Irish Scene September October 2016

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Western Australia’s

September/October 2016

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IN THIS ISSUE • Irish Race Day @ Ascot • Farewell Sean, Jim & Noel • Irish Dancing • WA Remembers review • A Minute with Lena • Brendan Woods off to USA • GAA reviews • Soccer and Golf • Mary Dooley story • Seán Roche returns

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3

Louise went bananas about spiders and cockroaches Down Under By Fred Rea Louise Kavanagh is from Lucan in Dublin and the daughter of Valerie, Andy and siblings Shane and Daniel.

Louise is back packing around Australia and was here as a young girl 15 years ago with family visiting uncle Des and Paula Kavanagh. She said she always wanted to travel

Louise is bananas about this bunch!

to get more life experiences and for her Australia was the obvious choice.

Louise said, “I left Dublin in February this year”.

She travelled with friends, Katie Dunne and Mairead Fallon.

Katie and Louise travelled through Europe on the way to Australia and met Mairead in New Zealand. The three girls did the Kiwi Experience tour taking in the North and South Island.

Louise: “I did my first and only skydive in New Zealand and white water rafting.

That was an experience and we all enjoyed our adventure. We flew to Melbourne for a week and after making enquiries with friends and through the internet we heard that bananas grow all year round and Queensland was where it all happened”.

Katie and Louise wanted to stay a second year in Oz so the rules are that you must do three months farm work.

“Three months farm work is never three months for backpackers, you always end up doing six months and more.”

They headed for Tully, two hours south of Cairns.

“We stayed in banana barracks which is a working hostel in Tully,” said Louise. “Tully is famous for its Golden Gum Boot”.

The Golden Gumboot is a competition between the Far North Queensland towns of Tully, Innisfail, and Babinda in Australia for the wettest town of Australia.

These towns are located in the Wet Tropics and on land that was previously covered by rainforest.

These areas experience some of the highest levels of rainfall in Australia through monsoonal rain and 4

cyclones. Tully was the winner of the competition and was awarded a rubber gold boot.

“After three days Paula who ran the banana barracks got Louise and Katie a job on a banana farm”.

This was an amazing eye opener for the girls. “We were separated and worked on different areas of the farm”

Louise with Katie Dunne and Mairead Fallon

Louise work entailed sorting and clustering the bananas that came from the paddocks.

“The speed we had to work at was unbelievable. I suffered from back pain and wrist pain and my fingers turned into claws but in time I got used to it. As crazy as it sounds I got used to it because the work had to be done and there was nowhere to hide”.

Louise said she counted her lucky stars because it was a bad season and work was scarce. “Some of the locals were finding it difficult to get work”.

Earlier on, Louise ended up working on three farms because of the employment situation in the area.

“It was third time lucky for me when I got a job on MacKays on Mullins Road. This was the best farm in the area and after my experiences on the second farm where I was not treated the best, this was wonderful”. The managers, owners and fellow workers were

great and it was a happy place to be”.

Louise had some great stories from the banana picking experience.

“I saw a big spider in the water trough and I thought it was dead but when I picked it up with a knife to show my friends, the legs started to spread and quickly moved towards me. This spider was the size of my hand I am not usually afraid of spiders but this scared the life out of me and I just ran away as quickly as possible” “Another time a friend Angela had an even bigger spider on her head but unlike me she thought it was funny but one of the other girls freaked out and bashed her head and the poor innocent spider was exterminated”.

Queensland is well known for having cockroaches of all sizes. “I felt sorry for them because when the cluster on bananas was put in the water for cleaning the cockroaches would scurry trying not to drown. I would help save them and the other workers thought this very funny. We had great fun with the native frogs and one never knew if a frog ended up in your bag. One girl had a frog phobia and she was the butt of many of the frog jokes. It was hilarious sorting out the clusters and I was unable to throw so many of mine ended up on the floor or hitting someone. Katie lost it one day and threw a banana back at me and I wore it on my face.

I really enjoyed my five months sorting bananas and want to pass on my thanks to all the Mullins Road for being such great friends and will be life-long from now!”

Louise has a different view of bananas now and said the whenever she goes to a supermarket she can’t help but wonder who packed the bananas and judge the quality of their work.

Louise saw so many animals and insects, that she now has a better appreciation and insight into nature.

“Since my Queensland experience I have a better outlook on life and appreciate the amount of effort that

Louise and friends enjoy a glass after a hard days work!

goes into the picking, sorting and delivery of bananas to supermarkets. I suppose that also is the case with all the other fresh veggies and fruit one takes for granted. The journey from farm to table sees lots of sore backs, sore fingers, scars, sore wrists and clawed fingers”.

Louise is in Western Australia for a month staying with Des, Paula, Daragh and Shauna Kavanagh. She is then heading to Sydney to see the east coast. “The best part of all this is the great people you meet and this makes it all worthwhile”.

Louise is just one of many Irish backpackers who make Australia home for two years and take back great stories to their families. Some, like me fall in love with Australia and make it their home. Louise finished by saying, “I suggest that every backpacker do the farm thing in Oz and you will be a better person and you won’t regret it”.

Fred Rea

“To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.” ― Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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7

Enda mixes Melbourne Mojo and Freo vibe

by Fred Rea/Lloyd Gorman

Melbourne oozes culture and coolness. A vibrant entertainment and live music scene are a major part of the Victorian capital’s attractiveness and one of the factors that has helped to make it the world’s most liveable cities again in August, for the sixth year in a row.

Musician Enda Kenny has always been an admirer of the cities charms and character and while he calls Brunswick East home his Australian adventure started in Western Australia three decades ago. He was back in the west recently with some of that Melbourne Mojo and there is a part of Perth which is ideally suited to his latest creative concept.

“I work with other good songwriters in Melbourne and we started a group called Writers Block,” Enda told Fred Rea who caught up with him for a chat and catch up.

“We meet once a month up at the Lomond Hotel, six different songwriters, one half goes on stage for the first half of the show and the other three go up for the second half. Themes are suggested by the audience and we go up and down the line and everyone gets to sing three different songs on that subject - be it the heart, home or whatever. Its amazing how many songs are out there.

We

set it up because there were too many cover bands and not enough original songs. So I started it with Frank Jones in Melbourne, and David Hynes has started it here in Fremantle. I played the Freo one back in May at Clancy’s Fish Pub in Fremantle. To find out more about The Fremantle Writers’ Block Contact David Hyams 0419 040 700 or david@milestogo.com.au.

That’s been a great thing to start because new songs are coming on, people are writing songs for the event and if you don’t have a song on the subject or theme of the night you’ve got a month to write one. The audiences are quite, they tune in and they come in specifically to hear whatever we put in front of them and they fill out a little piece of paper on the table and suggest who they’d like to hear there and what we should be singing about. How active and involved is that? Its been a brilliant idea.”

Enda - who has seven CD’s to his credit - is originally a Dubliner but also proud to call himself an Irish Australian. “I’m happy to live where I live, I’m not desperate to go back to the Holy Ground (Ireland),” he added.

“I sing about where I live, not where I left and the rest of my life is going to be

8

here. I like going back for a visit but I wouldn’t go back and live and many people have made that choice, but they don’t sing about it.”

Enda was back in Ireland at the end of July for the 2016 Fiddlers Green festival, now in its 30th year. “It’s my first gig in Northern Ireland for a while. I’m staying with a member of the famous Irish folk singing Sand’s family, Colm in Rostrevor (County Down) and will be playing with an Irish band called Lynched. “Enda was back in Ireland and the UK as part of a month long tour that took him up until the end of August.

Enda plays a living from music, mainly between doing folk festivals and house concerts. “I don’t do many pub gigs but I do have some favourite pubs I love to play in.

There’s a great pub by the Victoria Market in Melbourne called The Drunken Poet which is run by a woman from Cork, Siobhan. She’s got pictures of Brendan Behan, James Joyce, John Millington Synge and others on the walls and if you can name all the artists you get a free pint, but I don’t think anyone has managed it yet, but that’s a part of the attraction of the place.

Its a great pub, there are no pokies, no TVs, its just all about the music and the artists. So I’ll play there a few times a year and I’ll play the Lomond Hotel which is a great music pub with music six nights a week. It’s these place that support music all year around that I try to support. If you can shut up a noisy pub with a good song then you’ve got them for the evening and its just a matter of keeping it interesting so you keep them listening. I’m playing to an older crowd these days, people who like to hear a story, something with a beginning, middle and an end.

But I’m not shy about rocking it up when its called for and I enjoy singing a good ballad. Who doesn’t?

We have an advantage as Irish people to that as we are attuned to listen to words and music as stories

from very early on in a strong oral tradition as Irish people, and those who have come out here.”

He is quick to admit his love for Melbourne, even if it was never his intended destination and his early ambitions to call it home were blocked.

“I travelled to Australia in November 1983 for twelve months as a 24 year old backpacker but I knew by the time I got back home that this was going to be home, I was really clear about that,” he told Fred. “I came out for my younger sister’s wedding in Perth and I was the last of the Kenny’s - seven boys and two girls - to get here. I first picked long stem carnations in Donnybrook, south of Perth. I made a grand ($1000) working on that flower farm in Donnybrook and I used that money to hitch hike over east and I made it over as far as Newcastle and I saw a bit of Sydney, but I loved Melbourne which was the place I came back to. I have a son there, he was born two months after I left Australia the first time and like a lot of other people I had some problems getting into the country. So my son was two

years and three months old when I held him for the first time, but its all worked out really well.”

Enda’s son Cameron McDonald was in Perth at the same time as he was playing a gig in the Fly by Night in Fremantle, but while the pair’s path’s did not cross on that occasion, Cameron has followed in his father’s footsteps by making music his life, and spending some time in Perth.

“He was flying in as I was flying out, that’s the way it is,” he said.

“He’s starring in Georgie Girl the musical, with his wife Michelle.

They’ve been busy with musicals and met in Jersey Boys while in New Zealand. Cameron covered two of the leads in Burswood (Crown) and to have a son who is a great musician has been really something. He was Chris in Miss Saigon in Perth but never got to sing, he was in the wings every night in case the other guy got a sore throat. Instead of going to WAAPA (WA Academy of Performing Arts) he worked in cruise boats and bands in Fort Lauderdale and the Bahamas, working two shows in and two

shows out every week for four years.”

In the last issue of Irish Scene Fred sat down with Enda’s brother Declan, who lives and plays music in Perth. Enda said his brother was his original inspiration to play music and thinks that Declan has the best musical ear of the whole family. Declan made the point that the two brothers had never really played together. “We were watching Euro soccer the other night on this trip and I was talking to him about getting together,” added Enda. “I suggested that while we are still around and we can still handle an instrument we should maybe have a look at doing a Kenny family band gig at somewhere like the Fairbridge Festival in the next couple of years.

It would be great if we could pull it off.”

You can buy Enda’s CD’s on line at endakenny.com.au

“When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.” ― Edna O'Brien

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9

In this centenary year of the Easter Rising many events have been arranged all over the world to commemorate that great historical drama.

Research and writing in several countries, some of it in the worthy cause of reconciliation, has led to re-examination of the Rising and its aftermath. The complex historical background is also receiving attention. Various characters involved in earlier efforts to secure Irish independence deserve to be more widely known. In regard to the subject of this short series, the gentleman made his mark in three continents – or four if one counts Central America as part of South America.

A Tipperary man named Thomas Meagher moved to Canada in the 1780s and settled at St Johns in Newfoundland.

He prospered amazingly as a merchant in trade between that distant colony and the port of Waterford in Ireland. Thomas eventually sent his son - Thomas Meagher the younger - to manage family business interests in Waterford.

The latter did very well for himself and eventually entered politics in the conservative interest. He was a Catholic but his Toryism should come as no surprise; like many of his countrymen in that era he was a social conservative. Furthermore, as the dreadful starvation years from 1845 to 1849 revealed, Irish folk had no reason to trust the ‘progressive’ Whigs who steamrolled repeal of the Corn Laws through parliament and thereby rendered famine relief more difficult.

Thomas the Younger served two terms as mayor of Waterford and further triumphed by securing a seat in the House of Commons in London from 1847 to 1857. He married Alicia Quan and their second son Thomas Francis Meagher was born in Waterford town on August

(Part one)

On death row, 1849 - Meagher standing next to the redcoat, Smith O’Brien seated

by Peter Conole

3, 1823. Thomas Francis (simply Meagher from now onwards - he made it a household name in Ireland and the USA in later years) lost his mother early, but aunts and the local Sisters of Charity Convent women helped fill the gap in his life. He was a very bright, good natured child and his father sent him away for the best possible secondary education. He studied first at the Clongowes Jesuit school in Kildare and developed a passion for learning in the process - and also an interest in alcohol, a peccadillo that sometimes posed problems in later years.

Meagher then attended the austere, rigorous but first class Jesuit tertiary college at Stonyhurst in northern England, emerging from it in 1843 with a great knowledge of Latin literature and Aquinian philosophy plus a love of Shakespeare’s plays and the classic British poets from Chaucer to Byron and Robbie Burns. The first signs of Irish nationalism also emerged in Meagher at the college: he refused to celebrate Waterloo Day. He returned to Waterford in 1843 as a young man of wealth and status and 10

his father allowed him to move to Dublin in order to study law a year later. While there he involved himself in what became known as the ‘Young Ireland’ movement and befriended such future revolutionaries as John Mitchel and the Protestant aristocrat William Smith O’Brien.

During the famine years he and they (despite personal misgivings about violence) came to believe that the use of arms was a way to terminate the results of the hated 1800 Act of Union and obtain autonomy for Ireland. Meagher had already evolved into a great, inspiring orator by the time he gave what was possibly his famous public address ever, his ‘sword speech’ of July 26, 1846, delivered at Conciliation Hall in Dublin. Just one quote (in which he used the USA as an example) will do: ”Abhor the Sword? Stigmatise the Sword”. No, my lord, for, at its blow…a giant nation sprang up from the waters of the Atlantic, and by its redeeming magic the fettered colony became a daring, free republic”. Over the next year, like many of his associates, he was horrified by the growing impact of the famine and tried to build an alliance with the great Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association. O’Connell’s death ended that venture.

Meagher had already helped to form the Irish Confederation and on the heels of the successful French Revolution of 1848 he delivered an address in the Music Hall, Dublin on March 15, 1848 proclaiming that if the Union was not put to an end “then up with the barricades and invoke the God of Battles!”. What followed is too well known in Irish history to require detailed comment - information on the key events is readily available from many sources. Meagher, O’Brien and Mitchel were all charged with sedition. While on bail Meagher and a delegation went to France to investi-

gate the situation and brought back a gift from some women of Paris - a tricolour flag of orange, white and green…

In May 1848 Meagher and Smith O’Brien were acquitted, but Mitchel was convicted under the Treason Felony Act and sentenced to 14 years exile. Agitation and arrests continued and insurrection soon followed. The focus was on Kilkenny, but the outbreak was a botched affair: not enough broad support, too few arms and too little organisation.

A skirmish at Ballingarry ended the business. Smith O’Brien was captured on August 5. Meagher refused suggestions to flee abroad; he remained to face the music and was arrested at Rathgannon on August 12, 1848. The Government decided to lay charges of high treason and four leaders of the movement - including Meagher - were sentenced to death in October. With typical panache Meagher told the judges “I hope to be able, with a pure heart and perfect composure, to appear before a higher tribunal”.

British Prime Minister Lord Russell decided that mercy was the best and safest policy. The prisoners were despatched to one of the British penal colonies for life. On July 9, 1849 Meagher and three other insurgent leaders embarked for Tasmania on HMS ‘Swift’. The vessel arrived there in August. Possibly to his surprise Meagher found that Foreign Secretary Earl Grey had told the local authorities to treat the prisoners as gentlemen and give them tickets of leave immediately. That meant they could work, buy property, marry and live easily as long as they did not try to escape. Meagher obviously had funds aplenty to draw on - and he had brought quite a library with him. He was placed at Campbell Town, north of Hobart, where he rented a cottage and a small island on a nearby lake. He soon recruited employees and began farming and acquiring stock.

Needless to say Meagher was unhappy, as were his fellow political exiles, and escape plans of one kind or another came and went.

Meagher and colleagues receiving the death sentence, 1848

Smith O’Brien tried and failed and Meagher, now short of funds, wrote to his father asking for money to help his friend. The senior Meagher obliged but (being no rebel himself) expressed his regret that ”the adventure in which you risked so much has been excessively improvident and fruitless”. Consolation for his lot came the young man’s way in February 1851. Meagher married Catherine Bennett, the daughter of an Irish convict. His fellow Young Irelanders thought there was too much of a social gulf between them but Meagher described her as “the very picture of a fine Irish girl – working away with her needle, in the brightest good humour”.

Despite everything, Meagher planned to escape. His attempt took months to arrange and when the time came he insisted on behaving like an honourable gentleman. Meagher told a local police magistrate in January 1852 that he was withdrawing his parole and waited until he knew constables were out to arrest him before heading for the coast. He

hid for several days on a tiny islet for the ship ‘Elizabeth Thompson’ to arrive and collect him. The captain had been paid 600 pounds back in Britain to carry off a prisoner and conceal his identity. The vessel reached Brazil on St Patrick’s Day and Meagher transferred from it to the brig ‘Avon’, which was bound for New York.

Meagher arrived there in June 1852; his wife joined him early in the following year. A terrible fuss followed the escape from Tasmania, much of it focussing on questions of honour. The escapee was very sensitive about that and offered to return to captivity if his integrity had been fatally compromised. He asked his friends to judge whether he had done right, then also referred the matter to ”an independent tribunal of American gentlemen”. They were very influential men and decided he had behaved decently and gave the authorities a fair chance to catch him. Irish balladeers in New York celebrated Meagher’s exploits as the hero of the hour began a new life.

“Irish Lives in the Western Australia Police” is available from Peter Conole’s

Fremantle Prison Gift Shop, Royal WA Historical Society in Nedlands, Seri\endipity Books, 256 Railway Parade, West Leederville or from the publisher on 0418 943 832. It is a wonderful read and insight into Irish lives in the Western Australian police in the 1800’s and early 1900s.

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Sunday The Mighty Session: Roast dinner with potato & Quinn vegetables $18.00 Tavern Sunday Session: Bryan Dalton

112 Wanneroo Road, Tuart Hill • 9349 9600 (& Guests) 6-10pm Mighty Quinn Entertainment Guide

Mon: Mighty Monday Curry Specials $19.50 Tues: Chicken Parmigiana Night $19.00 Wed: Quiz Night (Free entry, giveaways & cash prizes)

Quiz starts 8pm – 10pm + Steak Night : Porterhouse Steak (300g)

with chips & salad garnish for only $15.00 Thur: Pasta Night $18.00 Fri: The Mighty Slider Night $18.50

Friday Musicians: The Lost Backpackers play from 8pm Sat: Surf & Turf Night $35.00 Porterhouse Steak (300g) served with

Crumbed Prawns (3), Onion Rings (3), Chips, Salad & your choice

of sauce. (Pepper, Mushroom, Diane or Garlic Sauce) Saturday Musicians: Plays from 7pm Sat musicians: The Lost Backpackers 10 Sept & 8 Oct, Bryan Dalton 17 Sept & 1, 15 & 29 Oct, Jonnie Reid 3 & 24 Sept, & 22 Oct Sun Musicians: (Sunday 4 September: Jonnie Reid 3-7pm, Sue Summers 7-10pm) (Sunday 11 September: Alex Canion 3-6pm, Jonnie Reid 6-10pm)

Well Done Sarsfields!

A very special congratulations and thank you to all the boys from Sarsfield’s Hurling Club WA on your successful season. Extremely proud of your professionalism on the field and off. We are proud to be associated with a great load of lads. Special thanks to Fergus Shortt (President Excellence Par None), Kieran Lyons (Long Time Friend of The Quinn & Chicago Irish), Scutch Flannery & Ciaran Flannery (Offaly Legends & Friends of the Perth & Chicago Irish). Paul Birmingham (Secretary General & all time Charmer), John Whelahan (The Manager with the Most-Est) and The Lonergan Brothers (Scone Lonergan & David Lonergan).

Of course Sarsfield is the sum of the whole and we would like to thank each and every member of the team (You all know who you are). Sarsfield Abu!

Check out our New TAB Racing Wall in the Public Bar of The Mighty Quinn Tavern.

Claddagh Christmas Seniors Lunch at Mighty Quinn

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Currambine crowd gets a special Crooners Concert with Tony Jones from Dublin

By Lloyd Gorman

There are plenty of people who can butcher a song but a butcher who can sing well is a different story altogether. Dubliner Tony Jones falls firmly into the second - much smaller and more exclusive - category. Its easy to imagine him singing away to himself while he cuts up some organs but its on stage where he opens up his own lungs.

“I’ve always been involved in the entertainment business and served my time as a butcher,” Tony told Irish Scene on a recent three week trip to Perth. “Both my jobs are something I love doing. I put my butchers hat on during the day and when I come home in the evening I put on my performing hat, put my equipment in the car and go to the gig. Butchering is my bread and butter and a trade you can always come back to but gigging is the cream on the top.”

Tony and his wife Orla were recently in Perth for the first time ever to see their two sons, Wayne (33) and Garth (28) and to catch up with childhood friend Marty Power, who has called Perth home for 28 years now, and his wife Caroline.

On September 13 Tony will be putting on a major performance ‘And I love you so…the Perry Como story’ at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Tony will be the voice of Como while his sister Sandie Jones will be in the part of Doris Day. They will be backed by The Impossible Big Band.

“This is my fourth year to do it and we are in rehearsals now,” he said. “Sandie is Doris Day, because Perry Como and Doris Day were good friends in real life. Its huge.

The National Concert Hall holds 1,400 people and its 95% sold out already and we’ve still got nine weeks to go. When you walk out on the stage at the concert hall the orchestra are 20 feet behind you and there’s nobody else on stage to cosy up too. Its 26 songs with no lyrics on stage, you have to have it all in your head, it keeps you on your toes.”

The Jones family grew up listening too and playing all sorts and styles of music.

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“Every member of the family sings, but my parents were something else, mam was a wonderful singer and dad was the original crooner. There were pianos, banjo’s, trumpets in the house, no TV and no internet back then either so you made your own fun. We grew up listening to Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Tom Jones; all sorts of music were welcome in the house. We were always looking for a niche and you’ve got to find your own style too and to do that you’ve got to try and do lots of different styles.

I went off to the Middle East and worked in hotels and bands and stuff like that and I went on the road performing.”

His sister Sandie found her own voice and carved out a special place for herself in the annals of Irish music.

“She represented Ireland in the Eurovision in 1972 with “Ceol an Ghrá”, the only Irish language song to ever represent Ireland in the competition. She came 15th, which is not bad when you see how the country does now.”

Tony’s first professional gig was in the Belgard Inn on the Belgard Road, when he was 18. “It was a huge pub and on a Friday and Saturday night you’d get 600 people in the place, no problem. Everyone was smoking and drinking in the pub. You wouldn’t get it now. It was the opening act in a cabaret show of three acts, I was the opening act, and I sang probably eight songs and got paid a tenner.”

Tony has a one man show but also has a seven piece band called Top Cat. He plays plenty of weddings, divorces and other functions, “Between them I’m kept going.”

Tony’s visit to Perth was a holiday designed to catch up with his two boys who he hadn’t seen in five years.

Wayne was an electrician back in Ireland but when the economy and everything else started going downhill he decided he wanted to come to Australia. “I said to him I have a friend there, why don’t I give him a shout, so I called Marty and said I was going to send the boy over and asked him if he could show him the ropes and look after him for a couple of weeks until he got work, and he did. When the younger guy finished his trade (plasterer) he decided he wanted to follow his older brother out.” Wayne set up Boss Removal in Perth about 18 months ago and now Garth works with him in the business. Tony is proud of his boys and their hard work to

make a go of the business. “They are thinking about putting a second truck on the road.”

Even though he was on holidays Tony jumped at the chance to stage a special one off concert, organised by his wife, Marty and Caroline with Steve the manager.

For one night only in early August, Tony Jones was the main show at the Currambine Tavern.

“The two piece guys who normally play there looked after me very well and let me use their equipment. I had my tracks and laptop. I started at 9pm and I finished at 11.30pm. For two and a half hours the place was rocking. I opened up with Save the Last Dance by Michael Buble, then it was the Drifters, then Tom Jones, Gilbert

O’Sullivan, Kenny Rogers, Billie Joel and it just snowballed from there. It was a really good gig, it was very memorable, a great crowd, they really went for it and they more than surprised me. I got a great response; I was very pleased everyone enjoyed it. I even threw in a few Perry Como Songs, its seemed to go well right across the board. This showbiz thing is like disease, even when you’re on holidays you want to get up and sing.”

Tony and his wife hope to return to Perth again in 2017 and he is also hoping he will get a chance to play another local gig!

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15

‘Sense of Place’

By Peter Murphy - Aug 2016

Being Irish and a lover of poetry, it has always intrigued me as to how we Irish who live in Australia view the landscape and put it into words. Australian born poets such as Henry Lawson, John Kinsella, Dorothy McKellar, Robert Adamson and Jodie Lane (to name but a few) never had such problems of course in capturing the Australian vernacular. However, there were some Irish born exceptions, such as John Boyle O’Reilly and Victor Daley.

O’Reilly, born at Dowth, County Meath (1844), after the Irish uprising (1866-65) found himself as a Fenian political prisoner aboard the last convict ship Hougoumont to Australia. He would spend just over a year in Western Australia before his famous escape to America. Yet somehow, he managed to capture in his poetry an Australian ‘sense of place’ as good as any Australian poet living or dead. For instance his poem ‘Western Australia’ manages to capture a sense of place I still at times yearn even after spending most of my adult life here:

a houseboat in Sydney Harbour. It was only when he began to rub shoulders with the likes of poet Henry Lawson, had his prose begun to capture the Australian vernacular: O Horace, on your Sabine farm, With wine and song whose fire and charm Have kept the chill dark centuries warm, I would you were with me to-day, Looking across the landscape grey From this lone farm up Orange-way.

Then you would see brown hill and plain Hidden behind a veil inane Of silent, sullen, ceaseless rain.

The tall, proud -plumage, stately trees That tossed their green crests in the breeze Are like dead waves beneath dead seas.

Tis sad to know you said Adieu, And went into Elysium Come Before you ever saw a gum.

The creek is now a roaring flood, Whose waters have the hue of blood -And all is Gloom that is not mud.

The farmer in the kitchen sits And mends old boots, and smokes and spits.

The good wife grumbles, darns, and knits.

The tide of life has ceased to flow, The bull can only feebly low, The cock no courage has to crow.

Bard of Venusia ever dear, O lyric liar, sweet and clear, Friend Horace, would that you were here!

If you from this made poetry, Then I would from my heart agree You were all you’re cracked up to be.

O BEAUTOUS Southland! land of yellow air, That hangeth o’er thee slumbering, and doth hold The moveless foliage of thy valleys fair And wooded hills, like aureole of gold.

O strange land, thou art virgin! Thou art more Than fig-tree barren! Would that I could paint For others’ eyes the glory of the shore Where last I saw thee; but the senses faint

In soft delicious dreaming when they drain Thy wine of color. Virgin fair thou art All sweetly fruitful, waiting with soft pain The spouse who comes to wake thy sleeping heart.

‘Western Australia’ (excerpts) - John Boyle O’Reilly

How did O’Reilly manage to capture such imaginative vivid pictures in such a short space of time here? Was it because - as a convict facing 20 years hard labour on a chain gang - he saw there was no future left for him, and therefore wrote about things he saw there and then, rather than what had been and what may lie ahead:

‘Aboriginalities: Last Days on the Farm’ by Victor Daley

Ironically, O’Reilly and Daley (apart from both born in Ireland) shared much in common: both worked as journalists in England; were the same age when they came to Australia (20); were champions of human rights and injustices; proud of their Irish heritage, while their poetry also shared similar themes of nostalgia, regret, love and remembrance, all peppered with Celtic romanticism.

Later in life both poets would become literary celebrities in their adopted countries. O’Reilly died in Boston at the age of 46, Daley in Sydney at the age of 47. Daley is remembered as one of Australia’s most popular 19th century poets, while O’Reilly’s contribution to Australian poetry is still yet to be celebrated.

Have I no future left in me?

Is there no struggling ray From the sun of my life outshining Down on my darksome way?

‘Night Thoughts’ (excerpt) - John Boyle O’Reilly

Daley, born at Navan, County Armagh (1885), like O’Reilly was also able to capture an Australian sense of place. Unlike O’Reilly, Daley enjoyed free passage to Australia and was unshackled to explore his new found landscape.

However, his sense of place would take time to evolve, as for several years after his arrival he wandered the Australian countryside living at different times in Melbourne and Sydney. At one time he lived on

Peter Murphy is a member of the John Boyle O’Reilly Association (Bunbury) and a regular contributor to the Irish Scene. www.jboreilly.org.au or www.facebook.com/jboreilly

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Dermot Byrne

The Irish Quiz Wiz! a.k.a. Dermot from Lesmurdie on ABC radio Nightlife program.

For the Quiz this time I can’t think of any special subject so I’ll try a few pot luck questions. Pot luck is like Irish stew there’s a bit of everything in there. A few people have pulled me up over the answer I gave to question 7 in last Quiz they don’t believe me when I told them I put that answer in purposely to test them I knew the Giants Causeway was in Co. Antrim.

1. How many medals did Ireland win in the Rio Olympics?

2. What date is Father’s Day this year (in Ireland)?

3. You all know C. Y. O’Connor was famous for the construction of the Goldfields Pipeline and Fremantle Harbour but what do the initials C.Y. stand for?

4. What is the difference between Kangaroos and Wallaby’s?

5. What was the name of the Irishman who won the Gold Medal for the 1500 Metres at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics?

6. What was name of the horse that was the first Irish horse to win the Melbourne Cup in 1993?

7. Who in July 1981 became the only Irishman to win the Tour-De- France?

8. You have all heard of W. B. Yeats the Irish poet but what do the initial letters W.B. stand for?

9. Who was the leader of the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade in 1851?

10. In the list of most popular Irish Christian names where is Patrick or Padraig placed?

11. Name the Irish athlete who won the Women’s Pentathlon at the 1972 Summer Olympics?

12. Name the first athlete from an independent Ireland to win an Olympic medal in sport?

Answers: 1.Two, 2.Sunday June 19, 3.Charles Yelverton, 4 Kangaroos play Rugby League and Wallaby’s play Rugby Union, 5.Ron Delany, 6.Vintage Crop, 7.Stephen Roche, 8.William Butler, 9 Peter Lawlor, 10.Third, 11. Mary Peters, 12.*Pat O’Callaghan (from Kanturk in Co Cork)

17 17

with Synnott

Lena COSTELLO is this edition's special guest. Lena is a former President of the Irish Club and a stalwart of the Irish community in Perth

You must be happy you came to Australia?

Yes very happy we have had 60 good years in Australia and 60 years in the same house.

You were involved with the establishment of the current Irish club in Subiaco with Paddy, why?

Michael Keogh, Jo Crozier and Paddy were looking into the option of buying a house where the committee of the Irish Club at that time could meet to have get-togethers.

We contacted a friend, Terry Taylor who is a Real Estate Agent to see if he had a house for sale that would suit this purpose. He didn’t have a house but he did have a hall available in Subiaco at that time. It was called Fantasia Lodge. That was how the Irish club came to be in Townsend Road in Subiaco in 1976.

Did you ever have time for hobbies or films?

Not really. We occasionally took the kids to the drive-ins which was always hard when you have six kids and two adults in the one car! There was a period there where I had a hobby creating copper art which I started through voluntary work at the local primary school.

The Irish Club was also a large part of our lives. In the early years of the club getting up and running it was volunteers that contributed to decorating, maintenance, cleaning and staffing that made it work. lf so what was your favourite film and actor?

Gone with the Wind was my favourite movie - It was made in the west of Ireland.

Are you happy with the running of the Irish club?

There is nothing wrong with the running of the Irish club - we just need the Irish community to support it and it will be successful.

What is your opinion of the Irish scene?

I think Fred and his team do a fantastic job putting the Irish Scene together - it’s a brilliant form of communication within the Irish community here in Perth.

Would you change your life in anyway if you could?

I don’t think so though it would have been nice to have won lotto on one of the many occasions that we purchased tickets.

You are one of the best known Irish women in Western Australia, do you take this in your stride?

(Lena laughed and laughed)…..

How can you bring young members to join the Irish club what is your advice for the President?

I think the best way to address this issue is to actually ask young people.

So what do you remember about your first job?

I was the Manager of the Banba Hotel in Salt Hill. It was a seasonal job and this is where we ended up having our wedding reception.

What is your first memory of going to school?

I went to Caman primary school. My memories of school are very positive.

My auntie taught me and she only had one son and he thought I was his sister. My High School years were spent in a boarding school in the Dominican College, Taylor Hill in Galway.

From there I went to St Vincent’s College, Coolarne. Sr Angela advised me to do an exam and as a result I got a double scholarship to Cathal Brugha Street in Dublin and I never looked back.

Was life hard for you in your early years?

No not really. We grew up on a farm and never really wanted for anything.

You must be very happy with your life to now?

Yes - I have a good life living in Australia, married to Paddy, six wonderful children, five fantastic grandchildren, lovely daughter in laws and son in laws.

I’m very happy.

How did you meet your husband and where?

When I was living in Dublin in 1949 my mother would write to me whenever people from around home were getting married and coming up to Dublin for their honeymoon. She would write and say “please book them into a hotel and please meet them at the station and take them to the hotel” I would get in touch with Emily Costello to bring any Galway people along to meet the couple on the weekend and it was on one of these occasions that Emily brought her brother Paddy along and that was when we first met.

A little over two years later, in December 1918, O'Meara was described as 'suffering from Delusional Insanity, with hallucinations of hearing and sight, is extremely homicidal and suicidal, and requires to be kept in restraint'.

The contrast with 1916 could not appear to be an greater. So what happened to Martin O'Meara in those two or so years?

Ian Loftus answers these questions in his book and it's available from Boffins Books or visit https://ianloftus.com/ martin-omeara-vc/

"Most Fearless and Gallant Soldier I Have Ever Seen"

A New Book by Ian Loftus "I respectfully beg to draw your attention to the conduct of Pte O'Meara during the recent operations of this Bttn. Pte O'Meara is the most fearless and gallant soldier I have ever seen" Lieutenant Bill Lynas of the Australian Imperial Force's 16th Battalion penned these words in mid-August 1916, shortly after the battalion had withdrawn from fierce fighting near the small village of Pozieres, on the Western Front.

18

19

Jim Motherway an artist and a gentleman The passing of Jim Motherway (Cpt James Joseph Rtd) has saddened the Western Australian Irish community, especially those in theatre circles. Prior to coming to Perth, Jim was active in theatre in the 1960s in Ireland with the Kilcullen Dramatic Society. He formed the Newbridge Musical/ Dramatic Society and was in many productions acting and directing.

He Joined the Perth Irish Theatre Players (ITP) around 1989 when the family moved to Perth. The Motherway name was already well known in Irish theatre circles long before Jim, Lucy and family arrived.

The Irish Theatre Players were formed in late 1981 at the invitation of the Irish Fleadh 1981 Committee.

Their debut production was Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock directed by founding member and first president, Jim’s brother, Bill Motherway, and performed at the Dolphin Theatre, UWA. One of the actors was Paul Motherway, another brother.

Since then ITP have grown into a fully-fledged community theatre group averaging three major productions a year and a one act season of usually three or four one act plays.

Jim was on the ITP committee for many years as Artistic Director or Vice President. I was very much involved with Jim helping with posters, tickets and programs. He was a gentleman to deal with.

He directed many ITP productions such as; Sharon’s Grave 2006, Last of the Mohicans 2006, Playboy of the Western World 2007, The Field 2008, In the Shadow of the Glen 2008, Arsenic and Old Lace 2009, A Pound on Demand 2009, The Lonesome West 2009, Riders to the Sea 2010, Juno and the Paycock 2011, A Wake in the West 2012 and My Three Angels 2014. There were

also many one acts, some of which won awards.

Jim was also a fine actor and acted in; Freedom of the City 1989, The Hostage 2005, Red Roses and Petrol 2005, The Picture House 2006, Blood Guilty 2007, Philadelphia Here I Come 2010, Brownbread 2010, Translations 2012 and The Broken Jug 2013.

His good friend John Spurling told me the first mention he found in the ITP programs that he has, show that Jim was part of the 1989 Fleadh in when the ITP did Freedom of the city. The Program said: Jim Motherway: Jim a very recent newcomer to Australia comes from Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Previous involvement with the theatre includes appearances in Charlies Aunt, Philadelphia here I come, Man from Clare and The Field. He also directed A Streetcar Named Desire.

Jim was also an accomplished artist and has painted many scenes which adorn the family home. He also did a lot of artwork for many people and as you enter JB O’Reilly’s in West Leederville you will be struck by the large Celtic piece of Jim’s art on the main wall... it is wonderful talking piece.

Jim was also very good at Heraldic Art and did many pieces for friends.

The news of Jim’s passing has travelled far and the Kilcullen blog had the following: “The Diary has learned with personal sadness of the unexpected death of Jim Motherway, from Perth in Western Australia and formerly from Kilcullen. He will be very deeply missed by his loving wife Lucy, their children Ann, Pamela, Ivan, Jennifer and James, all their extended family and their many friends in Perth and Kilcullen.

Many in Kilcullen will remember the Motherway family, who lived 20

here through the sixties and seventies before emigrating Down Under.

Jim, formerly an army officer, also established a holiday business in Ireland called Funtrek, where he led small groups of people on holidays to what were then exotic and hard-toget-to places.

He was also an enthusiastic member of the Kilcullen Drama Group, with one of his memorable parts being the bishop in John B Keane’s The Field.

Jim and Lucy maintained their interest in drama in Perth, and their son Ivan is very involved in professional theatre. Last year, Jim played the part of the Judge in John Banville’s The Broken Jug with Ivan as joint director in a production by the Irish Theatre Players in Perth.

Our deepest condolences to the family and may Jim rest in peace”.

On the Kilcullen blog, Brian Byrne said Jim was also a leading light in the Kilcullen Drama Group, and during a chat with Jim some years ago reminded Brian of the final night of a production of The Field, in which Jim had played the part of a bishop, in full regalia.

The run ended with some postperformance celebration on stage, and at one point the bishop and Brian found themselves directing late night traffic through the town around a minor tempest outside the theatre. The bemused response of a truck driver who found himself

being waved down at midnight by a ‘bishop’ was theatre in itself. That was Jim! As Ivan mentioned during his eulogy to his dad, Jim’s father was a member of Tom Barry’s West Cork Flying Column during the Irish war of independence, he was very proud of that!

Jim passed away peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday 2nd August. He is survived, and deeply missed by, his darling wife of 54 years, Lucy, his four children: Ann, Pamela, Ivan and James, grand-children Jennifer, Aimee, Grace and James Jnr and son-in-law John.

Slán abhaile a chara, you will be greatly missed by us all!

Fred Rea

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O’Callaghan was the first!

1928 Olympic Games: In the summer of 1928 the three O’Callaghan brothers paid their own fares when travelling to the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Even though Con O’Callaghan was taking part in the decathlon it was his older brother who became the hero in the hammer shot put.

O’Callaghan was still regarded as a novice when he represented his country in the Olympic Games and it was expected that he wouldn’t do much. In spite of this he finished in sixth place in the preliminary round and started the final with a throw of 155’ 9”. This put him in third place. He was behind Ossian Skiöld of Sweden but ahead of Malcolm Nokes, the favourite from Great Britain. For his second throw O’Callaghan, a master of the psychological element of competition, used the Swede’s own hammer and recorded a throw of 168’ 7”. It was 4’ more than what Skoeld could manage and it resulted in a first gold medal for O’Callaghan and for Ireland. The podium presentation was particularly emotional as it was the first time at an Olympic Games that the Irish tricolour was raised and it was the first time that Amhrán na bhFiann was played.

21

Ciaran McKeown is from Co Antrim and came to Australia 5 years ago. His introduction to computer programming was in Belfast and from that he knew that he wanted to run his own business building websites and working with people in their businesses.

“Jacqueline and I married and in 2012 moved to Australia”.

When Ciaran looked around Perth and elsewhere there wasn’t anywhere to source Irish businesses and services.

“I could see that my skills and experiences could fill that gap and give people a place to go and see not just the businesses but the community around it, the charities, not for profit and those doing great work in the community”. Ciaran saw that this was not easy to find and when they first arrived in Perth found it difficult to find out what was going on in the Irish community.

“There were lots of organisations and businesses but it was difficult to find them”.

Ciaran saw a need for people who come to a new city who are not involved in sports groups. When one is not a regular at sporting clubs and pubs, it can be really difficult to link up with things going on in the community. “We really wanted to create somewhere for people to go and find out what is happening in the community where they now live”. So he set up the Irish in Business website.

As Irish in Business website says, Irish people have a long and complicated relationship with immigration.

Often forced upon entire generations it has resulted in strong Irish communities from Boston to Brisbane.

While some things are different in today’s world, the sense of identity and heritage is never lost.

It has never been easier to keep up-to-date with family and friends back home through social media, Skype or facetime, however the distance remains.

And despite the technology available to people it

is becoming increasingly difficult to integrate with the community around you and often opportunities are missed.

It is the websites goal to become the centralised location for Irish resources in your local community, regardless of where you live.

Irish in Business want to promote the Irish services and associations in your local community, resulting in more business for those providing the services and more exposure for those not-for-profit organisations needing it most.

If you are interested in becoming a part of the Irish in Business community please register today on the website. Irish in Business aim to make it as easy as possible to connect with the local Irish community wherever you live.

By registering on this website, people will be able to find your business, charity or sports team through the search facility on the homepage.

Irish in Business also use social media and localised monthly newsletters to actively promote you to the Irish community, helping to spread the word and increase your exposure. This can result in more customers, attendees at events, volunteers for your organisation or players for your club.

Ciaran is a breath of fresh air for the Perth Irish community and already he is helping out the Claddagh Association and the IWAF Business group. He is one of the most positive people one could meet and I have no doubt will be a wonderful asset to our Irish Community in Western Australia.

So, if you are interested in becoming a part of the Irish in Business community please register today.

Visit… irishinbusiness.com or send him an email to ciaran@irishinbusiness.com Fred Rea

NEW WEBSITE linking Irish businesses and social groups

22

At the school I attended in Dublin Ireland there were no facilities for subjects such as sport or cooking. But I did learn to knit and sew in a limited fashion.

In the knitting class we produced small useless squares and graduated to other items.

However hard I tried my efforts always ended up a mangled mess.

My teacher, Miss Holey had little patience with me, and I now have to admit I cannot blame the long suffering woman who tried so hard, in almost impossible circumstances, to teach the children in her care.

On one occasion when I was about eleven years old Miss Holey informed us we were to learn how to knit socks. Each week we would spend an hour going through the different stages, the leg, turning the heel and finally shaping the toe. At the end of each session we would hand in our work and receive it back the following week for the next lesson. As she distributed the

By Marie Moloney wool for this she explained there was not enough for everyone and told me I could not do any knitting until she got more wool. I was heartbroken; not at being unable to join in the knitting class, but at being singled out as the one who could not. I asked permission to go to the toilet and sat outside crying my eyes out.

However my tears of sadness quickly turned to tears of anger and as my fury increased, I began thinking of ways to show her that she could not do this to me. As I sat with my arms clasped to my chest I suddenly noticed what I was wearing. It was a hand knitted jumper which my cousin Vera had made for me; it was thick and warm but the wide dark green and red stripes did nothing for my pale complexion. As a child I did not appreciate the long hours of effort that go into knitting a jumper.

I pulled it off and unpicked the

Ireland Western Australian Forum Promoting business, professional and cultural links between Ireland and Western Australia COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION APPRECIATION EVENING The Ireland-Western Australia Forum is holding a networking event in the Celtic Club, West Perth. Speakers from the Claddagh Association, GAA WA and other associations will be on hand to help give an insight into some of the different organisations that make up the Irish community here in Perth.

The event will also see the official launch of a new website called Irish in Business. The aim of Irish in Business is to make it as easy as possible for people to connect with Irish businesses and services around them, through the use of digital marketing.

23

left sleeve, rolled the wool into a ball and put the jumper back on minus a sleeve. I returned to the classroom demanding to knit a sock with my wool.

My fellow students were greatly amused but Miss Holey was visibly distressed and very concerned about what my mother would say. I felt vindicated. This became another episode in my chequered history of wrongdoing, Vera knitted the sleeve again and stitched it back on to my jumper and I did not knit a sock that time.

When I was fifteen, my cousin Vera died of heart problems. I missed her so much. Even now as an old woman my memory of her is all tangled up with that red and green striped jumper.

Founder Ciaran McKeown will be giving a short presentation on how the online platform aims to better promote not only Irish businesses but the associations and clubs that are part of every Irish community.

Thurs 22 Sept - 6pm to 9pm.

The Celtic Club, 48 Ord St, West Perth Registration: $20 early bird before Monday 5th September, $30 there-after.

Registration includes canapĂŠs.

We hope to see you there. www.irelandwaforum.org

Service you deserve.

A person you trust!

Before he took up a career earlier this year as a property agent John Thornberry spent a lot of time and developed a significant amount of experience working on some very different and extreme forms of real estate across Australia.

John started working in the mining sector at the age of 22 and was a Fly in Fly Out worker for many years until the birth of his first child.

After that he did a two and a half year residential stint at the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, one

of the biggest copper mines in the world but number one for the largest single deposit of uranium on the planet. From there he went to Port Hedland in the Pilbara which became home for another two and a half years.

“I started my mining career on drill rigs then moved into safety and training,” said John who was born in Dublin in 1972 but he grew up in the picturesque coastal village of Greystones in County Wicklow.

His family immigrated to Australia in the mid 1980’s when he was just 13.

He said he gained a lot of experience negotiating for mining companies and contractors during his time in the industry but when the family returned to Perth at the start of 2016 it was time for a change. But a lot of those skills and hard-working values he sharpened over the years are still useful to him as he puts the interests of his clients at the centre

of every action he takes when working towards the successful sale of their home or property.

Selling a house is a complicated process, no matter how good the real estate market is.

Whether you’re a first-time home seller or not, you’ll probably have a bunch of questions.

Do I need a real estate agent? What’s “closing”? How much paperwork am I going to have to fill out?

How can I get the best price for my house? How can I sell my house and buy a new one at the same time? John Thornberry can answer these questions for you so call him on 0409 295 597.

Your real estate agent.

Serving Perth’s Irish Community.

“Call for a chat today if you’re thinking of selling, buying, renting or investing in property. I’d be happy to help.”

John Thornberry m. 0409 295 597 p. (08) 9300 3344

Alliance

john.thornberry@harcourtsalliance.com.au harcourtsalliance.com.au 24

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“Famine, Friends and Fenians” Gathering!

Ireland

and our own Brendan Woods, historian and storyteller, Fremantle, Australia will talk about the Fremantle Fenian Experience.

There are many other presenters including Paul Meagher, descendent General Thomas F. Meagher, Jim Ryan, descendent of George Anthony captain of the Catalpa great escape ship.

A Documentary will also be shown on “The Wild Geese of Fremantle Prison” made by Mark R. Day and a film: “The Catalpa Rescue” produced by Lisa Sabina Harney.

A regular visitor to Western Australia, Seán Tyrrell of Connemara, will present an evening of entertainment called “Message of Peace” Irish music and commentary inspired by John Boyle O’Reilly.

Brendan will represent Western Australia at this event and was supported by the Australian Irish Heritage Association of WA. We wish Brendan a safe journey and on his return he will no doubt have many stories to relate to our readers following this wonderful gathering.

By Fred Rea

Brendan Woods is off to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, USA. The New Bedford Whaling Museum connects with coastal communities around the world. Many are island nations that share a heritage of whaling and ocean dependency.

The event Brendan is attending is entitled, Ireland - “Famine, Friends and Fenians” and looks at the Irish freedom movement of the mid-late 19th century and how this group’s efforts impacted New Bedford in many important ways.The link between New Bedford and Ireland is curiously significant. Quakers here supported relief efforts there during the great Irish famine of the 1840s. Frederick Douglass found

inspiration from “the Emancipator” Daniel O’Connell during his time in Dublin. New Bedford whaling captain, George S. Anthony, sailed the CATALPA to rescue Fenian prisoners held in Fremantle, Australia on a daring mission of courage and cunning. The story continues through the Easter Rising of 1916 to when Ireland’s President Eamon DeValera’s visited Captain Anthony’s graveside in 1922.

Papers will be delivered by many eminent historians and authors including Dr. Christine Kinealy, Director, Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, Dr. Catherine Shannon, Professor Emerita of History at Westfield State University, Author Peter Stevens, Denis Strong, Deputy Regional Manager, National Parks & Wildlife Service, Ballycroy, Co Mayo,

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26

I arrived in Australia in 1972 and just missed the Irish pub, Mulligans on Milligan Street. Around 1968 local Irish folk group The Ranting Lads played at the venue.

I remember being in the restaurant/pub not long before it ceased to exist so to say. But

Dobe Newton & The Ranting Lads

Brian Hannon has fond memories of Mulligans. The late Mike Brand was manager for a time but Brian said when a new manager took over, because Brian and his mates were regulars, he decided to have membership cards. “The

membership card was a 1967 Irish penny so you get in for drinks without having a meal” The regulations at the time did not allow patrons to drink only in restaurants unless they had a meal.

Irish Band members around Perth at the time included Paddy Begley, Frank Byrne, Dobe Newton (now with The Bushwhackers) Alan Ferguson, Mick McAuley, Bruce and Anita Webb to name a few.

Being the only ‘Irish’ venue in the city, it was very popular place to be with long lines of people. “Because we were members, we could go to the head of the queue and go straight in by showing our Irish penny”.

Brian as you can see still has the penny. I asked if he had it on a keyring then and he replied with a laugh, “I had it in my pocket because I didn’t have the luxury of a car”.

Those who may have memories of Mulligans might remember the Irish Tricolour flag hanging on the back of the stage that was Brian’s!

After the Ranting Lads finished The Quarefellas took over and Brian said for some reason the tricolour was no longer appeared on stage.

Someone might have the answer to that? Brian had views on the Quarefellas, “When the Choir Fellas took over, I was never impressed with the name Quarefellas, the flag 27

disappeared when the Ranting Lads finished”. Brian said he was Pi… off with the tricolour going missing and he had to go and get another one.

“Harry the Barman looked after the lads very well. At the time Perth only had the local beer Swan and Harry gave us jugs and jugs of the stuff. You’d order a jug of beer and a few whiskeys would appear on the house”. One can only imagine what condition the lads were in leaving the establishment. “My missus Carmel (girlfriend at the time) would order a Gin and tonic and this would be quadrupled, he looked after the locals, he was brilliant”. Brian thinks that Harry is still around and the late Mick

The Ranting Lads and Brian’s Flag!

McAuley has said that he met him, although Brian hasn’t seen him since Mulligans days.

The meal at Mulligans was pretty basic Brian said, “They made a big pot of Irish stew and it was served in a dessert bowl and we would eat it under the table and then hit the grog”. The penny got you in the door that was your badge to get in.

Brian said when Mulligans

Quarefellas: Ian, Alan, Mick and Frank!

closed up it was the Orbit Inn at Perth airport to carry on the craic.

“The pubs closed at ridiculous times, six or something like that and we had a great relationship with the barman at the Orbit Inn and he looked after us”. The only way you were supposed to drink at the Orbit is if you were flying but Brian and his Irish mates got around that one.

‘You had to have a flight ticket but we knew the staff and were looked after”.

Of course that was the old Perth airport when they had the two black The Swans swans in in a pond out the front, who remember that?

Brian told me that many times he walked home from the Mulligans Orbit Inn to Mosman Park.

That’s a 20 kilometre walk folks

but he added that his good wife would meet him on the way along and bring him home. “I was a hoor of a man then Fred, a hoor of a man!”

So Brian has a question.

“Is there anyone else out there who has the penny from Mulligans, fellas like Paddy Begley, Paul Carroll, Scully, Brendan Maher and who remembers the name of the manager after Mike Brand. He was the one who Dobe Newton with Lagerphone & The Ranting Lads introduced and supplied the Irish Quarefellas. Who else has memories pennies and he must have been of Mulligans. The Choir Fellas (as Irish”.

Brian called them) moved to the One of the regulars at Mulligans Railway Hotel after that and that’s at the time was then Uni student when I joined the band, but that’s Alannah MacTiernan and Lyn for another day!

Barry tells me that she met Liam Barry (RIP) at Mulligans. And Those were the days my friend Jimmy Rogers back in Ireland we thought they’d never end…. now remembers the night Mick Fred Rea McAuley performed with the

Seán O'Rourke A hurried whispered act of contrition And the firing breaks out again The curlew takes to flight And as he flies out over the empty sad fields of West Cork With his lonesome call He must tell the world That the big fellow has fallen And that Michael is gone From Johnny McEvoy's Michael Collins

Farewell my friend the coffee will never taste the same again!

Condolences to Stephanie, we will all miss him.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

28

29 29

WHAT’S IN A NAME? ULTIMO, AND THE IRISH CONNECTION

orably acquitted.

The following year, he faced another Corps inspired court-martial, this time charged with disclosing to others the opinions of members of the court while acting By JOHN HAGAN as a court official.

Again, he avoided a guilty verdict, but this time because the charge was sloppily drafted. The claim stated that Harris had committed the offence on ‘19th ultimo’ (last month) when it should have been ’19th instant’ (this month). Harris was acquitted on this technicality. The legalistic faux pas appealed to Harris’ Irish sense of humour and, in a two fingered salute to the Rum Corps, he named his new Sydney home, on land granted by Governor King, ‘Ultimo House’. The area surrounding the house later became known as ‘Ultimo’, and is now a prestigious inner-city suburb of Sydney, and celebrated as the location of the Pow-

When John Harconspicuous general ris gazed across the good of His Majesland to the south of ty’s services without Paramatta in 1803, neglecting an hour’s he would have been duty as surgeon of the ecstatic.

Stretching corps’. Among Harbefore him were ris’ colleagues on the 34 acres of pristine bench was another bush, sprinkled with Irishman, and a felMoreton Bay figs and low surgeon, Thomas replete with fresh waJamison. ter. This is where he Harris’ efforts as a would eventually conport officer, and a surJohn Harris struct one of Sydney’s geon, soon brought grand residences – Ultimo House. him into conflict with the New How he must have compared this South Wales Corps, better known as virgin landscape with the undulat- the ‘Rum Corps’ due to their thriving, scrubby, and often damp ter- ing, and lucrative, trade in rum. The rain around Moneymore (County Corps, founded in 1789, was immeLondonderry) where he was born diately dispatched to NSW to bolin 1754. ster military presence in the new An intelligent child, Harris’ par- colony. Unfortunately, due to the ents encouraged his education, and remoteness and unpopularity of the in his late teens a young John left posting, the Corps was staffed by Ultimo House 1835 his native Northern Ireland to study officers on half-pay, and garrisoned medicine at Edinburgh Universi- by soldiers paroled from military ty before embarking on a career prisons plus other miscreants who in maritime medicine. During his viewed the new location as a last 10 years in the Royal Navy, Harris chance to bolster future financial served principally in East Indian prospects. waters before being appointed, in NSW, like many British territo1789, as a surgeon’s mate to the ries at the time, was short of coins, New South Wales Corps at Parra- and rum soon became the medium matta. Like many of his fellow offi- of trade. The officers of the Corps erhouse Museum and headquarters cers, Harris was eventually granted were able to use their position and of the ABC. Harris Street, on which land in the new colony. His initial wealth to buy all the imported rum these two buildings are situated, bequest, in 1793, encompassed 100 and then exchange it for goods and was so named in his honour.

Harris retired from the NSW acres in Parramatta, before Gover- labor at very favorable rates. Ennor King granted him the additional couraged by Governor King, Harris Corps and began farming at Ultimo. (above) land in 1803. attempted to terminate this trade, He went on to help found the Bank Despite having no legal training, but in the face of such a threat, the of New South Wales in 1817 and Harris was made a magistrate in Corps engineered that Harris be became one of its first directors. He 1800, and the following year the ti- court-martialed in 1802 on trumped later returned to the bench before tle of ‘Naval Officer’ was conferred up charges of which he was hon- passing away on 27 April 1883. on him. In this position Harris was now responsible for the workings of The glory of the old Irish nation, which in our hour will grow both the port of Sydney, and the poyoung and strong again. Should we fail, the country will not lice constabulary. Despite his heavy be worth more than it is now. The sword of famine is less workload, Governor King reported sparing than the bayonet of the soldier. that Harris performed all his duties, Thomas Francis Meagher ‘to the evident public benefit and the 30

ULSTER

Rambles with David MacConnell

What do I have in common with Mary Peters?

A lot has happened since I last wrote an article for the IRISH SCENE. Two months have passed by; the soccer season has come around again; the cricket season has just about ended and we have all witnessed the greats of the Olympics in Rio. I suppose we all had our very own favourite. Besides the obvious, write to Fred and tell him yours. He claims he answers every email he receives and I believe him.

Last month he received three!

Of course we have everyone’s favourite politician; Donald Trump.

I suppose he could propose to our own Pauline Hanson. They could even produce offspring. What a thought. Certainly politics round the world is changing. What about the failed coup in Turkey? For me, if you are in politics, then you are corrupt.

One seems to follow the other quite regularly. Is that a little harsh and cynical?

In that little province up there in the northern part of Ireland, they have another change ahead. Yes Brexit. It has opened many boxes; most of them of the Pandorean variety! For example, what will happen to Gibraltar whose citizens voted 96% to remain in the E.U. Will Scotland remain within the U.K.? Perhaps Wales will join up with the Isle of Man! And Ulster or the Northern Ireland part of Ulster. What will hap-

pen there in the next few years?

Surely they cannot bring back a border where all sorts of shenanigans occurred in times gone by.

Could they possibly join the Republic? I have my doubts there as well.

Let’s forget all that and let me talk about our only gold medal winner. Yes, what does Mary Peters have in common with yours truly? She went to Portadown College and at this time her father was inspirational in building sand pits (long jump) and concrete circles (shot putt) so as to improve her athletic prowess. Well I did not go to Portadown College and I was not an exceptional athlete but in 1965, I lodged with my Aunt in Belfast and was told that her previous lodger was indeed Mary Peters. Around this time she met Buster McShane who encouraged her to train in his gym.

Now the Olympics in Munich had been billed as “the Games of peace and joy” but neither of these was to be found in abundance in Belfast in 1972.

Just 44 days before Peters’ performance in the pentathlon at Munich, the Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs. This was Belfast in 1972; this was Northern Ireland in 1972. This was where Peters was so desperate to return to after her supreme success.

She was born in Liverpool in 1939 but moved to Ballymena, Portadown and then Belfast when her father’s job was relocated to Northern Ireland. When she was first told of the move she reacted with tears. “One day he came back and I remember sitting on the stairs and hearing him tell my mother that we were all going to live in Northern Ireland. I went to bed and sobbed my heart out,” she said. Well, who could blame her? I would have felt the same way if I had to go and live in Lebanon! But it was in Northern

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Ireland that Peters’ journey towards Olympic gold first took shape. Her first family holiday in her new home was spent at the seaside resort of Portrush, where else? A great little summer seaside resort and there, among the reeds and the rushes, Peters, racing her brother John up and down the dunes, discovered her love for athletics.

Peters qualified first as a teacher and then as an Olympian. In Tokyo in 1964, she finished in a respectable fourth place; in Mexico in 1968, a disappointing ninth – “I don’t think I was as committed as I should have been at that stage in my career”. But that all changed with the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970. Peters won the shot put and the pentathlon and discovered that she liked the feeling of success: “For the first time in my career I wanted to win. I’d always had the fear that if I was successful people would be jealous and their attitude to me would change. I never felt I really gave 100%. This time I did and ... I realised it was wonderful to be an achiever.”

At 33 years of age, Peters was all too aware that the Games in Munich

www.dan-dooley.ie 31

would be her last shot at Olympic glory but her initial preparations were far from ideal. Despite working full-time, she didn’t have a car and so had to drag her shot and starting blocks from my Aunt’s place in the Ormeau Road through a two-bus journey to reach the dilapidated running track at Queen’s University, “often having to turn back because there were bombs going off”. Luckily, her success in Edinburgh meant she won a scholarship

to train for six weeks in California.

A new climate and a new environment paid immediate dividends and she soon believed that “if everything went right in Munich” she could win. Conscious of events back home, Peters was motivated by the desire “to make people at home happy in some small way” and once there, she became even more bullish about her medal prospects: “I was so focused on winning. No way was I going home without a gold medal.” With some civilized preparation and her aversion to winning conquered, the last thing standing between Peters and gold was the competition. Her main rival was a 26-year-old local woman and hotly tipped favourite, Heide Rosendahl.

The women’s pentathlon was divided into two days and Peters had the perfect opening. She was drawn in lane seven for the 100m hurdles but still managed to equal her personal best. Spurred on by

the attention of the large crowd at use her fame to make Belfast a betthe Olympic Stadium – “it was the ter place. first time in my life and career I had Blessed with a natural openness a real audience and I performed and matronly warmth, she first for them” – she repeated the feat raised enough money to resurface in both the shot put and high the cinder track at Queen’s Univerjump. By the end of the first day, sity. She has held nine chairmanshe had an impressive 300-point ship, president and vice-president lead over the West German. positions on various boards and, in The second day consisted of Rosen2009, became Lord Lieutenant of dahl’s two strongest events and Belfast.

Peters’ two weakest events – the Aside from anything else, long jump and the 200m. The West she blazed a trail for the likes of German, who had already been Daley Thompson, Denise Lewcrowned Olympic long jump chamis and Jessica Ennis-Hill to aim pion, leapt 6.83m to land within a for success in multiple events. single centimetre of her then world Her late father, Arthur, who surrecord. Peters could not even get prised her by travelling to the past the 6m barrier, landing at Games from his new home in Aus5.95m. Her lead had been cut to tralia, (a fair trek in those days) just 47 points and there was still asked her to go back with him. Who one event to go. If Peters wanted wouldn’t want to go to Australia? gold, she would have to run fast‘My home was in Belfast, my life er than she had ever done before. was there and the people I loved She did but was still well behind were there,’ she insisted.

Rosendahl. In the end she won the When she touched down in Beloverall event by 10 points which fast, at an airport surrounded by turned out to be around 0.1 secbarbed wire, she was overwhelmed onds in the last event. Mary was by the outpouring of affection in now a celebrity and a clear target such troubled times. for the I.R.A. Far from being in‘There was a gold Rolls-Royce timidated, she insisted on returnfor me and a band playing, “Coning home immediately to share gratulations”. People were hanging her success with the place she over the barbed wire with flowers, had long since fallen in love with. it was wonderful. I never felt worThe greatness of Dame Mary Peters ried about going home as I always lies in the fact that her finest sportfelt comfortable in any part of Beling achievement proved to be a befast. But I wasn’t allowed back in ginning and not an end. my flat for three months.’

Ever since that day she has Well my aunt has long since proved to be a great friend to all passed away but I still remember sections of the community there, her telling me the story of how working tirelessly to unite people, proud she was to have Mary for a raise money for sport and good lodger. I am afraid I did not come up causes, and act as an ambassador to that standard and I was asked to for the province. leave after just four weeks; someInevitably, she has been much thing about my dirty rugby kit! I honoured. She was named Sports believe Mary now lives in Lisburn Personality of the Year shortwhich has almost become an outly after her triumph in Germaer suburb of Belfast. Thanks for all ny. Following on were an MBE, those great memories Mary.

CBE and her promotion to DBE David MacConnell (Dame Commander) in 2000.

“If there were only three Interestingly enough, she did not need to make her future in North- Irishmen in the world you'd ern Ireland as she received job of- find two of them in a corner fers from as far away as Australia talking about the other.” and America, but chose to stay and ― María Brandán Aráoz 32

Is Perth that much different to London for the

Seniors project said there is good news, that with the help of the London Irish Centre they are making a difference.

They are achieving results with a multi-pronged approach.

These include a culturally sensitive visiting service that

By Fred Rea/Lloyd Gorman reaches out to older Irish people The Irish Scene is aware of do best - those that have, helping those in their homes as well as in many Irish people in Perth and need”. care homes and in hospital and WA who have been widowed over Details of the work being done by spending quality time with older the last 12 months and recent the Irish Chaplaincy Seniors project, Irish people to listen to their years. The loss of a loved one which supports and advocates for the life stories, to offer support and and life-long companion is one of most vulnerable and isolated of older encouragement and to assure the most traumatic and terrible Irish people in London, were publicised them they are not forgotten. things that can happen to anyone. at the Centre recently. It found that The project also helps older But it is worse if the surviving many of those who came to England Irish people reconnect with partner, who could be someone in the last half of the 20th century their families and friends back who left Ireland during the 1940’s, are now facing isolation and severe in Ireland and to access their 50’s or 60’s and who are in their poverty; with over 1,000 Irish men and entitlements to mainstream seventies or eighties now finds women are in prison in the UK; and services and advocating on their themselves alone and isolated in Irish Travellers remain amongst the behalf. their adopted home and cut off most marginalised groups in society.

They even help older Irish from the country and culture of The ICS project found that nearly people who wish to return to their birth. As well as grieving for half of its clients did not feel that Ireland to do so and ease their their loss a strong sense of anguish London was a good place to live can be compounded by alienation. anymore, with many responding: “If I Though they might once have been was young I would return to Ireland”. active and involved in the Irish and In times of trouble 30% of the wider community they can now people reported they have no-one to find themselves alone and unsure call for help: “My brother from North of who to turn to for help, or even London used to help, but lately he has how to ask for it. not come”.

Awareness and support for this Some 57% of its clients do not vulnerable category of the Irish receive any weekly visitors to their community here in Perth is starting home (besides an ICS worker). to get some recognition but not A vast majority (80%) found London much is known about the scale of to be an expensive place to life and the problem here, or the scope of struggled to cope with the cost of the issues involved. paying for food and bills.

Much more work in this field has Another 37% of ICS clients said been documented in London. The they no longer feel part of the Irish London Irish Centre is a registered community in London, and even charity supporting Irish people those who reported some sense and a community centre in Camden of belonging would say this has Square promoting Irish arts and weakened. culture for about sixty years now.

These themes may seem The Centre’s welfare service is the very familiar to some largest for Irish people outside of Irish Scene readers and Ireland and each year works with perhaps Perth could thousands of people to improve be substituted for their housing, income, access London for a similar to health, and social inclusion experience and opportunities. Northern Ireland outcome? stand-up comedian Patrick Kielty Thankfully described the London Irish Centre the Irish as “embodying what Irish people Chaplaincy

Older Irish?

33

reintegration back into Irish society and offer spiritual and religious support to older Irish people irrespective of their beliefs and attitude to the Church.

Perth is not exactly London, but parallels may be drawn by the experiences of older Irish people in both cities. If the UK capital can seem a world away from life on the neighbouring island then surely the WA capital is distanced in many more ways. It is even mind bogglingly remote from other Australian cities. So help is not always nearby and we must learn to help ourselves. If you are someone who feels cut off from the rest of the community or you know someone who fits that description, reach out and speak up. Your call will be answered and there are people who care and who can help!

The Claddagh Association is doing a wonderful job supporting the seniors by running lunches at The Irish Club and The Mighty Quinn. There has been a seniors lunch at the Irish Club held on the first Friday of each month for many years. Parking around the club is an issue for some and the numbers have dwindled over the years.

The reality of the issue was brought to our attention recently by local retired priest Fr Laurence Murphy. He received a call from a friend about an Irish lady called Murphy in a nursing home. Fr Laurence visited the lady and told us that he asked if she could sing.

He then sang When Irish Eyes are Smiling and she joined in. He then said he would return and give her Holy Communion in a few days.

The lady became very emotional and Father told us he could not get another word from her. She was very upset and we believe it was because someone had gone out of their way to make her feel special.

The challenge for the Irish community, “What do we do about people like Mrs Murphy?” Please let us know if you have any the answer!

A MIRACLE OR TWO

By Cathryn Brown (1934 - 2016) I badly need a miracle - in fact I need a few For many things I once enjoyed I can no longer do I used to like to garden and to paint and knit and sew And to go to parties, dance all night.....

But that was long ago.

I need someone to help me now and lend a kindly hand Who’ll listen to me patiently and try to understand That getting old - though lots of fun - can also be a pain So don’t get weary if I moan....

Or cross if I complain.

I find it quite a problem when I’m rising from my bed If you could see the way I walk - you’d think me almost dead When waking up I don’t just rise - I gradually unfold!

And though I’m slow in standing straight....

It’s normal - I’ve been told.

And If I get a call from nature late into the night That really is a nuisance and can give me quite a fright!

I cannot take it slowly then - I often have to hurry And though I’m always there on time.....

It can be such a worry.

I have to say though with some pride - although I’m slowing down And can no longer party on or shop all day in town My mental state is excellent - my mind is still alert It’s just the flesh that’s rather weak....

The bones that creak and hurt.

So if you have some influence and should you feel inclined I wish you’d put a word in - for I really wouldn’t mind If maybe you could ask ‘the boss’ to see what he could do As all I’m really after is....

A miracle or two.

Sincere thanks to Peter Brown for giving us permission to reprint his late wife’s Cathryn’s poems.

WHY? Because you deserve it!

d n a l e o Ir

t

Contact our team today! res@britishtravel.com.au 1300 857 434 Travel agent agent Lic 9TA1055

34

britishtravel.com.au

By Lloyd Gorman

ISTEACH SA TEACH

Ken hits the road packing memories of Ireland Politics can be a very fickle mistress as events in state parliament in August showed. Seasoned pollie, Ken Travers MLC, Labors member for the North Metropolitan Region, announced he would be bowing out of parliament with almost immediate effect.

His departure opens the way for the return to state politics of Alannah MacTiernan. Alannah is an Irish as any Australian can be and the former member of federal parliament for Perth is certainly a Labor heavyweight who will feature prominently in any new administration should she and the opposition party be returned after the March 2017 election.

By complete coincidence Isteach sa Teach had arranged to meet with Ken shortly before he made his shock announcement and sat down with him on the following day.

Ken – who was born in the UK in 1961 – stems from the English, rather than the Irish, arm of the Travers clan.

As the dust was still settling on news of his leaving the gentle giant of a man was a bit philosophical

about his immediate future. “It’s a bit like the time I was backpacking through Ireland and I didn’t know from one day to the next who was going to pick me up or where I was going,” he ruminated.

As a young man in the 1980’s, Ken spent a year making his away across Europe, with about a month of that being spent in Ireland. Fond memories of those few weeks are still with him now. He arrived there solo but teamed up with a gang of Australian and French musicians who were driving around the country playing wherever they went. For nearly two weeks, night after night, he sat in on session after session.

Ken said he was blown away by the relaxed, warm and friendly nature of the people, the sense of fun and generosity shown towards them. He was struck by how many women or mothers with kids stopped to give a stranger and a mountain of a man thumbing his way around a lift.

At the time Ken said he had a bright red beard and probably looked Irish but found this probably worked against him when travelling through the UK. He described it as “ridiculous” how many times he was stopped and searched at British customs checkpoints. Even more so, 35

because, he was himself an Australian customs officer himself on leave.

IST was also interested to learn from Ken that it was he who had first approached and encouraged Irish Australian Tony O’Gorman to run for the seat of Joondalup, which he won and held up until the 2013 election. (Inerestingly, Tony's daughter Jessica recently announced she will stand for the seat of Kingsley as a Labor candidate).

There were many tributes paid to Ken in his last sitting of parliament, from both sides of the house.

Given his comparison between leaving a life of politics and his days of being a hitch-hiker in Ireland this tribute from the Attorney General, Michael Mischin, who also represents North Metropolitan, was quite apt. “[Ken] has been a formidable, energetic and honourable parliamentarian and opponent,” said Mr Mischin on August 25.

“If I might adopt a bit of an Irish saying, I say to him that wherever the path of his life leads him in the future, may the road rise to meet him, may the wind always be at his back and may the sun shine warm upon his face. I wish him the best for the future. No doubt other things will be said in respect of his departure, but this place will miss him and his contribution to not only the debates but also the parliamentary process.”

The day before Kate Doust MLC, represents South Metropolitan for Labor, was debating a money bill in parliament when a comment

was offered by a young person from the public gallery which is meant to remain silent during sessions.

“This is a lovely interjection, one of the few I will accept, and it is always very nice to hear a childs voice in this place,” she said.

“That has just reminded me of what my grandfather always used to say; when you hear a baby crying – this is a bit of family history – you know death is coming your way.

“I hope that is not the case!

It was a bit of an old Irish tradition.”

On the same day Lisa Barker, a Labor MLA, was talking about a bill about fire fighters. She recounted the story of the 2014 Parkerville Fire in the Perth hills when she had a visitor. “ The first I knew about it was when I drove out of my brother’s property in Hovea and hit Great Eastern Highway,” she said. “I looked left before I turned right onto Great Eastern Highway and saw an enormous cloud of smoke; for all the world, if I had ever seen an atomic bomb, it would have looked similar to that. I had somebody with me who had just arrived from Ireland. She was sitting in the front seat of the car and I said, “Oh my god; that does not look good!”

She was completely oblivious; they do not get many bushfires in Ireland. She asked, “What?” and I said, “Can you see that enormous cloud? It’s going to be a problem.”

[Some 50 homes were destroyed in the Sunday morning blaze] In August the state government made a commitment to bring in a cash for cans and bottles initiative. The WA container

deposit scheme, which pays a 10 cent refund, came about because local governments pushed hard over the last four or five years to get it up and running.

The issue has been through parliament too for some time.

Back in February of this year Stephen Dawson, MLC for the Mining and Pastoral Region , shared his memories of an earlier time when a similar scheme existed.

“As many members would know, I did not grow up in Western Australia,” he said. “We visited Western Australia before we eventually moved here and I remember going to delicatessens to get drinks and knowing that we would get 20c back on a bottle of Gest lemonade. As a young boy from Ireland who was here on a holiday, I thought that was a great thing and it certainly encouraged me to take the bottles back to get what was at that time a huge amount of money—or a large number of lollies! These days you would struggle to get much for 20c.”

Meanwhile, the prospect of Irish citizens living abroad being able to have a vote in Irish elections is gathering momentum. Minister for the Diaspora Joe McHugh has announced plans for a referendum in 2017 that would allow the international Irish community to have a say in the next presidential elections.

More than 100 countries around the world give their citizens who are abroad the right to vote, and Australian’s living and working in Ireland enjoy the privilege when it comes to national elections here.

36

Sad but true....

A group of blokes, all aged 40, discussed where they should meet for lunch.

Finally it was agreed that they would meet at JB’s because the waitresses were smashing young ones and Irish.

Ten years later, at age 50, the friends once again discussed where they should meet for lunch.

Finally it was agreed that they would meet at JB’s because the food and service was good and the Guinness was excellent.

Ten years later, at age 60, the friends again discussed where they should meet for lunch.

Finally it was agreed that they would meet at JB’s because there was plenty of parking, they could dine in peace and quiet, and it was good value for money.

Ten years later, at age 70, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch.

Finally it was agreed that they would meet at JB’s because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible at rear and had a toilet for the disabled.

Ten years later, at age 80, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch.

Finally it was agreed that they would meet at JB’s because they had never been there before!

Perth’s Finest Irish Pub & Restaurant Eatin’ and Drinkin’ Emporium “May your heart overflow with health and happiness” JB O’Reilly’s is Perth’s best Irish Pub and Restaurant where you’ll always find a warm welcome. Located in Leederville, JB’s is a place where you can enjoy the craic whether you fancy a few rounds with friends, a spot of lunch with colleagues or a cosy meal for two.

At JB’s you’ll find live music, frequent events, promotions and and sport to lift your spirits... where the banter flows as freely as the Guinness.

JB’s is one of those rare pubs and restaurants that can be both a local haunt and a tourist destination!

Just drop by and make yourself at home

37

Ned Porter was made of stout stuff when it came to hurling!

By Fred Rea

One never knows who one will meet and their stories. Over lunch recently at the Presentation sisters in Mosman Park, it was mentioned that Sr Raphael

Cork Junior Hurling Team 1940

Sr Raphael Porter (centre) with Srs Maureen and Nora Moynihan the 1942 championship. During that time he won one All-Ireland medal and one Munster medal.

At club level he played with Brian Dillon’s and later with Glen Rovers (the club of Christy Ring and the real Taoiseach, Jack Lynch!)

He began his club hurling career with Brian Dillon’s on the north side of Cork city but he enjoyed little success with the club and later transferred to the famous Glen Rovers club. Although the Glen was going through a golden age, Porter ended his career without a championship medal.

The Brian Dillion club is called after a local figure who was born in 1830 and lived through the Famine years, and later becoming an ardent nationalist. He was appointed a Fenian leader in Cork by James Stephens, the head of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Under Dillon’s supervision the Fenian recruits drilled on the Fair Field and at Rathpeacon and were hoping for a rebellion in 1865 when the Fenians were at their strongest. In September that year a surprise police swoop saw Fenian leaders arrested, among them James Stephens and O’Donovan Rossa in Dublin and Brian Dillon in Cork.

Dillon was sentenced to ten years penal servitude

Porter at my table was the daughter of none other than Ned Porter, the great Cork hurling goalkeeper of the 1930/40’s. Sr Raphael, along with other sisters, arrived in Australia on Christmas Eve 1950. On New Year’s Day, 1951 the temperature in Perth was 100 F, 15 degrees above normal. A nice welcome for the Sisters!

Ned Porter was a Cork hurler who played as a goalkeeper for the Cork senior team. He first came to prominence on the inter-county scene as a member of the Cork junior hurling team. He was an unused substitute during the team’s unsuccessful championship campaign in 1934. Five years later Porter joined the Cork senior hurling team as they made a breakthrough in the provincial championship after nearly a decade in the doldrums. He was substitute goalkeeper as Cork claimed the Munster crown but lost an iconic All-Ireland decider to Kilkenny by a point. He would be a regular member of the starting fifteen until his retirement after

The late Jack Lynch leads Cork team in parade before final of 1942 Munster final 38

in England but ill-health led to his release after five years. He received a massive home-coming but he died a year later, aged 42. Today his name is inscribed in the National Monument on the Grand Parade in Cork and in street names like Brian Dillon Park and Brian Dillon Crescent but back to Ned Porter, he first came to prominence on the inter-county scene as a member of the Cork junior hurling team.

In 1939 Porter joined the Cork senior hurling team as they made a breakthrough in the provincial championship after nearly a decade in the doldrums. He was substitute goalkeeper as Cork claimed the Munster crown but lost an iconic All-Ireland decider to Kilkenny by a point.

Porter was dropped from the senior panel in 1940, however, he subsequently replaced Dave Creedon on the Cork junior hurling team for the latter stages of that championship. He won an All-Ireland medal in that grade following a narrow 3-3 to 3-1 defeat of Galway.

By 1942 Porter was the first-choice goalkeeper on the Cork senior team.

He added a Munster medal to his collection that year as Tipperary were downed by 4-15 to 4-1. The All-Ireland final was a replay of the previous year with Dublin providing the opposition once again. The game was a close affair with just a point separating the sides at the three-quarter stage. In the end Cork won comfortably enough by 2-14 to 3-4 and Porter collected a coveted All-Ireland medal. Incidentally, in that team was the legendary Christy Ring and the real Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.

Sr Raphel was only about seven years old in 1942 but still has strong memories of those times and her father.

“We used to have a HMV wireless - His Majesty’s Voice - a big gold thing in the house and the old chaps from up the road came down to listen to the game and we weren’t allowed to talk or make any noise,” she told Fred.

“We were young but I remember him bringing home the cup, he had loads of medals and they were (later) all shared out to the sons and nephews.

They were very important in the family and were mounted over the fire place.”

She recalls how passionately her family were about the sport. “It was a hurling house,” she added. “Eddie my brother was a referee for local teams and he was good at the hurling. Albert, my other brother, was the one they thought would be as good as father. As dad got older and no matter how bad the weather was in the morning he would get up and go to seven o’clock mass first and then down to the pitch or wherever the team were playing and help out. My mother would see him

putting on a scarf and would say to him that weather will kill you.”

All-Ireland final 1942 -

NEWSPAPER REPORT

Sunday September 6 was the date of the 1942 AllIreland senior hurling final between Cork and Dublin.

Cork was appearing in their second championship decider in-a-row, having won the title the previous year with a defeat of the same opposition. Dublin last won the All-Ireland title in 1938 with a defeat of Waterford.

Match report…

At 3:15pm the sliothar was thrown-in and the AllIreland final began in earnest. Dublin got off to a good start when Mossie McDonnell, a native of Cork, opened the scoring account with a point. Cork found their rhythm shortly afterwards with Christy Ring hitting back with three points for Cork. Team captain Jack Lynch rifled two more points over the bar before Mick Kennefick and Derry Beckett slotted over another two points for the Leesiders.

While Cork could have ran riot Dublin were still not out of the game courtesy of two goals by Éamonn O’Brien and Mossie McDonnell. It was Cork, however, who had the psychological boost at half-time as Kerry-born Johnny Quirke finished a Seán Condon pass to the Dublin net.

At half-time it was ‘the Rebel’s who led by 1-7 to 2-1.

Not long after the restart Cork suffered a major blow when injury forced their goalkeeper Ned Porter to retire from play. Ironically, it was his old neighbour, Mossie McDonnell, who had ‘accidentally’ struck him.

In spite of this Cork forged ahead with further points by Mick Kennefick, Charlie Tobin and Christy Ring. Dublin stayed in contention when a goal by Dan Davitt brought them to within a point of the reigning champions. Cork finished like they had started and a Derry Beckett goal was followed by points from Johnny Quirke and Jack Lynch. The goal was the nail in the coffin and sealed a 2-14 to 3-4 victory for Cork.

I’m sick of this, this country was founded on Christian beliefs. In God we trust. Now people want to come in and change all that. If they don’t like it let them leave.

– Jack Lynch Taoiseach (1966-1973 & 1977–1979) 39

HERITAGE

Australian-Irish Heritage Association

Who are we?

Our Goals...

The Australian-Irish Heritage Association aims to research, publicise and foster Australia's Irish heritage.

It publicises the results of research through its quarterly magazine, THE JOURNAL the cost of which is included in the annual membership fee. The Association also participates in public debate and uses publicity to explain and expand on our Irish heritage.

THE JOURNAL also helps to provide information on our heritage and the Association reinforces this by arranging seminars and lectures on relevant matters. Notable Irish-related events and personalities are also commemorated, the principal ones being Australia Day (Ecumenical service), Saint Brigid's Day, Irish Heritage Week (Sharing of the Green function), WB Yeats birthday, Bloomsday and Ivy Day. If you are interested in finding out more about the Association, please contact us.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership of the Australian -Irish Heritage Association is open to all persons who support the aims of the Association.

There are three categories of annual membership: Family $65 For families living under one roof Concession $55 Centrelink Concession card and unwaged students Distant $45 For members living more than 200 kms from Perth Note: All Subscriptions include a tax-deductible contribution of $20 to the Heritage Fund.

Note: All members receive 4 issues of The Journal free of charge.

Membership runs from Jan 1 to Dec 31

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To identify and develop sources of Australia's Irish heritage, contemporary and historical, and to share this information.

To increase awareness in the wider Australian community of the contribution to Australia made by people of Irish birth or descent.

To recognise, celebrate and honour the contributions of groups and individuals to Australia's Irish heritage.

IN EVERYTHING IT DOES THE AIHA IS COMMITTED TO BEING • Non-Sectarian • Non-Political • Emphatically Australian

For more information on events and projects please visit our website irishheritage.net

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

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.

“Til then and not til then let my epitaph be written” ROBERT EMMETT (Speech from the Dock)

Brave Emmett, let us no longer wait To write your epitaph For Ireland will never now Do justice to your memory.

The hopes you held for her are As dead as the dust That alone remains of you.

The ghosts of the country you loved Have followed you to the grave And we cannot now bring them Back to life again.

Love grows old and tired And the hearts of the people Change and grow weary; They no longer hear The words that seek to inspire.

Your courageous deeds were done Under another sun, Whose light even now is lost Along the irreversible paths Of outer space.

That light now shines only On alien stars That glimmer in unrecognition In another world.

They don’t know why you died Or why your heart agonised In fruitless struggle.

Robert Emmet delivers his famous speech from the dock in 1803. Image via http://irishcomics.wikia.com

41

They cannot know the thoughts That grew and matured in your heart.

No nation can ever Live its past again For both the past and Past enemies have perished And like you are consigned to dust, The future does not lie in our hands But is moulded by a thousand forces That fluctuate like Driftwood on a stream.

So let us not take up stones To cast at the guilty – Let us rather profess That we do not understand.

Let us wait instead until The light can shine once more And love can grow again And nations lock their Hands together in friendship.

Yes indeed brave Emmett, Your epitaph has been written, Traced on stone slab by Incessant falling rain, And chiselled by the biting cold Of Irish winters Down the mystery of the years.

Tadgh Tierney

Local News of Interest from the Past

ECHOS OF THE PAST RE SE ARC HE D

BY

FRED

News Published Every Two Months

REA

late General Gordon, who was assassinated in Egypt. He also, was under the tutelage of Sir Henry James. He was gazetted lieutenant in the sixties. And then the lure of Australia, which, in those days, seemed another world altogether, gripped him. In 1870, Mr Davies landed In Melbourne from the Great Britain.

Times were exceedingly bad.

“Barristers, solicitors, and politicians were walking the streets,” chuckled the old man “and many of them were tracking up the Bush.”

LOOKING FOR GOLD

This dashing young lieutenant of engineering fresh from Chatham, with testimonials from Sir Henry James and others, could not even get a position in the police force. Thereupon he went up the Yarra track and hunted for gold— of which he found little. He then went to the Snowy River gold rush and “palled” with a “out of work gentleman,” Who after seeking a fortune in vain for three years received word from Scotland that he had inherited the estates of his uncle. So off he went.

Mr. Davies soon-, afterwards found himself, working on Evans’ station, his lust for gold somewhat, abated.

He purchased a thoroughbred horse of pedigree and entered it for the bush races, which were being held, not far away from the station. Strange to relate, one Ned Kelly, “a fine stamp of a man,” according to Davies, entered a second thoroughbred. Needless to say it had been stolen.

Telegraph Brisbane Qld Wednesday 6 August 1924

FIGHT WITH NED KELLY & ABORIGINALS AND BAGPIPES Old Resident’s Experiences Queensland has had her bushrangers, but in the following narrative are recounted some of the experiences of one who, for many years past, has been a resident of this State, but who, previously in another State, fought Ned Kelly, popularly regarded as ‘the king of Australian outlaws’.

His Welsh name notwithstanding, Mr. Joseph P. Davie’s is an Irishman. He is 80 years of age and formerly was a lieutenant In the Royal Engineers. Mr. Davies, who is one of Brisbane’s oldest residents, lives at Petrie Terrace. Despite his wrinkled face and snow-white hair (to say nothing of his four score years) he retains vivid memories of a pioneer life. When a “Telegraph” reporter found the venerable old gentleman, he was seated at a card table, playing cribbage with a friend. A fat pug dog snored at his feet. The game was interrupted and the old man made himself comfortable prior to relating with astounding clarity the interesting events of his life.

“Queen Victoria allowed me the Honour of being born on her birthday,” he commenced with, a chuckle. It was on May 24, 1844.

THE FIGHT WITH NED KELLY

DISTINGUISHED MENTORS

Born of a distinguished Irish family of patriots and barristers, Mr Davies went to England while a young man to study engineering at the military school at Chatham. There he was under the supervision of the

42

Mr. Davies pondered for a moment. Then he spoke reflectively; “Yes, Ned Kelly was a noted horse-stealer in those days. He had then not taken to bushranging.

However, he and I raced. Both of us were heavy men and my horse won. Kelly came over glowering and, said; ‘you fouled.’ Then he hit me, and I hit him back.

“We had a rare ding-dong battle. (I was a good boxer in those days mind you I was young.) I was really ashamed of myself for hitting him, because there was nothing to fight over. But Ned took it in good part and we shook hands after the bout.”

That was not the end, for, as Mr. Davies said he was a young man in those days and he took the opportunity of visiting Ned Kelly to indulge in a little dancing. An opportunity in those rough days “to trip the light fantastic” was only too rare an occasion to miss. So, young Davies and the future bushranger were by no means strangers.

Somewhere about 1876 Mr Davies went to New

South Wales and became Permanent Master of Artillery, having charge of the harbour forts. Then it leaked out that he knew Ned Kelly and he was at once joined up with the police. Off he went scouring the countryside, until the gang, as history relates was surrounded at the Glenrowan Hotel and shot. Years afterwards Mr. Davies met the Archbishop Gibney of Perth, who had figured as a priest so prominently in the extinction of the hated bushrangers. (Father Matthew Gibney, a Catholic priest, who was travelling in Victoria to raise funds for a WA orphanage and who later became Bishop of Perth, hastened to minister the outlaw the last rites of his church. He was allowed to do so and Father Gibney spent an hour with Ned).

ARRIVAL IN BRISBANE It was 1882 when Mr. Davies reached Brisbane. It was a very funny Brisbane then— a straggling town, and all Paddington and New Farm and other suburbs all bush. Mr. Davies secured a position In the Post and Telegraph Office. His brother, Mr. John J Davies was city engineer at the time. It was an exciting year politically.

Sir Samuel, then plain “Sam” Griffith, and Sir Thomas McIlwraith were fighting hammer and tongs. (Sam’s great enemy was the conservative leader Sir Thomas McIlwraith, whom he accused (correctly) of corruption).

Much of the troubles is well known, arose over the steel rails contract. McIlwraith, who had not long acceded to power, went to England to purchase a great quantity of steel rails at an enormous price. Griffith said the price was exorbitant.

“They called one another all the names possible.

They were as bad as names possible. They were as bad as they are now. Sir Thomas called Griffith a rogue, and ‘Sam’ called the Premier a robber. And so they went on”, said Mr Davies.

“In those days,” he added. “Mr John Macrossan was Minister for Railways.” Mr Davies told an interesting anecdote. “A lot of Irishmen had been sacked at Ipswich,” he said smilingly. “That was under the Griffith regime, and when McIlwraith was returned a petition was lodged with him on the matter. McIlwraith said to Macrossan, “Go and restore your Irishmen.” So Macrossan went up to Ipswich to investigate. He found

that the men had only been dismissed because they were Irishmen, and he reinstated the whole bunch.”

THE TREACHEROUS ‘BLACKS’ Mr Davies recalls the fact that there were many aboriginals around Brisbane at that time. In the bush they were very treacherous. One could never trust them. Out west travellers were always in fear of being attacked; but a few shots would frighten the natives. Mr Davies scorns the suggestion of the old resident, who some time ago said that a homestead was saved from the ‘blacks’ by a Scotsman, who played the bagpipes.

The inference was that the Highland instrument’s strains terrified the natives.

“You couldn’t tell that to my dog,” snorted Mr Davies.

“A few shots would frighten the blacks, but you would not get rid of them with bagpipes or any other pipes either.”

And so the reporter left him, indignantly refuting the statement of a fellow pioneer. The fat pug dog still snorted by his side, and Mr Davies, aged 80, devoted himself once more to his interrupted game of cribbage.

Quick facts about Ned Kelly: • •

•

•

•

•

•

was born in June 1855, in Beveridge, Victoria. died at the gallows in Melbourne Gaol, on 11 November 1880. was the eldest son of eight children to John 'Red' Kelly and Ellen Quinn from Tipperary. as a child, saved another boy from drowning – the boy's family awarded him a green silk sash in recognition of his bravery. was believed by some to have been romantically involved with his cousin, Kate Lloyd, whom he visited just days before the siege in Glenrowan, and Steve Hart's sister Ettie Hart. uttered the famous last words 'Ah well, I suppose it has come to this' or 'Such is life', depending on which version of the story you hear.

Corkman Judge Redmond Barry sentenced Ned to death by hanging.

Visiting Ireland?

Gerry & Elsie Tully will give a great welcome!

DIVINE M E R CY BED AND BREAKFAST Airport Road, Knock Co Mayo Phone: (094) 9388 178 International: 0011 353 94 9388 178

43

’ G da FROM MELBOURNE.

By Mike Bowen

y

I have never had a birthday party Pat in my life up to Falvey now, so I decided to have one this year on July 6. The decision about where to celebrate it took about a second to figure out - Ireland. I flagged the birthday invites as also being a living wake - thinking that some of my friends

Mike Bowen and George Furey

might not make it to my funeral one day! I received a mix of twenty seven acceptances from friends here in Australia, Doha in Qatar, Geneva in Switzerland, all willing to travel to join me and add to that a large contingent of old friends from my youth and you have the perfect ingredients for one hell of a party.

As a young child I spent a lot of my time in the North Infirmary Hospital on the North side of Cork City. The hospital closed in 1979 and was converted into a hotel The Mouldren. This seemed to be

Mike with Lord Mayor of Cork Des Cahill and AON C.E.O. Australia signing the visitors book.

the perfect place to go back and Final. The Aussies were fascinated reacquaint with the old place, only with Ireland’s national sport. I can’t this time instead of having sad say it was as exciting for the Galway memories of my youth I could have team as they were outplayed by a great memories of a day that will very clinical Kilkenny side on the never to be forgotten. Joe Kennedy is the hotel’s general manager and a good friend of mine for many years.

I arrived in Cork a week before the event to see that all was going to go as planned, helped along the way by my dear friend Charlotte O’ Byrne who is a perfectionist in matters like this.

On arriving in Cork (June 29th) after a twenty eight hour flight accompanied by my first Australian Mike with his sons Jonathan and Emmett boss of forty two years Davis Syers, at the hurling in Croker I decided to go and visit one of my old friends, Barry at Pa Johnson’s day. bar for a quite drink before retiring Some pints and a match postfor the night. Did I say a quiet drink? mortem later and a mad dash to The place was packed. You needed catch the last train back to Cork. a shoehorn to squeeze through the The tour bus arrived at 10am to door. Pa Johnson’s has a regular Ceili take my guests on a tour of a few session and musicians come from of the iconic and historical sights far and near. I felt blessed to be in of Cork and surrounding areas, the right place at the right time, including a guided tour of the certainly a session not to be missed national trust sight of Fota House if ever you are in Cork. A quiet night and estate. The staff gave a great cap turned out to be an amazing two hour presentation and supplied night of magic music. After Barry an equally brilliant mid-morning finally cleared the bar at midnight beverage before we set off for Cobh, it was time for me to visit the Crane a must see for many guests, as it was Lane venue, where another old the last port of call for The Titanic. friend of mine Steve Housden of Dr Michael Martin an authority on The Little River Band fame was all things maritime, especially the performing. Steve is one of the Titanic, led us on a two hour walk greatest guitar players ever walked and historical tour through Cobh. on this planet and he showed off his Now the race was on to head to master skill on this occasion. the hotel, to shower and prepare Next day it was down to serious for the 7pm bar open and a start business of preparation for the of what was expected to be a long big night, menus to discuss and night. Joe and his staff had the arrangements and an itinerary for function room looking magnificent. international arrivals by Saturday Just like setting off a starting gun all was in place Brian O'Reilly and for the big bash.

The Loudest On Sunday it was Whisper time for a train ride to catch up with my sons Jonathan and Emmett along with some of my Australian guests who had flown in to Dublin.

Croke Park was our destination to see Galway fight it out with Kilkenny in the Leinster Hurling 44

the guests arrived. Celtic music in the foyer and an open bar was the perfect welcome for all. I was lavished with birthday gifts from all quarters, but there was one special gift that took my breath away, an invite from the University College Cork to lecture there later this year and also to accept an honorary doctorate.

The atmosphere in the room was enormously exciting and of course there were speeches. The MC for the night was a very good and old friend of mine Noel Magner, a man with a

Steve Housden and his brother Jack who plays in The Withlems Band

vast experience in show business.

Alan Sherrett, my business partner of many years, was first off the rank followed by AON’s Australia and Asia’s CEO Steven Gaffney, who spoke of our long time relationship and the connection AON had with Ireland. Then it was family time, as both my sons Jonathan, who had travelled back to Ireland for a second time in four weeks, and Emmett, who had travelled from Tokyo, had some lovely words to say about our very warm relationship.

They were followed my wife Marie who told guests I was and still am a pain in the ass after thirty years.

Not too sure that I agree with that entirely. I took that as a compliment as sometimes women say things in reverse.

It was now time for dancing.

Brian O’ Reilly’s band ‘The Loudest Whisper’ did a magnificent job in keeping the atmosphere exciting and lively. Brian had delayed the bands trip to Spain to play at this event for me. By around 1am it was time for a good old sing song session, led by my two first cousins John and Liam Reilly. There were plenty of those only too willing to lead the chorus into the wee small Joe with U2 painting hours.

The next day we were all a bit weary but we took ourselves to City Hall where the new Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Des Cahill, had invited us.

He made us feel welcome and spoke about the wonderful relationship Cork has with Australia. AON’s CEO Steven Gaffney spoke about the relationship between AON and Ireland and how it was set up by an Irishman in Chicago, and the name in Gaelic means oneness. At the end we were presented

with a touching memento, lapel badges of The Cork coat of Arms.

One last night of music and singsong before we all left for different destinations the next day, with a very memorable time of our time in my home town Cork to celebrate my premature wake.

It was worth the time and cost and remember there are no banks in heaven. Let me finish by thanking all those who travelled to Cork to help me celebrate this milestone occasion in my life.

Until I talk to you again soon after I recover from Jet lag.

Sainte from Melbourne.

Mike.

IRISH SANDWICH BAR

Est 2012

PHONE ORDERS

9221 4872 251 Hay St, East Perth OPENING HOURS: Mon - Fri 7am - 2pm Sat - Sun 8am - 12noon (Breakfast Only) 45

Mooney’s Hiding From Wife PHONE RATES $1 Nope not here $2 Just missed him $3 Just had Black Puddin’ and left $4 Hasn't been here all day $5 Who! Never heard of him!

t a e r t e R le c i o r e H Kinsa from termath. and af

by Tadgh Tierney

W

hen we reflect on the tragic story of Ireland, the many heroes from the pages of our history books spring to mind. After the disastrous Battle of Kinsale, Co. Cork in 1601, Irish families were brutally treated and displaced by the conquerors Mountjoy and Carew. Gaelic Chieftain, Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare held out for some time in his various strongholds on the Beara Penisula, but eventually most of his immediate family and followers were holed up in Dunboy Castle. It was a fairly impregnable stronghold but was no match for Carew`s cannon ball siege. After the defeat and the loss of his estates and the slaughter of many of his family in Dunboy (O`Sullivan himself was absent when the castle fell), he decided to march north with the remainder of his retinue to the relative safety of his kinsman O’Rourke of Breffni. A band of a thousand people set out on December 31, 1602 in the depths of winter, but by the time they reached the north only thirty five remained including one woman. Apparently some stragglers had settled along the way but most perished in the harsh conditions they encountered.

During his march O`Sullivan Beare was attacked on all sides by English and Irish alike. The latter offered resistance because it had been made clear to them that they would be penalised and lose their lands if they did not challenge him. O`Sullivan headed north from Cork, reached the famed and secluded Glen of Aherlow and marched over the Galtees and the Silvermine mountains in Tipperary. He then proceeded onwards on his way to cross the Shannon at the ford in Redwood near Lorrha. O’Sullivan hid in the extensive woods nearby and made plans to cross the swollen river. It was thought that circumstances might be easier across the river on the Galway side. But there was still one challenge to be met - that posed by Donogh McEgan from Redwood castle; he was High Sherriff of Tipperary and a member of the famous McEgan Bardic school who were experts in Brehon Law and advisers to the ruling O`Kennedy fam-

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ily. After fighting off McEgan’s challenge, O’Sullivan slaughtered some of his horses and perhaps those of McEgan as well. He made curraghs from the skins by attaching them to rib cages of hazel and willow from the nearby woods. With these makeshift boats the company crossed the swollen Shannon. The place is still known as Poll na gCappal, the grave of the horses. McEgan himself lost his life in the encounter.

As we look back over the years we well might wonder what were the feelings of local people as they heard news of the straggling band marching through the area. Perhaps the motley group was a symbol of Ireland’s recurrent tragedies; the debacle of Kinsale which, through petty rivalries and the incompetence of the Spanish General Don Juan Del Aquila, sent to the aid of Ireland by King Phillip 111, turned into a shambles. It must also be said that the English forces contained numerous Irish soldiers, as traditionally Ireland had been a country of warring clans devoid of any idea of national unity. They would side with whoever offered an opportunity of gaining the upper hand on their enemies.

So instead of what might have been a glorious episode breaking the power of the invader, defeat at Kinsale sounded the death knell of Gaelic Ireland.

Here indeed was Ireland on retreat - but a retreat of heroic proportions like Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. O’Sullivan`s march, on a scaled down scenario, needed no less courage and endurance and has understandably inspired poets to tell the tale in song and story.

But this episode of O`Sullivan`s heroic retreat calls to mind too the march of Red Hugh O’Donnell of Tyrconnell on his way to join Hugh O’Neill of Tyrone for the same doomed battle in November 1601.O`Donnell`s army headed for Holycross Abbey in Tipperary to be blest by what was believed to be a relic of the True Cross venerated there. O’Neill went by way of Roscrea where he remained for three weeks.

Red Hugh was aided in his determination to escape Carew`s attention by a sudden cover of ice on the otherwise impassible terrain. The expedition embarked on a heroic march over the Slieve Phelim hills in the depth of winter. His enemies were outwitted as they had not anticipated such a march, and Carew afterwards acknowledged that it was one of the greatest marches in history. As you view the unpretentious grave of Hugh O’Neill near the sanctuary of the small Church of St. Peter on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, these heroic exploits come to mind; they are all summed up in the Flight of the Earls and later in the story of the Wild Geese. O`Neill and O`Donnell had retreated to the north also after the defeat at Kinsale, and from there they escaped to Europe.

Plantation after Kinsale The forces which O’Sullivan, with the help of O’Neill and O’Donnell had challenged in his native Cork but had heroically failed to dislodge, had been putting down deep roots in the rich soil of Munster including Tipperary. During the Cromwellian plantations of the 17th. Century, Arthur, Earl of Anglesey received a grant of land in my native area, Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary, as well as large grants in other parts of Ireland. The holding was sited on part of the McEgan lands in Crotta.

There is a story told that in later years another Lord Anglesey, Lord Lieutenant, got lost in thick fog while hunting near Kilcommon. He went to the parochial house where a Fr. Walsh entertained him. He was so grateful that he asked the priest if he could do anything for him.

Fr. Walsh asked him to build a road. Anglesey decided to build no less than two roads! The Thurles to Newport road, the Anglesey Line, was completed in 1830 at a cost of 9, 857 pounds. The Nenagh to Tipperary town road was completed the following year.

Likewise the Boyle family, Earls of Cork and Orrery and the Earl of Arran, one of the Butler family, received land in the area. (A member of this family Robert, became a famous physicist, discoverer of Boyle`s Law.) The place name Arran Hill near Borrisokane, suggests the presence of the Butler family there. Arran Hill was later owned by the Stoney family. (There was also an Earl of Arran in Scotland.)

Another notable, Lord Dongan (pronounced Dungan), Earl of Limerick, and the Court favourite, in addition to the Abbey lands of Lorrha, received other grants in the vicinity of Borrisokane totaling 3,852 acres. He was later killed in the battle of the Boyne. Another grantee of land here was Sir Nicholas White of Leixlip, Co. Kildare, himself a Catholic, who held many government posts during his career. He and Dongan were bitter rivals in the business of land grabbing. White received numerous estates amounting to 4,011 acres in in the area, including Balllyhaden, Crotta and the area

adjoining Feemore in Borrisokane parish – lands which belonged to the O’Kennedys. The names of Boyle and White still live on in the area.

Nicholas Toler purchased lands near Nenagh. He was the ancestor of Lord Norbury who sent Robert Emmett to the gallows. The family later became known as Graham-Toler and Richard Graham-Toler is the present Lord Norbury. Another Cromwellian, Captain James Stopford who received a grant of land in the area, remarked that Borrisokane had been made into “a pretty English settlement,’ although he never appears to have lived there himself. He received the land of John Grace in Feemore, and the property of Richard Butler, Thomas Meara, and others in Feebeg, Rathmore, Killea, Ballyhaden and Liskinlawn. Richard Butler originated in the southern Tipperary estate at Kilcash near Slievenamon and that branch of the family remained Catholic throughout the Reformation. The latter was the subject of a great Irish poem: Cillchais.(Kilcash) Cad a dheanimid feasta gan admaid?

Ta deireadh na Coillte ar lar; Nil tracht ar Chill Chais na ar a teaghlach Is ni bainfear a cling go brath. `Now what will we do for timber, With the last of the woods laid low?

There`s no talk of Cill Chais or its household And its bell will be struck no more.

Tadgh Tierney

Interesting Tasmania place names...

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The luck of the Irish comes to Ascot Racecourse for Irish Race Day 2016!

A GOOD TIME TO HORSE AROUND!

all the colour, the smiles and the Grab a bunch of mates to frivolity of the glorious Ireland with listen to traditional live music, a big 8 raceday schedule, stout on watch dancers and feast EVthe ENIrish T Irish cuisine from IVEauthentic tap and plenty of traditional treats USon L traditional food vans. to keep you satisfied for the day.

Grab your friends to bask in Your $30.00 ticket includes: Irish culture with the running of Gate admission, 2 x beverage the Guinness Cup. vouchers and scattered It doesn’t matter whether racebooks.

PER you’re Irish, a wee bit Irish, or just PERSON wish you were Irish – make sure A Visit...

SC U you celebrate Irish Raceday at www.perthracing.org.au OT R CECO A Limerick at the Leger!

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November 1 will be Melbourne Cup day, but October 22 will be Irish Race Day in Perth. The Limericks at the Leger, as the event is being called by Perth Racing, will be a great excuse to get together with friends and family, get dressed or dolled up and spend a full Sunday together enjoying an eight race fixture and with any kind of luck a few rewarding flutters as well.

Normally stabled at Belmont, this year’s Irish Race Day will this time be at Ascot racecourse, considered the ‘grand old lady’ of Australian racetracks with a history of racing going back to the 1840’s.

In addition to the very Irish spectacle of hoofs on turf the organisers have laid on an Irish band and dancers, a choice of bars with stout on tap and a full range of Irish cuisine served up by food fans and a bouncy castle, face painters and even green fairy floss for the kids.

Why not make a day of it and bring the family and celebrate

It doesn’t matter whether you are Irish, a wee bit Irish, or ju wish you were Irish - make su you celebrate Irish Day.

SATUR

EXCLUSIVE TICKETE

An oldie but a goodie!

• General admission & access Did you hear about the guy who went to the races and while there he observed a Roman Catholic priest to racebook who went over to a horse and sprinkled it with holy water. The horse went• on to win race, streaking Cash barthe facilities • Prizes & giveaw ahead of the opposition. Before the next race he saw the priest go over to another horse and sprinkle it with holy water. Like the first horse it went on to win its race. The guy said to himself that if the priest sprinkles another horse with holy water I am going to bet every penny I have on that horse. Sure enough, For tickets & hospitality visit perth the priest went over to another horse and sprinkled it with holy water. So the guy went to a bookie and bet every penny he had on this horse. Then the race started and the horse that the priest sprinkled with holy perthracing perthracing #A water dropped dead about 100 yards after the start of the race. The guy was devastated. perthracing So he went over to the priest and said, "What's going on here? The last two horses you sprinkled with holy water went on to win their races, and this last one you sprinkled dropped dead after only 100 yards. I had put every penny I had on it's nose!". The priest replied, "You're not Roman Catholic, are you?" The guy admitted that he was not and asked, "But, how do you know that?". The priest said, "Because you don't know the difference between giving a blessing and administering the last rights."

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It doesn’t matter whether you are Irish, a wee bit Irish, or just wish you were Irish - make sure you celebrate Irish Day.

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SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER

EXCLUSIVE TICKETED EVENT INCLUSIONS • General admission & access to racebooks • Exciting 8 race program • Entertainment • Cash bar facilities • Prizes & giveaways • 2x Beverage Vouchers • Food Vans

For tickets & hospitality visit perthracing.com.au perthracing

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#AscotGoodTimes 49

A VIEW FROM HOME

By Mike Cluskey

Proof if proof were necessary of the continuing rise of the overall situation back home in Ireland, was confirmed recently with the announcement that Ireland has the fastest growing economy in the EU. Combined with all the excellent and thought provoking 1916 commemorations, which were carried out with such dignity and respect all over the country, there seems to be a new feel good factor emerging.

I can personally confirm that things seem to be changing for the better and at the age of 54, I have been given the opportunity to join the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), working in Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2.

I have now over 2600 new DAA work colleagues which are giving me a headache trying to remember their names. Not to mention the other 13000 other people employed within the airport.

With the announcement within the past couple of months of a new 3110 metre runway which is to be built, and that Dublin Airport had set a new record of handling over 25 million passengers in 2015.

It is hoped that over the next two decades the new runway could support a further 31,000 new jobs.

Hope indeed.

Mike also sent another of his dad’s poems.

The Last Haul…

Once upon a time, In this old town of mine, Families made a living, Fishing on the Boyne.

Up by the Ramparts, The would cast there net, Those child hood days, I never will forget.

If they caught a Salmon, Soon it would be sold, Times were hard those days, Was worth its weight in gold.

No one on the river now, The fishes all swim free, All those men are gone, They live on in history.

They are up in heaven now, Where they got their just rewards, Still catching fish, For the table of our lord.

Paddy Cluskey.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Oscar Wilde 50

The Celtic Club • Perth •

BAR • RESTAURANT • FUNCTIONS

Function Rooms

The impressive Jarrah lined Presidents Room can seat up to 30 guests theatre style or up to 24 guests for a private luncheon.

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Located on the first floor, the main Function Room can comfortably seat 125 delegates theatre style or 120 for a banquet.

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The two function rooms have a comfortable sophistication that lend themselves to a variety of uses such as presentations, training events, Annual General Meetings, Boardroom Meetings. Fully fitted with Wi-Fi, ceiling fitted projectors and screen and speaker system.

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The Clubs central location in West Perth with onsite parking and close proximity to Red and Green CAT bus routes makes it easily accessible to everyone.

Our superb restaurant serves an a la carte style lunch Monday to Friday and the bar area, with separate lounge, features a number of speciality beers on tap, and is ideal for relaxing, a light luncheon or coffee.

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Location

Bar & Restaurant

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The Club welcomes new members so please feel free to call in and have a look at our facilities or ask for a membership application form. We have several types of membership available including Retiree, Ordinary and Corporate. We also work in conjunction with other local business to offer additional external benefits such as discounted gym packages, corporate teambuilding and wine of the month. We also have affiliated membership with other organisations in other cities so you can still enjoy the benefits of membership when on the move.

The Club is a great place to network, meet new people, entertain clients, or just get away from the office to have a brainstorm session.

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Doing Business

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The Celtic Club has a proud history spanning over 100 years. Presently the Club has a membership of approximately 700, and appeals to a wide range of individuals, all of whom enjoy the friendly and personable hospitality of a private member’s Club.

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History:

A: 48 Ord Street, West Perth, WA 6005 P: Phone (08) 9322 2299 E: Email: celtic.club@bigpond.com Start enjoying this great Club and become a member today! F: Fax (08) 9322 2899 W: www.celticclubperth.com

Tony and Veronica McKee PO Box 994 Hillarys WA 6923

info@mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au www.mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au

Tel (08) 9401 1900 • Fax: 9401 1911 • Mob: 0413 337 785 51

Did you know?

Irish marriages last an average of 13 years, although the majority do not end in divorce. Irish couples prefer to separate and live in sin with their new partners rather than go through costly legal proceedings. and... RTE's "The Late Late Show" is the world's longest running talk show. and... Only 9% of the Irish population are natural redheads.

Ar dheas Dé go raibh a anam.

Barry O'Keeffe

TOM CUNNINGHAM

03.06.1925 - 27.07.2016 Tom passed away aged 91 on the 27th of August 2016. He was born in Drogheda, Co Louth and the loving husband of Bridie (dec).

Tom for many years played the pipes at the St Patrick's Day mass.

'A lifetime of passion, determination, devotion, Celtic music, amazing stories and spectacular health' We thank you for your service to the Irish community and devotion to Bridie and your family.

Slan go foill mo chara. RIP

Born in Cork 24th September, 1928 and sadly set sail on 2nd August 2016. Dearly loved husband of Gwyneth of 59 years and father to Siobhan and Rory.

Memories of great times will be long remembered. Safe travels and now that you are with the crew, share a guinness or two. We will miss you and your beautiful smile.

Where we sported and played In the green leafy shades on the banks of my own lovely Lee A fine and proud Corkman!

RITA HORGAN

Born in Cork, Rita passed away 15 August 2016. Margaret (Rita) will be dearly missed by her loving family. Condolences to Frank and children Marguerita, Sharon, Fiona and Kevin. Also to grandchildren, Leigh, Alex, Tara, Ryan, Lucas and Martin.

Loved mother-in-law to Ron, Grant and Karin.

Thank you Rita for being there for me when I arrived in Australia in 1972. You were my new family and we built up a great friendship. RIP Fred Rea 52

NOEL COLGAN 1934 - 2016

Noel was born in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath. 1934. He passed away peacefully at home with his loving family by his side, aged 82.

Noel was always a proud man, a proud family man and a proud Irishman.

Noel was a staunch supporter of all things Irish in Western Australia. His daughter Valerie said that he visited many Irish senior people in their homes right up to his passing, that was Noel. He was also a founder of the GAA in Western Australia and credited with being one of the people who organised bringing draught Guinness to Perth.

Noel was the beloved husband of Tess. Loving Dad of Valerie and Madeline, father-in-law to Brendan and John. Also adored Grandad of Fiona, Timothy and Rosie, Great- Grandfather of Emma and Haylee. Loved by Stephen, Aleighsha and Daniel.

Thanks for the memories Noel we will all miss you greatly and I will miss the great banter we had from time to time.

Fred Rea “Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.”

Pádraig Pearse

Gravesite brings back memories for Brian Hannon Brian Hannon arrived in Australia in late 1969, spent a year in Sydney and then drove to Darwin. These days, that’s a 44 hour drive (4008 km) but Brian said they had a few diversions. “We then headed to Perth which was another 44 hour drive, with a few diversions added on.

Brian and his mates met some other Dublin bloke in Sydney and they decided to head for Perth as well. “There were 10 of us and all living in a block of units in Wellington Street, Mosman Park, a suburb of Perth and that’s where I met the late Joe Conlon who ended up be a great old friend”.

Brian told me the 2 bedroom unit cost $16 a week and there was always the craic, parties all the time especially on weekends. “There was a young lad staying close by who joined in on the parties. We never knew his name but he and anyone else, especially if they were Irish was welcome”.

One day one of the lads looked over the balcony at the back of the units and saw a shadow at the

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bottom of the pool, his home in New someone had fallen Hampshire. Brian still in. “We charged down keeps in touch with and pulled him out and Paul and paid him a called the ambulance visit in the USA some and police. Being Irish, years ago and they we presumed he was shared some great catholic and so we also memories. contacted the local Brian and his priest”. friends always The priest kindly remember that that took control of the sad day in 1970. “The tragedy and found out day I was walking where he lived. He also through Fremantle Brian Hannon organised a collection cemetery going to to cover the cost of the get some water for funeral and place a headstone on my wife’s parents grave, I came his grave. across Raymond Doyle’s headstone.

On a visit to Fremantle I looked over and saw this Irish Cemetery recently, Brian Hannon name on it and went to have a look. saw the grave of the young fella When I saw the name and the event that brought back memories of a that I witnessed it was unbelievable drowning tragedy. “I was walking and shook me up”. past visiting another grave when Thankfully these days we have I was totally shocked to find this Perth’s The Claddagh Association headstone to the young man who and internationally, The Kevin Bell lost his life in the early 70’s”. Brian Repatriation Trust whose aim is told me he heard his family could to alleviate the financial hardship not afford to bring him home, no of bereaved families repatriating one came out. “Some of the lads the body (bodies) of loved one(s) went to the funeral including Paddy who have died abroad in sudden Begley and Paul Carroll. The young or tragic circumstances back to lad name was Raymond Doyle and Ireland. he came from Co Offaly and he lost If you are in Fremantle Cemetery his life 2 days before Christmas Day stop and say a prayer for Raymond in 1970.

He is in Section MON CC and Brian said (with a smile), “Paul Gravesite Number 0685.

Carroll is a great ballad singer Fred Rea and being a Dub much better than your Cork mate Mr Roche!” Paul “The great Gaels of Ireland immigrated to Australia in the are the men that God made early 70’s but he never strayed mad, for all their wars are very far from the music, singing merry, and all their songs are in the folk clubs of Sydney, Perth sad.” and Melbourne. During his time in Melbourne he was a founding ― G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse member of the Celtic band, Frank Murphy presents Poteen, who were Australia’s premiere Celtic band, sharing the stage with icons like Eric Bogle, The Dubliners, The Fury’s and Boys of the Lough.

Paul went to the USA has made IRISH MUSIC • INTERVIEWS • LOCAL & IRISH NEWS

107.9fm Fremantle Radio Saturday 8am to 10am

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By Lloyd Gorman

TV Station TV Nation Time for a giggle on the goggle box!

Alive and Kicking (Channel 9/June 4) is a great old black and white flick about three women who escape from the monotony of life in an English retirement home and go on the run in search of adventure, sparking a nationwide manhunt for them. The ladies end up in a small island of the west coast of Ireland/Galway called ‘Inishfada’ where they set up a successful cottage industry making aran jumpers with the support of the islanders. Made in 1959 this light hearted and sometimes silly comedy is very much of that era. It was also the screen debut film for a young Richard Harris and featured the talents of Liam Redmond who was at the top of his game at the time.

Later that day, Grand Designs, ABC, took viewers to Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland for the ‘Ballymagarry Project’. Architect Michael Howe and his wife Michele wanted to keep and transform a 100 year old derelict stone forge into an amazing pad. “The site on which our home is located is one of the most picturesque on the North Coast. I fell in love with the views a long time ago but as it’s an area of outstanding natural beauty, I knew that planning permission could be a challenge.”

Michael said they did it for the craic and that it turned out well.

Also that day on ABC3 was ‘Brain Freeze’, a kid’s programme using puppets. Made by Kite Entertainment

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who are based in the heart of Dublin city this is another example of the versatility and diversity of quality children’s programming coming out of Ireland.

Nelly and Nora too is a new cartoon, collaboration between RTE and the BBC, with stand-up comic and Fr Ted funnyman Ardal O’Hanlon providing one of the voices.

Also showing on Sunday mornings on Channel 9 is another new animated series Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, which is produced by Telegael, who are based in Spiddel, Co. Galway.

Baz Ashmawy took his 72 year old Dublin mum Nancy to Marrakesh, Morocco (July 3/ SBS) on one of his 50 Ways to kill your mammy.

Still on SBS that day, we follow veteran broadcaster and journalist Kerry O’Brien follow the family line in Australia all the way back to the first O’Brien’s to arrive here, and back to their origins in Ireland.

On the food channel, Aussie cook Lyndey Milans Taste of Ireland took her to Ballymaloe, East Cork for a spot of home cooking with Darina Allen. A week later and she was in Waterford, this time at the Tannery Restaurant. On July 23 Milan was in Belfast as part of her Irish tour.

Later that night was the first in a six part series of Des Bishop’s new show ‘Breaking China’ (SBS2) about his experience of moving to the Asian nation for a year. This was followed by Ed Byrne who was the host.

Later still and always a pleasure to watch was In Bruges (2008), with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. This masterpiece of dark humour was shown again two nights later on 7Flix.

One of my favourite Grabbers (2012) was On August 3, SBS2. Set on an island off the west coast of Ireland it is the hilarious yarn about how to fight off an alien invasion in the most Irish of all ways, from the pub! Well worth

Show (on 11) as part of their comeback while later Ed Byrne’s Crowd Pleaser, a live show recorded in Newcastle for DVD was 90 minutes of good observational humour.

As it happens on that night the M i c h a e l McIntyre Comedy Roadshow was filmed in Dublin and featured the wit of Zoe Lyons, UK act Andrew Lawrence (whose mother is Irish and provided a good opportunity for him to impersonate her accent) and the main man of Irish comedy, Tommy Tiernan, who left the house (which was either the Gaiety or Olympia Theatre) in stitches.

For his part, McIntyre, who has completed a sell-out UK and Ireland tour with his new show ‘Happy & Glorious’ is on his way to Perth. He will play the Perth Arena on October 26 and if he is funny on TV I’d image his live set is even better.

Tommy Tiernan Quotes on emigrants

a watch anytime it’s on Australian TV (which is hardly ever).

The Graham Norton Show had a very Irish line up on August 11 on 11 (Freeview). Chris O’Dowd,

Colin Farrell and a (then) new song ‘Love is’ from Rod Stewart, which has a distinctive folky if not Irish sound to it. The 70’s rocker was on his way to play a concert in Kilkenny.

Also on August 11 was a repeat of the very funny and unconventional love story Catastrophe, with Irish actress Sharon Horgan and American Rob Delany.

The next day watching the ABC news Irish journalist Nuala McGovern popped up on the screen as the newsreader and presenter. I was familiar with the voice and accent from the BBC World Service radio, but this was the first time I had spotted her front of camera.

More laughs and entertainment on August 20, ABC2 with the Corrs appearing as the musical act on the Graham Norton

Canada.

People who go to Canada are brainy. Graduates, Astrochemical architects, Biophysical dentists.

England.

Depressed people go to England, they want somewhere as miserable as here, just a bit more organised.

Australia.

Thick fellas go to Australia. Bet you any money they’re great craic but thick as you know what. Group of lads heading off with one leaving cert between them. People going down there, to them Australia is one long bank holiday weekend.

(Edited version... otherwise very colourful language!)

NEED A HOME LOAN?

Call Nik Silsby on 0402 284 594 Lic No 387131

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nsilsby@loanscafe.com

1238 Hay Street West Perth Phone: 0449 168 667

Welcome to the intimate Orla's Wee Snug in West Perth A new addition to Perth’s food and drinking venues is Orla’s Wee Snug in West Perth. Co-owners are Dubliner, Liam Connolly and Orla Donaghey from Donegal met in Perth.

Liam told the Irish Scene, “Our Guinness is imported straight from the home and is as smooth as cream”. I have tried the food and it is every bit as nice! “And our Bistro style high end cuisine will dance on the tonsils!”

Liam added.

Orla has an extensive background in hospitality in Perth and Ireland. The Cafe/Lounge Fusion Bar serves breakfast and lunch during the day and lounge and bistro at night.

It has a cosy atmosphere with emphasis on customer service. I have experienced this for myself and have no problem recommending it to our readers.

By the way if Guinness doesn't tickle your fancy they also serve imported Magners, Heniken and Carlsberg along with local Craft Beers fresh from the tap but poured in a unique way... “From the bottom up!” is how Liam put it.

Combine all of the above with the warm hospitality of Liam Connolly and Orla sprinkle a dash of live music in the mix and you of the makings of a cosy night out in comfortable surroundings.

Named after owner Orla, the Wee Snug attracts plenty of homesick Irish expats as well as longtime locals looking for a friendly, unassuming spot to enjoy a smooth Guinness, a generous serving of food and a little live music all adds to its charm.

Fred Rea

GreatFood GreatMusic GreatCraic Hours: Mon 7:30am–3pm Tues 7:30am–3pm Wed 7:30am–9pm Thur 7:30am–9pm Frid 7:30am–Late Sat 7:30am–Late Sun 7:30am–Late

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Bishop Daly fought for peace during The Troubles The entirety of Edward Daly’s life and church career was linked to the modern story of Northern Ireland.

Born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal in December 5, 1933 his long and courageous life ended on August 8 when he passed away, aged 82, in Derry. In his early life he had boarded at St Columb’s College in Derry on a scholarship, from where he spent six years studying towards ordination for the priesthood at the Irish College in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Derry in Belleek in March 1957. His

Bishop Edward Daly and behind on his desk is a portrait of Jackie Duddy, who was shot dead in the Bogside area of Derry on Bloody Sunday

first appointment was as a curate in Castledederg, Co. Tyrone and then in 1962 as curate for St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, where he was responsible for the Bogside area.

Apart from a short stint in Dublin where he worked as a religious advisor and media commentator for the Catholic Church.

His clerical career coincided with the rise of the Troubles and he would play a small but iconic part in the events of January 30, 1972, Bloody Sunday. A regular figure in civil rights marches of the time on this occasion British soldiers fired into the crowds killing 14 unarmed protesters. Daly, holding up a blood stained white handkerchief as a white flag led a small group who carried 17 year old wounded Jackie Duddy through the panicked streets of Derry to safety. That single act was captured and defined by a photograph taken at the time. The teenager died shortly afterwards and Daly administered the last rites.

He abhorred the violence shown on that occasion and detested the violence employed by the IRA and their Unionist counterparts. He remained an important figure in the debate and was often at odds with the Republican side. But even when the church considered cutting them off as terrorists Daly argued 57

it was better to “communicate than excommunicate”.

Daly became the youngest bishop in Ireland when he was appointed as the Bishop of Derry in 1974, a role he held until 1993. In 1979, a planned trip to Armagh by Pope John Paul II as part of his Irish visit had been brokered and agreed to by the British government thanks to the negotiations of Daly. But in the wake of the assassination of Lord Mountbatten and the Warrenpoint ambush in which 18 British soldiers were killed, that event was cancelled. Instead it had to be transferred to Drogheda, which is in the same archdiocese, but on the other side of the border. When he spoke on that occasion, the Pontiff urged the IRA to give up its armed campaign.

In a show of personal leadership and cross community bridge building at a time of growingly bitter religious divide Daly befriended and worked closely with his Protestant counterpart, James Mehaffey, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. The two bishops were given the Freedom of the City by Derry City Council in 2015 for their joint “efforts towards peace and community cohesion”.

Daly’s contribution to the peace process and his congregation is

almost immeasurable. The bells of St Eugene’s Cathedral where he had once been a curate tolled for an hour before his coffin was brought there for a large funeral. As his coffin was carried out of the local cathedral it was greeted by loud applause.

In a statement the Derry Diocese, said, “Bishop Daly served, without any concern for himself, throughout the traumatic years of the Troubles, finding his ministry shaped by the experience of witnessing violence and its effects; through this dreadful period he always strove to preach the Gospel of the peace of Christ.

“Bishop Daly provided an example of priestly ministry which was exemplary, inspired by service of God and the people he encountered. His ministry was characterised by his deep love of the people of this diocese, his dedicated visitation of parishes and his constant availability to others.

The bishops, priests and people of the diocese were blessed to have such a dedicated and faithful priest among them.”

After Derry, 30 January 1972 © By Seamus Deane

Lightnings slaughtered The distance. In the harmless houses Faces narrowed. The membrane Of power darkened Above the valley, And in a flood of khaki Burst. Indigoed As rain they came As the thunder radioed For a further Haemorrhage of flame.

And when the storm passed We came out of the back rooms Wishing we could say Ruin itself would last.

But the dead would not Listen. Nor could we speak Of love. brothers had been Pitiless. What could ignite This sodden night?

Let us bury the corpses.

Fast. Death is our future

The roads died, the clocks Went out. The peace Had been a delicately flawed Honeymoon signalling The fearful marriage To come. Death had been A form of doubt.

Now it was moving Like a missionary Through the collapsed cities Converting all it came among.

And now is our past.

There are new children In the gaunt houses.

Their eyes are fused.

Youth has gone out Like a light. Only the insects Grovel for life, their strange heads Twitching. No one kills them Anymore. This is the honeymoon Of the cockroach, the small Spiderless eternity of the fly.

© Seamus Deane, After Derry, 30 January 1972, complete text, Selected Poems, 1988, The Gallery Press.

Seamus Deane is here reacting with horror to the killings of Bloody Sunday 1972 by British soldiers who opened fire on a Civil Rights march. ‘Youth has gone out like a light.’

Fr Daly was standing near 17-year-old John “Jackie” Duddy when he was shot.

“We tried to help him. I said a prayer with him and I anointed him and gave him the last rites,” he said. “We decided to make a dash for it”.

“I went in front with this handkerchief in my hand and they carried Jackie behind me”.

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Seán Doherty Branch Dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music and dancing world wide.

Page Sponsored by: Reid’s Bootmakers

Come along and join in...

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Perth Comhaltas AGM Irish Club 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco Monday 12 September, 2016 starting at 7.30pm.

We would like to encourage anyone interested in keeping traditional music alive in Perth to join up and get on the Comhaltas committee!

Christmas windup date to be advised.

You do not need to be Irish to join Comhaltas. We draw from a broad range of ethnicities. We invite you to join in our sessions.

Our weekly sessions offer a lot to many. Of course, they're an opportunity for musicians to gather and play traditional music.

But they're much more. Club members socialise there, others enjoy "lift" from the music, new friendships form, and some are inspired to start performing Irish music and even join the club.

Sessions are from an Irish music tradition that has touched many lives over the centuries. If you've never been to a session, or if it's been a while, we hope you'll try a Comhaltas session at the Irish Club soon. Newcomers, regulars, families and friends are always warmly welcomed

WEEKLY IRISH TRAD MUSIC SESSION EVERY MONDAY AT THE IRISH CLUB

Comhaltas Perth meets on Monday nights. Come and learn a tune.

8pm in the committee room or join in the session (starts off slow).

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.

For news updates visit: www.facebook.com/perthcomhaltas

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land of

&

Ireland

honey

...that Dirty Weed...

I found an interesting piece recorded in a newspaper in 1847 regarding potatoes and advice from William Corbett. The story went like this….

Last evening a Roman Catholic priest, Dr Smith, from Connemara, County Galway, related the following conversation he had with that extraordinary man, William Cobbett, in 1826.

Speaking of Ireland, Cobbett said that the dirty weed, alluding to the potato, would be the curse of Ireland. “How so?” replied Dr Smith, “what must the people do without it; they live upon it.

They have had it in cultivation 180 years.” Cobbett answered, “They must go back to the same food they were accustomed to live upon previously to the general cultivation of the dirty weed; and that is to grain, as wheat, oats, etc.

You have four millions of souls in Ireland, and eight millions of acres of uncultivated land. This ground must be drained and brought into cultivation, and you must again grow wheat, oats, rye, etc. The potato will not last more than 20

years, when it will work itself out, and then you will see to what a state Ireland will be reduced.

You must return to grain crops; and Ireland, instead of being one of the most degraded, will become one of the finest countries in the world. You may live to see my words true, but I never shall”. Dr Smith made a note of the above in 1826, and the same opinion and prophecy concerning the potato occurs in one of Cobbett’s books —Cottage Economy. Was William right?

William Corbett penned the book, Cottage Economy and was published in 1821, which covered many practical instructions such how to bake bread, brew beer, keep livestock and ‘other matters deemed useful in the conducting of the Affairs of a Labourer’s Family’ with the aim of aiding the ‘Labouring Classes’ in having a ‘good living’.

It was considered to be a timeless guide on matters of self-sufficiency.

William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist.

He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the

rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and “tax-eaters” relentlessly. He was also against the Corn Laws, a tax on imported grain.

Early in his career, he was a loyalist supporter of King and Country: but later he joined and successfully publicised the radical movement, which led to the Reform Bill of 1832, and to his being elected in 1832 as one of the two MPs for the newly enfranchised borough of Oldham. Although he was not a Catholic, he became a fiery advocate of Catholic Emancipation in Britain. Through the seeming contradictions in Cobbett’s life, his opposition to authority stayed constant.

Fred Rea

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Irish Families in Perth

Western Australia

This September celebrates our 5th year and we are still growing we have 12,100 members on the page now. It still is a great source of information regarding all things Irish - who needs Google! During the Olympics when the 2 lads from Skibbereen won their silver medals, its great to be able to see the Irish reaction to their hilarious interviews. All the more endearing/ embarrassing for those of us from Cork...

To mark our 5th year in existence we are having a family day, just a get together at a play area around Whiteman, as that was the whole point, not just connecting people by having conversations online, but actually having a community through the playgroups, meet ups and parties, any excuse for a gathering!

Speaking of parties, our Halloween party in coming up it will be held in ‘fantasticfourkids’ play center in

e Updat

Wangara on Sun 30th October from 2- 5pm we have the whole place to ourselves, cost is $5 per child and that includes nuggets and chips and there will be ghoulish games plenty of ways for the smallies to burn off their energy. So dress up your monsters and come along for a great afternoon!

Please click on events on the IFIP page so we know numbers. There’s already huge interest. For our Christmas party we will have a get together in the same venue with an appearance

from the big man himself, any other Christmas celebrations will be in the next issue of the Irish Scene also.

For regular playgroups click onto the Irish Mams NOR Facebook page, they meet Monday and Wednesday mornings, which is great for those with young children getting a routine and being able to meet other mums in the same boat (or plane) as yourself!

So if you need advice on the important things in life like, where to get the best breakfast roll in Perth, or help with finding gardeners, electricians, hair dressers, beauticians, a place to live, a job, just click onto Irish Families in Perth’s Facebook page where we hope the road will rise to meet you!

Debbie Cashman

Irish Families in Perth

Daddy Fell into the Pond

by Alfred Noyes

Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey.

We had nothing to do and nothing to say.

We were nearing the end of a dismal day, And then there seemed to be nothing beyond, Then, Daddy fell into the pond!

And everyone’s face grew merry and bright, And Timothy danced for sheer delight.

“Give me the camera, quick, oh quick!

He’s crawling out of the duckweed!” Click!

Then the gardener suddenly slapped his knee, And doubled up, shaking silently, And the ducks all quacked as if they were daft, And it sounded as if the old drake laughed.

Oh, there wasn’t a thing that didn’t respond When, Daddy Fell into the pond!

Sunday Oct 30th Fantastic 4 Kids Play Center, Wangara Time: 2-5pm Cost $5 food included irishinperth@hotmail.com

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EXECUTIVE

President: Hilary McKenna ADCRG Vice Presidents: Teresa McGorry TCRG & Eileen Ashley TCRG Secretary: Samantha McAleer TCRG & Alison Johnson TCRG Treasurer/Booking Secretary: Deirdre McGorry TCRG Venue Secretary: Sinead Hoare TCRG AIDA Inc Delegate: Hilary McKenna TCRG Registar: 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 & Woodvale Samantha McAleer TCRG 9405 6255/0414 188 784 Lara Upton - 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 kavanaghirishdance.com.au Teresa McGorry TCRG 0412 155 318 Deirdre McGorry TCRG Caroline McCarthy TCRG O’BRIEN ACADEMY OF IRISH DANCING Butler, Kinross, Subiaco Rose O’Brien ADCRG 9401 6334/0423 382 706 O’HARE SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCING WembleyDowns/OsbornePark Jenny O’Hare TCRG 0422 239 440 SAOIRSE SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCING Caramar Sinead Hoare TCRG 0414 647 849 THREE CROWNS SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCE Kingsway & Landsdale threecrownsirishdancing.com Eleanor Rooney TCRG 0449 961 669 TRINITY STUDIO OF IRISH DANCING Morley Eileen Ashley TCRG 0413 511 595 WA ACADEMY OF IRISH DANCING Malaga Glenalee Bromilow ADCRG 9276 3737/ 0410 584 051 Sue Hayes TMRF 9377 5600/0412 040 719

Sub Minor Girls 7 years & Under 1st Sahara Donelan Ceide/Upton 2nd Charli Bond Ceide/Upton 3rd Saoirse Pearson Kavanagh Studio 4th Orna Cawley Ceide/Upton 5th Keira O’Brien WA Academy Sub Minor Boys 7 years & Under 1st Scott Ryan Ceide/Upton Sub Minor Girls 8 years 1st Zoe Cahoon Kavanagh Studio 2nd Isabel O’Sullivan Ceide/Upton 3rd Eliza Beattie Kavanagh Studio 4th Charlotte Hunter Ceide/Upton State Solo 5th Sarah Rooney Ceide/Upton Championships Minor Girls 9 years The 2016 Western 1st Isabella Campeotto WA Academy Australian State 2nd Cassandra Perkins O’Brien Solo Irish Dancing 3rd Natarsha Terrell Kavanagh Studio Championship was 4th Laoise McAleer Ceide/Upton 5th Amber Flavell O’Hare held on Saturday Minor Girls 10 years and Sunday 13th 1st Hannah Lane Ceide/Upton and 14th August at the John Curtin 2nd Hayley Brooker Kavanagh Studio 3rd Phoebe Hogue O’Hare Performing 4th Piper Ryan WA Academy Arts Centre 5th Mikala Harris WA Academy in Fremantle.

Minor Boys 10 years Congratulations 1st Josh Johnson Ceide/Upton to the following Junior Girls 11 years dancers....

1st Caoimhe McGuigan Ceide/Upton 2nd Jade Ryan Ceide/Upton Good luck to 3rd Sinead Daly Ceide/Upton all the dancers 4th Heather Burke O’Hare competing in the 5th Stella Ashley Trinity Perth Premiership Junior Boys 11 years on Saturday 27th 1st Shane Rooney Kavanagh Studio August and the 2nd John Berry Kavanagh Studio Team and Ceili State 3rd Vaughan Cooper WA Academy Championships 4th Joel Brooker Kavanagh Studio on Sunday 28th Junior Boys 12 years August. Both of 1st Griffyn Ryan WA Academy these events will be Junior Girls 12 years held at the Morley 1st Medbh Flanagan Ceide/Upton Recreation Centre 2nd Niamh Glynn Kavanagh Studio on Wellington Rd, 3rd Natasha Nunn Ceide/Upton Morley and are 4th Desiree Scott Kavanagh Studio 5th Sinead Collins WA Academy open to the public Intermediate Girls 13 years from 10am each 1st Caoimhe McAleer Ceide/Upton day.

2nd Tara Collis Trinity

Australian Irish Dancing Association Inc.

Sr Brendan is Shadow Minister for Mental Health; congratulated Disability Services & Child Protection by the Italian PO Box 2440, SOUTH HEDLAND WA 6722 of the members stephen.dawsonmp@mp.wa.gov.au community (08) 9172 2648 • 1800 199 344 (toll free) 62

3rd Isobel Ashley Trinity 4th Lucy Burke O’Hare 5th Ella McCollam Kavanagh Studio Intermediate Boys 13 years 1st Adam Robinson WA Academy Intermediate Girls 14 years 1st Jade McLaughlin Ceide/Upton 2nd Nancy Holohan Kavanagh Studio 3rd Trinity Ryan WA Academy 4th Caoimhe Van Osch Ceide/Upton 5th Taya Voysey O’Hare Senior Girls 15 years 1st Emily Rooney Kavanagh Studio 2nd Shaunagh McCollam Kavanagh Studio 3rd Hannah Ogilvy Ceide/Upton 4th Tiah Courtney O’Brien 5th Iona Braham Trinity Senior Boys 15 years 1st Luke Hanson WA Academy Senior Girls 16 years 1st Ruby Driscoll Ceide/Upton 2nd Ciara-Mae Crone Ceide/Upton 3rd Brittany Pymm WA Academy 4th Caitlin Bone Ceide/Upton 5th Nessa Flynn O’Hare Junior Ladies 17 years 1st Dakota Courtney O’Brien 2nd Ashlyn Stevens WA Academy 3rd Aimee Chanter WA Academy 4th Keiva Young Trinity 5th Brigid Lydon Kavanagh Studio Junior Men 17 years 1st Jeremiah Oliveri Ceide/Upton Junior Ladies 18 years 1st Dara McAleer Ceide/Upton 2nd Taylor Pymm WA Academy 3rd Sheridan O’Leary O’Hare 4th Aisling Hillas O’Hare 5th Ciara Stobbie Ceide/Upton Junior Men 18 years 1st Austin Ryan WA Academy Ladies 19 years 1st Bridie Flynn O’Hare Senior Ladies 20 Years and over 1st Georgia MacDonald Ceide/Upton 2nd Shannon Kennedy Kavanagh Studio 3rd Olivia Romeo Ceide/Upton 4th Elleanor Purser Trinity 5th Sian Fitzgerald Trinity

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63

I left school, I played around as many pubs as I could.

When I started to write my own songs, I tried them out around the places I was playing in Dublin, which were all pretty rough places. They were all like, ‘What is that? Play Galway Girl (by Steve Earle)! It took a lot for me to put myself out there, so I wasn’t about to give up on these songs. I kept bringing them up and re-introducing them into my set over and over again, and eventually I was able to build up my confidence as a songwriter. I still have nerves and the occasional bout of stage fright, but I got into all of this so that I could be a performer.”

His first major recording (January 2015) was a life acoustic solo performance called Live at Whelans which really got him noticed and in November of that year he recorded his debut album Bitter Pill, which was essentially a studio version of his red hot performance at the famous pub and music venue on Dublin’s Camden Street. Bitter Pill was released worldwide in March 2016 and James has been touring extensively since both as an opening act and as a headlining performer. In June, he had his biggest headlining act to date in Cork in which he performed as part of the Live at the Marquee concert series.

“It was mad,” he said. “It was five thousand people, and before that the most I’d ever played to was probably just over a thousand. It’s a lot different to the kind of more intimate crowds that I’m used to performing in front of – you can’t really talk much when it’s that many people. You can pretty much do big ones like ‘Hey!’ or ‘How’s it going?’ and that’s about it. It’s a lot easier to chat when it’s a smaller show, but it was still a great experience. It was the first time playing with my new band, as well – I’ve mostly been playing solo lately, so this was a really nice change of pace.”

Gavin James will be appearing at The Boston, 205 James Street, Northbridge, on Sunday 25 September as part of his upcoming Australian tour. Tickets are available from oztix.com.au

Show Preview….

Dublin’s newest voice for The Boston, Perth Dubliner Gavin James is shaping up to be the next big thing to emerge from the Irish capital’s seemingly limitless reservoir of talented singer songwriters.

From the age of eight the 25 year old muse always had a guitar in his hands and by his early teens he was playing live whenever he got a chance. He gigged around Dublin and other Irish venues regularly and slowly built up a strong and loyal following. By 2013 he was starting to break through and by 2015 was supporting the likes of Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith.

“I really wanted to learn the guitar when I was little,” he said. “I was eight, maybe nine, and I was just obsessed with stuff like Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple.

It’s all I wanted to listen to and it was all I wanted to play. Weirdly enough, the first album that I bought that made me want to start writing my own songs was The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. I remember that being my first proper ‘holy shit’ moment – it was my epiphany.

I didn’t want to do anything else after that. As soon as

Is drinking costing you MORE than money?

Help is available!

Musical Entertainer / Teacher

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.

David MacConnell

0413 259 547 wdmacc@bigpond.net.au www.maccdouble.com

Contact: Alcoholics Anonymous,

24 Hour Helpline Ph: 9325 3566 • www.aaperth.wa.org 64

here

re an e h t , Here

ryw d Eve

McLoughlin Butchers Malaga Proud Supporters of the Irish Scene Drop in and see our range of Irish prepared meats 58 Westchester Rd, Perth WA 6090 mcloughlinbutchers.com.au Like us on facebook 65

As a callow economics student at Trinity College, Dublin, JK was my idol. At the drop of a hat, I could quote extensively from his works, and consistently peppered my economic essays with his insightful and pertinent observations, including some I made up myself. On graduation from Trinity, I promptly forgot all my economics – except for JK’s sapient comment, above. Success is arguably overrated, and often just too dull to contemplate. My observations are that incompetence is what humanity is really good at; it is what we should respect and admire. Being really bad at something stems from inspired idiocy, and must be viewed as a welcome counterblast to the current all-pervading ‘success’ ethic so embedded in modern Western culture. Author, Stephen Pile, has written three books (see below) cataloguing achievements of breathtaking incompetence.

From his books, I have selected some Irish feats of ineptitude which bear celebrating.

Every man has a scheme that will not work.

HOWE’S LAW LEAST CONVENIENT POST BOX* In March 1979 workmen at Ballymena, County Antrim, replaced a telegraph pole on which a pillar box was fixed. The workmen did not have the official keys needed to release the clips that fastened the box to the pole. So they raised it over the top of the old one and then slipped it down the new one. The new pole turned out to be thicker than the old one and the post box came to rest nine feet above the ground. It remained in this position for three weeks during

By JOHN HAGAN

“If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error”.

JK Galbraith

which time some post still managed to get through. “I’m told”, said Mr Ernie McDermott, the postmaster, “that someone provided a step ladder. The mind boggles”.

‘If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly” G K CHESTERTON THE LEAST SATISFACTORY GARAGE* The least satisfactory garage in the history of covered car parking adjoins a semi-detached house at Elkwood, Templelogue in Dublin.

In 1976 the prospective buyers of Mr Donal O’Carroll’s home were intrigued to see that four concrete steps led up to the garage. The estate agent handling the sale said.

“I understand that the driveway was very steep which was why the steps were put in. The garage is ideal for anyone wanting an extra room, but certainly not if you want to park your car”.

“A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself”.

GERTRUDE STEIN THE LEAST SUCCESSFUL ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS MEETING* A 1974 dinner dance for the Belfast branch of Alcoholics Anonymous ended in a cloakroom brawl after £385 had been spent at the bar. The manager of the hotel at which the event was held said the trouble was not so much caused by those who had abjured the grape. “It was their 66

friends”.

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better”.

SAMUEL BECKETT THE LEAST SUCCESSFUL VICTORY CELEBRATION** In one of the great moments of horse-racing history the Irish jockey, Roger Loughran showed the importance of holding something in reserve for the final push. Riding Central House in the Paddy Power Dial a Bet Chase at Leopardstown in 2005, he was in the lead after two miles and the finishing line was a hundred yards away. The situation looked very serious indeed, but with victory staring him in the face, he still had something up his sleeve and mistook an upright bundle of birch for the finishing line. He stood up on his stirrups, punched the air in victory, waved, smiled and was just saluting the crowd with his whio when he was overtaken by Hi Cloy and Fota Island, lost the race and came third. “these things happen”, said the horse’s trainer.

“If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style”. QUENTIN CRISP LEAST SUCCESSFUL FIRE STATION*** Roused by the alarm, the firemen of Arklow in County Wicklow raced to their posts in December 1984 only to find the flames completely engulfing their own fire station.

“Christmas is always a busy time for us”, Mr Michael O’Neill, the Chief Fire Officer, said, explaining why the fire had gone unnoticed.

“The lads found their equipment and protective clothing had been destroyed and we watched the station burn to the ground”, he said philosophically. It was the second time Arklow fire station had burned down in recent years.

‘Next to being right ---, the best of

all things is to be clearly and definitely wrong”. TH HUXLEY MORE NEWS FROM ARKLOW*** Not only does this attractive resort boast a celebrated fire station, but it is also the home of the Arklow Music Festival, which hosted the least successful choral contest on 12March 1978. Just one choir entered and even then only managed to come second. The Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir failed to win first prize, the judges said, as punishment for arriving forty-five minutes late.

“Success: the one unpardonable sin against one’s fellow man”.

AMBROSE BIERCE LEAST SUCCESSFUL BUS LAUNCH*** With a great fanfare Bombadier (Ireland) Ltd launched ‘the bus of the 80s’. The plan was to have the Irish Minister of Transport, Mr Reynolds, drive the first one out of the works on a triumphant tour of Limerick. On 10 November 1980, he got into the bus but could not start it. Bombadier officials said the batteries were flat. New ones were fitted, but with no visable consequence.

Technicians worked underneath throughout the launching ceremony. When the Minister threw the bottle of champagne he could not break it. Eventually, he hurled it with such violence that the Mayor of Limerick was drenched. “It’s all part of the risks attached to the office”, he said. The Very Reverend Emeritus M J Talbot prayed for the bus whereupon the Minister drove out of the works hooting his horn on routeto a reception at the Shamrock Hotel, Bunratty.

Halfway there the bus broke down and the VIPs completed the journey by car. In a speech applauding this fine vehicle for the new age the Minister said that “last week Mrs Reynolds

and I launched a ship in Cork; there was not nearly as much excitement”.

“Every decision you make is a mistake”.

EDWARD DAHLBERG THE ACTOR WHO KNOWS WHEN TO STOP*** No actor is more exciting to watch than the mould-breaking Irish thespian, Alan Devlin. As happy off stage as on. He can inject drama into even the most lackluster play by his ability to leave the stage in mid-performance with no warning whatsoever. His finest hour came while he was playing Sir Joseph Porter in the Dublin Gaiety Theatre’s 1987 production of HMS Pinafore.

Gilbert and dSullivan’s operetta was wandering to its predictable conclusion when he turned to the audience, said F--- this for a game of soldiers, I’m going home”, clambered through the orchestra pit, shouting “Finish it yourself” and vanished. Still dressed in the flamboyant costume of an admiral, this excellent man went straight to Neary’s Bar. The cast and audience thought they had lost him for the night, but not so.

Because he was still wired for sound, the evening was further enhanced by the tones of this great actor ordering a round of drinks. Such a performance as this is not given without a lengthy apprenticeship. He first went missing in 1982, muttering audible obscenities, half-way through a tedious play called Ducking Out at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London. His stature grew yet further when he brought and early and welcome end to the vastly overlong Eugene O’Neill play A Moon For The Misbegotten.

He was in Ireland by the time the director tracked him down.

Rob Zielinski Extracts from Stephen Pile’s books: * The Book of Heroic Failures. First Futura Publications (1980). ** The Return of Heroic Failures. Secker & Warburg (1988). *** The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures. Faber and Faber (2011).

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I’LL BUY FOR ME A FIELD

By Cathryn Brown I need to find some space to breathe To do what brings me pleasure A place to practice make-believe And busy be - at leisure.

A place where I can just be me To walk and laugh and play....

And hear my voice and learn to be At peace each precious day.

I’ll buy for me a field - called home – Wherein I’ll build my nest And taste the air, and run and roam And toil and play and rest.

In step with nature will I be Far from the noise and crowd I’ll feed the birds. I’ll hug a tree I’ll dance and sing out loud....

And now and then I’ll early rise To greet a bright new morn And join all creatures ‘neath the skies To welcome in the dawn.

I’ll find for me so many ways In peace and sweet content.

To satisfy my leisure days And see they’re wisely spent.

And as my life draws to its close.

In this idyllic style.

I’ll stop each day to smell a rose....

And linger there awhile.

For life is once and with God’s grace – I’ll find its greatest yield By moving at a slower pace When living in my field.

Chris took City to Surf in his stride

by Lloyd Gorman

Perth mightn't exactly be home anymore but Chris O'Neill certainly romped it home for the 2016 City to Surf in the WA capital.

WIth a time of 2 hours and 32 minutes and two seconds the Irishman was a clean five minutes ahead of his closest competitor in the Photo: The Athletes Foot Subiaco facebook 42.2km marathon event, one of the biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Chris set a commanding pace for the duration of the race and never slowed down.

Of the 929 competitors who started the City to Surf's toughest and longest event just 827 crossed the finishing line.

Not bad for the 39 year old who got into distance running as a way of getting fit after he suffered a hurling injury.

He came to Perth in about 2011 where he met his wife and while they recently moved to Melbourne he came back to his old stomping ground just to take part.

“Winning this race means a lot,” O’Neill told PerthNow

crossing the finishing line.

“We moved away over to Melbourne last month but we always consider Perth our home. My wife has been here 10 years and I’ve been here six so to come here to win in Perth is a lovely feeling. The conditions were obviously very windy and that’s never good for running, but the temperature was quite nice and we didn’t overheat. We were able to run quite comfortably in the end."

The race went much the way he had hoped he told the news website who were media sponsors for the event.

"I was pretty intent on going out at 3.30 per kilometre and then when I saw the wind it was a bit of an effort to hold that pace. But I had relatively even splits from the first half to the second half so I can’t complain, it went fine.

It’s always a nice feeling to cross the line especially with such a long event like the marathon. You grind it out for two and-a-half hours and that feeling at the finish is relief, but it’s also happiness to just get to sit down for a while as well. Usually my stomach is a bit upset for a couple of hours straight after a marathon but then after that I love to have a beer or a pizza or something like that which you don’t normally get to have in the lead into these races.”

Congratulations Chris, and the tens of thousands of others who took part in the fun run which is also a major fund raiser for the WA charity Activ which supports people with disabilities.

Silver for Annalise at Rio

The Irish Time reported that Annalise Murphy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after banishing the pain of missing out on a medal in London in 2012 with a brilliant silver after the final race of the women’s Laser Radial on Guanabara Bay in Rio .

The 26-year-old from Rathfarnham moved from bronze to silver after finishing fifth in the medal race, pushing Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom into third spot overall.

Well done Annalise!

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Skibbereen Homecoming parade for O'Donovan brothers RTE News reported that thousands of people have attended a homecoming in Skibbereen, County Cork, for Irish Olympic silver medal winners Gary and Paul O'Donovan. The brothers' parents Teddy and Trish O'Donovan were also on board the plane.

About 1,000 people also turned out to welcome the two rowers at Cork airport on Sunday night.

By Lloyd Gorman

puter/laptop or tablet]. The question was there to establish the uptake in computer ownership and information technology by people. While this is probably that is something worth knowing in its own right, the CSO probably wanted the data because it is planning to run the next Irish census on-line, as an internet survey.

It is impossible that at least some of the statisticians, public servants and managers within the CSO - which is attached to the Department of the Taoiseach - would not have been watching the Australian move away from paper forms to online submissions.

If the virtual collapse of the Australian census on August 9 - which had a distinctly St. Patrick’s Day colouring in its branding and advertising and even saw many public places like Elizabeth Quay bathed in green lights for the occasion – was an unmitigated PR disaster for the Malcolm Turnbull administration then it was also something the Irish government should be paying attention to. It has had its fingers burnt before tampering with a similar idea.

In the wake of the recent federal elections and as the results of each seat were painstakingly and slowly counted by hand both Mr Turnbull and Bill Shorten spruiked the benefits of ditching pencils and paper ballots to move to an electronic voting system. Both leaders seemed to be in violent agreement about this issue, just weeks before the census débâcle unfolded. They have been mute about the issue since.

After a small scale trial of e-voting machines in a couple of constituencies in about 2002, the Irish gov-

The pencil is mightier than the internet

Given the year that is in it, April 24 was a really interesting date and moment in time for the Irish census to be carried out. Exactly one hundred years to the day earlier a relatively small group of Irish men and women embarked on a course of action that would have a profound impact on the rest of the population and determined the future of the country. The national headcount was an opportunity to understand how far the Irish pepole have travelled and developed since the Easter Rising.

The distribution and collection of two million Irish census forms went off flawlessly. It was carried out in the tried and trusted manner of organising a small army of 4,663 enumerators who hand deliver the survey forms to every house in the country in the weeks leading up to the appointed night.

Three weeks later the enumerators return to pick up the paperwork and then the business of crunching the data begins. Within three months the Central Statistics Office boffins were able to release the first population report, which was able to tell us that the population of Ireland now stands at 4,757,976 and has grown by 169,724 since the 2011 census.

But the 2016 Irish census did ask a question that might signal trouble ahead. Like its 2011 predecessor householders were asked if they had a PC [home com-

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ernment began rolling out plans to introduce the system in all polling stations for the next election. The government went out and spent $55 million buying 7,500 e-voting machines.

The technology was rolled out for the 2004 European Elections and was to be used in all future elections, replacing what former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described as “stupid old pencils”.

In 2006 a group of Dutch hackers (the machines were bought from a Dutch company) showed how it was possible for machines similar to those purchased by Ireland to be hacked.

The new voting project had already encountered strong headwinds and public opposition at this point and the move to modernise was shelved.

Over the next years about $5 million of taxpayers money was used to keep the machines in storage. On April 23, 2009, environment minister John Gormley said the machines would be scrapped because of the level of dissatisfaction and cost associated with them.

In 2010 then Taoiseach Brian Cowen (from Offaly) said they would be disposed of and an Offaly scrap company in paid $70,267 for the machines and supporting equipment that cost the Irish taxpayer $55 million..

In a remarkably frank and honest press release in 2012 the then environment minister Phil Hogan said he wanted to draw a line under the electronic voting project which he said was “a sorry episode”.

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with Marguerite O’Dwyer The Cure Tavern Irish bar & restaurant Crispy Pork Belly with Cider Pickled Pears Ingredients (Serves 6)

2 tablespoons sea salt flakes 1 x 1.5kg piece boneless pork belly, skin scored at 1cm intervals 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 250ml dry apple cider 250ml apple cider vinegar 6 thyme sprigs 2 fresh bay leaves 110g caster sugar 750ml water 6 small firm pears, peeled Balsamic glaze, to serve 1. Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Rub the salt into the pork skin, followed by the oil.

2. Place the pork, skin-side down, on a baking tray and roast for 1 hour. Increase the temperature to 200ºC (400ºF), turn the pork and cook for a further 1 hour or until the skin is golden and crunchy.

3. While the pork is roasting, make the pickled pears.

Place the cider, vinegar, thyme, bay leaves, sugar and water in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add the pears, cover with a round of non-stick baking paper and then place a small lid on top to submerge the pears.

4. Poach for 20 minutes or until the pears are tender.

Set aside in the pickling liquid.

5. Slice the pork and serve with the pickled pears.

Drizzle with the balsamic glaze.

Chocolate Éclairs Ingredients (Makes 12) 125ml water 60ml milk ¼ teaspoon sea salt flakes ¼ teaspoon caster sugar 80g unsalted butter, cubed 110g plain flour, sifted 3 eggs, lightly beaten 150g dark chocolate 185ml single 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 has 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 a 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. Melt the chocolate in a bowl sitting over a pot of simmering water.

5. 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. They are best eaten on the day they are made.

Marguerite O’ Dwyer The Cure Tavern Irish bar & restaurant

Did You Know?

Almost everyone when asked about Irish food mentions two things – Irish Stew and Corned Beef with Cabbage. And almost every visitor to Ireland is surprised to find that neither features all that commonly on restaurant menus! In fact corned beef is not traditionally Irish at all – but Bacon and Cabbage is.

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A diplomatic departure for the best man for the job

By Lloyd Gorman

American poet Robert Frost said a diplomat was a man who always remembered a woman’s birthday but never her age, while the late humorist Caskie Stinnett said it was someone who could tell you go to hell in such a way you actually looked forward to the trip.

Ireland’s ambassador to Australia Noel White shared his own interesting insights and experiences into the role of being an emissary at a going away event for him in the Irish Club in August.

“There is a trust in representing your compatriots and you get a sense that your compatriots want you to do well,” the ambassador told the gathering.

“Its like the best man at a wedding. The guests want him to succeed because the consequences of of him not succeeding are just too embarrassing to even think about.

So they want him to be smart, they want him to be clever and to get off the stage in one piece at the end so that every one’s honour is saved.

There is still something quite old fashioned about the business of diplomacy, about the business of ambassadors and what they do. They can provoke a certain respect but in order to leverage off that you have to continue to earn that respect, they say you won’t make a reputation in a night but you could lose one in a night or a day or at an event.”

The ambassador said he had had the benefit of travelling across Australia and getting to know the various Irish communities and groups.

“It seemed to me a fundamental starting point of the job description that the Irish community and citizens should be able to see the whites of the eyes of their ambassador as often as is possible and reasonable,” he added. “If you don’t get out you don’t get a feel for what is going on, so I did that as much as I could. Canberra is a long way away and it presents its own challenges but there is a sense we need to get around the country and we need to serve, we are paid to serve. We are conscious in Canberra to try and give the community the service they need, passports and other documents and ser72

vices.”

Noel said that he was lucky to have a strong network of people in the community he could pick up the phone to help deal with any situation.

WA’s Hon. Consulate Marty Kavanagh was one and the ambassador said he was delighted that Marty had taken on the position under his watch and joked that he took the credit for Marty’s appointment. “It’s a good thing to have that presence here, but its not enough to just have a presence, you need to have a good presence,” he said.

Noel also paid tribute to Fred Rea. “Fred has been a real support and he’s been there at everything and has been a part of everything the community has done.”

Frank Murphy and Gerry Grogan, the force behind A Song for Ireland on Radio Fremantle on Saturday mornings also came in for special mention.

The Irish envoy was also there to launch Peter Conole’s new book

about the Irish influence in the history and development of policing in WA. The ambassador said the Irish brought a lot of skills to Australia and used them to make a rich contribution to the political, policing, cultural and judicial institutions of their adopted home.

“I take great heart from the fact someone like Stephen Dawson (MLC) is involved in this new generation in the political life of this country,” Mr White added. “We are all a part of the process, we vote and are involved and I think there is something particularly important about that tradition being kept up.”

Ambassador White said there had been big changes in Ireland and Australia since he, joined by his diplomat wife Nessa, and their three sons, came to Canberra and that the relationship between the two nations was still strong and healthy. If he mused that he hoped they had left that relationship in as good or hopefully a better state than they found it then Marty Kavanagh put those qualms to bed.

“In the four and a half years Noel and Nessa have devoted their lives to Ireland there have been some major highs and lows,” said Marty. “We need somebody strong, we need somebody with vision and someone who puts everything into the job and the two of them left no stone unturned on the pitch at all. I think the amount of times Noel has come to WA and the number of things he’s got himself involved in and tragedies and other issues, such as making sure our health agreement with Australia is being respected so that Irish citizens can get the care they might need, as well as trade missions and support for Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to get things going, Noel has been an amazing ambassador, and modest.

But with Nessa at his side it has very much been a team effort. It is a long way from Canberra when you’ve got three young boys and you came to WA so often and got everything done. Noel should be very proud of his four and a half years. I can’t praise you enough, both of you, public service is highly under-rated and to get to this level of the public service in Foreign Affairs, the cream of the Irish crop. They could have gone on to do anything, become investment brokers or run hedge funds but they gave their service, their intellect and effort to

Ireland and we should all be very grateful.”

Dermot Costello thanked them in his capacity as the vice president of the Irish Club and as chairman of the Ireland Western Australian Forum.

“We’d like to acknowledge the lengths and efforts Noel went to support the club, by coming west as often as possible and always being at the end of a phone line or email to lend some assistance and point us in the right direction, we appreciate how much you have done to support us over a couple of trying years.”

Ciaran McKeown said the work of the Claddagh Association was helped immeasurably by the Irish government but particularly by the ambassador. “Noel came out to the St. Patrick’s Day event his year and presented our president Joan Ross with an extremely prestigious award, not only for recognition of awards like that, but the effort Noel made to present the awards speaks volumes about the man himself.”

Noel and Nessa (left) were presented with a painting of Cottesloe Beach by Irish born Australian artist Henry McLaughlin. They go back to Ireland with the best wishes of the WA Irish community.

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played, Gougane Barra National Forest Park, we hope the jacks doesn’t get too messy as a result of your celebrations.

This Meath man is for sale for not buying his wife a Michael Kors watch

nd

Irela m o fr

Gougane Barra in top 100 toilets in the World!

Joe.ie reports that Lonely Planet has released a new book by the name of Toilet’s: A Spotter’s Guide, and one of Ireland’s jacks has made it into the top 100. The lavatory in question is that of the Gougane Barra National Forest Park down in West Cork. Lonely Planet clearly take this accolade very seriously, writing “Toilets so often transcend the primary function of being a convenience to becoming a work of art in their own right, or to make a cultural statement about the priorities, traditions and values of the venues, locations and communities they serve.” If there is any bathroom in Ireland that does indeed represent the values and traditions of the nation, it surely is the Gougane Barra jacks - just take a look at it! Toilet? That cottage is nicer than some houses. Well

AS THE OLD saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman who got unwanted gym equipment for her birthday.” A few days ago, an Irish woman from Navan, Co. Meath received an ab machine from her husband for her birthday. Gee, how thoughtful. She was so unimpressed that she decided to sell her husband. The Advert read: “For sale husband who bought ab machine for wife’s birthday, must be sold quickly as he’s currently on death row as the machine isn’t a Michael Kors watch.

If he doesn’t get sold tomorrow he will need surgery on Wednesday to get the machine surgically removed from his A…..”

Police used ice cream music to embarrass teen rioters in Belfast

Nursery rhymes set to music are deeply uncool. Just ask the bottle-throwing teenagers on the Twinbrook Estate on outskirts of west Belfast. Ice cream music was played to them as they misbehaved and it stopped them. ‘An officer used the vehicle’s loudspeaker system to play music to the youths in an effort to use humour to defuse the situation. The youths stopped throwing the bottles. However police accept that this was not an appropriate action. The officer has been spoken to by a senior officer in order to establish the circumstances of the incident.’

Man suffers from bizarre addiction to Irish Pork Sausages

An addiction to Irish sausages has led Englishman David Harding, 74

47, to seek urgent counselling for his condition. His bizarre addiction sees him eat up to 13 Irish sausages a day and often leaves him desperately searching for more.

Bring on McLoughlins!

US woman visits dentist, wakes up with Irish accent

An USA woman’s accent was been identified as a medical oddity. Karen Butler went to the dentist office to get a dental implant, when she left just hours later she had an Irish accent. Butler’s case also has a striking similarity to that of Chris Gregory’s, from Yorkshire, Britain back in 2009. Having woken up in his hospital bed he began singing “Danny Boy” in an Irish accent even though he has never visited the country. In his case the symptom only lasted for 30 minutes, as opposed to Butler’s which has been with her for almost five years.

Almost €19m collected in motor tax receipts in Kerry since 2015 Almost 19 million Euro (18,985,633) in motor tax receipts was collected in Kerry last year and up until the end of June this year. Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government Simon Coveney outlined the amounts collected by each individual local authority in 2015 and 2016 in response to a query posed by Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen. Almost €24 million was collected in Limerick City and county in the same period. Meanwhile €67.5 million was collected by local authorities in Cork since 2015.

Donegal man shows Kiwi’s how to shear!

Donegal man Ivan Scott beat the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to shear a sheep on the

opening episode of Big Week on the Farm on Monday (April 4). The 33-year-old from Kilmacrennan shaved 1.41 seconds off the existing world record live on air, shearing a sheep in a seriously impressive 37.9 seconds, in comparison to the six-year-old record held by Australian shearer Hilton Barrett, who set the previous world record for the fastest time to shear a single mature sheep, 39.31 seconds, in 2010. Ivan is no stranger to winning competitions, having previously set the world record for the number of sheep sheared in eight hours in New Zealand in 2012, shearing 744 lambs. He is also currently the AllIreland Sheep Shearing Champion, a title he has held no less than eight times.

This spoiled vote in Cavan is causing quite a fuss

Since our last general election in 2011, constituency’s lines have changed across the country. In light of these changes it has been evident that some people have not been happy - so much so, one voter spoiled his vote in a form of protest. “I live in Cavan!” was written within the voting boxes instead of the standard voting technique of a tick or an x. This is possibly in direct response to 36 of Cavan’s electoral divisions put into the Sligo-Leitrim constituency. The spoiled vote has since been posted to Twitter and people have reacted strongly.

Brexit: Paisley ‘relaxed’ on rise in Irish passport applications

DUP MP Ian Paisley Junior has said he is relaxed about the rise in the number of applications for Irish passports.

The number of people in Northern Ireland applying for the documents rose by more than 60% in July, compared with the same period last year.

In the first full month since the UK’s vote to leave the EU, there were 6,638 applications for Irish passports from people living in the region. Mr Paisley also said he had signed many applications for Irish passports, some of which have come from people from unionist communities - and had no objection to doing so.

The 49-year-old had worked as a salesman for Walkers Crisps and was required to drive across Northern Ireland providing crisps and soft drinks to wholesalers.

Scary event in Fermanagh

The Fermanagh Herald reports that ‘Bob Strawpants,’ ‘Scream,’ ‘Mrs Brown’ and ‘Mc Carney’ all made an appearance over the past week Police take 32 years of in Coa. One of the main ‘sickies’ - in a year highlights The Antrim Guardian reports that of the Coa SICK leave in the former Antrim festival, policing district cost the Police was the Service of appearance Northern of 40 scarecrows sprinkled around Ireland a the Coa area. The community staggering all came together and really out 32 years done themselves when it came of lost to their black and yellow themed days in the 2014/15 financial scarecrows. Unfortunately while year alone. The former D District the festival was winding down, four took in Antrim, Newtownabbey, of the scarecrows were burned Carrickfergus and Lisburn before down in Coa. The event finished on the recent changes saw the local Sunday evening after the judging of area adapt to align with the new the scarecrow competition and after Antrim and Newtownabbey this four of the festival’s scarecrows Borough Council.

Following a Freedom of Information were completely burnt. “We don’t know who burned them, just some request by the paper, the PSNI has revealed the ailing sick-leave figures ones running about on Sunday night. We have had to ask everyone locally for the last five financial to take their scarecrows down for years. safety reasons. They burnt four Antrim van driver gets of the scarecrows but the festival £20k damages from was all over when they did it so we Walkers Crisps won’t let it spoil the weekend on us.

The Antrim Guardian also reports Some people are even joking about an Antrim man has won over it saying that it saves them having £20,000 in damages from Walkers to take them down.” said festival organiser Maurice Cassidy. Coa, Northern Ireland is a townland, and hamlet in Mageracross civil parish, County Fermanagh.

Crisps after the company forced him to drive a van which caused him ‘extreme pain in his heel and lower legs’. An industrial tribunal found that William McIlwrath was forced to quit his job on the grounds of ill health after the snack giants failed to provide him with a suitable vehicle to drive.

75

If you find anything humorous on the net, send to us.

Nothing like a good giggle!!

Mary Dooley

BY PAULA KENNEDY, Mountbellew Workhouse Project

Mary Dooley was born in county Galway, Ireland in 1826, the daughter of Edward Dooley, born 1780-1800, whose occupation was whitesmith, and her mother’s name is unknown. Mary was orphaned and ended up in the Workhouse in Mountbellew in 1852. Records indicate Mary’s last place of residence was Clonbrock, near the Fohenagh/Caltra area. It is thought Mary had nine brothers who had immigrated to the US or Canada prior to 1852.

Her father had a brother Lawrence Dooley, born 1796, whose wife’s maiden name was Margaret Larkin.

Lawrence’s recorded occupation was a cattle dealer from Galway. There is also a record of a Lawrence Dooley owning land in Springlawn, in Mountbellew, but it cannot be verified that this record pertains to the same Lawrence Dooley.

Lawrence, his wife and most of his children emigrated to Derbyshire, England between 1851 and 1861 after which several children immigrated to Pennsylvania, USA. Lawrence’s children were Patrick, Bridget, Martin, Mary, Larry Jnr, Thomas Kate and William Riley Dooley. Bridget remained in Ireland around the famine period and is believed to have married a Michael Gavin. Their son, Martin Dooley, became the founder of a town called Dooleyville, Pennsylvania in 1909 and married a girl whose father was from Mount Bellew, Co Galway.

A further record indicates that son, Thomas, was born in Mount Bellew 1846. It is thought the Dooley’s came from a family of blacksmith or whitesmith tradesmen.

Mary immigrated to Australia in 1853 on board Irish Bride ship ‘Palestine’. Bride-ships carried destitute girls from orphanages, poorhouses or had a sponsored fare during the Great Famine. Many of the girls on board this ship were also from Galway.

The workhouse at that time had

(August 1852) 418 inmates, 130 able bodied females. In November 6th 1852 there were 392 inmates and 124 able bodied females. And in November 20th 1852 there were 401 inmates in the workhouse, 134 able bodies females, though 32 able bodied females were discharged during this week (presumable the 30 for assisted emigration).

The county was very much affected by the famine of 184547. In 1841 the population was 443,000. Ten years later, it had fallen to 322,000. More than 73,000 persons died between 1845 and 1850. Approximately 11 per cent of the population emigrated in the succeeding 5 years. By 1891, the census showed 215,000 inhabitants of the county.

Early in September1852, a letter from Lieutenant Sunders, (R.N. Emigration Agent) stated that the Emigration Commissioners had instructed him to make a selection of 30 young women from the female inmates in Mount Bellew workhouse who were candidates for emigration to Van Diemen’s land, for passage to the colony by the ship `Travencore`, which would sail from Plymouth on 23rd instant, and requesting to be informed of the day that he could make his selection` (p339). Ref: Galway County Council Archives. w w w. g a lway. i e / e n / S e r v i c e s / ArchivesService/ After the first successful deployment of the ‘Travencore’, another list of passengers was drawn up and the ‘Palestine’ later set sail from Plymouth on 26 November 1852. Among the girls chosen to make that fateful journey to Van Demons Land, was Mary Dooley. Mary and three other girls replaced several girls deemed medically unfit to make the long journey to Australia. The girls that set sail on the Palestine are listed right.

Mary and the other girls arrived into Fremantle, Western Australia 28 April 1853 after five long and 76

- an Irish workhouse orphan girl in Australia

Mary GERAGHTY Mary FLANNAGAN Mary FLYNN Mary Ann TAYLOR Mary EGAN Ellen HANSBERRY Winnie WARD Mary KILROY If you are an Biddy TULLY ancestor of Libby PENDEN Mary BUTLER any of these Mary HEAVY girls we Mary FLYNN would like to Mary NOON hear from Mary KILFOYLE you.

Catherine HUGHES Maria NEVILLE Maria LOWE Martha EGAN Celia COLDHAM Catherine GLYNN Mary COOKE Mary MANNION Mary DOOLEY Catherine TULLY Eliza CARBERRY Mary CARBERRY Eliza ARNOLD Catherine COLEMAN Maureen ATKINS Matilda HALL Mary CUNNINGHAM Catherine CUNNINGHAM Biddy (Bridget) STAUNTON Biddy (Bridget) CONCORAN Biddy (Bridget) FITZGERALD The list of girls who travelled to Australia on the Palestine in 1853.

probably terrifying months at sea.

On arrival, it is believed that Mary found employment as a servant with a local hotel proprietor at the ‘Ship Hotel’. Several months later, Mary married in January 28th 1854 to Mr John Dawson whom was 26 years her senior. They settled on land owned by a Mary McGregor, a site which is now occupied by the Abbey Waters development in Busselton.

One can only imagine the horrors that Mary managed to survive during the famine years.

It is not known how much easier

John Dawson and Mary Dooley

her life would have been after her arrival in Australia.

Provisions were often late and in short supply, women even scarcer, the heat would have been unbearable for a young immigrant girl in their long gowns and heavy petticoats and the bush flies and snakes plentiful. The early colonial women were also terrified of the aborigines. The noise of their nightly corroborees, kept the settlers nerves fraught with fatigue, fear and anxiety. When their men left for work, the aboriginals would suddenly appear in vast numbers from out of the long grass and scrub, demanding white man’s food, such as tea, sugar and tobacco from the women.

Mary and John’s first child Mary Jane (possibly named after her mother as was custom in those days), was born on November 13th 1854 in Newtown, Western Australia. Mary bore eight children in all - with one dying in infancy -

and then became one of the first midwives in the south west along with another three Irish girls. These four Irish women saw into the world almost an entire generation of West Australians in the South West region. It is presumed that Mary went on to have a happy and fulfilling life.

Her youngest son Edward later told the story that Mary’s relatives had earlier immigrated to America, but Mary preferred to go to Australia, as she would one day “return with her apron full of gold”. Afterwards she was to say that she “had her apron full of gold, in her many children”.

Mary survived her husband John who died in 1887. Records show that she died in August 1902 and was buried in the Busselton Pioneer Cemetery where her husband was also laid to rest.

Paula Kennedy

MARGARET DAWSON An article from a Busselton newspaper shows that the president of the local oral history group, Margaret Dawson, made a trip to Ireland to find out more about her husband Cliff’s great grandmother (Mary Dooley).

While there she was also invited to give a talk to the Castleblakeney Historical Society. Margaret spoke to the local Irish historical group about where she lives, her efforts to discover more about Mary Dooley, which includes her poorhouse background, marriage and family and what is known about her here and the success of her descendants.

Though some of the children married members of well-known families that helped pioneer the region, little is known of Mary, prior to her ending up in the Irish poorhouse.

“I’m hoping to learn about her early years,” Margaret said.

NED DAWSON Edward ‘Ned’ Dawson, the son of Mary and John, went on to make quite an impression on the region.

In 1900 he discovered the Yallingup Caves with their coloured shawl formations, the Arab’s tent, the jewel casket, and delicately formed 77

and tinted stalactites amongst the features of this amazing cave that plunges up to 150’ deep.

One historical version of the discovery states: “Dawson was Ned Dawson hunting wild horses at the time he came upon the small opening in the earth in the thick scrub on the hill beyond the site of the Caves House. The existence of caves along the coast line had been known for many years, and curiosity to explore the secrets of the earth impelled him to get the bridle reins and lower himself into the first recess. Blackboy rushes were used as a torch to lighten the way. On the first occasion he got as far as the spot known as ‘Hartley’s Pinch’ and he returned on the following Sunday better equipped to make a fuller exploration.”

Edward would go on to become a tour guide for the Cave and in his more than 20 years as guide he led an estimated 500,000 people through the underground chasm and was responsible for many of the improvements in safety and lightening made to the caves over the years. Yallingup Cave remains a popular attraction to this day.

A picture of the group working on the project. (right to left, Paula Kennedy, Kathleen Connolly, Mary McLoughlin, Martin Curley. Photo credited to David Walsh, Freelance photographer

“It was all about the journey and friendships made along the way!”

Denise Quigley, Perth Rose of Tralee 2016 talks to Fred Rea Humility is described as ‘the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc’.

Our Perth Rose of Tralee is one of the most humble and beautiful people you will ever meet. Last week, I had a chat with Denise following the Rose of Tralee festival. She told me she had just finished the Rose of Tralee Irish tour on Wednesday.

“I had the trip of a lifetime and for openers, I just wanted to thank everybody that has helped me along the way, my journey to Tralee, before and afterwards and I will be back in Australia very soon. I will be able to give you more of an in depth story and a bit of an insight of things we had going on when we were in Tralee”.

The highlight for Denise would have been the parade. “It did rain but people still came out in their thousands to see all the Roses. It was fantastic. During the festival, we were doing something every single day. A lot of it at the start was seeing a lot of the tourist activities but towards the end we got to meet

Denise outside Cearnog

a lot of the people on the ground like the volunteers, we visited elderly homes and homes for the disabled.

To see the people there who had waited weeks and weeks to meet the Roses and they put on afternoon

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teas and music. That for me was amazing. The excitement they had to meet us and to be honest we are normal girls really, representing our centres. They were some of the best moments for me”.

Chicago Rose of Tralee, Maggie Rose McEldowney was named the 2016 International Rose and Denise was delighted for her. “There were 65 International Roses and they split us up into two groups every day so we didn’t get to mingle with the same people over and over again. We all knew each other very well and we were delighted that Maggie won. She was probably perfect for the role and she will do us proud”.

This year they cut down the entrants to 32 for the benefit of television and Denise didn’t make the cut but that did not bother her, she was happy just to part of the festival. “Usually they would do that in Portlaoise but this year they brought everybody to Tralee and they did it there in front of the cameras. It had to be done anyway and no matter what way they did it, it had to be done sooner or later”.

When it was decided to cut the number down there is a bit of a backlash going on and 32 through to the two televised nights”.

Denise was ok with this but some of the girls went on social media to vent their feelings. “Go on to google and you’ll see. There is a couple of Roses coming out now with their opinions. As for me, I don’t have a bad word to say. We were treated very well”. Well said Denise, that’s the humility I was talking about.

Denise had great support from Donegal, and Australia and Tralee.

They were out in force. Everybody is so proud and she said that’s really nice.

“I shared An Chearnóg Bar in Tralee was with the Dublin, Scotland

travelled quite a bit”.

All the girls attended the final two televised nights.”

The whole lot of us were there. The first night the whole lot of us were on the stage and on the second night they just announced the winner. We were all there and never left out of any of it. There can only be one winner. They had to unfortunately cut it down to 32, but at the end of the day to even get that far, was amazing in itself, never mind getting on television. If anything it took the pressure off for the last few days because we could just spend some extra time with family and go and meet people.

All’s well that ends well and I had the time of my life!

Did you like me get the impression that Denise is one hell of a great young lady? I mentioned to her that I was running a story on finding a way to support our Irish seniors in Perth. “Count me in if you need help, that’s what I’m about”. Say no more, Denise is a winner in my eyes.

and Fermanagh Roses. The four of us met in there three times”. Thanks Denise for having a photo taken out the pub holding our Irish Scene.

“We had the place sold with the Irish Scene. We brought a bundle of Irish Scene’s so everyone was having a read. It was brilliant, they loved the magazine and people took a copy home with them. We had the magazines on all the tables in the pub.

Denise said it was everything she expected and more, adding, “It is hard to even describe it. I was treated so well and people just wanted to meet you and even to say hello to some of these young ones just makes their day. The fuss and the whole buzz around it, it is just a great festival for centres all around the world to unite and come together and have the craic and have the laugh and just really embrace Irish culture and music. I have never been to anything like it in my life and I have

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this year.

Barry’s album contains some tunes penned in collaboration with his brother Colm, who he lauds as ‘a great lyricist’.

One of the albums offerings include an original song by Colm as well as the two singles ‘Middle of the road’ and a song penned by Barry and Colm ‘Up the jive’.

Barry’s album ‘New Beginnings’ is out now and available from http://www. barrykirwanmusic.com

From Tasmania with Paula Xiberras

Crossmolina’s Irish musician knitting relationship with Tasmania

Barry Continues Kirwan Clan Gene-ius

The name Barry translates to mean ‘fair headed’ and Omagh man Barry Kirwan is indeed the golden boy of the moment. With a musical pedigree, his mum Louise sings, his dad is well known Irish singer Dominic Kirwan and two other brothers musicians it’s hardly possible this talented young man could have considered another career.

Barry was in Australia for a short time a couple of years ago with his job as drummer in fellow Irish singer Derek Ryan’s band. Barry tells me that he loved Australia or at least what he saw of it, that being mainly Sydney and Melbourne, additionally he has many friends living here. Barry is keen to make a return visit and that may well be on the cards. Only a matter of weeks ago Barry launched his album ‘New Beginnings’ and such an impression he has made saw him being nominated as best newcomer at last week’s RTE Irish Country Music awards. A nomination, the humble Barry says ‘arrived out of the blue’.

For the last four years Barry has been working with his dad Dominic and says the decision to do so was ‘the best thing he’s ever done’ enabling him to gain, he tells me essential experience. Under Dominic’s trusted eyes the initially nervous on stage Barry has blossomed.

Listening keenly to his dads advice of ‘try this’ Barry has matured into a consummate musician and stage performer like his dad.

In fact Barry’s stage career has come full circle as it all started with his dad when Barry was a 9 year old Irish dancer appearing on one of Dominic’s DVDs. Barry tells me he performed Irish dancing between the ages of 5 and 18, winning many competitions and is not averse to including some Irish dancing in his own shows down the line.

Although Barry is officially out on his own with his band he will still accompany his dad from time to time, most probably in some shows in Jersey (UK) in December and with the success of Barry and his brothers taking part in a Kirwan family Christmas special last year, that collaboration may be repeated

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When you look up Crossmolina in Co Mayo on Wikipedia you get two notable persons that were born there, one, Gaelic footballer, Ciaran McDonald and the other Irish musician Marc Roberts. Marc is best known to Australian Irish music fans as some time song writing collaborator with Daniel O’Donnell, as 1997 Irish Eurovision song contest entrant, as a presenter of radio programs on Galway Bay FM that can be accessed on the internet and by his regular and respected John Denver tribute concerts. I recently put some questions to Marc including the close relationship between his home town of Crossmolina and Tasmania.

You have visited Tasmania what do you enjoy about it?

We had a wonderful time in Tasmania. I have to say it’s a funny feeling to come such a long distance from Ireland and to meet so many people, that remind you so much of home. The people were so friendly and Salamanca in Hobart reminded me so much of Galway where I live. I remember doing an interview on TV with Daniel O’Donnell, and we were just back from Tasmania, and I used the analogy of ‘putting a knitting needle through that globe of the world’, in through Crossmolina, where I was born, it would come out in Tasmania! We were the furthest away from home we could’ve been! It was a wonderful experience.

In 1997 you took part in the Eurovision song contest. How did that develop your skill and confidence as a performer?

Well, I was lucky in the sense that I had been a performer for many years prior to Eurovision. I had my own band and we performed a lot of shows around the country and especially in Dublin. So, when it came to performing in front of 350 million people, I was ready for it. It was an amazing experience and a wonderful opportunity to represent my country. I always think,

that’s one of the most precious accolades you can be given! And finishing a credible second on the night was just an amazing thing.

What is your favourite song?

That is a very tough question! It’s almost like asking a parent to choose a favourite member of their family.

Lol! I love quite a lot of songs in quite a lot of genres. Some because they’ve been written in such a way that it intrigues me. Typical example of this is ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush. I always feel the chord structure is just so different and she was so young when she wrote it, it’s still stands the test of time, and it is still a fabulous song. I love the music of John Denver, James Taylor, Carole King, and Dan Fogelberg and people like that. It may be because they wrote their own music. So much so, I feel I have a stronger connection with the message they were trying to convey.

What is the favourite of your own songs and why?

When you write songs, I always find, the most recent song you’ve written is usually your most favourite. So, as a result that changes regularly. I love when a song touches people. There’s nothing nicer for a writer, than when someone says that one of your songs has become a part of their lives in some way. ‘When I found you’, which I wrote with Majella O’Donnell, for her wedding to Daniel O’Donnell, is one of those songs that I get requests for from all over the world. Where people want to perform it at their wedding! That means a lot!

You have a love for American country music but also for contemporary music and count John Denver as a major influence.

Do you favour country or contemporary?

As I mentioned earlier, I love almost all genres of music. Like the late John Denver, people try to pigeon hole your music into a particular genre. As a writer, you cross genres regularly and nowadays there’s such a thin line between country, folk, pop and rock, that it’s almost impossible to do that. A lot of it depends on which direction the producer you’re using interprets the song. So, I can’t honestly say I favour one over the other.

Did you ever entertain another career ambition?

I remember on leaving school I got accepted for a couple of different colleges. There was a choice between primary school teaching, Art College, but I eventually chose mechanical engineering. I did that for a year and then started doing shows during the summer holidays...I never went back!

I guess I always knew it had to be music.

When you write is it an easy process or do you continually go back and refine your music and lyrics or do some songs arrive easier than others? What inspires you, i.e. I have spoken to writers who have their prologues visit them in dreams. Do you have any unusual events that led to you writing a song?

Writing I find cathartic... it’s something I have to do. There’s an old saying about a carpenter having to be able to use his tools before he’ll make his masterpiece. It’s the same with signwriting. They may not all be masterpieces, but the process and the practice is important. It’s a wonderful thing and no one knows where it comes from, but thank God it does! I think the most important thing is to continuously write down your ideas, document them!

I use my phone quite a lot when I get ideas. Then, when I decide it’s time to work on something, I can go back over what I’ve scribbled down and see if anything suits. I can’t remember of anything unusual, but one of the most interesting had to be the song I mentioned earlier ‘When I found you’. Majella wanted to sing/write something special for Daniel the day of their wedding. But, needless to say, she had never written anything before. It was Don, my manager, that came up with the idea.......she wrote a letter to Daniel, as if he was going away to war or someplace that she may never see him again. This was her last chance to tell him exactly how she felt! I was doing a show in the National Concert Hall, Dublin and Majella met me after the show and handed me an envelope with the letter inside. Later that I week I had a walk by the sea in Galway where I live and wrote the song using her thoughts, sentiment and some of her words. It worked perfectly! She sang it to one very shocked Daniel the day 81

of the wedding and I accompanied her.

Do you have an epiphany when a song is finished?

I have a beer! LOL! No, seriously, there’s definitely a feeling of relief mixed with joy and then anxiety until you get to perform it live. In the meantime, I would continue to sing the song privately and make sure I’m totally happy with the lyric and melody before I share it.

How did you get involved in radio and how do you enjoy it. Is writing and is performing still your first love?

I was asked by my local radio station in Mayo, Mid-West Radio, where I’m from, by Paul Claffey, the station boss, if I’d do a programme for the summer. I did it for two summers a loved it! That sowed the seed. Then, when I represented Ireland in Eurovision 1997, I moved to Galway and was asked by the local radio station there, Galway Bay FM, if I’d present my own shows. I still do it, and love it! I also do some TV presenting, but yes, singing, performing and writing are my first loves!

What next for you....another album and if so what can we expect? More self-penned tunes or perhaps a DVD? Well, I’ve started writing a new album and I’m trying to get back into the studio to record them. It’s a lengthy process but I’d rather take my time and be completely happy before it’s released. That’s the difference with original music.

If you’re recording a cover version of someone else’s song, there’s a blueprint already there that people are familiar with. And, though you try to make it your own, there’ll always be comparisons made. With original songs, this is the very first time the public are hearing it, so you have to spend the time and hope that it’s the best that it can be!

Marc is keen to return to Australia to tour so any promoters out there you can get in touch with Marc’s management at the following address doncollins258@me.com.

Marc’s official website is www. marcroberts.ie and you can listen to Galway Bay FM online at www. galwaybayfm.ie

WAGS Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc. It’s all in the DNA The latest thing in family history research is DNA testing. Perhaps you caught the Australian series on SBS, DNA Nation recently?

But before you jump in feet first it’s best to find out a bit about it. And there is so much to learn – well before you start forking out dollars for DNA tests and twisting the arms of your older relatives.

Photo Credit: Andrew Evans, National Geographic Traveler, http:// digitalnomad. nationalgeographic.com/ files/2012/08/ Oahucover-590x465.jpg

Like many other lab tests, DNA tests are not all the same. There are three main tests used in genealogy: Y-DNA tests, Mitochondrial DNA tests and Autosomal tests. Each test has its special uses and drawbacks. The one most people use in genealogy is the Autosomal test.

It examines the DNA on all your chromosomes - apart from the X and Y chromosomes - and can cover your ancestors from five or six generations ago, about 200 years.

So before choosing a test you need to consider your purpose - and your gender, since only males can do the Y-DNA test. Some people might choose all three of the tests, most only one. Using DNA testing you might break down a brick wall where there has been adoption, an illegitimate birth or a suspected “non-parental event”.

DNA tests can also help you confirm the accuracy of your family tree, test the relationship between two people, explore the DNA of people with an unusual surname, connect with distant cousins who share some of your DNA or explore your ‘deep ancestry’, the places where your distant ancestors came from, going back say 100 to 300 thousand years ago.

Your DNA test comes in a kit. You collect a sample of your DNA, for example, by swabbing inside your mouth, and send it sent back to the company for analysis. Your (complex) results come back by email with website links. The prices for Autosomal DNA tests vary from AUD100-300 including shipping to and from the US. There are sometimes special discount periods to take

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advantage of. There are benefits to having more relatives tested than just yourself.

The results will only be useful if • You have selected the right type of test for your research purpose. . You need to understand what each test can and cannot do. What is your reason for doing the test – or persuading grandpa to provide a sample?

Is this just a ‘fishing trip’?

Though many online and media articles suggest that DNA tests can point to your ‘ethnicity’ this is largely not correct. Some tests can point you towards the continent where your ancestors came from, but not reliably to a particular country. This is logical, when you consider the way national borders have changed over the past hundreds of years, the big migrations and the degree of intermarriage. DNA tests can link you with what is called ‘deep ancestry’ casting back 100,000 to 300,000 years ago. Clearly they are not going to lead you to the name of a particular ancestor who lived during that time span!

There has been some interesting research into the ‘deep ancestry’ of the Irish. Were they Celts, as everyone believes – or did their DNA come from the Middle East? We’ll have a look at this in a future column.

• You have a family tree based on paper records (or digitised paper records). DNA test results do not replace the traditional ways of researching your family tree; they complement them. Your DNA results are not useful on their own, only by connecting yours to others who share some DNA and also have a family tree.

• You have enough knowledge to understand the findings. Some suggestions for learning more are given below.

• Other people in the world who share some of your DNA have also taken the test. You may have to sit tight waiting for this.

There are three companies that sell one or more of these tests. One company is more useful for the genetics of health than genealogy. There are ways of taking your results from a particular DNA testing company and loading them to a website where they can be compared with the results from people who’ve done a DNA test from other companies as well.

On the whole your DNA test results are only useful when compared with the results of other peoples’ test results. The three companies vary in the number of people whose DNA they hold. Obviously, the more they have, the greater your chance of finding matches. The vast majority of people who have taken genealogical DNA tests live in the US (70-99%), so don’t get too excited about discovering distant cousins in Poland. The proportion of non-US testers varies from company to company.

So bone up on DNA testing before embarking on testing yourself or relatives. A great video explaining all this, and more, is Debbie Kennett’s DNA for Beginners available on You Tube. Louise Coakley, an Australian genetic genealogist has a very informative website,

IRISH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Genie1, which gives the Australian perspective on all this, comparing the three testing companies.

SBS’s DNA Nation series, which was broadcast in May 2016, is now available as a DVD from local retailers.

The series explains ‘deep ancestry’ and the great migrations of our earliest ancestors more than 100 thousand years ago.

The WA Genealogical Society recently established a new DNA Special Interest Group. The Group meets quarterly and here you can learn from others who have already done DNA testing.

Learn More.....

On 25 July we held our annual Four Courts Memorial Lunch, at Durty Nellie’s in the CBD, commemorating the (sadly) lost genealogical records.

During August there has been a large number of genealogical activities around Perth for National Family History Month, culminating in the WA Genealogical Society’s Open Day at its rooms at 48 May Street, Bayswater on Sunday 28 August.

The final meeting of the Irish SIG for the year will be on Sunday 16 October at 2pm at the WA Genealogical Society. The theme will be using Facebook in your family history and the presenter is Sabrina Armstrong. And you thought Facebook was only about living people! See what it can do for your Irish family history research.

Visitors and new members always welcome. Gold coin donation for afternoon tea.

Jenni Ibrahim Convenor, Irish Special Interest Group WA Genealogical Society Phone 9271 4311 Email irish@wags.org.au Irish SIG and DNA webpages http://membership.wags. org.au Online Forum http://membership.wags.org.au/forum/ irish-sig (free registration, open to anyone)

• Debbie Kennett DNA for Beginners at You Tube (55 mins) http://tinyurl.com/z5qtp8s • Australian genetic genealogist website Louise Coakley http://genie1.com.au/ including page on discounts • Lost Cousins newsletter early May includes several clear articles on DNA testing http://lostcousins.com/newsletters2/ may16news.htm • TED talks on DNA https://www.ted.com/topics/dna

Early Origins of Irish DNA

The earliest settlers came to Ireland around 10,000 years ago, in Stone Age times. There are still remnants of their presence scattered across the island. Mountsandel in Coleraine in the North of Ireland is the oldest known site of settlement in Ireland - remains of woven huts, stone tools and food such as berries and hazelnuts were discovered at the site in 1972.

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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Around the Irish scene Compiled by Fred Rea

Pat Cleary enjoying the company of his grandchildren at his 80th birthday celebration.

Right: Mick Manning helping out at The Irish Club with a spot of painting.

Onya Mick you are a great Irish community man!

Kieran Ahern and Joe Carroll enjoy a joke but Joe is to blame!

Gerry O'Leary celebrating his 60th with friends at Lamont's in the Swan Valley.

Enjoying the Sunday Session at Durty Nelly's (L-H) Hilary McKenna, John McCarthy, Caroline McCarthy, AnneMarie Nelligan, Joan Hussey, Paulie Hussey, Sinead Hussey and Willow Hussey

Enjoying the Irish Theatre Players One Act Season

Daragh and Shauna Kavanagh enjoying pasta at The Rea's with Daragh's USA girlfriend Rachel Hein.

Rachel was visiting and had a great time in Western Australia.

Is that Joan and Billy Ross?

Wonder when that photo was taken, maybe a few weeks ago!

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Ireland Combined team 1973 who played Brazil.These are the players names but can you put them in the right order?

Pat Jennings Tottenham Hotspur, David Craig Newcastle United, Paddy Mulligan Crystal Palace, Allan Hunter Ipswich Town, Tommy Carroll Birmingham City, Liam O'Kane sub on for Carroll 66 mins, Nottingham Forest, Johnny Giles Leeds United, Mick Martin Manchester United, Martin O'Neill Nottingham Forest, Terry Conroy Stoke City, Miah Dennehy sub on for Conroy 88 mins Nottingham, Forest, Derek Dougan Wolverhampton Wanderers, Don Givens Queens Park Rangers, Bryan Hamilton, sub on for Givens; 66 mins Ipswich Town, Manager Liam Tuohy Shamrock Rovers

Above: Sean McDonagh's granddaughter Ciara McDonagh who was selected to play for Connaught in hurling which was played during the interval of the Galway v Tipperary Semi Final at Croke Park last Sunday. Very proud Grand-dad!

On a recent vist to Ireland Sean McDonough presented our friend Tom Gilmore of Galway Rob O'Callaghan and Bay FMwith a copy of his CD. Phillipa James showing off their new arrival!

Lilly Rea, Lottie Crozier, Betty and Jack Cullen enjoying a fabulous lunch at The Heights in Alexander Heights.

Perth Rose Denise Quigley met Brian McFadden in Dublin during the International Rose of Tralee Festival

Local band The Healy's caught up with Damien Shine during their Irish tour. Damien was in Perth for a few years but now back home!

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Ex Fenians and Paddy Maguire's manager Jim Wincomb enjoying a pint at Durty Nelly's.

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Came accross this picture of a young fella taken a few years ago.

Anyone recognise him?

He's from Galway I believe!

Here's another 'old' photo.

Anyone recognise him.

Here's a hint Rovers!

Happy Birthday Joe (Mahon).

Looking good for a young fella!

WA Remembers From Denis Bratton, President of the AIHA & Fred Rea

Hon Irish Consul in Western Australia, Mr Marty Kavanagh

March 23 AN IRISH NIGHTEaster 1916 Remembered Irish Honorary Consul Marty Kavanagh used this concert to officially launch our centenary celebrations accompanied by a promotional video. The GPO in Forrest Place was packed to capacity and the following concert by the Perth Chamber Orchestra gave a magnificent concert dedicated to the music of Ireland.

Calling themselves the “little sister” of the Perth Symphony Orchestra they are dedicated to bringing their repertoire in formats and spaces to give audiences a unique and memorable experience. This they certainly achieved, with guest artists augmented by performers from, Comhaltas Perth, Irish Dancers and musicians from among the best Irish groups in Perth. The unique architecture of the Post Office really added to the whole atmosphere of the evening.

Performed in the soon to

1916 COMMEMORATION in WA This year sees the Irish Nation and Irish people all over the world celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1916 rebellion in Dublin, and Western Australia wasn’t slow about coming forward to join in the global celebrations. Starting with the St. Patrick's Day Festival in Leederville, what followed was a series of events which appealed to a very large cross-section of the local community.

be closed GPO Building, Perth Chamber Orchestra performed to a capacity crowd - who enjoyed Irish stew and a Guinness, which enhanced the musical experience.

The program took guests on a journey from Mahler to Irish jigs, Shostakovich to Danny Boy, under the baton of Jessica Gethin Conductor and led by Paul Wright.

March 28 CATALPA COMMEMORATION Rockingham A large crowd gathered at the Catalpa Memorial in Rockingham for the annual celebration of the great escape of the Fenian prisoner from Fremantle Prison. With music provided

by Ormond Watters Jr and historical insights provided by guest speakers including, Rockingham Mayor Barry Sammels accompanied by councillors Chris Elliot and Leigh Liley, Hon Stephen Dawson MLC, Memorial sculptors Charles and Joan Walsh, Historian Brendan Woods, Frank Murphy of Radio Fremantle and Luke McRae. EASTER RISING COMMEMORATION Irish Club The Easter Monday annual celebratory commemoration of the Easter rising was held at the Irish Club. This 86

year it was preceded by a parade by the recently formed and expanded Catalpa Band resplendent in colourful new uniforms. Sean Roche provided the music in the club. A special guest was Belfast Sinn Fein MP, Mr Paul Maskey.

March 30 THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS Presented by the ITP Performed at the Irish Club Theatre March 30thApril16th before packed audiences each night.

Directed

by Hellie Turner Sean O’Casey’s world renowned classic set in the turbulent times of 1916 portrays the conflict in terms of the social conditions of the times and the conflicting ideologies and patriotic complexities of this dramatic episode in Ireland’s history. It was another wonderful production by the ITP.

April 1, 2 & 3 JB O’REILLY CELEBRATION Presented by the JBO’Reilly Association Bunbury The first weekend in April saw the J B O’Reilly Association of Bunbury hosted this celebration at the new Cube Theatre to commemorate the escape of John Boyle O’Reilly from Fremantle Prison. It was weekend of activities including music, history talks and tours culminating in the annual Sunday gathering at the O’Reilly Memoria just north of Bunbury near Australind.

As those who attend the

celebrations over the weekend head north, south, east and west from Bunbury they’ll retain many memories of a very enjoyable weekend. Special guest performers included Damien Leith, Fiona Rea and the Hold and Sean Roche.

April 8th 1916 THE IRISH REBELLION Cinema Paradiso Presented by the AIHA and the Ireland WA Irish Forum Based on the famous Sean O’Riada documentary, Mise Eire is a landmark documentary that examines the 1916 Easter Rising Dublin and the subsequent events that eventually led to the establishment of an independent Irish State. This excellent documentary, produced at great expense by Notre Dame University in Chicago USA, narrated by Irish actor Liam Neeson and transmitted directly from Ireland, played to a sold out audience.

April10 ECUMENICAL SERVICE AND SOLEMN COMMEMORATION St Georges Cathedral Perth St Georges Cathedral was filled to capacity for this great event and the architectural elegance of the hallowed interior of this great building enhanced the service, and coupled with the readings, the sound of the choir and the great organ, one felt that this was the place to be and to share a really emotional experience.

Following the church service, we repaired to the Burt Hall for food and entertainment. We were regaled with Irish songs and poetry accompanied by harp. Being an Irish gathering there was the usual Guinness available and to end the evening there was a tasting of six Irish whiskies.

April 27- THE PATRIOT GAME Presented by the Abandon Theatre Players

This play by Tom Murphy and directed by Ivan Motherway, of the famous Perth theatrical family, was performed at the Studio Underground at the Heath Ledger State Theatre. The Patriot Game presented the events leading up to and including the Easter Rising of 1916. Brechtian in its scope,

the play confronts and confounds.

We were transported back to Dublin 1916, and witness the ultimate sacrifice for Nationhood.

The play, set at the time of the Easter Rising explores the situation and the events that helped shape a nation.

Motherway’s astute direction in handling this dramatic production deserves the highest praise and the cast responded magnificently. A most memorable performance and the choice of Studio Underground gave the play an wonderful and perfect venue.

April 30 SENSE of IRELAND CONCERT at Octagon Theatre Presented by the Australian-Irish Heritage Association This was by far one of the largest presentations ever undertaken by the AIHA and they along with Frank Murphy succeeded magnificently.

With a cast of over 40 on stage, front of house staff and other theatre technicians, we can look back with great satisfaction on what we achieved. To fill the Octagon Theatre at UWA was no mean task.

We can’t praise too 87

highly the magnificent efforts of Frank Murphy. From scripting the show, employing the cast, rehearsing and fossicking out the music, vision and props was indeed no mean task. The 600 plus capacity of the Octagon Theatre gave the cast and director a long standing ovation at the end of a brilliant production.

A wide array of local Irish talent in the show included Celtic fusion music of The Fling.

Also taking to the stage was the much loved, Healy's. An extract from Sean O’Casey’s, “The Plough and the Stars” was performed by The Irish Theatre Players. Sarah Guilmartin (soprano) and Cian Elliot (tenor) brought nostalgic airs and melodies of our great Irish composers.

Fergal Benson of the ITP read The Declaration of the Irish Republic.

Scoil Rince Ni Céide showcased their extraordinary talent in a specially commissioned dance drama dedicated to the memory of C.Y. O’Connor and the Irish Famine.

Their performance was nothing short of amazing. For me it is a ‘Riverdance moment’. The audience was in awe!

Former International Rose of Tralee,

Cinephotographer

Kim Redmen to read selected audience members set scripts on in character and Fred Rea led the music. Regular performers included Diana Warnock and Ric Hearder. It also included a memorable performance by Tony Duffin.

June 12 YEATS COMMEMORATION & EXHIBITION St. Georges Cathedral To honour the 150th anniversary of the birth of Willian Butler Yeats a service was held in St. George's cathedral followed by a reception in Burt hall where the AIHA had set up an exhibition displaying the life and times of the great man.

Nyomi Horgan and acclaimed broadcaster, Gerry Gannon co-host the evening and brought it together for the audience.

The evening was preceded by our Irish Hon Consul Marty Kavanagh Ireland National Day celebration and the guests would have been impressed with the concert, as we all were. The long standing ovation was well deserved.

Well done to all concerned.

Our Hon Consul, Mr Marty Kavanagh said: “The 630 people who attended the Sense of Ireland concert at the Octagon Theatre in April witnessed a fantastic night of Irish Culture. Frank Murphy and the AIHA did us proud. A 5-minute standing ovation was a sure sign that something very special has happened. There were many Irish hearts bursting with pride on the night ”.

May 8 FAMINE COMMEMORATION York This day organised by Fred Rea and Bill Marwick was dedicated to Mary Ann Taylor who arrived in WA in 1853 and provided a unique experience for those who attended. Mary Ann Taylor, a victim of the Great Famine, was living in a workhouse in Ireland when she was selected to travel to Western Australia. Mary Ann arrived in WA aboard the Palestine with 115

30 - 31 July “Visions Past and Present 1916 Seminar unmarried girls. She had with her Presented by the Australian Irish a travel box containing, if you like, Heritage Association her worldly possessions. A replica For their final 1916 Rising of one of these boxes has found its commemorative event, the Australia way here from Ireland and was the Irish heritage Association (AIHA) centre piece of the celebrations in proudly presented “Visions Past and York. On Saturday night there was Present”. This spectacular seminar a social get together followed on gathered some of the most eminent Sunday by a Mass in St. Patrick's lecturers from across Australia to church which was followed by the discuss the history of the Rising, installation of the box at a Mary Ann and it’s resulting its impact on the exhibit in York Residency Museum. country, and its people, culture, arts, The event in 2017 will be held in and diaspora. It featured topics that Dardanup, just outside Bunbury. have, more recently, been brought the fore of the narrative, including June 1 Bloomsday at the the role of women in the Rising, Mighty Quinn Tavern while also discussing the absence The AIHA’s annual Bloomsday of the Northern Ireland voice in narrative of 1916.

literary evening celebrating the work of James Joyce with a focus on Ulysses, but included his other works. The Dublin-centric Ulysses is based on the 24 hours of June 16, 1904. This year’s Bloomsday Perth moved to the less formal venue of a public house with the grand musicality of the text backed up by Dublin ballads. Editors Colm O’Doherty and Sean Byrne invited 88

The programme of events was put together in a very short space of time and credit must be given to the organisers. The website and publicity was very professional and proves that when the WA Irish community are focused they can achieve anything.

Go raibh míle maith agat.

A Message from President,

Claire Wynne Here at Irish Theatre Players we are just recovering from a lively One Act Season 2016, at the Irish Club of WA. We took a very different route this year, bringing our audiences 3 lively comedies

by New York-born playwright Bruce Kane. “The Real Problem”, directed by Rachel Bartlett (firsttime Director with ITP), “Under the Balcony”, directed by renowned Perth Thespian, Pete Nettleton, and “A Case of a Tale Told by an Idiot”, directed by much-loved ITP member, Dubliner Lisa Reilly. These 3 short plays were all based on the well-known works of Shakespeare, muddled together and re-told with hilarious, fresh new twists. The plays were very well received, with the laughter of the audiences providing a welcome tonic to the hardworking and committed cast and crew.

As always, we were delighted to welcome many new faces on stage this year, with new-comers such as Déanna Healy and Jessica Warriner treading the boards for the first time with the ITP, as well as the dynamic duo of Romeo & Casanova – Andrew Hobbs and Callum Vinsen. We were also pleased to welcome back some old friends, with Darragh Joyce cast perfectly in the role of tipsy Thane of Cawdor – the infamous Macbeth, and Marian Byrne as the sassy witch and lead singer (?) with The Vandellas.

A special mention also to Brian O’Donovan on just his second outing with the ITP absolutely stealing the show with his performance of Justin Thyme, Fictional Detective. The Front of House was transformed into the Inn of the Three Witches, complete with a smoking cauldron, and guests were subjected to the questionable customer service skills of Hecate and her 3 glamorous witches.

Congratulations to the Directors and cast on a fantastic season, and thanks also to Front of House and Back Stage Volunteers that made it all possible.

We’d also like to thank our kind sponsors from Masonmill Family Restaurant, Hetty’s Scullery, Dux Restaurant and WA Academy.

The Irish Theatre Players decided to dedicate this One Act Season to Jim Motherway, who sadly passed away just before our run started. Jim was

a much-loved and respected member of ITP for many, many years, and will be sadly missed in the Irish Community and beyond.

So, what’s next for the ITP? Well, following on from our lively One Act Season, we’re going to keep the laughs coming with our next production, due in November 2016 – “War”, by Dublin legend Roddy Doyle. “On the first Monday of every month, these two giants of the Pub Quiz lock eyes across the five feet of drink dampened carpet that divides them. This is the world of the Pub Quiz, where men are men and the questions sting like crazy.”

Open auditions will be held on Tuesday September 13th at 7.30pm in the Irish Club of WA. We have approximately 16 roles available, for males and females of all ages, so we warmly encourage everyone and anyone to come along and give it a shot. You never know ‘til you try!

Also, as we plan our calendar for 2017, we will be having a “Reading Night” on Monday 10th October at the Irish Club, where anyone is encouraged to come along, read some short-listed plays with us, and help us decide which ones we will perform to audiences next year. It’s a fun, informal night and a great opportunity to dip your toe into the theatre world – you never know, you might like it!

For information on our forthcoming shows, auditions and the Reading Night - check out our Facebook page and website - www.facebook.com/ irishtheatreplayers, www. irishtheatreplayers.com.au or email itp@irishtheatreplayers. com.au We look forward to entertaining you.

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SHAMROCK

Rovers

Michael Manning President Shamrock Rovers

SEASON COMING TO A CLOSE

As season 2016 comes toward its conclusion, Shamrock Rovers Perth continues to fight relegation within the State League first division. We are currently 11th and need to maintain this position to be provided a “play-off”(home and away) against runners up from the division below us.

At this stage it looks like Joondalup City will be the runners up of this division. 11th position is the highest we can finish, 12th position would see us automatically relegated.

No Shamrock Rovers first team has ever been relegated in the clubs 32-year history. Should we avoid the drop it would be a testament to first team coach Rob Richards and his positive approach to what was a dire situation when he first took the reigns. Rob has never worried about things that are out of his and the clubs control and remained positive throughout. Should our State League side be relegated at seasons end we know that it’s not through lack of trying from the players, coaching staff and committee members. All this said we are extremely confident that we have the talent, depth and (typical Rovers) never say die spirit to win the games required to survive.

Our Amateur squad have yet again set themselves up for more silverware. We have reached the 2016 Western Australian Amateur Cup final (the clubs 4th First Saturday 15th October for a 7.00pm start. All tickets team cup final). The boys put in an epic effort to smash will include buffet menu and entertainment.

Lastly, as we plan for season 2017 we are in premier league outfit Belmont Villa 5-1 in the semi-final.

A special mention must go to coach Robby Fanning who need of people to help. We may be a successful club has coached the Amateurs since 2012. In this time he has but we are only small. Please let me know (on the won 4 First Team league championships, 4 Reserve League number below) if you can offer a little of your time. championships, 1 First Team cup winners medal and has Even 1 hr a month from the comfort of your home the opportunity to add another cup winner medal to this can make a massive difference to the success of the impressive collection. This season Robbie has been the club. Look forward to hearing from you. player/coach of both the first and reserve squads. Robbie Michael Manning will go down as a club legend. Good luck lads, lets bring 0418 917 050 home the clubs 3rd Amateur Cup! This year we have changed the format of the end of year trophy night. After feedback from members we have decided to go with a smart/casual event (not formal/cocktail). This will significantly reduce the State League Final home game and squad photos- Saturday 3rd Sep cost of the event for our members and Sunday Amateur Final home game and squad photos- Sunday 25th Sep provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy the occasion. The 2016 Amateur Cup Final- Sunday 2nd October Shamrock Rovers Perth Presentation 2016 Presentation night – Saturday 15th October night will be held at the Irish Club on

KEY DATES:

www.shamrockrovers.com.au 90

Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia Western Australia HURLING:

It all over for another year on the hurling front as Championship Finals took place on 13th August at RA Cooke Reserve, Morley.

Western Swans won both League titles in Hurling and Camogie while in the Championship finals Western Swans claimed the camogie crown after a huge battle over St Gabriel’s.

Sarsfields are kingpins in hurling after defeating Western Swans. A Poc Fada competition was also held on the day of the finals with great pocs being made.

FOOTBALL:

The Ladies League final was held on 24th July with St Finbarr’s defeating Western Shamrocks 3:09 to 1:05 in a keenly contested game. The Ladies League final also doubled up as the Championship game between both clubs. St Finbarr’s defeated Western Shamrocks in the Men’s League Final a week earlier. To date 3 rounds of the football championship for Men and Ladies have taken place with high quality football being showcased in all games. Western Swans sit on top the championship table in the Men’s while St Finbarr’s top the Ladies Championship table.

Championship finals day is Sunday 11th September at Tom Bateman Reserve Canning Vale so make sure and come down for quality football action and a great family day out.

JUNIOR ACADEMY:

There is massive work and effort going into training and equipping children with the skills of Gaelic Football and Hurling taking place each Sunday on Rugby Pitch No 2, Kingsway Sporting Complex between 12 noon and 1:30pm.

With 80 plus children taking part each week this is a brilliant

opportunity for your child to learn the skills of Gaelic Games in a fun and safe atmosphere.

If your child is interested in playing Hurling and Football please email ggjunioracadamey@ gmail.com. The new Junior Academy Website is http:// gaelicgamesjunioracademyofwa. com.au/

MINORS:

Due to circumstances outside of our control a Minor squad will not be travelling to represent Western Australia at the upcoming Australasian Championships to be held in Brisbane. There is a huge sense of disappointment about this but on behalf of the State Committee I wish to extend our thanks to the players and their parents who attended training and were preparing to travel. I also wish to thank members of the Minor Committee for the effort they had put into preparing a squad to date. The Minor Committee have already started making plans to put in place fundraisers and other initiatives to have a Minor WA squad travel to the Australasian Championships in 2017 and more details will be made available about these in due course.

AUSTRALASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS '16:

The 2016 Australasian Championships are now less than 6 weeks away and Western Australia will be sending both a Men’s and Ladies Football squads to represent the State against the best of what the rest of Australasia has to offer.

Sincere thanks are extended to the players and mentors on the effort they have put in regards training and fundraising in order to get themselves to Brisbane.

GAA WORLD GAMES 2016:

Huge Congratulations is extended to Tom Murphy PRO Sarah Donnelly of Southern Districts and Sharon Cassidy of Western Shamrocks who did a terrific job representing their Families, Club’s, State and Australasia as members of the Australasian Ladies Football squad who took part at the GAA World games held in Croke Park recently.

Australasia Camogie were crowned World Champions while Australasia Men’s Footballers grabbed the World Shield. Both Australasia Hurlers and Ladies Footballers were beaten narrowly in their respective World Cup Finals.

OUR SPONSORS:

On behalf of the State Committee I would like to thank Austin Fogarty of Troubadour Music and Liam Connolly of Orla’s Wee Snug Pub for coming on board as Sponsors of Western Australia for the upcoming Australasian Championships.

Troubadour Music Troubadour Music is a multi-faceted entertainment company based in Sydney, Australia run by Fran Daly. Since its formation in 2005, Troubadour has grown to incorporate a unique roster of artists, and has established itself as one of the country’s leading promoters. Troubadour has coordinated tours and events within Australia and internationally and has a reputation for providing high standards of production and performances. In 2008 many of the artists involved with Troubadour took part in the inaugural

Football: BGC Grounds, Tom Bateman Reserve Cnr Bannister & Nicholson Rds, Canning Vale Hurling: RA Cook Reserve, Coode St. Morley 91

Gaelic Games Junior Academy Update

by Debbie Cashman

Australian Fleadh which toured Australia nationally.

Troubadour is the leading touring agency for Irish acts in Australia. We are a touring company who has on its roster the likes of The Coronas, Paul Brady, Alabama 3 and Bad Manners. We are an agency which represents Sydney City trash, The Handsome young strangers, The Rumjacks and The Blackwater Irish band as well as being the sole agents in Australasia for Damien Dempsey. Please see www.troubadour-music.com for further information on upcoming tours of Irish & Other Acts coming to Perth!

Opening in 2016 Orla’s Wee Snug is the only modern Irish coffee lounge in the respectable West Perth district, with a wonderful ambience for every guest. Orla’s Wee Snug also serves creamy pints of Guinness and has a selection of other beers on tap served through Orla’s unique ‘Bottoms Up Beers System”! Sounds good? Why not call down to Orla’s at 1238 Hay Street, West Perth or see their page at www. facebook.com/orlasweesnug!

Finally, if you are interested in taking up Football or Hurling, becoming a Referee, getting involved behind the scenes or providing sponsorship for any of our competitions or State Teams for the Australasian Championships 2016 please do not hesitate to contact myself as State PRO or Gerry McGough, our State President. Sincere thanks is extended to all our players, coaches, referees, volunteers and sponsors for their continued support of Gaelic Games in Western Australia.

We are nearing the end of our 5th season already!

We still have a few fun sessions planned, with family fun days, sausage sizzles, face painters, competitions of long puc's and skills challenges. We still have people joining up with 2 more last week! We hope to also take part in the finals in Tom Bateman on the 11th Sept with a display game.

We ran another very successful Cul Camp this year, we had fantastic kids taking part which made each day a pleasure for all of us involved in the organizing, and we are planning to do it again during October school holidays (Monday 3rd- Friday 7th Oct). It is a great way for the kids to spend half of their school holiday playing Hurling and Gaelic Football and meeting other kids, with most from an Irish background. It will be held in Karrinyup Primary school grounds and cost will be $120 for the 5 days 9.30- 2.30pm. On the Friday the children get a little extra special treatment with cupcakes and a BBQ and award medals to round off an action packed week. All the coaches are qualified and have experience plus working with children checks. We also must say farewell to one of our Cul Camp coaches Aaron Brady who flies home to Ireland this month, he was very popular with the kids both last year and this year, and will be missed by us all here at the Academy.

We wish Aaron and his family all the best. At this stage of the year we start looking ahead to next year and plan for coaches to help and keep an eye out for helpful parents to rope into the committee, so if you think you would or could help out in anyway please contact us on ggjunioracademy@gmail.com as we would love to hear from you! Thanks as always to our coaches and committee members for all your efforts!

www.facebook.com/gaelicgamesjunioracademyofwa www.facebook.com/gaelicfootballstatewau18team www.facebook.com/ gaelicfootballandhurlingwesternaustralia Gaelic Athletic Association of Western Australia; President: Gerry McGough – 0410 233 532 PRO: Tom Murphy – 0458 954 052 Hurling: R.A. Cooke Reserve, Coode St, Morley.

Football: Tom Bateman Reserve, Wilfred Rd, Canning Vale.

www.thebreakwater.com.au

58 Southside Drive, Hillarys Boat Harbour Ph: 08 9448 5000 Fax: 08 9448 6000 92

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Perth Irish Rugby Football Club

The first full Rugby Season for Perth Irish comes to a close, having beaten Arks Rugby club on Saturday 6th of August. What a first year it has been! In early March the club got clearance from Rugby WA to enter teams in Perth competitions – and since then it has been full on! For a new club with new members with various levels of experience the first few rounds of the competition were a challenge. As time passed and teams started to gel, the results improved significantly. We ended the season at Champ A level with five wins and one draw – plus a handful of very narrow losses. This is a great achievement for a new club, and we are very confident that the club will be in the

AMBASSADOR’S TROPHY Carramar, 19th June 2016, 1st: Mark McLoughlin 2nd: Sally Ann McDonald 3rd: Mick Connelly L/Drive Men: Geoff McFadden L/Gross: Andy McDonald

WINTER SHIELD

Araluen, 17th July 2016 1st: Geoff McFadden 2nd: Kieran Brophy 3rd: P J Kenny L/Drive Ladies: Louise Brophy L/Drive Men: Geoff McFadden L/Gross: Andy McDonald

hunt for silverware next season.

The club managed to field two senior men’s teams this season – and are actively looking for more members for next year, when we hope to add a women’s team, juniors, and at least one more men’s team.

Whilst we are lucky to share a clubhouse and grounds with Perth Bayswater, the search for our own home grounds continues, with hopefully some very good news due shortly. Stay tuned.

Perth Irish RFC is very grateful to our sponsors who helped us to become established – particularly our main Sponsors Reliance Recruitment.

Our end of season ball is in early September in the Hilton hotel.

For the summer months we will be running tag rugby/ Viva 7’s for those interested in non-contact or social rugby. It’s a great way to have fun over the summer months.

The new season will commence in January 2017, and already we are actively looking for new players, coaches, and volunteers to help us run the club – its very much part of the Irish community in Perth.

Please feel free to contact the club via our facebook page (www.facbook. com/perthirishrfc/) our web page www.perthirishrfc.com.au or you can email our president Sheamus Walshe on sheamus.walshe@gmail.com Damien Gaughan PRO

AMBASSADOR’S CUP CLUB CHALLENGE

7th August 2016, Royal Fremantle The Irish Golf Club WA also participated in the inaugural Ambassador’s Cup event with the Irish Perth Golf Society, held on August 7th at Royal Fremantle Golf Club. A great day was had by all.

Special thanks to H.E. Noel White, Honorary Consul Mr Martin Kavanagh, Irish Perth Golf Society and Irish Golf Club WA President Peter McKenna for all the hard work that went into organising the event.

Congratulations Irish Perth Golf Society on winning the Cup! Ambassador presents the cup and below Peter McKenna presents Ambassador with a Henry Mc Laughlin Irish painting.

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St Gabriel’s Hurling & CamogieClub Sponsors: PERI Australia Pty Ltd John 0418 885 604 www.periaus.com.au An Sibin Irish Bar Shane 0404 784 102 Player Contact List: Camogie: Danielle McInerney 0405 418 809 Hurling: Ronan Kilroy 0439 979 237 Facebook: S.t. Gabriels Hurling WA StGabriels CamogieClub Website: stgabrielsgaaclub.com

St Gabriels GAA Club caters for players of all levels of ability, including those who have never played the sport before. Joining the club is a fantastic way to get fit, meet new people and be involved in lots of fun social activities.

Hurling and Camogie are finished for the season but get in touch if you are interested in getting involved in the club. Check the contact details below.

We would like to thank Peri & An Sibin for their sponsorship of the club this season.

We would also like to thank everyone involved in the club for their for their contribution this year.

PERI Australia Pty Limited John 0418 885 604 www.periaus.com.au

An Sibin Irish Bar, Northbridge Shane 0404 784 102

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GAB’s Abu!

FREE TEA & C

available up

OFFEE

stairs every

night

Book your Christmas Party at the Club • Great Christmas Menu and...

We can organise the whole event

for you including decorations,

Music and Santa, yes me I'll be there!

Call today 9381 5213 for your next party booking!

Pie & Pint Night EVERY MONDAY Every Thursday Trad Music & Irish Classes COMHALTAS

Live music from 7pm.

Join B CLU THE t the bar! sa

Form

IRISH CLUB SENIORS

SENIORS’ LUNCH

Music Lessons Set Dancing 8pm followed by the Seisiun Irish Language Classes 7pm

Ist Friday of the Month. $15 per person Bar open from 12.30pm.

Lunch at 1pm.

Bookings 9381 5213

The Irish Club A GREAT PLACE FOR A PARTY Functions & Fundraisers Contact Club:

Tel: 93815213

Irish1@irishclubofwa.com.au

Have you renewed your membership yet?

Visit website to download the renewal form.

Do you have an email address? If so, please let us know.

irishclubofwa.com.au

The Irish Club is a members only club, and we welcome new members. Application forms can be downloaded from the website.

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