 MAY - 11 JUN B O O K AT T I C K E T E K
Absurdist theatre at its best! GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
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CELEBRATING 20 YEAR S OF PARTNERSHIP
in 1906 to a Church of Ireland family in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, close to Leopardstown Racecourse. Aged just 17 he studied languages (French, Italian and English) at Trinity College Dublin (which was an exclusively Protestant university at the time) for five years and where he taught at shortly after graduating. While Beckett would visit Europe over the coming years he was based in Ireland and wrote extensively there for and about Irish literature until he permanently moved to France in the late 1930’s, when he was in his early 30s. France would become his new home and French his preferred language of expression. Beckett had established himself as essayist, poet and successful novelist in Ireland and before France, but it was a return trip to Ireland shortly after World War II finished that helped cement his future as a playwright. In 1945 while back in Dublin he had a disagreement with his mother which helped convince him of the need to live in Paris permanently. Perhaps more importantly for the literary world, it was during the same visit he came to the conclusion that he needed to distinguish himself from his close friend and fellow Irish writer and exile in Paris, James Joyce. As a result, Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot) was produced in 1953 and Endgame (Fin de partie) in 1957. Endgame is not an Irish play or a play about Ireland - indeed it is not set anywhere in particular and is timeless in that it offers no sense of where or when it is happening - but Ireland helped create it.
God’s Green Land
A comment was made some years back that the only apparent outward semblance of Ireland achieving freedom from Britain was the fact that the post-boxes were painted green instead of red. This should be taken in the humorous context in which it was meant to be delivered. In 1921 we did not have an awful lot to start with but we were fortunate to inherit the British Civil Service. Some time ago I noticed two wall mounted post-boxes in Cork bearing the royal insignia underneath the green paint. The original British Post Office boxes were bright red. When Ireland gained Independence in 1921 the post-boxes were retained, even the postage stamps were retained with overprints for some time. Now the post-boxes are painted green, but the royal insignia can be clearly seen. The ones I have come across are those of Edward V11, this was Queen Victoria’s son who reigned from 1901 until his death in 1910. When I saw these it struck me as to how short a time we have been out on our own as a country. Sometimes I get the feeling that we can lack confidence and belief in ourselves as we are a small nation on the outer edges of Europe. In the early 1920’s when our first independent Government looked around at what they had to start with, they realised that they had very little. In the previous centuries of colonisation we had become an agricultural market garden to feed Britain and its Colonies. The Industrial Revolution was never allowed to reach us and apart from some areas in the Northern part of the country there was no industrial base in the south of the country at this time. However, with a strong innovative spirit that launched and developed projects like Ardnacrusha, Shannon Airport, Bord na Mona and the attraction of a Multinational Industrial base we have achieved a great deal in the past 80 years, and we should be very proud of this. Yes, we were certainly restrained during the colonial period but if we journey upstream a bit in time we will find an Irish people with a great economic and cultural tradition that has helped the advance of civilisation in a global context. In the Monastic period we travelled extensively throughout Europe, providing the people in these areas with learning and religion. Newgrange was constructed over 5000 years ago, at the same time as the Egyptian pyramids, by an Irish race that had a knowledge of trigonometry. We also produced intricate and priceless works such as the Book of Kells, the Ardagh Chalice and knowledge of navigation may have seen St. Brendan reach Newfoundland as early as the 6th century. We have also produced literary giants such as Swift, Yeats, Shaw, Wilde, Joyce and Heaney that are now globally respected. Not bad for a small island country at the edge of Europe. There will be little downsides from time to time, but if we formulate an economic policy that develops value add and innovation over volume manufacturing and that also embraces the agricultural, fishing and leisure industry, our future is guaranteed to be very bright and long lasting. As a nation of less than 5 million people we have hosted the European Presidency representing a landmass of over 450 million people. This should not surprise us, we will never be a huge player but we can certainly be a very effective smaller one. bill.daly@tornaservices.com
Bill Daly: Originally from Tallow in West Waterford, Bill spent 30 years in Cork as a Senior Manager in the Electronics Manufacturing industry with such companies as Apple, EMC and Logitech. He has been working on his own as a Consultant/ Contractor in Manufacturing Operations and Materials for the past 18 years. He also attended UCC and has a BA Degree in Archaeology and Geography. Bill is now resident in Connemara, Co. Galway since 2009. 71
rish Recipes from Marguerite's
CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS
Makes 12 125ml water 60ml milk ¼ teaspoon sea salt flakes ¼ teaspoon caster sugar 80g unsalted butter, chopped 110g plain flour, sifted 3 eggs, lightly beaten 175g dark chocolate, melted 200ml single (pouring) cream 2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the butter is melted and the mixture is boiling. Reduce the heat to low, add the flour and beat with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and comes away from the sides of the pan 2. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed for 1 minute or until cooled slightly. Add half the egg and beat until combined. Gradually add the remaining egg and beat for 1–2 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and well combined. 3. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle. Pipe 12 x 12cm lengths onto lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 20–25 minutes or until puffed and golden. Allow to cool completely on the trays. 4. Place the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. To assemble the éclairs, use a small, sharp knife to cut the pastries in half and pipe the cream into the centre. Dip the top of each éclair in the chocolate and refrigerate until just set.
JAM & CREAM SPONGE CAKE Serves 6 – 8 100g plain (all-purpose) flour ¼ teaspoon baking powder 4 eggs 110g caster sugar 50g unsalted butter, melted 150ml single (pouring) cream 320g strawberry jam fresh strawberries, to decorate icing sugar, for dusting
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). 2. Sift the flour and baking powder twice and set aside. 3. Place the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer and whisk on high speed for 10–12 minutes or until pale, thick and tripled in volume 4. Sift ½ of flour mixture over the egg mixture and gently fold through using a large metal spoon. Repeat with the remaining flour. 5. Add the butter and fold through. 6. Divide the mixture between in 2 x 20cm-round lightly greased shallow cake tins lined with nonstick baking paper 7. Bake for 16–18 minutes or until sponges are springy to the touch and come away from the sides of the tins. 8. Remove from the tins and cool completely on wire racks. 9. Whisk the cream until stiff peaks form. 10. Spread one sponge with the jam, top with the cream and strawberries and sandwich with remaining sponge. 11. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Marguerite O’ Dwyer Pantry Dolls 0405680480 www.facebook.com/pantrydolls/ 72
EMIGRATION (Another gem from Tom Grace)
I’m somewhere in a foreign land beneath a foreign sky Watching red tail lights from planes as they go soaring by And I wish that I was on board one flying home to you When they say “Homes where the heart is” No words were said more true ‘Cause it’s hard to ease that longing when so far away from home When the homesick pain drives you insane as around the world you roam Emigration, emigration, you curse many nations Your tide when it flows, tears apart souls Of people just like me. No work could I find in my own native land, like a magnet you drew me away With your talk of the sun and the hours of fun in lands far across the sea The work it was plenty, the times they were good and I toiled till I could no more Yet I still couldn’t hide my pain deep inside as I yearned for my own native shore It’s easy now to emigrate but harder to go back, with many many hurdles on life’s unyielding track You make a few friends, try to save a few pence as you graft in the heat and the rain You drink a few beers as you fight back the tears and attempt to cope with your pain This self-inflicted exile is the loneliest of all and you wonder when you’ll hear again your dear old mothers call It’s not until you’ve lost something that you know what you miss Like the fun and the games, the hurt and the pain or the warmth of a fond mothers kiss But think of what the future holds and all you hope to gain And also about loneliness heartache and pain And wherever in this universe that you decide to roam May you never forget or live to regret that there’s no place like home. © Tom Grace
IRISH DANCE COMES TO BURSWOOD
“I think having the two qualifications really makes an excellent fit,” she said. “As an exercise physiologist, I am trained to design and deliver safe and effective exercise programs that are tailored for individual capabilities. Teaching dance requires a similar approach.” And while Irish dancing maintains many traditional elements, Siobhan says it has become an extremely demanding, athletic and highly competitive sport. “Taking an Irish dance class is a pretty good workout,” she said. “But it’s not all about competing. You can choose to dance competitively or just for fun.” For more information visit the Celtic Academy website www.celticacademyperth.com or contact Siobhan at celticacademyperth@gmail.com.
Perth’s newest Irish Dance school has opened its doors and is welcoming new dancers to enrol. Celtic Academy teacher Siobhan Collis said her Burswood studio was ideally located—close to the CBD but convenient for dancers who lived south of the river. “Term One classes are now underway but new dancers are welcome to join us at any time,” she said. “Our classes cater for all ages and stages—starting with beginner classes, “Little Jiggers” for children aged 4 – 8, right through to adults.” An Irish dancer since the age of six, Siobhan has competed on the State, national and international stage. “My mum first took me to an Irish dance class because I was a really clumsy little kid,” she said. “She thought ballet wouldn’t be lively enough for me so we tried Irish dance—I just loved it and never looked back.” After a 20-year dance career in Perth—with Joyce Studio and Trinity Studio—Siobhan retired last year to take her teacher’s exam in Brisbane. “Irish dance has become such a big part of my life—I could never have given it up completely,” she said. “I’m blessed to have the opportunity to pass on my love of dancing to a new generation of wee Irish dancers.” As well as being teacher accredited by An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha in Ireland, Siobhan is a qualified exercise rehabilitation practitioner.
IRISH DANCE CLASSES—SOUTH OF THE RIVER... Does your child like rhythm, music and movement?
Bring them along to Celtic Academy’s Burswood studio and let them try Irish Dancing.
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It’s a fun way to get fit, develop new skills and make friends.
See Celtic Academy’s website: www.celticacademyperth.com for class details.
All ages (adults included)—boys and girls—are welcome at Perth’s newest Irish Dance School.
Contact teacher Siobhan Collis: celticacademyperth@gmail.com
Australia Day was a big day for the Shanahan family. Darren, wife Gemma and their children Seán and Siún became true blue Aussies at a relaxed and friendly outdoor citizenship ceremony in Subiaco. They have lived in Subiaco for the last five years and daughter Siún was born in the area while their third will also be born in a local hospital in March. Gemma and Darren are both from Clonmel, Tipperary and met in school twenty years ago. “We were married there ten years ago. We spent our last ten years living in and around Dublin before moving here,” said Darren. “We still have our first family home in Kentstown near Navan. I resigned from Shell Ireland after the Corrib Gas Plant and took a year off to travel and spend some quality time at home. Afterwards we wanted to travel and work overseas, something we had longed to do for many years. I had job offers in Ireland, Europe, Canada, Middle East and here. I decided to take the offer
Congratulations South Centenarian Adelaide, Australia on
LILLIAN
in Perth from Woodside and they relocated us here. After two years they offered me a permanent position and then did PR for us, and now onto citizenship.” Darren said they really enjoy living in Subiaco and have bought a house in nearby Leederville which is under renovation but expected to be finished in May. “We were lucky to come here by choice which unfortunately too many Irish didn’t have the option seeking work during the recession,” he added. “We see many leaving here now including some friends which is a shame. We have many local friends though which makes life away from family and friends easier, and we love Perth and all it has to offer. Our roots will be here for another five to ten years, after which we’ll re-evaluate and see what’s next. We may stay forever.” Lloyd Gorman Race Meeting in Carnamah on 16 September 1920. Daniel died in 1929 and is buried Karrakatta Cemetery. Lillian said, “I keep fit walking and I have a few light exercises also along with keeping an eye on my diet”. I am reminded of the Irish saying, Do not resent growing old, many are denied the privilege. I have no doubt Lillian is far from resenting growing old and when one is surrounded by so many friends, it is a privilege. I joined with Lillian’s friends of the Greenwood parish and made a big fuss over her at her 100th birthday party and she appreciated our love and congratulations. We extend our congratulations and best wishes to Lillian and wish her good health in the future.
the Marloo and arrived in Fremantle A centenarian is a person who in 1898. He lives to or beyond the age of eventually headed 100 years. Congratulations to for Western Mrs Lillian Fitzsimons, who achieved this great age on 22nd of Australia and started farming. January, 2017. At a celebration For many years the biggest event to commemorate this event, on the Carnamah social calendar Lillian received congratulatory letters from the Australian Prime was the annual Carnamah Races. Daniel’s horse Dandy won the Minister Mr Malcolm Turnbull, Trotting Handicap race at the Peace W.A. Premier Colin Barnett and Queen Elizabeth, along with many Day Celebrations in Carnamah in July 1919. The Carnamah races other letters of congratulations were accompanied by the Moora from family and friends. Races and two race meetings in Pride and place in Lillian’s home Three Springs - one for the sake now is a beautiful gold framed blessing from Pope Francis, a gift of racing and the second for Saint Patrick’s Day! “Father of Carnamah” she treasures. Donald MacPherson was a founder Lillian told The Irish Scene her of both the Three Springs Race grandfather Daniel Sheridan Club in 1910 and the Carnamah FITZSIMONS Born 1847 came to Race Club in 1916, who, at various Australia from Larne in County times he loaned land near both Antrim in the late 1800’s. “He towns for their racecourses. Daniel’s By Jack Cullen arrived in Adelaide, married and horse Olderfeet came 2nd in the was blessed with two children, Maiden Hack Race at the Picnic a boy and a girl”. He departed 74
at the woodvale tavern $8.50 guinness & kilkenny | live entertainment ENTERTAINMENT FIDDLERS GREEN TRIO 3 UP BAND EMERALD TRIO IRISH DANCERS DJ KINIGHTSY
12-3PM 3-6PM 6-9PM 8PM 9-CLOSE
IRISH CUISINE SPECIALS & A LA CARTE
friday 17 march BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL - 9309 4288 75
Fairbridge Festival’s Exciting 25th-anniversary program Fairbridge Festival returns for its 25th year boasting a line-up of 15 international acts, 20 leading Australian contemporary bands, a huge contingent of top local artists, and a raft of new programming initiatives. The special 25th anniversary, four-day program brimming with musical diversity and imagination runs from Friday 21 April - Monday 24 April 2017. Some of the wonderful acts appearing this year, Jarlath Henderson (UK), Phil Wiggans & Dom Turner (US/Aus), Les Poules A Colin (Can), Flats & Sharps (UK), Oi Dipnoi (Italy), Harpeth Rising (USA), Kristina Olsen (USA) The Chipolatas (UK) Artistic Director, Rod Vervest spent part of 2016 in Europe attending festivals to source the talent for this celebratory program. He attended WOMEX and the English Folk Expo, which he described as: “…a real eye opener, with a fantastic array of traditional music but also so much contemporary, and twists on regional styles. It’s wonderful what young artists, in particular, are doing with revitalising trad music and making it fresh and exciting.” “It took me less than 10 seconds listening to Les Poules a Colin to book this band for Fairbridge Festival,” he explained. “Their's is a gift that comes from being totally immersed in a tradition of music-making that is handed down and around as a part of life. They are all from musical families and I believe all still live together in a share house.” Fairbridge Festival’s 2017 program is a far cry from its humble beginnings in 1993. But what has remained the same is the desire to present the best of traditional and contemporary folk and world music and the myriad genres this broad canvas produces - from across Australia
and around the world. With over 90 acts across 12 venues, over four days – the program features an expanded range of workshops and dance displays on top of the usual programming excellence. Vervest explains: “Anyone who has been to the event will know that it is by no means bound to a particular age group or music genre. To me, this festival is mostly about attracting a diversity of people to experience a diversity of music.” In its 25th year, with an extra day, and its most exciting and diverse program to date, Fairbridge Festival 2017 is the perfect time to discover this little gem of a festival nestled against the Darling escarpment in the wonderful heritage-listed Fairbridge Village, Pinjarra in the heart of the Peel region just an hour or so south of Perth.
FESTIVAL TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
For the full range of ticketing configurations, visit: fairbridgefestival.com.au. Moshtix also offers its popular time-to-pay for Fairbridge Festival tickets.
“Music is always best when it’s live and Fairbridge Festival offers a huge variety of live music from home and abroad... you’re going to be surprised! I know I was.” ~ Ben Elton
Jarlath Henderson from Tyrone appearing at Fairbridge…
Jarlath Henderson is a multi-instrumentalist and singer from Tyrone who moved to Scotland to study medicine and became one of the heroes of the new Celtic folk scene. He is best known as a remarkable player of uilleann pipes and whistles, but his debut solo album is a revelation. He also plays flute and guitar, and revives traditional songs with no-nonsense, respectful vocals that are matched against subtle, bravely original arrangements. Jarlath Henderson is the youngest ever winner of the BBC Young Folk Award, back in 2003 and Jarlath Henderson has since won further acclaim in his firebrand partnership with Scottish piper and whistle player Ross Ainslie. On his huge rise to success in his duo with Ross Ainslie that’s kept him circumnavigating the world and playing in front of icons such as Nelson Mandela, he has secretly harboured both an exquisite singing voice and skilled guitar and string work. He has particularly keen ear for modern arrangements and here presents his debut solo project and album that will re-shape the way we think folk music should sound. 76
My Club’s Kitchen Rules! by Fred Rea/Lloyd Gorman
Marguerite O'Dwyer and Amy Brogan
The Irish Club’s kitchen is under new management. The Pantry Dolls took over and re-opened the kitchen in early February. Pantry Dolls owner Marguerite O’Dwyer is excited about the challenge ahead and making a difference to the Club and its members and visitors and the wider Irish community. “I landed in Perth five and a half years ago and started off as a chef at The Cure Tavern and after a year became the general manager, which I did for about three and a half years,” said Marguerite and then I went to open my own events catering business, Pantry Dolls, so now we are settled in the Irish Club and the kitchen is open Thursday through to Sunday, 4pm to 9pm Thursday to Saturday and 2pm to 9pm Sundays.” The kitchen can be an engine that will help drive the Club forward and Marguerite wants the catering side of the business to be as busy as possible. “The Club has been struggling for a long time,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be involved in the Irish Club because it is part of
the Irish community and if the Club goes it's a massive loss and there’s no way of getting it back. When I saw an opportunity to come in, to build on the food, build on getting the younger crowd in and trying to build up the membership, because it's quite important to keep it going, I jumped at it. So I’m delighted. Hopefully we can get it up and going again.” She sees events as the way to bring in people and events to the Townshend Road venue. St. Patrick’s Day will be an important time for the Club and it will open for breakfast from 8am and music laid on from midday until midnight. The Irish Club will be represented at the St. Patrick’s Parade and festival in Leederville on March 12. The Club itself will set up a bar in the oval while the Pantry Dolls will run a sausage sizzle. Marguerite said Christmas in July will be celebrated at the Club on July 21 and will be a major event, as will Easter and upcoming public holidays and big sporting fixtures. Every week she said The Lost Backpackers will put on a great Sunday session while Tommy O’Brien & Co perform every second Thursday. But once we get things going and attract a crowd hopefully we’ll have music on Friday and Saturday nights as well. “The downstairs room is available for hire and holds 200 people while the upstairs is available as well and also holds up to 200 people, so no function is too big or too small and we have function menus with canapés, finger food, hot and cold buffet, sit down meals, there’s something for everybody,” she said. “We had about 15 people in for the seniors lunch downstairs in February for their monthly meal and get together and I have to say it was a pleasure to serve them and they were over 77
the moon. Actually I recently got a call from a long lost cousin who I’d never met before. He’d heard I’d left The Cure and asked where I was going. When I told him he said I go there once a month for a meal (for the seniors lunch) I said I’m going to be cooking your meal, see you there and that’s the first time ever I met my cousin. So there’s links that go back and back through the club, which is great. The younger crowd enjoy music and events, the pie and pint special nights and having the older crowd around the young ones is important because it's creating a bit of banter and you’ll have your old Irish stories and craic. So we had 15 people downstairs and a retirement party of about 40 upstairs, so the Club is quite busy for functions and it's not dead in the water like a lot of people think, it's still alive and kicking. We just need to put the word out and it's going to be great, 2017 is going to be a good year.” Originally from the Gaeltacht area of Gibbstown between Navan and Kells in county Meath, Marguerite arrived to Australia as a fully qualified chef with some interesting work experience already under her apron. “I trained at Limerick IT and have even won a couple of Bridgestone awards back home in Ireland; one is for my seafood chowder. I was also working with RTE behind the scenes. Whenever you had a celebrity chef on a programme and they brought out one that they made earlier, that was me. I was the one in the background who did that. My lecturer spotted something in me and asked me if I’d go and work with her at RTE as an assistant food stylist and when she finished I got her job. I was also training the Munster Rugby Academy on nutrition and what they should be eating and what they should be cooking for themselves, so that was fascinating too. I’m going back in May to do the food safety culinary awards for three weeks in Dublin, through Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board). So I’m over and back between RTE and the food safety culinary awards. So it's very different, not just being a chef.” She has a brother who came out
to Australia after her while her two sisters are at home with her parents. Like any good chef she intends to stamp her mark on the Club's menu. “The last menu I had a look at was light snacks and salads and was aimed more towards the Australians than the Irish,” she said. “It's the Irish Club of Western Australia and the Irish now what they want, home cooked food, like bacon and cabbage, chicken curry, stuffed chicken prepared by hand, Irish sausages with mash and peas and gravy. So it's home cooked food the Irish want, they don’t want nibble bits and they like a big plate of food, they know the difference between brought in food and home cooked food, so everything Pantry Dolls prepares is home cooked with the best ingredients (McLoughlin's/ McDonnell's sauces) and they like to walk out of a venue, full.” Marguerite said she is keen to get input from her customers and people who go to the club. “We thrive on feedback, you can only become better when you get feedback, good and bad. If anybody has any complaints don’t be afraid to say it. And any ideas that anyone has for the Club please let me or Sean Daly the president know and we’ll consider it. We all want to help each other out in our businesses and also to make the Club the success it deserves to be.”
The Rose of Tralee International Festival gives young West Australian women an opportunity to enjoy and celebrate their cultural connection and the fact they are proud of their Irish heritage. The Rose of Tralee is televised live in Ireland through RTE, and also streamed live worldwide on the
Seán Roche
Appearing at Paddy Malone’s Easter Sunday 16 April from 5.30 May 7 Sunday Session from 5.30
internet. The Perth Centre has been involved in the International Rose of Tralee Competition since 1986 and has been privileged to have had two Perth Roses crowned the International Rose of Tralee; Nyomi Horgan in 1995 and Lisa Manning in 2001. 78
Some of the qualities the judges look for are personality, charisma, sophistication confidence, great communication skills and presentation. Entrants also need to be themselves, be relaxed and enjoy the experience.
If you would like to be an entrant in the 2017 Perth Rose of Tralee selection or need more information about entries or sponsorship please contact us at perthroseoftralee@gmail.com.
Food Review...
Pick the Vic! By Lloyd Gorman
Previous visits to The Vic Hotel in Subiaco have, until now, at least for me, always been for drinks, before or after a game at Subi Oval or some other social event or as a pit stop on a pub crawl. By any measure it is a good watering hole but until now I couldn’t have honestly vouched for it as a place to grab a bite. As it happens, the food side of the business held its own against the bar. Together with my wife Imelda we visited The Vic a few days before Valentine’s Day, a better time to dine out if you ask me than on the occasion itself. We got there about 7pm and there were already another six or so tables taken up by other parties and the mood was relaxed, with a bit of bustle in the air. We were shown to our table, which was beside the glass wall out onto the courtyard area for those of you that know the place, but also close to the kitchen. Our drinks were quickly delivered while we deliberated over the menu, which opened up with a solid line up of options, including everything from garlic bread, bruschetta and Buffalo wings to chilli baby squid, chorizo and prawns or asparagus and warm olives to name some. We drifted to the same conclusion about starter, we’d share the serving of Buffalo wings which came with a choice of sauces and blue cheese, and we opted for BBQ. It took a bit longer to digest the expansive offerings for the main meal. Classic Caesar or Greek salads, pizzas or burgers (Wagyu beef) or a chicken or steak ‘Sanga’ with thick cut slices of bread and battered chips started the race to win
our attention and growing appetites. But they were closely followed by the suggestion of pork belly (gluten free), Beef and Guinness pie, bangers and mash, schnitzel, parmigiana, fish and chips, lamb cutlet, Asian salmon or curry of the day. If I ran my eyes over these choices a couple of times my eyes stopped at the section for steaks. Three choices (rump, scotch fillet or porterhouse) of 300g of the best of beef, with vegetables or chips. I jumped for the porterhouse (sirloin) while Imelda choose the pork belly. The Vic might be named after an English monarch but our waiter, and venue manager Gavin Behan, a Dublin man, made sure we got plenty of Irish hospitality. Gavin, who used to manage Carnegies, was quick witted with the friendly banter and fast to serve our needs. Before very long at all he brought out our starter. The Buffalo wings (so called because they were first created in a bar in Buffalo, New York in 1964) had a nice brown finish and we both reached for one and quickly piranha’d them. A second was devoured with the same veracity. By the third one I checked myself and took a large forkful of the accompanying salad. It was fresh, crisp and a delicious distraction to the tangy sauce, while Imelda dipped hers in the blue cheese sauce to temper the taste. She too enjoyed the salad and gave the opening dish full marks for presentation and preparation and taste. The serving was generous enough to accommodate two mouths and would be plenty for an individual. Gavin replenished our drinks while taking away the clean picked bones. The break was also a good chance for a bit more chat with him, and between ourselves, in an environment that didn’t have loud music blasting out or so crammed that it is hard to hear as far as the other side of the table. When our mains were delivered to the table we weren’t disappointed with the initial look or smell of what had arrived. My steak was a solid piece of beautifully cooked meat, flanked by another fresh salad and collection of chips, with a jug of garlic sauce. A diced apple and gravy topped Imelda’s carving of pork which sat on some of the creamiest 79
spuds she has ever had. Fo l l o wing the usual diplomatic exchange of ‘a bit of mine for a bit of yours’ we both attacked our plates. Without thinking about it too much I remember thinking how every mouthful formed a conga line of happy little eating noises. There wasn’t anything on either plate that even threatened to rain on the happy procession. By the time we put our cutlery down there wasn’t enough left on the dishes to feed a Chihuahua. Just like starters we decided to split a desert, which were mud cake, sticky date pudding, crepes Suzette and The Vic Sundae. Imelda elected for crepes and I couldn’t see any good reason to challenge the outcome of the vote and so it was. The final flawless instalment of our meal consisted of two crepes with an orange and Grand Marnier flambé syrup and mixed berries, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. Not much more to say about desert except it tasted as good as it sounded on the menu and looked. The real challenge for any hospitality venue like The Vic is to try and get repeat business from customers. By that measure we will be back for a second bite at the cherry. There would seem to be plenty of chances and choices to road test the food at The Vic for anyone in the area. On weekdays they run good specials for $15, with one special even costing $12. Hard to beat that kind of value anywhere, particularly in Subiaco. Gavin is working hard to make sure St. Patrick’s Day will be a big Irish day at The Vic with the kitchen opening to serve breakfast at the start of what will be a long day of eating and drinking no doubt. But you don’t have to wait until then for that kind of treatment. Sundays at The Vic have traditional Irish music and dancing and if that wasn’t enough to draw you in, kids eat free on Saturdays and Sundays, so if you are looking for good value and good food and a good time, you couldn’t go wrong.
From Tasmania with Paula Xiberras
brary at the Edge of the World’. Changing times are highlighted early on in the book as the protagonist Hannah reminisces about her childhood, when her parents operated the central, combined post office/family store, now replaced by the big supermarkets that offer petrol discounts on their receipts. Even in a world of changing technology books continue to flourish and bring people together. The novel is the story of Hannah Casey who, after her marriage break up over her husband’s affair, returns home to her mother’s house in Ireland’s fictional Finfarran Peninsula, the very place she happily left for a life in London. Meanwhile Hannah’s grown daughter Jazz or Jasmine has established her own life, ironically enjoying the big city life her mother now has left behind as she flies around the world as a flight attendant. Things look up for Hannah when the aptly named house repairman, Fury helps her renovate the old house her father’s aunt left to her and so provide her with a home of her own. Hannah’s mobile library provides an integral part of the community keeping isolated readers with few opportunities for social interaction in contact with the world. Trouble ensues when the library becomes under threat of closure. Hannah formerly a stickler for the old fashioned version of the library rules of silence, suddenly realises the importance of the modern libraries role as places for social meetings, for young mums and the elderly to make social connections as well as learn. It is a higher power in the form of a nun and ultimately the power of a book, albeit of a more ancient variety that bring the community together to save the library from closure. "The Library at the Edge of the World" by Felicity Hayes–McCoy is out now published by Hachette.
Andy’s Plumb Role
Last late year I had a chat with Irish folk legend Andy Irvine. Andy was in Tasmania together with local musician Luke Plumb for the Cygnet Folk Festival in January. Amazingly, Andy tells me it is his third visit to Tasmania for the year. Andy and Luke have recently collaborated on an album ‘Precious Heroes’ which celebrates some of the lesser known and sadly even forgotten heroes. Andy, known for being the co-founder of Irish group Planxty has always been a songwriter of principle and in the early days of his career he tells me would perform for the love of music not desirous of being paid. His passion was creating songs of social justice, giving voice to emigrants and the exploited as well as the occasional less serious, humorous song. Andy was born in London of an Irish mother and a Scottish father from Glasgow. It is to his mum, who was a musical comedy actress that Andy credits his talent and inspiration. Andy himself was a prolific child actor until he left the profession in his early 20’s. As Luke is now inspired by Andy, so too, Andy was inspired by the American folk artist Woody Guthrie. So much so that as well as playing guitar Andy went on to master Guthrie’s signature mandolin and harmonica as well. Hopefully we’ll see Andy back at Cygnet next year.
Edgy, Irish, worldly page-turner
As the main protagonist Hannah muses, as she drives her mobile library around Finfarran Peninsula, the books in her van, bridge the whole of human history from the beginnings of the written word to the latest best seller, a testimony to the human need to connect to others, evidenced too, by the discovery of a rasher of bacon, in a returned copy of a Maeve Binchy novel, left by a butcher, who perhaps perused the book his wife borrowed from the library. Of course libraries and their books are adapting to a changing world as we discuss when I catch up with Irish author Felicity Hayes-McCoy, author of ‘The Li-
Is drinking costing you MORE than money?
Help is available!
Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organisation or institution, does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. Contact: Alcoholics Anonymous,
24 Hour Helpline Ph: 9325 3566 • www.aaperth.wa.org 80
WAGS Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc. TITHES APPLOTMENT (1823-38)
In the last issue you might have read about the Griffiths Valuation, one of the two major substitutes for the Irish census records lost so many years ago. They are invaluable to people researching their nineteenth century Irish ancestors. Ten years before the primary Griffiths Valuation survey was completed, the Great Hunger, An Gorta Mór, and the mass emigration, there was the Tithes Applotment Survey. Two unusual words you may not have read in Irish Scene before. Most people will recognise “tithe” as another word for a tax, usually a religious tax. Traditionally tithes were calculated at one tenth of produce or earning. In Ireland they were paid to the Church of Ireland, whether you were Protestant or Catholic. “Applotment” relates to agricultural plots of land. In order to work out how much people’s land could have earned in crop value, and how much tax was due, there was a huge survey across all of the island of Ireland. It was written up by hand in 2,000 books, recording plot by plot, townland by townland, the area and productivity of each plot and an estimate of its cropping value, based on the average price for oats and wheat at the time. The townland records were compiled into volumes for each parish. Luckily for us in Australia the books have been digitised and are free to access at the Irish National Archives website (for the whole of the island of Ireland). Indexes to search for people are available at the (Irish) National Archives, FindMyPast ($) and Ancestry ($). Only the National Archives has links to view image of the original pages, so you can check out your ancestor’s neighbours, possibly your relatives as well. Unhappily for researchers, the only person recorded for each plot was the household head, mostly males. And some people were not recorded at all as some areas were exempt from paying the tithe, including those on “glebe lands” (occupied by established clergymen), granges (land which in pre-Reformation times had belonged to a monastery) and all towns. So our urban ancestors will not be listed. Here’s a surname you might recognise: In 1826 Matthew, John and Patrick Rea occupied three plots in the townland of Labbamalogga in the parish of Ahacrosse in County Cork. Each had a little over 24 acres, probably inherited, valued at 12 shillings and sixpence per acre. It was rated as being of “midling quality”. Each was due to pay £1/0/3 in tithes to
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the Rev John Bennett Rector of the Parish of Ahacrosse. Besides looking up individual people it is possible to examine the quality of land in different parts of Ireland during the 1820s and 1830s. More information about Tithes Applotment is at www.irish-genealogy-toolkit. com/tithe-applotment-books. html Search the Tithes Applotment and view the original pages for free at http://titheapplotmentbooks. nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/ home.jsp
IRISH FAMILY HISTORY SEMINAR COMING TO PERTH IN MAY
The Irish Special Interest Group is currently in discussion with Fintan Mullan, Executive Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation, regarding a proposed all day seminar in late May 2017 in Perth - on a range of topics related to Irish family history research, and not just Ulster. It will feature two visiting speakers from Belfast and be available to both members and non-members. When confirmed details and are available you’ll read them here, on the Irish Special Interest Group page on the WAGS website and on the Irish SIG online forum which everyone is free to join, whether a WAGS member or not. Link is given below.
IRISH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP IN 2017
At the January meeting recently we had quite a crowd, welcoming 10 visitors and new members, and 37 members. There was a short presentation on the Irish (traditional) Counties Beginners’ Research Guides project. The first six were launched and are now available to download from the Irish Special Interest Group page at the WAGS website. They cover Limerick, Dublin and Mayo in the Republic and Tyrone, Fermanagh
and Down in Northern Ireland. Over a dozen members volunteered to work on the next 10 counties, hopefully to be ready to launch in January 2018. For the remainder of 2017 the Irish SIG will meet on these Sunday afternoons: 23 April, 16 July and 15 October at the WA Genealogical Society. All start at 2pm except for the April meeting begins at 10am. New members and visitors are welcome. Please come along with whatever you know about your Irish ancestors. Gold coin donation for afternoon tea. There’s also the Four Courts Lunch at an Irish pub in Perth CBD on Friday 30 June 2017. Again we’ll commemorate the loss of valuable Irish family history records when the Public Record Office was damaged by fire on 30 June 1922 during the Irish Civil War. More details on the Irish SIG webpage http://membership.wags.org.au RSVP by 25 June. The WA Genealogical Society has just started an open Facebook page for anyone researching their family history, whether your ancestors were from Western Australia or West Cork. It’s called FamilyHistoryWA and you do not have to be a WAGS member to join in the conversation. You’ll find it at https://www.facebook. com/groups/FamilyHistoryWA. If you are looking for specifically Irish family history Facebook pages there are heaps! Just search for Irish genealogy family history. Jenni Ibrahim, Convenor, Irish Special Interest Group WA Genealogical Society, 5/48 May Street, Bayswater 6053 Phone 9271 4311 Email irish@wags.org.au. Irish SIG http://membership.wags.org.au Online Forum http://membership.wags.org.au/forum/irish-sig (free registration, open to anyone) More: Irish Special Interest Group page at WAGS http://membership.wags.org.au/special-interestgroups-mainmenu-47/irish-sig / Tithes Applotments Survey at the National Archives http:// titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp
I am living in Australia and I have property in Ireland. Can I make a will in Australia dealing with my Irish property? Yes. However, appropriate legal advice is essential as a poorly drafted will dealing with foreign property may cause problems for those left behind after your death. For advice please contact Leo Barry
Family Friendly • Family Lawyers 1/100 Terrace Road EAST PERTH WA 6004 T: (08) 9218 8422 F: (08) 9218 8433 E: reception@kavlaw.com.au W: kavlaw.com.au
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THE LOOK OF THE IRISH By Lloyd Gorman
A long lost Subiaco resident and Irishman was reunited with his family from beyond the grave recently thanks to the kindness of friends and strangers in the Irish and wider community. Paddy Gordon, who lived at Wandana in Thomas Street for about 20 years, died in November last year, age 75, and was cremated. Not quite sure what to do with his ashes a few people who knew the quiet Irishman tried to find family or loved ones who might want to know of his passing. Ted Rowland, another tenant at the Housing Authority flats, was given charge of the urn with his remains. “I met him in the complex and got to know him about eight years ago, I was in the army, same as him,” said Ted. He asked people he knew and in the Irish community about Paddy, but hit a brick wall. Tracking evidence of him down was no easy matter. The youngest of 12 children he left Ireland for Scotland as a teenager and then joined the British army and was posted to Hong Kong, Borneo and West Germany. Judith, a friend of Paddy's also lives in Wandana, on the same floor as he did. “I used to help him out with hospital appointments, filling out forms and that kind of thing,” she said. She took the step of putting up a notice in the nearby Irish Club in Townshend Road. Bill Garvey, a member of the Irish Club, who had known him previously, was already trying to track down some family connection. “Paddy immigrated to Australia in 1968 and worked in the mines up north where he enjoyed driving the large trucks, that’s where I met him first,” said Bill. “I knew him then in the 1970’s from the Norwood Hotel, on Lord Street, when he was a yardman and a barman and a very good pool player,” said Bill. Bill also asked around locally if anybody knew about Paddy and even took the step of writing to the post master of Cleggan, the town in Galway, Co. Ireland, to spread the word but didn’t get a response. Through his Irish Club contacts Bill was introduced to the Irish Families in Perth online group, a network with more than 12,000 members. Bill spoke with Eimear Beattie, a founding member of the group and Maria McDonnell about the situation. “I gave her as much information as I knew, which wasn’t much, but it was enough,” he said. Within forty eight hours of putting a request on their social media site more they had more than 500,000 ‘hits’ locally, from Ireland and around the world. “I got a text on the second day from a niece saying “I think that’s my uncle Patrick,” she said. “She had photos to prove it and ticked all the right boxes.” Just one of Paddy’s siblings is still alive but his niece
Eimear Beattie from Irish Families in Perth shows, from left, Bill Garvey and Ted Rowland from Wandana and Tom Quinn, from the Claddagh Association how social media helped to find Paddy Gordon’s family.
was able to make contact with Ted through the group and they spoke on the phone. “She told me that they didn’t even know he was in Australia, they thought he was in America,” said Ted. The final task of getting his ashes and some personal items – including an old photo album – back to Ireland is being taken on by another Irish group. Tom Quinn, from the welfare group, the Claddagh Association, said they would help make the arrangements, and pick up the $1,000 cost to repatriate the ashes.
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Around the Irish scene Compiled by Fred Rea
Retired Hon Irish Consul in WA Michael Nolan and Eleanor winners of the Taste Ireland Hamper on Australia Day at the Irish Club
Jean and Bob Rogers celebrated their 20th wedding anniversay and Bob's 70th. They were joined by Jean's daughter Rosalind at the celebration.
Lois and Gerry Crowley found an excuse to have lunch at JB O'Reilly's recently but owner Paul North says you dont need an excuse - come on down!
I am again indebted to Sr Vincent who invited me to the annual Christmas Party for retired sisters.
Who is this handsome group of young ladies from Finglas in Dublin enjoying a drink at the Sovereign in Joondalup
Sonia and Paul Tanham with John Murphy helping Paddy Costello celebrate his 90th at the Irish Club.
Bernie Costello in Perth for brother Paddy's 90th birthday. They celebrated at the Irish Club. Congratulations Paddy! Below: Paddy took the visitors to JB's for lunch of Fred Rea, Peter McKenna, Carl Holmes and Martin course! Pictured, Seamus & Bernie Sheehan. I had the please of presenting Carl with the Beamish Costello with Paddy & Lena Costello , flag for his new Irish Bar at Masonmill... head up there! Laurance Costello & Paul North.
Returning to Ireland? Above Pat Maloney with his beloved Chelsea and left, good mate Tony Sheehan sporting his new house sign from his hometown Crosshaven by the Sea.
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DARA O BRIAIN – LIVE AT RIVERSIDE THEATRE PERTH
Gaelcholáiste (Irish-speaking medium school) on Dublin’s south side. He attended University College Dublin (UCD), where he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. In 2008, he remarked: “I haven’t written it into my act, but it occasionally comes through. I could come on with a chalkboard and say: ‘Now you’re all going to pay attention.’” While a student at UCD, he was both the auditor of the Literary and Historical Society (the university’s oldest debating society) and the co-founder and co-editor of The University Observer college newspaper. In 1994, he won the Irish Times National Debating Championship and The Irish Times/Gael Linn National Irish language debating championship; he is a fluent Irish speaker, and speaks to his father only in that language. ‘One of the most dependably entertaining stand-up comics in the land’ The Times ‘O Briain has a laser eye for the absurd and the spurious’ The Guardian Don’t miss Dara O Briain in Australia in 2017! Hurry, this will sell out! O Briain appears on Saturday 8 April at the Riverside Theatre in Perth Convention Centre. Tickets from: ticketmaster.com.au
One of Ireland’s funniest comedians, Dara O Briain is coming to Australia in 2017! O Briain is a stand-up comedian, and television presenter, best known in the UK for hosting BBC’s Mock the Week, and Ireland’s The Panel. With a reputation for his stand-up worldwide, O Briain sold out his entire run at Edinburgh comedy festival from 2002 to 2005 and was the biggest selling solo stand-up comedy show in 2005. Since then, O Briain has gone on to host 16 successful series of the comedy panel game Mock the Week and has also been host of BBC’s The Apprentice: You’re Fired, Turn Back Time, Robot Wars, Stargazing Live, The Empire Film Awards and the BAFTA Video Game Awards. O Briain’s first book Tickling the English, released in 2009, proved to be an instant hit, remaining in the charts for nigh on two years after release. He has also released four best-selling DVD’s with Universal Pictures. Ó Briain was born in 1972 in Bray, County Wicklow, and attended Coláiste Eoin secondary school, a
Daniel O’Donnell
DARA O BRIAIN ADRIAN BOHM & OFF THE KERB PRODUCTIONS PRESENT
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
Mary Duff AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2017
L IVE!
"HIS SET IS A MASTERCLASS IN INTELLIGENT, NO-FRILLS STAND-UP" - THE GUARDIAN
SAT 8 APRIL
Sat 25 March Riverside Theatre
RIVERSIDE THEATRE
BOOK AT TICKETEK 132 849 TICKETEK.COM.AU
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danielodonnell.org 85
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forward to introducing this unusual and topical theme to Irish Theatre Player's audiences.
as Madge tries to keep a lid on what is going on! This rip-roaring comedy is full of classic Irish ‘oneliners’ that will have you in stitches and the fact that Madge happens to have the two nosiest neighbours in Ireland doesn’t help!
A Message from President,
Claire Wynne We’ve a busy few months ahead here at Irish Theatre Players! Rehearsals are in full swing for our next production which opens on March 23rd here at the Irish Club of WA. We’re excited to bring you Tommy Marren’s “Real McCoy”, directed by award-wining ITP member, Denice Byrne. “Real McCoy” is set in the kitchen of Madge Molloy, a 68-year old woman who has lived over 40 years of her life wondering why her husband Tom – whom she was married to for just five months – mysteriously disappeared without trace or reason. Madge was expecting her only child at the time of Tom’s disappearance and she has become a bitter and angry woman. Her daughter Maura constantly yearns to know what happened to her father and the arrival of a new curate in the parish, namely Father Michael McCoy, is about to throw some light on the reasons behind Tom’s hasty departure. Neighbour Nora O’Hora and her daughter Cora have a knack of popping up at the most inopportune moments
Check out our website, www.irishtheatreplayers. com.au, and our facebook page, www.facebook.com/ irishtheatreplayers, for tickets and further information! In the meantime we’re also busy rehearsing for the May production of Frank McGuinness’s “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me”. We’re delighted to welcome Independent Theatre Award Winning Director, Andrew Baker, to direct this cast of three in a deep, dark and sometimes humorous play about three hostages, forced to share a cell in an unfamiliar, war-torn country. We’re excited to welcome three new actors for these challenging roles and we look
86
Irish Theatre Players were delighted to attend the recent Claddagh Association Community event to launch our new partnership with the Act Belong Commit initiative. We hope to emphasise the social/volunteer/community aspect of Irish Theatre Players as we encourage members of the community, Irish and otherwise, to get involved and be part of something positive. The Irish Theatre Players are always happy to welcome new members, not just actors, but those who might want to help out front of house, back stage, or even behind the scenes with the likes of social media, admin, marketing etc. Just drop us a line on itp@irishtheatreplayers. com.au or www.facebook.com/ irishtheatreplayers - we’d be delighted to hear from you! We also look forward to seeing you at the St. Patrick’s festival where our Volunteers and Committee members will be available to chat to and see what’s involved! Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all and we hope to welcome you to our Theatre for our next production of “Real McCoy”, open March 23rd at the Irish Club of WA. See you then! Claire
To The Sea by Christine Dibley
Reviewed by John Hagan When I first read the cover of this book, my heart skipped a beat. Here was a novel set in both Ireland and Hobart (where I live). What could be more relevant? What could be more promising? The first book by local Hobart author, Christine Dibley, To the Sea centres around the mysterious disappearance of seventeen year old Zoe Kennett from ‘Rosetta’, her family’s idyllic, seaside retreat on Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula. Hobart CID Detective Inspector, Tony Vincent, is tasked with the case, and his is one of the four voices through which the drama unfolds. We also hear from Eva, Zoe’s troubled mother, Eva’s understanding and long-suffering husband, John, and Sadie, Zoe’s (much) older sister. Each member of the large family offers a differing perspective about what led to Zoe’s disappearance into the sea. Before Vincent can unravel the mystery, he is faced with some questions. Who is Zoe? What secrets did she have? Why did she seem almost invisible to her extended relations? Vincent patiently listens to family accounts and, as the investigation unfolds, we are transported to Ireland to learn of Ornice and her selkie lover Connery. Are these, somewhat mythological characters, who seemingly shift between human and seal like form, somehow connected to Zoe’s vanishing, as Eva seems to think? It was following this over long background explanation by Eva to Vincent that my interest in the novel
began to wane. How a seemingly sensible and methodical, police investigator could contemplate that such an unlikely, folk lore link, might shed some light on his ‘missing person’ case seemed quite improbable to me. Perhaps it’s some inherent deep-seated antipathy to fantasy literature that triggered my incredulity. I would have appreciated a more sinister, and rational, explanation as to Zoe’s disappearance. I really liked Tony Vincent. He is a complex character, of Italian extraction, who has risen quickly through the ranks of the Tasmanian Police to his present position. We learn something of his personal life, his prickly relationship with his superior, and his close rapport with his two offsiders, Narelle Clarke and Paul Taylor. I think Vincent and his team offer distinct potential for future, more straightforward, thriller mysteries by Dibley. Despite my unease with the plot, Dibley’s characterisations were engrossing and intricate, as were her narrative and dialogue. I felt utterly ‘at home’ both with her depiction of Hobart and the Tasmanian landscape, and Dibley is to be congratulated on her portrayal of its ambiance and her accuracy of detail. To the Sea by Christine Dibley published by Pan Macmillan. $32.99.
The Immortal Irishman
by Timothy Egan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston and New York, 2016 Reviewed by Peter Conole This biography is a passionate, committed piece of writing by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Timothy Egan now has eight non-fiction books to his credit and has won important awards for some of those works. The Immortal Irishman is the seventh substantial biography of Thomas Francis Meagher published since 1886 and it general terms it has attracted fairly supportive reviews. There have been a few negative critiques, some of which seem a little unjust. One writer went so far as to claim “Egan is better at animating the times and events through which 87
Meagher passed than in bringing to life the man himself”. That is ridiculous. Meagher emerges in the book as a larger-than-life, complex and very interesting man of his era. The accounts of Meagher’s early adventures are fascinating, though perhaps a little ‘over-cooked’ at times. For example, the Anglo-Irish judicial system was quite restrained and even compassionate in its treatment of him and his revolutionary colleagues. Furthermore, in Tasmania of the late 1840s gentlemen of Meagher’s social standing could and did live quite comfortable lives. Egan paints a very lively picture of Meagher’s life in the USA from the 1850s onwards. The political material is fascinating, although this writer does wonder if some conversations and speeches were enhanced a little. On the negative side it is only fair to point out that shady aspects of Meagher’s activities in Central America are glossed over or completely omitted. Furthermore Meagher was not just an ‘observer’ at the Fort Benton indian treaty of 1865. He was there in his capacity as acting governor and superintendent for indian affairs. He also added his signature to the treaty. The author’s outline of Meagher’s exploits in the American Civil War is good and he does well in revealing the malice of General William T. Sherman (a complex American hero) and the irrational grudge he had against the Irishman. Another recent Meagher biographer, Paul R. Wylie (The Irish General, University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), is perhaps better on military matters. He certainly gives a very frank account of the general’s problems at the end of the war. Joseph Bilby’s The Irish Brigade in the Civil War (Da Capo Press, 2001) is the best modern book on that remarkable unit. On balance Timothy Egan’s book is a worthy contribution to Irish history and is easily obtainable from Amazon.com and the Book Depository site.
Southward the Wild Geese
by Gerald FitzGerald Edited by Paul Dillon Reviewed by Peter Murphy
Each year a new book or article about the Catalpa Rescue (1876), the transportation of the Fenians to Western Australia (1867) and Fenian John Boyle O’Reilly comes across my desk. With these however do I seldom come across new information that connects these three amazing chapters in WA’s colonial history including the legacy they left behind. Such is Southward the Wild Geese written by Gerald Patrick FitzGerald (1971) and painstakingly edited by Paul Dillon (2016). I must admit, because of the books small text and lack of spacing between paragraphs; it didn’t much whet my appetite to immediately dive into its 85 pages. However, being a sleuth for all things connecting WA’s convict past to transported Fenians, I persevered. The book opens with Dillon’s Preface; explaining how he became involved in the book while researching his family’s Irish history and then stumbling upon research by Irish journalist Michael O’Keeffe, who by coincidence, had retained FitzGerald’s (after his death in 1974) lifelong research on Fenianism in Australia. Further research by Dillon on FitzGerald’s work also reaps dividends by the uncovering of a manuscript housed in the State Library of Victoria titled: Southward the wild geese: the story of the Fenians transported to Australia, 1868, 1971. It’s from this manuscript Dillon painstakingly deconstructs and then reconstructs FitzGerald’s work. Southward the Wild Geese commences with the first chapter titled Fenianism, which recounts well the Irish rebellion of 1866-67, its Fenian architects and their subsequent arrests and incarceration. This is followed by The Escape of James Stephens (Chapter 2), Fenians Transported to Australia (Chapter 3), John Boyle O’Reilly (Chapter 4) and The Catalpa Story (Chapter 5). While Dillon (in his Preface) doesn’t vouch for the correctness of FitzGerald’s research and statements, he does however question FitzGerald’s claim that another convict who joined John Boyle O’Reilly in his escape on the American whaler Gazelle (1869) was Moondyne Joe; the infamous escape artist whose name in now enshrined in WA folklore. Dillon however is correct, as Moondyne Joe (Joe Bolitho Jones) was still on the run from authorities in the Swan Valley east of Perth when O’Reilly was hunkered down on the remote Leschenault Peninsula north of Bunbury awaiting his rescue. And while there are no surprises or new information to be found amongst the books 6 chapters, what did however manage to capture my attention was the last chapter, The Wild Goose, and which centres on the newspaper the transported Fenians on the Hougoumont somehow - with hardly any printing materials, space or light - managed brilliantly to publish 7 issues. What also impressed me with this chapter was the painstaking work Dillon and FitzGerald went to decipher many of
the hand written pages of The Wild Goose, referred to by FitzGerald as ‘plucking’ and which wouldn’t have been an easy task considering the several different contributors (some using pen names) and their scrolled penning. And it wasn’t so much the tantalising descriptions of articles, stories, poetry and humour within the pages of The Wild Goose brought to life in the book that would capture my attention, but FitzGerald’s Foreword explaining how he went about tracking down what he believed to be the only complete 7 issues in existence. FitzGerald (at the end of Chapter 6) laments not being able to find missing unpublished material said to have accompanied The Wild Goose, and rightly so. However, it was a shame he didn’t live long enough to feast his eyes upon O’Reilly’s lost diary handed into the Battye Library (Perth) in 1989, as amongst its faded pages is enough material to keep sleuths of O’Reilly’s work busy for years to come. Incidentally, the convict ship Hougoumont, although spelt this way a number of times in Chapter 3, FitzGerald however does point out (Pg, 45) that the Fenians in The Wild Geese (first issue) spelt the ship’s name as Hougoemont. Coincidentally, O’Reilly in his novel Moondyne (1880), also repeatedly refers to the convict ship as the Houguemont. Southward the Wild Geese is an essential read for those wanting to brush-up on their Fenian history and its connection to WA, while also helping to get a true understanding of the sacrifice the transported Fenian political prisoners made to Ireland including the role they played in shaping Australian/Irish history. You can purchase a copy of Southward the Wild Geese by contacting Paul Dillon on email: gallus08@hotmail. com or Twitter@PaulDillonpa Also recommended reading on the same subject: Anthony Evans - Fanatic Heart: A life of John Boyle O’Reilly, Liam Barry - Voices from the Tomb and Ormonde Waters -The Fenian Wild Geese. Note: Much research by John Boyle O’Reilly Association member Kim Redman to resolve the Hougoumont’s true name, origin and description was I believe finally put to rest in 2015 when he discovered an old image of the original convict ship. This image can be found on the Canmore website, the online catalogue to Scotland’s archaeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage. Peter Murphy is vice President of the John Boyle O’Reilly Association Inc (Bunbury) and a regular contributor to the Irish Scene. Peter recently wrote and directed the short film ‘In Search of the Vigilant’ based on John Boyle O’Reilly’s dramatic escape to America from WA in 1869. You can purchase a copy of the DVD by contacting Peter on 043 997 6507 or by email: kiahcreek@bigpond.com
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Low Lie the Fields!
stampeding to the nearest port at the rate of 200,000 a year refugees rather than emigrants - and scrambling for a place aboard those ill-famed coffin ships which offered hope of better prospects in an unknown land provided they reached it. This is not the kind of emigration we are concerned with: those people had the wherewithal to leave the country; the people we are dealing with in this article did not. These emigrants survived the Famine. Their relatives were dead or gone abroad, and they waited in the workhouse for better times, when work or a cheque from relatives overseas or some merciful scheme of aided emigration would set them free from the grim grey walls of their limbo existence. The ‘workhouse’ emigrants were also much fewer in number. Between 1848 and 1860 freedom to start life anew in another land came to some 750 of of the inmates of Limerick Workhouse. Opportunities for such emigration came in various ways. In 1848 orphan girls were needed to correct an imbalance in the population of Australia. In Pete St John’s iconic song The following year, the The Fields of Athenry, the first lines government allowed the Poor Law read… Guardians to borrow money for By a lonely prison wall, specific schemes, and it was also I heard a young girl calling…. I have no doubt Pete would agree permissible to supplement from the rates any aid received from relatives that the words could easily have abroad for emigration purposes. been… This call on the rates was By a lonely Workhouse wall acceptable, because it was I heard a young girl calling… ultimately cheaper to help inmates Pete also mentions stealing to emigrate than to continue Trevelyn’s corn so the young supporting them in the workhouse. might see the morn…. That was the sentiment which I want to zone in on the young letters applying for such aid always seeing the morn! Because of the An Gorta Mor (The Great Irish Famine) appealed to: they generally ended many of the young Irish girls at that with some such phrase as “and thus rid the Union of my further support” time ended up in workhouses as many of their parents never saw the or “otherwise I must continue to be a burden on the Union”. morn! In line with these three sources So what happened to some of of opportunity, emigration from these girls from the workhouses? the Limerick workhouse may be Limerick historian Chris considered under three headings: O’Mahony writes… 1. Limerick’s participation in Put the two words “emigration” the scheme to send orphan girls to and “famine” together, and lrish Australia. folk memory develops nightmares. 2. Schemes of group emigration Images of desperate people 89
organised by the local guardians. 3. Aid granted to individuals or family groups on request. The first category comprises 74 girls; the second, some 480 people; the third, close on 200. Orphans to Australia The initiative for this scheme came from those who were responsible for the colonies. Australia had no difficulty attracting young men anxious to better themselves in a land which was being actively developed by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners. Lack of women did become a real problem, however, and it was decided to seek 14,000 volunteers in Great Britain and Ireland (10,000 and 4,000 respectively). Investigation revealed that the number of female orphans aged 14-18 in lrish workhouses rendered further recruitment unnecessary where the quota from Ireland was concerned. It would lead us too far away to go into this scheme in any detail in the present context. Suffice it to say that the colonial authorities provided free passage from Plymouth. Good care during the 100 day voyage, and work on arrival. All the local guardians had to pay for was the outfit and conveyance to Plymouth Between May 1848 and April 1850. 4,085 Irish girls went to Australia under this scheme. The first year, 2,170 went: the second year 1,915 were recruited, Limerick contributed 74 to the first batch but, owing to complaints which they received and for which they failed to obtain any satisfaction, they refused to participate the second year. Group Schemes Under this heading there are three groups to be considered: one each to New York, Van Diemen’s Land and Quebec. Here let us talk about the Van Diemen’s Land group. The initiative for the last group came from the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission. They were looking for girls in the 17-25 age group and offered free passage from Plymouth. The guardians accordingly selected 50 girls In July
1852, 30 of whom were approved by the Commission’s Inspector in the following month. In September they were dispatched to Plymouth, and at the end of that month they sailed for Western Australia aboard the ship ‘Travancore’. One of the girls who travelled on the ‘Travancore’ was Bridget Mulqueen. You can read Bridget’s story following this article along with Elizabeth Carbury who arrived on the ship Palestine some months before. Famine Commemoration We will remember these young Irish women and the other girls who travelled with them at a Famine Commemoration in May this year. In Bunbury on Saturday 20th May 2017 at King Cottage dedicated to Bridget Mulqueen and in Dardanup on Sunday 21st May 2017 at Dardanup Catholic Church dedicated to Elizabeth Carbury. The focal point of the commemoration will be the girls but we also will have two travel boxes especially made for the event at Arbour Hill prison in Dublin for the event. We are grateful to Mark O’Brien for organising the boxes for us. The Travel Boxes have gained a lot more significance recently because one was delivered the the Irish President at Aras on the 25th of January. On receiving the boxes the Irish President wrote… On 25 January last, I had the pleasure of accepting from Mark O’Brien of the Irish Prison Service and Michael Blanch, the Chair of the Commemoration Committee for Irish Famine Victims, a replica of a famine times travel box that was, I understand, made by prisoners in Arbour Hill. This box was one of several that have been made by Irish prisoners and which have been placed throughout Ireland, the US and Australia as reminders of the desperate plight of so many in the dark years during and after the famine. Through you, I would like to thank the men who were involved in making the box. Their workmanship
(L to R) President Michael D Higgins, Mr. Mark O’Brien and Mr. Michael Blanch
was of an exceptionally high standard and what was created is a beautiful and poignant reminder of the stark choices faced by young women, such as those who participated in the Earl Grey Scheme, who found themselves orphaned, dependent on the workhouse for survival and with very few options in life. These boxes remind us of those calamitous times and the desperate plight of these women and millions of others like them. I would like to commend the men who made this chest for their act of solidarity with these women, and for their understanding that the story of these women should be remembered.
The chest I was presented with will go on display in here in Aras an Uachtarain. Please pass on my appreciation to the men involved in this worthwhile initiative. Beir Beannacht Michael D. Higgins Uachtaran na hEireann President of Ireland If you want to know more about the Famine Commemoration in Western Australia, please contact Fred Rea on 0418 943 832
BUNBURY: Saturday 20 May 2017 at King Cottage Dedicated to Bridget Mulqueen. DARDANUP: Sunday 21 May 2017 at Dardanup Dedicated to Elizabeth Carbury. Enquiries: Fred Rea 0418 943 832 Email: fredrea@iinet.net.au 90
Meet the New GAAWA Secretary,
NOLLAIG TREVARTHEN
(nee Ward)
Nollaig hails from GAA farming stock and left Ireland in September 2007 on a one way ticket to Perth with her then Kiwi boyfriend Josh, now husband, looking for travel and excitement. “I had spent three months solo travelling South East Asia two years earlier and was well and truly bitten. After following the All-Blacks around France and Italy for the 2007 Rugby World Cup and hopping through a few more countries and east coast Australia, we settled in Perth”. While GAA formed an integral part of our upbringing, Nollaig didn’t play the game. “Given our farm was in the Kells Parish, I went to a non-Gaelic-playing all girls primary school. I tried my hand briefly in my mid-teens when Gaeil Colmcille started a Ladies team, but by then I had effectively missed the boat. Basically the only personal highlights of my youth were scoring a goal under the watchful eye of Seán Óg de Paor (Galway) while at the Gaeltacht, purely because I couldn’t solo the ball and that was about the only thing I could do with it! And saving a goal in Camogie in PE in secondary school - but with my knee, good reflexes, bad idea when it’s a sliotar at full force!” Josh and Nollaig married in 2011 and set off on a year honeymoon with the intention of returning to Perth, however a holiday in New Zealand and summer at the end of the travels lured Josh home, and so they settled on the other side of the Tasman and away from ‘Setanta Sports’ and decent GAA viewing times. Surprisingly New Zealand was where Nollaig would form a deep connection back to the GAA. “In May 2015, a post on Facebook calling a meeting for anyone interested in starting up a GAA Club in Waikato, in the middle of the farming country North Island, caught my eye. That meeting got the ball rolling. Over the next year, an amazing group of people, players, supporters and families came together to create something pretty special.” Nollaig told the Irish Scene that the timing of this Facebook post could not have been better. “It came along at a time when I was grieving the loss of my father who had passed away 15 months prior. Daddy’s priorities in life were simple; family, farming, football and faith. In his final days, with an incredible peace, he would say to visitors, many of whom he had shared a GAA connection ‘life was good, we had many good times’. So many of those good times involved the GAA and his family and friends. Having played at club level (Gael Colmcille) and County level (Meath), he had memories spun of GAA - football, hurling and handball – all the good times we as a family had shared following our club and Meath, and all the people that it had connected him with over the years. Becoming involved in the setting up of Naomh Críostóir GAA helped me retain a connectedness to Daddy when in reality at that time, every day
Nollaig with Naomh Críostóir teammates in New Zealand 91
Nollaig with GAAWA President Gerry McGeough
post his passing took me further and further from him. It connected me to our family history, to our extended GAA family back home, to the memories of my youth and essentially to a massive part of my Irish culture.” As President of Naomh Críostóir GAA, Nollaig drew on her daddy’s character, wisdom and integrity to inspire her every day to work hard with club mates to help create something for everyone, “We were known as the United Nations”, something which would last into the future, and something which everyone could all look back on with a smile and say ‘we had good times’. For Nollaig being involved in the GAA scene in New Zealand was a real privilege. “The network of support between the clubs across the country is astounding. Everyone is united by one common goal, to get people playing from all walks of life at all levels, and to create communities where everyone is welcome and people feel at home. Sometimes stars align, and I thank my lucky stars for what responding to that one liner brought.” The morning after last NZ event of their first season, Josh and Nollaig boarded a plane for their next adventure. “While difficult to leave, another star was aligning and life was changing again, we were being relocated, my Perth based sister was due with twins and it was on the cards for my mum to travel out for a long visit.” And then came a Facebook post calling a meeting regarding WA hosting the State Games. A GAA itch stirred and so the ball rolled once more. The GAA in Western Australia is blessed to have Nollaig along with PRO, Tom Murphy. They both come with a passion that will rub off on all of us. We wish Nollaig well in her role and we have no doubt the organisation will be much the better for her involvement because just like on Tom Murphy, GAA runs through their blood! Fred Rea
Tom Murphy PRO
New Executive Committee elected at AGM:
A new Executive Committee was elected at the GAAWA AGM held in the Irish Club on the 18th January 2017. The following positions were filled; President: Gerry McGough Vice President: John Lehane Secretary: Nollaig Trevarthen Assistant Secretary: Diane Baker Treasurer: Sean O’Casey Assistant Treasurer: Orla Fullerton PRO: Tom Murphy Assistant PRO: Roisin McDonald Registrar: Fred McCormack Australasian Council Vice President: John Lehane
FOOTBALL:
Alan Burke was re-elected as Chairman of the Football SubCommittee. All clubs are reminded that they must nominate a delegate to represent them on this committee.
HURLING:
All clubs are reminded that they must nominate a delegate to represent them on the Hurling SubCommittee.
MINORS:
A new Minor Board was ratified at AGM with the following positions filled; Chairman: Ciaran Gallagher Secretary: Tom Murphy Treasurer: Eimear Beatiee Committee: Diarmuid O’Loing, Richard O’Callaghan, Michael O’Connor, Gerry McGough The Minor Board is delighted to announce that ISMART Building Group with Emerald Building Services have become Minor
Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia Western Australia
Sponsors for 2017. ISMART and Emerald provide quality homes based on the passive model and further information can be found at www.ismart-bg.com.au GAAWA extends its sincere thanks to Ian Massey and Brian Guinan for their support of our Minor squad. Our Minor squad will be marching in the WA St Patrick's parade so keep an eye out for them in their new playing kit! There will also be a school's competition held at Henderson Oval, Jollimount on St Patricks Day as start of training for our Minor State squad and an opportunity for new players to get involved. All are welcome. Further information will be available closer to the date.
JUNIOR ACADEMY:
The Junior Academy AGM was held on the 8th February 2017 with a new committee elected. Work is underway preparing for the coming season. All parents and interested
children are more than welcome to join the academy and learn the skills of Hurling & Football. Further information can be found on www. gaelicgamesjunioracademyofwa. com.au
AUSTRALASIAN CONVENTION & PADRAIG PEARSES 7’S:
John Lehane & Fred McCormack are attending Australasian Convention as Western Australia’s delegates. Convention will be held in Melbourne on Saturday 18th February. On Sunday 19th February the biggest 7’s Gaelic Games tournament in Australasia takes place with the hosting by Padraig Pearses of their annual 7 a side competition in Gaelic Park, Victoria. GAAWA extends ourbest wishes to St Finbarr’s, Morley Gaels and Southern Districts who are travelling over on behalf of Western Australia.
PRESENTATION: A presentation of monies to the Claddagh Association and GAAWA Minors took place on Friday 10th February in the Irish Club. The funds were donated by the Men’s Footballers who represented Western Australia in the Australasian Championships in Brisbane in 2016. Liz O’Hagan & Tom Quinn from the Claddagh along with Diarmuid O’Loing from GAAWA’s Minor Board accepted the funds on behalf of their committees. Brendan Tierney & Brian McDonnell on behalf of the Men’s Footballers made the presentations.
Football: BGC Grounds, Tom Bateman Reserve Cnr Bannister & Nicholson Rds, Canning Vale Hurling: RA Cook Reserve, Coode St. Morley 92
Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia Western Australia
The Gaelic Games Junior Academy update By Debbie Teahan So the rest is over! We had our AGM and we had a number of positions thankfully filled, as the often boring but important work that gets done in the background, ensures it’s longevity. We are now entering our 6th year in operation. We are looking to kick off our season on the 2nd April, which will also be our registration day. Our fees for the year are approx $100 for 2017 which is often what most sports for the kids charge for a term. For St. Patrick’s day we plan to have a float (on the back of a truck) and we will put up on our facebook page details for those who want to join in the fun and decorating of the GGJA float. Our committee now has a new president John Broderick, who has been vice for a few years, our new treasurer is Tony Ward, secretary goes again to me, this year Edel Gibson is stepping up to help secretary duties. We have coaches in place for the under 6’s under 8’s and the older kids. It’s all systems go for 2017, so if you have a child aged between 4-12 who would like to come along and try their hand at Gaelic football and hurling, please feel free to contact us at ggjunioracademy@gmail.com or 0406 229 450. Facebook is always a handy way to stay up to date, we will put relevant information up on that.
www.thebreakwater.com.au
58 Southside Drive, Hillarys Boat Harbour Ph: 08 9448 5000 Fax: 08 9448 6000 93
SHAMROCK
Rovers
SHAMROCK ROVERS GOLF DAY
Marty Burke present the winning trophy to Darren Sloan and Pouge O'Sullivan
THANK YOU! Thanks to all the sponsors, organising committee and golfers who again made it a wonderful day for our club. The funds raised will help the club continue to succeed. Mick Manning
www.shamrockrovers.com.au 94
Michael Manning President Shamrock Rovers
Since the formation of the club in 2016, Perth Irish Rugby club has been gathering momentum at a great rate. This year it’s no different with the club finding its own home ground and club rooms at Centenary Park in Belmont. The facilities are fantastic with playing fields and a children’s playground side by side and food and bar facilities at the club rooms. Currently the club has 2 senior men’s team competing in the WA Championship A and B division and this year see’s the club adding a ladies team with the Perth Irish and Curtin University ladies combining forces. The club caters for all levels of ability and extends a warm Irish welcome to players and supporters from all over. Perth Irish is hosting an open day at Centenary Park, Belmont for players volunteers and supporters on March 18 with a bar, sausage sizzle and music. Training for all teams takes place at Centenary Park, Belmont at 6.30 every Tuesday and Thursday evening and is currently in full swing. The coaching team has an international flavour with South African, New Zealand and
Irish coaches. Also involved is former Western Force Coach and Australian international Michael Foley. It would be great to see everyone down at Centenary Park in Belmont and support the teams this season. Check the Website perthirishrfc.com.au for further details. Damien Gaughan
Irish Golf Club New Member’s Drive!
The Irish Golf Club was established back in the early 1980’s. The club welcomes new members and is open to golfers looking for the opportunity to play competitive golf in the company of peers, at the best Courses in the Perth Region. Because we play in some of Perth’s finest private golf clubs, we impose a strict code of conduct and dress upon members, as well as a requirement to show proper consideration and respect to fellow members. Above all, the IGC is a socially enjoyable environment for all aged golfers and it is completely devoid of any forms of elitism. The IGC holds monthly events each year across the Perth region and it arranges many fund raising events for local charities and sporting clubs. We are now inviting new members to join our club. We have a number of places available and if you are interested please contact Peter McKenna on 0447258000 95
Happy St Patrick's Day from Paul and the team at McLoughlin's Butchers
From everyone at McLoughlin Butchers
Proud Supporters of the Western Australian IRISH COMMUNITY Products available at our Malaga address Freeselected Range Hams & Turkeys, and IGA and Coles and a great selection of fresh meat for all• your • Chicken Kiev Chorizoholiday needs! OUR RANGE: • • • • • • • • •
Bratwurst Sausages Irish Pork Sausages Lamb & Rosemary Sausages Mild Italian Sausages BBQ Sausages Bacon Hock Champagne Leg Ham Gammon Ham Pork & Fennel Sausages
• • • • • • • • •
Chicken Schnitzel Chicken Parmigiana Lamb Burgers BBQ Steak Sausages Beef Burgers Bacon Rashers Boiling Bacon Italian Sausages Smoked Bacon Bones
• Beef Ribs • Lamb Ribs • Marinated Roasting Beef Pieces • Beef Steaks • Corned Silverside • Black Pudding • Black Pudding Slices • Pickled Pork
Please visit our website to see our excellent range of products & cooking ideas for your Christmas feast.
58 Westchester Rd, Malaga, WA 6090 McLoughlinButchers.com.au 08 9249 8039 96