Irish Scene September October 2014 by Fred Rea

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Western Australia’s

Volume 16 / Number 6 Sept/Oct 2014

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In this Issue.... • Dancing Championships • Buses to Irish Race Day • Irish Seniors • GAA Championships • Golf • Comhaltas • WW1 Letters of Fr Fahey • Welcome to Country • The Wesleys • Rose of Tralee returns

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Fr John Fahey, the fighting Priest from Tipperary, wrote a series of letters to his Archbishop Clune from the trenches during World War 1. It was Archbishop Clune who selected Fr Fahey as chaplain to accompany the West Australian portion of the Expeditionary Force to the great War. Fahey was in Kalgoorlie at the time and was well known both on the goldfields and among the workers in the South West of Western Australia. No doubt, he would have met V.C. winner Martin O’Meara during his time in the south west. It was Fr Fahey who spoke at O’Meara’s graveside when he died in 1935.

some days. After several days dodging submarines, we got to Plymouth where I found Father Dore, of the N.Z. Forces, who had been shot in the back and will not be well for many months. After a week there, a Medical Board had a look at me, and cheerfully offered me two months holiday. They nearly fainted when I told them I did not want it. They insisted on my taking at least a month. They said that anybody who had spent six months in Gallipoli should have three months holiday, no matter how well he looked or felt. I am going home to-day, and shall give my people a surprise, as they do not know I am in Ireland.’

December 11, 1915: Writing to his Grace Archbishop Clune, from Dublin Fr Fahey, among other things says: ‘I never imagined that I should see Ireland before the end of the war, in fact, there were moments when I had grave doubts if I should ever see it again. I have just landed in Dublin on my way home. To my great surprise I find that I was dead, buried and prayed for, for more than a week in Ireland, till the War Office informed them to the contrary. Like the account of Mark Twain’s death, it was very much exaggerated. I am well, and feel quite ashamed of myself to be away from the front, where there is work to be done, but once a person gets aboard a hospital ship he is no longer master of his fate. I had slight enteric and was bad for

CARING FOR CATHOLIC SOLDIERS... FR FAHEY’S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION Cable advice was received yesterday by Archbishop Clune, to the effect that the Rev. Father J. Fahey, who is attached to the 3rd Infantry Brigade in the capacity of chaplain, has been slightly wounded at the Dardanelles, and is in hospital at Malta. Special interest is therefore attached to the following letter dated June 13th from Father Fahey to his Grace Archbishop Clune, which appeared in the ‘W.A. Record’: Since last I wrote a fortnight ago

Fr. Fahey in uniform. Source: Courtesy Archdiocesan Roman Catholic Archives, Perth

the position has not changed very much. We have settled down to the monotony of trench warfare, and are waiting anxiously for the AngloFrench forces, fighting their way slowly from the south. Although the area we hold is small, it is well held and strongly fortified, and the Turks

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will find it a difficult task to push us back into the sea. They have tried a few times already, but failed with heavy losses to themselves. It is slow and dull work so dull, in fact, that I hope some movement will take place soon to relieve the monotony. One of the few officers of the original 16th has won a D.S.O. I saw him yesterday and he is very fit and well. Major J. Denton, of the 11th, has also won a D.S.O. Captain Peck has returned to duty. His wound

unforseen, occurs, such as the sudden collapse of the Turkish resistance. Gallipoli Peninsula is a fortress, and the operations here are in the nature of a siege. However, we are sure to win, for we have gained a good footing, which is the main thing. It is now only a question of time and men, considering the large casualty list. I dare say there will be some anxiety amongst Catholic parents in W.A. about their sons who were killed and wounded. In order to allay such anxiety, I wish your Grace would make it public in the ‘Record’ or in some other way that before coming ashore all the Catholics of the 11th Battalion, even the careless ones, went to the Sacraments. The same applies to the other three battalions of the brigade. They knew what they were going into, and they wisely listened to my advice. Moreover, I administered the Last Sacraments to a large number of men belonging to the 3rd

Col

Archbishop Clune. Source: from ‘The History of the Catholic Church in Western Australia’, by D.F. Bourke.

was only a slight one. He was away out in front, going full steam ahead, as if he were doing a Marathon to Constantinople when his career was checked by a bullet. He, Dr. Brennan, and I live and dine together, and we are a cheerful trio. I fully expected Brennan would get a D.S.O. He certainly has deserved it. There is none braver than he, and he never thinks of personal danger when there is a wounded man to be attended to. Besides that, his smile and cheerfulness are contagious. The men love him, and call him all kinds of affectionate names, such as ‘the cheerful doc’ and ‘the smiling pill juggler.’ We have seen the ‘Sunday Times’ of May 9th, and other papers giving an account of the landing and some of the casualties. The account is a good deal exaggerated. According to the papers the taking of the Dardanelles is an easy task. They are very much mistaken. It will be a long and costly operation, unless something

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Brigade, as well as to the men of other brigades, during the first days when our losses were heavy. It would be useless to ask me ‘if I attended to so-and-so, or buried so-and-so’. In the hurry and confusion, I had no time to make a note of their names. I had even to ignore their dying wishes and pass on to others. When there are hundreds of wounded lying about, all that can be done is to examine their discs and see what religion is branded thereon. If it was marked R.C., I attended the wearer and moved on. It was weary work, and meant a lot of searching and walking about in a fire-swept zone, and so I had little opportunity of making a note of or remembering the men’s names. Besides, during this, the nurse was receiving the more serious cases. Later on, a priest from the fleet attended daily. Moreover, some of the priests who did not come ashore on the first day were on the troopships which took the wounded to Lemnos, Malta, and Alexandria, so that they were all attended to. Considering everything, I think the Catholic soldiers were as well attended to as was possible under the circumstances. Going through a battlefield strewn with dead and dying is not quite so easy as visiting a hospital. Cases, of course, occurred of men dying without the Sacraments; and of others being suddenly shot dead, but such cases are inevitable. The burial of the dead had to be more or less neglected for the first few days. It was often performed by officers or pioneer parties, who buried them where they fell. The attendance of the dying was more important than the burial of the dead. The I6th W.A. Battalion had Father Power with them before landing, and he assures me that they went into the fray well prepared. I think, therefore, if

your Grace would make this known it would relieve the anxiety and assuage the sorrow of Catholic parents whose sons have fallen. Personally, I am in splendid health. The climate is very good, if a little warm, and the nights are ideal for sleeping out. The health of the troops is excellent. There has not been one case of typhoid so far the inoculation has proved a decided success. I have seen Dr. Deakin several times. He is on a minesweeper carrying wounded from here to Lemnos. I showed him round the trenches, where he had a shot at the Turks - no damage done. From today onward we are to be supplied with bread for which we are all thankful. Our field bakeries have at last got it to work on Imbros Island some miles away? The man who invented the army biscuit was an unmitigated rascal; as an eatable there is little to choose between it and a seasoned jarrah board. Occasionally I have a swim in the sea, which is a blessing, as it is the only means of getting a wash here. But the Turks even begrudge us such a little comfort, for they occasionally spray the beach with shrapnel. No doubt people in Australia are expecting to hear of Turkish atrocities. Well, I have not seen a single case of mutilation, nor has any, such case been reported. I am inclined to think the Turk is more of a gentleman than the German. According to the newspapers it would seem that the Turks are hopeless cowards and their army a disorganised rabble. It is a mistake. They are fighting bravely and are not wanting in courage, although they are not up to the standard of our men. They seem to know just as much about the science of trench warfare as our men do.

The heroic Irish

Fusiliers in a communication from The Great War. I am back from the Dardanelles, but am not wounded, but am sent back here with fever, after having a hot time with the Turks as usual, one poor Irish suffered. But I am very glad to say that the old ‘Dublins’ did great work, also the Munster Fusiliers; but we paid dearly for it. We started on the 25th of last month (which fell on a Sunday morning) at six o’clock. I shall never forget it in all my life. We came across in small boats, but when we got to 200 yards from the beach they opened fire on us. There were twenty-five in my boat, and there were only three of us left. It was sad to hear our poor chums moaning and to see others dead in the boat. I had to stop in the boat till near that evening, when I jumped out into the water. It was a terrible sight to see the poor boys dead in the water, others on the beach roaring for help. But we could do nothing for them. I must have had someone’s good prayer, for I do not know how I escaped. Those who were lying wounded on the shore, in the evening, the tide came in and they were all drowned, and I was left by myself on

‘THEY MADE THE WAY FOR THE BRITISH ARMY’

The Dublin Fusiliers A graphic description of the heroic work of the Dublin Fusiliers and the Munster Fusiliers when, clearing the way for the landing of other troops in Gallipoli, is told by Private Martin, of the Dublin

by men of real and true British fighting blood. You captured the fort and village on the right that simply swarmed with Turks with machine guns; also the hill on the left, where the pom-poms were. Also the amphitheatre in front, which was dug line by line with trenches, and from where there came a terrific rifle and machine-gun fire. I am proud to be in command of such a distinguished regiment, and I only hope, when you return to the firing line after this rest, that you will WW1 grave on beach at Gallipoli....

V.Beach Helles Gallipoli from the bridge of the Clyde

the beach. I had to remain in the water for about three hours, as they would fire on me as soon as they saw me make a move. I thought my time was up every minute. The worst of it all was, we had a priest who came along with us, the Rev. Father Finn, who was killed on the occasion. He was in the boat; he insisted on coming along with us, as he said he would be wanted for the poor boys. They were all calling for him, but the poor priest could do nothing for them. He got out of the boat afterwards and made a great run for the beach; but the Turks got him as soon as he landed, for he was hit four times. He died that evening, but he was still asking for us up to the time he died. But we got our own back for that. The following Sunday we cut them to pieces, as they were killed all out. I would like you to send me a paper with the names of the wounded and killed of the old regiment. We have only 200 men left out of 1100. It is the worst place I have ever seen. However, we made the way for the landing of the British army. We never saw a cigarette, which is a great chum of ours out here. We have been fighting sixteen days and nights in the trenches, and we never get a rest; so there is a great difference between this and France, some of the boys who were at Mons said it was nothing to what was out here. It was a proper death-trap. We had to make our own trenches; so the remainder who land now will be quite safe, as the dirty work is done. I would like to know what the people at home thought when they heard of the poor Dublin Fusiliers and Munsters. I am sure there will be many a tear over the poor Irish who fell out here.

make even a greater name for yourselves. We’ll done, the Dubs!’ Before the “V” beach landing, Fr Finn had asked to be allowed to accompany the Dubs. He is reputed

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The splendid bravery of the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Blue Caps, who had fifteen days continuous fighting in the Gallipoli Peninsula, is attested by the following address made to them by Major-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, D.S.O., commanding the 29th division: “Well done, Blue Caps! You have done a thing which will live in history. We all thought a landing would never be made, but you did it, and therefore the impossibilities were overcome

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to have said, ‘The priest’s place is beside the dying soldier; I must go’. Father Finn watched the slaughter on “V” beach and seeing the wounded and dying men being mown down and hearing their calls made his way down the gang plank and received a chest wound almost immediately. Father Finn scrambled ashore receiving two more Rev Fr Finn wounds to the arm and leg. He was seen crawling about the beach, holding up his injured right arm, giving absolution to those close to death, while he was blessing one of the men a shrapnel bomb burst above him and his head was shattered. He was buried on the beach and his grave marked with a cross made out of an ammunition box.

by Michael D.R. Tribute to The Rev Father William Finn Killed in Action, April, 25th, 1915

He did not turn his ears from that high call, Nor parley with himself, nor hesitate. Men would have held him; but he did not wait, Albeit the air was thick with shell and ball. He saw with tears his gallant Dublins fall; His place was with them. Like a mountain spate, His spirit o’leaped its banks and laughed at Fate, Knowing God’s Providence that ruleth all. O Alma Mater, bind your brows with laurel! Your sons have flocked to wield their Country’s sword, And take up arms in Honour’s latest quarrel. But this one seized the javelin of the Lord, And hurled it flashing, all to brief a star, High up the bloody steeps of Sedd-ul-Bahr.”

“My earnest congratulations on the honour the Dublin Fusiliers more than any other regiment have won for the land of their birth. We are all wearing the shamrock here”.

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CROM-A-BOO! (Part Three)

Robert Austin the Explorer

Despite the sometimes chaotic and confusing administrative issues Governor Charles Fitzgerald faced, he had external support from one stable and well-funded structure. He was not directly responsible for the direct management of the complex convict system. The key official who carried that burden was the capable and plain spoken Captain Edmund Henderson of the Royal Engineers. He was appointed to the position of Comptroller General of Convicts on the first day of February, 1850. Henderson held the position for 13 years and proved to be a stalwart friend and ally of the governor who, of course, made most policy decisions about public works and the social and economic development of the colony. For practical purposes some prisons were administered by the colonial authorities, including the Fremantle and Perth gaols, the now defunct (in Fitzgerald’s time, at least) Rottnest Island Prison and assorted rural gaols. Everything else - including Fremantle Prison, hiring depots, working parties and so on - was under Imperial control. Henderson had a company of Royal Sappers and Miners to supervise construction work. They were backed up by numerous Warders and Assistant Warders, often appointed from Britain. As the attached photograph reveals, while Fremantle Prison was under construction, houses and offices were built below it for the use of administrators of the system, not to mention cottages for the warders. The most senior man from July 1851 was Superintendent Thomas Dixon, who squabbled with the Governor more than once about his pay and duties. In the end it turned out that Dixon was a crook – years after Charles left WA the man lost his job because of misappropriation of public funds and fraud. Another key structure to appear during Fitzgerald’s tenure was the Fremantle Commissariat building begun in 1851, a supply and storage centre that now functions as the fine maritime museum pictured here. Others included the Fremantle (1853) and Perth (1854) police stations and some barracks built in South Terrace, Fremantle for the use of pensioner guards and their families. Mention of the latter brings up another promise made in January 1850 by Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies. Military pensioners were to be sent out to work as convict guards on the various transport ships. They were encouraged to settle in the colony

by Peter Conole

afterwards, received land grants after a certain period and provided an obvious manpower source when extra warders or police had to be a recruited. Charles got on very well with Captain John Bruce (late of County Athlone) who led what was known as the Enrolled Pensioner Force (EPF) and held the position of Commandant in the colony as well. Over 1200 pensioner guards arrived in WA between the years 1850 to 1868. A high proportion were Irishmen, including Sergeant John Kirwan (County Roscommon), who Charles agreed to place in command of the first detachment when it reached WA in June 1850. When Captain Bruce arrived in October the Governor was generous in providing him and his men with forage allowances – there had been a clerical hiccup back in London and proper funds had not yet arrived. Bruce was a decent man and a firm defender of his EPF men. Once a gallant veteran fell out with a bullying employer and ended up in chains after he quit, an act that breached his legally binding contract of employment. Bruce appealed to Charles, who thought

Fremantle Prison with offices and houses of officials below

it over and had the soldier sent from Perth to Fremantle to work as a carpenter and odd-job man under open conditions until the rest of his short sentence expired. The Governor wrote several times to Earl Grey praising the Commandant’s ‘’zeal and activity’’ and care for his men; the flow of such reports resulted in John Bruce being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1855. An extra and essential strand Fitzgerald gave attention to in his efforts to create a stable civil society was law enforcement. In June 1849, well before convictism hit home, he signed off on an Ordinance for Regulating the Police in Western Australia. They document outlined the powers and duties of constables in maintaining public peace and good order and included an oath they had to swear to the Crown. In the same month he appointed 18 permanent constables to work in eight districts. Then the convict system

changed everything and colonial authorities soon realised that a larger and fully constituted Police Force with a command structure was necessary. Governor Fitzgerald and his Council decided to create a Force similar to the London Metropolitan Police. A former army officer working at the time as Deputy Overseer of Convicts won appointment to the position of Superintendent of Police in March 1853. He was The old Commissariat in Fremantle - now a museum John Augustus Conroy, a descendant in the direct male line of an ancient Irish noble family from County Roscommon. His trials and tribulations were discussed in an earlier edition of Irish Scene and there is no need to recapitulate the saga here. In justice to Conroy it is necessary to assert that he performed far better than could have been expected under very trying circumstances. Shortage of funds was a chronic problem and when he submitted a uniform design for his men, Fitzgerald

approved it but had difficulty providing funds to see things through. It was not his fault – the London authorities had reduced the Parliamentary Grant for the colony, which made things awkward for many projects at a crucial time. The Governor did make one mistake in his treatment of Conroy; he badgered him twice to employ more aboriginal constables. It was a good idea in theory - and shows just how open minded Charles was - but many indigenous men could not reach the standards of literacy considered essential by Conroy for the new police establishment. A little earlier, in 1851, four convicts attempted to escape by sea from Fremantle. The exploit caused a furore and the Governor decided on that occasion to act first and notify the Imperial government later. He founded a force of Water Police based on Fremantle and placed them under the command of Superintendent George Clifton, like himself a former naval officer with an aristocratic background. Earl Grey and company back in London had little choice but to accept the situation; the funds were provided out of those assigned to the convict system. Throughout these difficult years, in the broader field of economic development, Charles Fitzgerald showed a lot of foresight and continued to encourage the arrival of free settlers, utilising immigration agents where possible. He personally visited various districts to check on progress and urged settlers in the Avon valley to increase agricultural production at all costs. His interest in the northern part of the colony led to the

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growth of the pastoral industry around Champion bay; the future town site of Geraldton was surveyed there in 1851. Furthermore, the Geraldine Mine (also named after Charles) had already been established to obtain copper and lead for export. Further north, pearl fishing began at Shark Bay; the Governor and Earl Grey ensured that the business remained open to the public - not controlled by monopolies. There is justice in the claim by F.K.Crowley that in Fitzgerald’s time WA “recovered from its twenty years of economic depression...improvements in trade and commerce confirmed the permanence of the colony”. In Part One of this series brief mention was made of Fitzgerald’s exploring adventure soon after he arrived in the colony, one in which his own life was at risk. The Governor showed an interest in having his entire jurisdiction surveyed as much as possible in the cause of both geographic knowledge and economic expansion and consolidation. He was the patron and supporter of two notable and hazardous expeditions. The famous WA Surveyor General John Septimus Roe, often called the ’father of Australian exploration’, set out with a carefully chosen band on the last and most dangerous of his inland treks. The party left the Avon Valley in September 1848 and moved south through difficult country. They almost perished when traversing the salt lake country in November, running out of water in the process, but managed to reach the coast at modern Esperance. They then returned by a different route, arriving in Perth in February 1849. Neither men nor horses were in good shape, but Roe was able to inform Charles of the existence of coal beds and timberland of possible commercial value. Years later, in 1854, a deputation appealed to the Governor and the Executive Council to send a party to examine the far north of the colony. Fitzgerald agreed and selected Assistant Surveyor Robert Austin to lead an overland exploring expedition up towards Shark Bay. One objective of the enterprise was to try and find the imaginary inland sea; another was to examine the north for pastoral interests. Police Commissioner John Conroy participated in the early stages of the journey, one that proved to be unusually demanding. Future Commissioner George Phillips also took part, moving north to Shark Bay by sea with supplies for the land-based members when and if they finally reached the coast. The expedition left Northam on July 10, 1854 and was one of the first to travel deep into Australia’s ‘desert heart’. Participants paid a high price for their endeavours. During August several horses died after eating poisonous plants and one man was killed in an accident. The party resumed the journey, partly on foot. Austin discovered and named Mount Magnet and reported finding gold ore deposits in the Murchison district. However heat, fatigue and chronic lack of water eventually brought them to a halt. By the time they reached a point 160 kilometres from the mouth of the Gascoyne River the situation had become “so desperate men were drinking their own and the horse’s urine”. Austin made the prudent decision to fall back instead of trying to reach Shark Bay. The explorers returned to their last known waterhole and headed home, arriving at Port Gregory on November 25. The press of the time expressed disappointment about what some called the complete failure of the expedition. However, in terms of geographical achievement the leader of the enterprise had revealed the barren and severe nature of much of the outback and finally put to rest the inland sea myth. Charles Fitzgerald

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On the other side of the Great Divide By Norm Flynn

Did you hear about Gunner McDonald of Mornington Mill? He was sick, crook, very, very ill Lay on his bed just tossing around With his anxious wife Mary prayin’ for a remedy to be found “Sure! She said. Matron will know, I’ll bet a pound” Now Matron McGann ran the First Aid Post Dedicated, and always gave her utmost Though to answer this call, a new strength she must find For she’s just buried her Patrick, his, a sudden and steep decline Though grieving still, she grabs her bag Visits Gunner lying there all pale and sad Takes one look and to Mary his wife, shakes her head Knowin’ too well he’ll soon be dead “Sorry old chap but for you there’s nothin’ I can do, says she But for me, there is somethin’,” she says with some glee “Can you take a message to Patrick, me dear departed Tell him we miss him, we’re all broken-hearted And if he can send word back down through the veil Where tis the pay packet he just received in the mail?” Matron now brighter, returns home down the hill And Gunner McDonald makes the quickest recovery ever seen at Mornington Mill!

This little story appeared in a book titled “Memories of Mornington Mill”. It seemed to lend itself to a poetic treatment with its theme “you can get horribly crook before you die.” Apparently Gunner McDonald lived on to a ripe old age!

By Lloyd Gorman and Fred Rea The position of Honorary Consul of Ireland in Western Australia is a demanding job. But when he is not helping Irish people with some sort of crisis or another the office holder does at least get the chance to use his diplomatic and presentation skills on more happy occasions. The launch of Elizabeth Brennan’s book A different shade of seeing at the Irish Club was such an event. “One of the funniest opening remarks at an Irish book launch I know of was that of Gay Byrne the broadcaster some years ago,” said Marty. “You may recall that Mr Byrne’s accountant Russell Murphy ran off with a very large part of Mr Byrnes’s fortune. At the launch of the biography that Byrne reluctantly wrote he said: I’d like to thank my publishers for making the book possible… and Russell Murphy for making the book necessary. I’m sure that this doesn’t apply today as Elizabeth’s A different Shade of Seeing is clearly a labour of love.” For the author the book is indeed a product of a lifelong interest and fascination with Ireland, a life changing visit to her spiritual home and in a funny twist along the way, with Australia too. “The idea of wanting to go to Ireland started when I was very young,” Elizabeth told Fred Rea. “My great grandparents were both born in Ireland, my great grandmother in Co. Tipperary and my great grandfather in Kildare. They came to Australia, to Sydney in New South Wales around the 1880’s or 90’s. For most of my life I was brought up in Catholic schools and that sort of thing, it was very, very, very Irish. As I got older I wanted to find out more about Ireland. It was my maternal grandfather who introduced me to the poet Christopher Brennan. Then I got married, had kids and was absorbed with all that. When I started working with Fr. Tom and learning a bit more about Ireland, I wanted to know more.” Elizabeth’s friend in Girrawheen Parish, Fr Tom Gaine retired to Ireland in 2001 and he was able to trace down her great grandmothers family in Newport, Co. Tipperary - not far from Cashel and the family were still living in the same house that she lived in. “So when I did go over in 2004 of course I went there and it was amazing sitting in the house and thinking that this is where my great grandmother was born. It was fantastic. “I got over to Ireland in 2004 and spent four months seeing my ancestral homeland. It was wonderful to be able to tour around Ireland, but not being on the tourist trail, and being able to stay with Fr Tom, just being a part of the community and getting to know so much and see so many wonderful things that I didn’t know before. My perception of Ireland before I went was ‘like a dream’. Irish

folklore has always interested me - and all the dreams were there (in Ireland). Another thing that prompted the writing of the book was the fact that prior to going I was thinking ‘yes, I’m Irish’, but what I came to realise is Honorary Consul Mr Marty that I’m actually a Kavanagh with Elizabeth Brennan daughter of two shores. There was one occasion when we had stopped to look at another ruined castle or priory. I was standing there and I said to Tom, this is just so beautiful and fabulous we don’t have anything like this in Australia. Australia is only 200 years old. Then this virtual bolt of lightning hit me that there’s actually over 40,000 years of history in Australia. It’s a different type of history, it’s not recorded history, it’s not buildings. For me I thought why don’t I know more about Australia? When I went to school the only history we were taught was British history, or British literature. I hope that has changed a lot. So that’s one part of the title of the book. The other part is about seeing dreams, earthed and fabulous.” She has always been interested in the period of the Great Famine, a time when her Irish ancestors were born and a large part of the reason why they would have left their native land. She is angry that at the time when over a million people died of starvation and disease, masses of food was being produced in Ireland and then shipped to England. “You can’t go past that.” Elizabeth found herself getting lost - in a spiritual sense - in the Irish landscape. “I loved being in the Burren in County Clare, just lying there in the silence of that place. And I used to enjoy walking through the mountains of Kerry, Molls Gap, walking, walking, walking. So I’m talking about my travels, I kept a journal in Ireland. It’s a journey about discovering things I didn’t know were to be discovered, about learning more history I didn’t know, doing some exploring and relating what those four months meant to me. I would love to go back but Tom has passed in 2010 and I wouldn’t want to go back on a tour, so it’s unlikely I will. So I’m really delighted that I’ve been able to record in book form my experience.” Copies of “A different shade of seeing” are available from www.equilibriumbooks.com

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Migration News Update The Australia Migration Program for 201415 is going to a blockbuster. The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, recently announced that there will be 128,550 places for skilled migrants which includes general skilled migrants, employer sponsored migrants and business migrants; 60,855 for family migrants who are sponsored by family members and 565 places for special eligibility migrants. It looks like it’s going to be a big year for student migration too! There is no cap on the number of student visas that can be granted and numbers are increasing. In the March 2014 quarter almost 100,000 student visa applications were lodged and it’s not surprising. Studying in Australia can provide an invaluable step along the pathway to permanent residence if you choose your course carefully and know exactly where you are heading from a visa perspective. Getting good advice is a must!

convictions can cause major issues when they eventually come to light and can result in a future visa application being refused. You may be able to deal with these issues effectively if you seek advice before lodging another application. On a final note, if you have FETAC, SCOTVEC or City and Guilds qualifications (or similar) and someone tries to persuade you to pay a few thousand dollars to get an Australian Cert III, please call us to find out whether you really need it for visa application purposes! If you need a Cert III for work purposes, it’s worth checking whether Vetassess or Victoria University (TRA approved migration skills assessing bodies and RTOs) can award you a Cert III AND do a migration skills assessment for you at the same time. This can save you thousands of dollars! If you would like to have a chat about your visa options feel free to call us. Carol-Ann Lynch MARN 0320658

Carol-Ann P. Lynch LLB MMIA Principal Registered Migration Agent

The Department of Immigration case officers are continuing to closely scrutinize visa applications to check whether applicants declared their convictions on previous applications, immigration entry cards etc. A few minor convictions won’t usually prevent someone from getting a working holiday visa or a 457 visa as long as they are declared BUT undeclared

O: +61 8 9429 8860 E: carol-ann@easivisa.com A: Suite 5, 19 – 21 Outram Street, West Perth, WA 6005 Phone our team of experienced migration professionals for a free first consultation….

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SINEAD LEHANE’S IRISH DIARY... With more luggage than I’ve ever packed in my life I landed in Ireland in early August following a flurry of last minute preparations for Tralee. I had two days to play tourist so I spent the weekend rediscovering Dublin city and even had time to catch the Armagh versus Dublin semi-final at Croke Park (unfortunately it wasn’t Armagh’s day!). The Rose Tour kicked off on Sunday August 10 and having met a few of the other Roses the night before I was eager to meet everyone and hit the road. Sinead with father John Meeting 31 young Irish women from all over the world is exactly as you would expect it to be; exciting, engaging, slightly overwhelming and very, very loud. The moment I met them all I knew I was part

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of an incredible group of women! Each Rose brought something different and dynamic to the group during Tralee, what united us though was a shared “Irishness” we are all very proud of. The tour gave us a taste of all the best things Ireland has to offer. During our first few days we visited Newbridge and Newbridge Silverwear, the main sponsor for the Rose of Tralee, walked on holy ground in Croke Park and spent a wonderfully entertaining evening playing Rock ‘N’ Roll bingo with a number of local Irish businesses at the Maldron Hotel in Dublin. From Dublin we headed to Roscommon, where we spent the day exploring Strokestown and learning more about the Famine at the Irish National Famine Museum. Lovely Leitrim was our next port of call where we stayed in the fabulous Lough Rynn Castle for two nights and were given the royal treatment. Our own Leitrim Rose, Zara played host and we were delighted to visit her hometown of Carrick on Shannon along the way. While in Leitrim we took the Moon River Cruise down the river Shannon, toured the Arigna Mines, were warmly welcomed and guided around Carrick on Shannon and spent an evening at Lough Rynn Castle with a number of proud Leitrim natives who showed us what being from Leitrim was all about. It has to be said that the hospitality, warmth and welcome we received in Roscommon and Leitrim were phenomenal and I will definitely be returning for another visit in the future! During a lunch stop in Athlone mid-week of the tour I was greeted by a crowd of familiar faces and was over the moon to see my cousins from Galway Sinead with roommate waiting to say hello. I hadn’t seen them all in five years and there were a few new editions I was excited to meet. Thursday night of the tour was the night we met the escorts in Limerick. In speed dating style we had a rotational seating plan during dinner so we could all introduce ourselves. The night was filled with music, Irish dancing and singing. Everyone got on well and the evening made for good bus banter the next day as we all tried to guess who we’d be paired with for Tralee. Friday was the day we arrived into Tralee. The anticipation was rising and besides wondering where the week had gone we couldn’t wait to arrive in Tralee for the festival. I have never witnessed a reception like

Sinead at home pub and with Rosebud!

it. All our families were there, along with a huge crowd from all over Ireland, welcoming us to Tralee with banners, music and a chorus of support. We met our rosebuds that afternoon and my rosebud Labhraidh, who was from Tralee town made me feel very welcome. I have to say a huge thank you to Labhraidh and her wonderful family for their hospitality and support, it

Sinead with Darwin Rose

was such a pleasure meeting them all and sharing the experience with Labhraidh. The International Rose of Tralee Ball was that night in the Dome and what a night it was! From the outside the dome is a tent in a parking lot. Inside it is transformed into a spectacular ballroom where we danced till we couldn’t dance anymore and enjoyed the great entertainment provided. The ball was the signal that the celebrations had really gotten underway in Tralee. The week in Tralee is one I will never forget. Interviews, carnivals, parades, meeting proud locals and Irish visitors alike and the buzzing atmosphere throughout the town set the tone for the weekend. The festival showcased all the things that are wonderful about being Irish. Everywhere I went I met people who had lived in Perth or had family and

friends in Perth. Everyone had a connection to Australia and a story to share. The pride of town, county and country were evident and the warmth and connectedness we received made me feel overwhelmingly thankful that I was an Irish-Australian and representing Perth. The two selection nights in the Dome were a fantastic end to an incredible ten days. I thought I would be nervous getting on stage but Daithi was a supportive host and when you’re having so much fun nerves aren’t something you think about. I had a great time on stage and had the opportunity to speak about what I am passionate about (water rights) and my Irish heritage, before dropping a comment on American gun law I am unlikely to live down for quite some time. All the Roses are each other’s biggest supporters and we aren’t exaggerating when we say we all got on extremely well. The support, love and respect we have for each other cannot be understated and I am so proud and honoured to have Maria representing us as the 2014 Rose of Tralee. That final night was one of mixed emotions, we were elated by the ongoing celebrations but there was sadness in knowing everything was fast drawing to a close in Tralee. Coming home and trying to put into words an experience like this is quite a challenge. How do you begin to do justice to an experience that has given you so much, led you to so many incredible people and made you even more proud of who you are, where you have come from and where you are going? There may be some who still believe the Rose of Tralee is out-dated and old fashioned; I would challenge those who do believe this to come to Tralee for the festival weekend and talk with any one of the Roses represented there. You’ll find that each of us in our own way is the embodiment of the modern Irish woman; intelligent, successful, determined to make a difference and lead in our own fields, not afraid to stand up for what we believe in and all the while embracing life with that always reliable Irish sense of humour. As we were told many times the day the Rose of Tralee festival 21

A visit to Croke Park

ended, this experience is just the beginning. Between the reunions, long-distance conversations and ongoing opportunities to engage with the Irish community in Perth and abroad, I know I am now part of an international family for life. I will forever be proud that I represented this community as the 2014 Perth Rose and am beyond grateful for the support I received from everyone.

To all those sponsors here in Perth; Coast London, British Travel, Petra Vanessie, Theory for Hair, the Irish Club of WA and everyone else, I wouldn’t have made it to Ireland in half the style or comfort so thank you very much for your generous support. To my family, friends, the Perth Rose Centre, my local sponsor the GAA of WA, all the Perth Rose entrants and everyone else who has shown their support here and in Ireland from the bottom of my heart thank you all! After what has been the greatest adventure of my life so far, I am slowly settling back into the rhythmic swing that is Perth life. There aren’t enough expressive words in the dictionary to describe the experience I have had, the friends I have made and the incredible people and places I encountered during my time in Ireland. I’m looking forward to the remaining six months of my time as the Perth Rose and embracing the wonderful opportunities that lie before me. Sinead

Why the Irish feel at home in Oz! Clearly not everyone who emigrates from Ireland to Australia makes it. But the statistics point to an ethnicity which is clearly well-regarded by Australians and, indeed, to a migrant group who have made the most of their opportunities here. The common ground is there. It is said that Australia is, after all, the most Irish country in the world, outside of Ireland. The most recent census tells us that just over two million Aussies claim Irish heritage but that only takes the story back two generations. The influx of Irish migrants to

Australia over the last number of years has continued the long tradition of many Irish people calling Australia home. The 1800’s saw many Irish sent to Australia as convicts but many others were free settlers. These days migration to Australia can be a little more difficult and one needs some assistance to get over the many hurdles put in one’s way… That’s where McGovern Migration can help. Owner of McGovern Migration, Caroline McGovern was born in the picturesque village of Drumcong in County Leitrim in Ireland. Caroline studied accountancy before immigrating to Australia. “I have resided in Australia for over 5 years and I now have dual Irish and Australian Citizenship”. Prior to founding McGovern Migration, Caroline has held a range of roles such as Office manager on the Gorgon project, Barrow Island in the North West of Western Australia. “I draw on these professional experiences, as well as personal experience of visa application processes some years ago

22 22

in her approach to working with clients today”. She is now the principal migration agent MARN 1386596 at McGovern Migration after studying Migration Law at Australia National University. “Our team takes great pride in guiding clients through the visa eligibility and application processes, and enjoys working with a variety of both corporate and individual clients to achieve their migration goals. Our dedication towards helping you obtain your desired visa only means that you will get the best outcomes at the quickest time possible. We go to great lengths to ensure that you get your visa”. The McGovern team strides on making migration straight-forward for their clients, as they guide them through the various steps and hurdles. McGovern Migration can assist with all types of visa applications though they specialise in sponsorship, permanent residency and partner/de facto visas. You can call Caroline on (08) 6161 8854 Fred Rea

Sunday Roast all day

Going down Fremantle way? Pay a visit to the historic, Rosie O’Grady’s on William Street. Rosies (originally called The Federal Hotel) was built in the 1880’s, during the WA gold rush era from local stone and brick. The hotel was officially opened on July 1887, ‘despite warnings from pessimists that the building would never be fully utilised’ due to its size. It was described by local press, at the time, “as being far in advance of anything so far erected in Western Australia, and equal to the best in the sister colonies”. The hotel was advertised as being located “away from the clanging of the local gaol and the bustle of High Street” and was seen as a “first class residential hotel for visitors from both the country and goldfield districts”. Between 1901 and 1907, the hotel was owned by Alexander Forrest and Sir John Forrest, “the first Premier of the newly organised Government of the State of Western Australia”. Sir John Forrest was a member of the First National Cabinet of Australia and held the cabinet meetings for his government ministers

in the room now known as ‘The Forrest Room’, on the first floor overlooking the Atrium. Many of the heritage classified buildings in Fremantle have been painstakingly restored and are now utilised as Museums, Art Galleries and commercial enterprises as in the case of Rosie O’Grady’s. Rosie O’Grady’s Fremantle is Heritage listed, with 17 fully restored hotel rooms and the best Function Rooms in Fremantle. Why not complete your historic experience by staying at Rosies. You won’t miss a thing as it is centrally located in the heart of Fremantle. There is always a good feed to be had at Rosies and they have weekly special priced meals available. (see advert above) From TripAdvisor: I met two friends here that I hadn’t seen for years. We enjoyed some very well kept beer, the bar staff were friendly and helpful, the atmosphere was quiet, (it was a Monday lunchtime), we had lunch as well, delicious and reasonably priced. Rosie O’Grady’s Fremantle is it’s own ‘little piece of Ireland’ with great ‘craic’, and live music 4 nights of the week. They offer a selection of 22 different beers on tap both local and imported. Serving traditional and modern mouthwatering meals that are sure to please everyone’s tastebuds and wallets! Why not take the train to Fremantle and drop in for a pint.... You won’t be disappointed. 24

A Day to

Remember

By Marie Moloney

During World War 11 although Ireland was neutral there were things we could not get because of the war. Fruits and other items that had to be imported were not available. My father had told me about the things I had never tasted and what a treat I could look forward to when the war ended At a time when notification of events relied upon radio news for those who had a radio, and newspapers for those who could afford to buy them, word of mouth was a valued means of becoming aware of what was happening in our community. In the socio economic circumstances in Dublin in the 1940’s most of us relied upon the latter. This communication method must have been at top volume in the week prior to a day sometime in the late 1940’s. I cannot remember how we heard the news but we did, like almost everyone else in Dublin, or so it seemed. A boat load of bananas and oranges was coming to Dublin. The lead up to the day was an exciting event for us inner city kids who used every opportunity to mentally transport ourselves to a magical place where interesting and amazing things happened. Our local green grocer, Josie, who also sold a variety of cheap sweets to entice us kids who had the odd penny to spend, was bombarded by local children asking when she would have these fruits. Those of us under about nine years old had never tasted oranges or bananas and were excited at the prospect of something other than local grown fruit. My father had told me so much about bananas I was sure I would like them best, and I was right. 25

On that day when the first post war cargo of bananas and oranges arrived in Dublin there was a sense of excitement in the air like nothing I had ever encountered before in my short life. The boat docked at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the south bank of the River Liffey mid-afternoon on a weekday. Because of this event school finished early and I hurried home anticipating what was to come. Sir John Rogerson’s Quay was within easy walking distance of our home. As we set out, my mother wheeling the push chair containing my sister and baby brother and Aunt Kathleen with me by her side, people were walking from all directions. Soon we were part of a huge procession of men, women and children all with the same purpose in mind laughing and singing celebrating this wonderful event. There were many familiar faces among the crowd and greetings were called out in all directions as we made our way along the Quay. Arriving at our destination I gasped with wonder at the sheer mass of the crowd. I had never before seen a gathering of such magnitude. Gaining a place at the dockside was not easy as we all wanted to be as near the boat as possible but finally we were settled. Shortly after this the action began, the crew, happily caught up in the excitement, ran up and down the upper decks their arms laden with oranges and bananas shouting “Here catch these” tossing them one by one to the screaming waiting crowd. My mother’s anxious cries of “Come back here Marie, you will get trampled on” were ignored. As I forged ahead, I was deaf to her cries. I was caught up in the fervour of the moment and nothing was going to stop me. A push, a wriggle and a jump at just the right moment and I had got a banana. Eagerly I found my way back to my mother and Aunt Kathleen. Now that I had achieved my aim I was happy to return and share my prize. Through trial and error and observation of others I figured out how to peel the fruit. I also remembered that my father had told me not to eat the skin. As I savoured the taste of a banana for the first time, my two younger siblings sat in the pusher watching the happenings around them each cautiously tasting the unfamiliar new food item.

WAGS

Society (WAGS) webpage. There are over 100 links to websites concerning Irish family history research. WAGS held its annual Open Day on Sunday 24 August as part of National Family History Month. Our Bayswater premises were buzzing. The Irish Special Interest Group table was busy fielding questions from visitors about how to hunt down their ancestors. Nola and John Cooper joined WAGS on the spot and want to know if there are others in Perth who are descended from James Patrick KELLY born ~1837 Portarlington, Queens Co. (Laois), married 1857 Philipstown (now Daingean), Kings Co. (Offaly). His wife Julia was also a Kelly. They spent some time in Toowoomba, Queensland. Contact nolacooper@gmail.com T 9454 6600. If you are hunting for your Irish ancestors and wonder if there may be distant relatives in Perth, let us know and we can post your enquiry here. The July meeting of the Irish Special Interest Group featured Irish Scene’s Fred Rea who entertained and informed everyone with his family history story and his music. Thank you Fred! The next meeting, and the last for 2014, will be on Sunday 19 October at 2 pm at WAGS. Bring details of your Irish brick walls and we’ll help each other break through them! Have you an interesting story to tell about your Irish ancestors? We’re planning our 2015 program of speakers in January, April and July. CONTACT WA Genealogical Society, Irish Special Interest Group, Convenor, Jenni E irish@wags.org.au www.wags.org.au Tel: 9271 4311.

Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc.

IRISH FAMILY HISTORY Lots of people with Irish ancestors leave their Irish lines to last –they don’t know where to start, they have so little information. Yes, it’s certainly challenging especially the earlier ancestors – but it’s not impossible. Delaying your Irish family history research till now has some benefits. More and more is coming online. Anyway start with what you already know. Yourself, your parents and grandparents; births, deaths, marriages, locations. Several members have got help using the free Ireland Reaching Out (www.irelandxo.ie ) website. After posting details of your ancestors on the relevant parish or county pages someone from the local genealogical society in Ireland will post up a reply to you suggesting avenues you might try, maybe even let you know of people of that name still living in the area. And yes, there is a section for people who don’t know which county. A not uncommon problem for many of us. Post your story on as many possible pages there, and wait. You might just get lucky. My posts in May resulted in a living third cousin in Sydney contacting me recently with many stories about the family that were new to me, giving me much more to go on in my quest. Check out the Links section of the WA Genealogical

Executive President: Eileen Ashley TCRG Vice President: Teresa McGorry TCRG Secretary: Siobhan Cummings TCRG Treasurer: Deirdre McGorry TCRG School Contacts Ceide Samantha McAleer TCRG Subiaco & Woodvale 9405 6255 / 0414 188 784 Delany Jane Goddard TCRG Forrestfield & Parkerville 9295 2447 / 0407 085 237 Eireann Siobhan Cummins TCRG Como/Jandakot/Rockingham 0422 075 300 Kavanagh Teresa McGorry-Mathers TCRG 9371 8400 / 0412 155 318 Deirdre McGorry TCRG (Hon) 0400 077 892 Osborne Park & Melville

O’Brien Rose O’Brien TCRG/AGCRG Butler, Kinross, Subiaco 9401 6334 / 0423 382 706 O’Hare Jenny O’Hare TCRG Wembley Downs & Os Park 0422 239 440 Saoirse Sinead Hoare TCRG Carramar 0414 647 849

Australian Irish Dancing Association Inc. WESTERN AUSTRALIA 2014 WA State Ceili Championships SECTION CHAMPIONS U8 Walls of Limerick Ceide/Upton (Team A) U10 Walls of Limerick O’Hare (Team A) U8 Girls 4 Ceili Saoirse (Team A) U10 Girls 4 Hand Trinity (Team A) U10 Mixed 4 Hand Kavanagh (Team B) U12 Girls 4 Hand Ceide/Upton (Team A) U12 Mixed 4 Hand: WA Academy (Team A) U15 Girls 4 hand Ceide/Upton (Team A) U15 Mixed 4 Hand WA Academy (Team A) U18 Girls 4 hand Ceide/Upton (Team A) Open Age Girls 4 hand Trinity (Team A) Open Age Mixed 4 Hand WA Academy (Team A) U10 Girls 6 Hand Ceili O’Hare (Team A) U12 Girls 6 Hand Ceili Ceide/Upton (Team A) U12 Mixed 6 Hand Ceili WA Academy (Team A) U15 Girls 6 Hand Ceili Ceide/Upton (Team A) U15 Mixed 6 Hand Ceili WA Academy (Team A) U8 Girls 8 Hand Ceili Ceide/Upton (Team A) U10 Girls 8 Hand Ceili WA Academy (Team A) U10 Mixed 8 Hand Ceili Kavanagh (Team A) U12 Girls 8 Hand Ceili Ceide/Upton (Team A) U12 Mixed 8 Hand Ceili WA Academy Team A U15 Girls 8 Hand Ceili Ceide/Upton (Team A) U15 Mixed 8 Hand Ceili WA Academy Team A U18 Girls 8 Hand Ceili WA Academy (Team A) Open Age Girls 8 Hand Ceili Kavanagh Team A U8 Reels in Couples Ceide/Upton (Team A) U10 Reels in Couples WA Academy (Team A) U12 Girls Reels in 3s Ceide/Upton (Team A) U12 Mixed Reels in 3s WA Academy (Team A) U15 Girls Reels Couples Ceide/Upton (Team A) U15 Mixed Reels Couples WA Academy (Team A) Open Age 4 Hand Jigs Ceide/Upton (Team A)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA STATE CHAMPIONS 2014 Section Champion Junior Boys 11 Yrs Adam Robinson (WA Academy) Junior Girls 12 Yrs Jenna Jordan (WA Academy) I/mediate Girls 13 Yrs Kaitlyn Millen (Ceide/Upton) I/mediate Boys 13 Yrs Luke Hanson (WA Academy) I/mediate Girls 14 Yrs Ruby Driscoll (Ceide/Upton) Senior Girls 15 Years Dakota Courtney (O’Brien) Senior Girls 16 Years Dara McAleer (Ceide/Upton) Senior Boys 16 Years Austin Ryan (WA Academy) Junior Ladies 17 Years Ciara Brophy (Ceide/Upton) Junior Ladies 18 Years Elleanor Purser (WA Academy) Junior Men 18 Years Ciaran Courtney (O’Brien) Ladies 19 Years Sian Fitzgerald (Trinity) Senior Ladies Shannon Kennedy (Kavanagh)

Trinity Eileen Purtell-Ashley TCRG Morley 0413 511 595 WA Academy Glenalee Bromilow ADCRG Malaga 9276 3737 / 0410 584 051 Sue Hayes TMRF 9377 5600 Hilary McKenna TCRG 0404 730 532

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Phil Beck, Eddie Bullen, Mick Flanagan and Fred Rea

dropping in. Joe, Seamus and Jack were in the Tulla Ceili Band, Joe was a founder member.” Mick and his family would follow his father to England, the west of England, in the 1940’s. He started singing in a folk club in Bristol in 1960 and sang around the club scene for the next few years, until he came out to Australia in 1963. “I came out on the ten pound scheme. I came to Sydney, Balmain and South Australia and then Kalgoorlie, Widgiemoolta, between Esperance and Boulder and then back to Sydney. I was here about two and a half years then worked my passage back to England.” Back in England Mick set up Flanagans Folk Floor, a club he founded with a guy he met in Bondi. He played again around the circuit in the west of England. You could never know who would drop in to the sessions there, with Dominic Behan showing up one night, for a memorable night. “Maggie Barry used to pop in then years and years later - it was about 1967 - I was playing the Irish Club in Bristol I was asked to sing in a concert, a kids school kind of thing, but who was sitting there? Only Ned Gorman and Margaret Barry. So I went up and had a chat with her and she remembered the house in Galway and the Cooleys, but she didn’t remember me.” Mick is a repeat offender when it comes to planting the seeds of folk music wherever he finds himself. While in Kalgoorlie he started a Goldfields club while working on the diamond drills. In Tasmania he was on the original committee for the Longford Folk Festival that got it up and running. He was also responsible for starting the Cygnet folk festival in Tasmania as well. “When myself and my wife Helen - who plays piano accordion - moved to Georgetown I got a job on the Seacat in 1990 when it started. We started the Georgetown and Tamar Valley Folk Festival. “I’ve a bad habit of starting things wherever I go,” he laughed. Mick still loves taking part, joining in and just having a drink at these festivals and enjoying the craic and is always open to new experiences. He told Fred he will be performing at a house concert in Newcastle while on a visit to see their daughter later this year. You can never be quite sure where or when Mick will pop up, but you can be sure that if there is a bit of folk music happening nearby he will probably be there enjoying it. Mick also had an extra surprise when he told me he had met the A Pub Without Beer man himself, Dan Sheahan of Ingham, North Queensland (originally from North Cork, Ireland). We had used a poem by Dan The Seepers Cutters Camp in the Martin O’Meara play Under Any Old Gum Tree. The Dan Sheahan story was in a previous issue. Google it and find out the amazing Dan Sheahan story and WW1.

By Fred Rea

Mick Flanagan comes from Galway via Bristol, then Sydney, Mt Isa, Kalgoorlie and Franklin, Tasmania in 1977 where he presently resides in George Town. Mick sings, plays button accordion and enjoys a good session. He is a great exponent of Irish traditional song and writer of many originals. Mick was born into a musical family, and has performed at folk clubs and festivals for the last 50 years. A traditional repertoire initially he has added his own compositions about his work experiences as a miner, driller and seaman, amongst other things. While in Tasmania in 2013, attending the George Town/Tamer Folk festival, I was hoping to meet the legendary musician/singer. Alas it was not to be but it was a great thrill for me some weeks ago when Mick visited Perth. A regular visitor to the George Town

At The Irish Club, Mick Flanagan met two legends of the Irish mucic scene in Perth, Tom Kearnes and Sean Doherty

festival is our own Phil Beck and he organised a gathering at his place with Mick in attendance. Here was my opportunity to meet the legend and I must say a very humble one at that. Mick is folk music down to his boot laces and that night he gave us some of his songs, accompanied on his trusty squeezebox. The following Monday, I arranged to meet Mick in the Irish Club at the weekly Comhaltas Trad session. The sound of the music had him very edgy and his love for Irish music was there to see, he has a passion to the core but he found the time for a chat. By the way he also gave me a bunch of his CD recordings that I have enjoyed immensely ever since. “There was music in the house all the time,” said Mick. “I was singing from the time I was in the cot, my mother was a melodeon player and like my grandmother who played concertina she had a huge collection of songs, and I’ve got a fair few of them. My grandfather played bodhran. From an early age I went to live in Peterswell (between Gort and Loughrea) with my uncle, the Cooleys as well. I was brought up with people like Willie Clancy and Aggie White just

ADVENTURES OF AN ACCIDENTAL AUSTRALIAN ABROAD Irish Scene editor Lloyd Gorman reports on his family holiday to Ireland

Australia, especially West Australia, never seemed very far away on a recent holiday back to Ireland, our first trip as an entire family in three and a half years and also my first time back to Ireland since becoming an Australian citizen in February. Ireland

is where I was born and raised, the place I belonged for most of my adult life and still long for but I had entered the country as the national of another country, travelling on my Australian passport. After an emotional reception at Dublin airport we split up into different cars to get to our first stay, Brownstown just outside the

Curragh Camp in Kildare. Driving down with my father the conversation turns to Rolf Harris, who hails from Bassendean, Perth. I can clearly remember as a small child watching him on The Late Late Show with Gay Byrne and being enthralled. It must have been around the time of one of these appearances on The Late Late when he was at the height of his fame - and this is something I didn’t know previously - that my father met him on O’Connell Street in Dublin and asked the Aussie star for his autograph. Harris obliged but the story goes it went missing shortly afterwards and was never seen again. During those first days in Kildare, a local icon with some serious Australian credentials died just down the road. Vintage Crop a thoroughbred horse died on July 15 at the age of 27 in the National Stud, just four miles from where we stood. Vintage Crop won the 1993 Melbourne Cup. It was the first time international horses were invited to contest the ‘Race that stops a nation’. The victory revitalised the fortunes of the flagging Melbourne Cup as an important international

fixture and for this and many other champion romps this Irish Pegasus is celebrated and remembered outside the Curragh Racecourse with a lifesize statue. A few days later we were in Co. Wexford, in a small holiday homes resort, just outside the village of Kilmuckridge, about a country mile away from the wide and sweeping beaches of Morriscastle. It is a fine little location in a small pocket of the Sunny South East. Just like the

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two houses we had rented there was another family and a heap of kids in the house beside ours. Our temporary neighbours for the week are very nearly actual neighbours. They are from Perth. The landlady informs us there is yet another Perth family staying in the complex at the same time but we didn’t meet them. However we do see a lot of our neighbours who are back to meet their Irish cousins and family. On about the second encounter with mum Anne I gave her a copy of the latest Irish Scene which was just printed before we flew out for the vacation. She had already seen it. There is a photograph

of her dad Adrian McGuinness in it. It really is a small world. (Look out for pics of Anne and Clan in this feature). The world feels like a very small and frightening place indeed when news of Malaysian flight MH17 breaks! Some 298 innocent people, whose lives are ended suddenly, unexpectedly and violently over the skies of Ukraine. Before long, news of the nationalities of the passengers on board the doomed flight comes through. There are 38 Australian’s amongst the dead, the second biggest group by nationality to perish in the disaster. Very quickly the identities of many of these people starts coming through different networks. Amongst the victims are children who attend schools in the area where I work. Irish woman and mother of two Edel Mahady is on her way back to Perth, having returned to Ireland to visit her elderly mother. Because of the large number of Australian’s who lost their lives in this outrage Australian PM Tony Abbott takes an early and prominent place in news reports about the story. It is a bit strange to be listening to RTE news so much and hearing him speak with almost the same regularity as on Australian media. More familiar is the presence of Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop who seems to replace Mr Abbott to a large degree. Bishop is based in Subiaco and I often deal with her in my day job as a reporter at the POST Newspaper in Shenton Park, just down the road from her electoral office where she is based when she is not in Canberra, but I could not have anticipated seeing and

hearing so much of her while on holiday. I am also conscious of the fact that the Dutch Club of WA is in the area where I work too, and pass it regularly. If the disaster had of involved an equal amount of Irish people the Irish Club would have become the centre of attention and mourning in the community. We passed through Clonmel twice as we criss-crossed the country on a couple of occasions. I was impressed by the scale of operations at the Bulmer’s brewery - which you can easily see from the road - and make a mental note to try and fit in a tour of the facility on my next trip. Just past the Irish ciders home base I catch a very basic looking sign out of the corner of my eye. It is for a company called Kentz. I would never have noticed it, or remembered it except for the fact that the week before I attended a talk in the Celtic Club, at which iiNet founder and former CEO and Clare man Michael Malone was talking. Brian Kelly, Australian Country Manager from Kentz was also a guest with Michael and he gave a brief history and background of the Clonmel company that started out providing generators when electrification was being rolled out across rural Ireland in the 1920s. Today this engineering firm employs 14,000 people and operates in the Middle East, on many major mining and resource projects in Western Australia such as

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the Gorgon gas project. After a couple of days in Limerick we head back to the sunny south east, Waterford. The weather is lovely and the temperatures are even balmy, just like a hot one in WA. Waterford has quite a history and we stayed in the Tower Hotel, which is immediately beside Reginalds Tower which was built in 1003 and has stood the test of time and more since. One of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s claims to fame is that Edmund Rice, the founder of the Christian Brothers, died there in 1844 and his body has been there since, encased in a casket. Rice was a very successful businessman but his devoted his life to education and helping the poor after a tragedy which claimed his wife and left his daughter disabled. His system of education was exported around the world, wherever Christian Brothers went, including of course WA. A suburb in South Perth which had only been named Karawara (an

Aboriginal word meaning green) in 1973 was renamed Waterford in 1980, in honour of Rice. From the turn of the century the area has been home to the Clontarf Orphanage - which included many Irish child migrants amongst its inhabitants - and is today known as the Clontarf Aboriginal College still under the authority of the church. Many of the streets in Waterford are also named after places in Ireland, in recognition of its Irish heritage. A special mention and thanks must go out to the owner (at least that is who I imagine he was) of R

J Keighhery Antiques in Waterford city. He plonked our two oldest kids (Hugh (6) and Molly (4) on a small piano chair and quizzed them about Australia and even got them to show

him where it was on a globe in the shop and kept them entertained for mum and dad, allowing us to casual amble around and enjoy his shop. He displayed a genuine warmth towards us and was a natural with the kids. We divert into Cobh to stay with family for a few days. The place is unusually Australian in its appearance, with multiple shops and businesses sporting Australian themed windows and displays. There are Australian flags, mannequins dressed up as Crocodile Dundee and even kangaroos virtually everywhere you look. We have missed the cause of this outbreak of Australiana, but only just. On July 15 the Dawn Princess - a pleasure liner carrying some 1,500 Australianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and 400 Kiwi passengers -

docked there as part of a 104 night round the world trip cruise. Cruise ships mean big business as travellers spill off the ships and make a splash in the local economy and community for the brief time they are there. A local traditional Irish dance group and a band get in on the act too providing entertainment and probably a version of Waltzing Matilda to the day trippers

from Down Under. The celebrations and activities for the visitors also include a special ceremony for the more than 25,000 convict women who were transported to Australia during those penal times. Each of these women and girls are remembered through what has become a cultural movement started by artist Christine Henri - who was supported in turn with the initiative to commemorate every single female transported to Australia with a bonnet, by none other than Irish Scene’s own Fred Rea. Cobh heritage centre is to have a permanent bonnet memorial. A local newsletter published while we are there declared the Australia Day an overwhelming success with a message from the director of the cruise saying the reception was unrivalled in any the port on their route.. Of course Cobh was for a long time more associated with sending people out to Australia. Its geographical location - and the fact that it is the second deepest harbour in the world after Sydney Harbour - meant that is has long been connected to the transport of people and goods around the world. This includes of course the

period during which time criminals and trouble makers from Ireland were rounded up and despatched from this part of the Cork coastline. In 1847 during the Famine the British fortress was made a convict depot. It was used to hold thousands of people, including political prisoner John Mitchel, who would be sent on to Van Diemen’s land for agitating against the Crown in Ireland. A nationalist who formed the United Irishmen Mitchel was only on Spike for four days but the fort there was renamed in his honour when the island was handed back to the Irish after independence was won. I visited the island with my six year old son. Exploring the island we

discover a team of archaeologists at work on the prison’s graveyard. They are exhuming a skeleton, probably of a man during the Famine years who was to be transported to Australia (or possibly Bermuda) but who had died before this could happen. It is a remarkable scene to witness the remains of some poor soul from this era being removed from the ground as part of the archaeological project. They are certain there are about 150

prisoners buried in the graveyard but they are on the look-out for another 1,000 whose bodies they know are on the island, but not where and they are looking for those remains. On the second last day of our holiday the story about the surrogate parents from Bunbury, WA, who abandon baby Gammy in Thailand is

on the Morning Ireland radio show on RTE. It is the first I have heard of this but not the last. It is obviously a major story when we get back. And on the final morning in Ireland - again on the same current affairs and news programme the presenter is talking about the Rosetta space craft and its mission to rendezvous and then map the comet in deep space (about 6.5 billion ams away from the earth). I learn from the segment on the radio that the primary point of contact with the remote comet chaser is a ground station in New Norcia, the monastic settlement a 150km outside Perth, which had at least one Irish monk that I am aware of amongst those early pioneers and men of the cloth who set it up as a mission of a different kind, to convert and help the Aboriginal community in the outback areas around it. When we touch down in Perth it

feels in a sense that we have never fully been away from it. In talking with lots of other parents and people since then discover that many Irish people living and working here were back around the same time as us, like it has been one grand shared experience which the kids will hopefully remember forever. And I can’t help reflecting that while I was in Ireland I was conscious of being an Australian on different levels and that in Australia I feel Irish. Perhaps that is the way it should be.

International Rose of Tralee 2014 Philadelphia Rose, Maria Walsh, the was crowned Rose of Tralee 2014. The 27 years old is a native of Boston, Massachusetts but moved to the south Mayo village of Shrule in 1994. “My family will celebrate our 20th anniversary this year in Shrule”. Her father Vincent is from Carravilla, Roundfort, Co. Mayo but lived in Boston for a number of years. Her mother was born in Boston but moved to Leitir Mor in Connemara when she was seven and returned to Boston in her early twenties. “I have three siblings, all dotted across the globe. Kevin currently lives in Los Angeles, Eileen lives in Perth, Australia and Michael who lives in Galway. “I studied Journalism and Visual Media in Griffith College Dublin and graduated in 2009”. Maria, who ventured to the Big Apple in early 2010 before heading to Philadelphia in late 2011 is a Studio Manager for Anthropologie, a clothing and lifestyle brand. “I am an avid Gaelic player and supporter and play with the Notre Dames in Philadelphia”. Congratulations to Maria, from all the reports she is a beautiful lady with a very warm personality and a deserved winner.

An bhfuil spéis agat le Rang Gaeilge a mhúineadh? Caithfidh tú bheith i ngrá leis an teanga mar ní bheidh airgead ar bith agat ann. Tá beirt mhúinteoirí ag teastáil don bliain scoile ag tosú mí Feabhra – duine amháin don Bunrang agus duine eile don Ardrang. Bíonn na ranganna ar siúl faoi scáth Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann gach oíche Luain óna seacht go dtí a hocht a chlog in Áras na nGael i Subiaco. Le tuilleadh eolais a fháil, cuir glaoch ar Máire (0417 918 458) nó r-phost (uaranta.1@gmail.com).

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NORSEMAN TO BE REMEMBERED IN PHOTOGRAPHS Thanks to Claire...

Norseman is located 190 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie, 191 kilometres west of Balladonia, and 204 kilometres north of the Esperance coastline in Western Australia. The history of Norseman is very much tied to gold mining. Gold mining in the Norseman area began with the chance discovery of gold at nearby Lake Dundas in 1892. This was a time in Western Australia when there was a gold rush in Kalgoorlie following the discovery of The Golden Mile by Irishmen, Hannan, O’Shea and Flanagan. A gold rush soon began in Norseman. Today however the original Dundas fields now lay abandoned. According to local legend the town of Norseman was named after a horse. It is said that in 1894 a horse named “Hardy Norseman” was tethered to a tree for the night by its owner, Laurie Sinclair. Upon returning to his horse Sinclair had the good fortune to discover that “Norseman” had unearthed a gold nugget. Since then a statue has been erected in honour of Norseman - but not surprisingly it is only cast in bronze! Today Gold Mining continues to be a major activity with reports that the Norseman fields have produced over 5 million ounces of the precious yellow metal. Photographer Claire Weir has been tasked with creating a commemorative book for Norseman’s 120th anniversary in September. The Irish-born, Australian-based photographer has relocated to Norseman to capture life as it is now known and how it was then. Claire was approached to do the project after meeting Norseman locals in Holt Rock. She had never been to Norseman before embarking on the project. “I’ve always been interested in photography, after obtaining a degree in Photography in 2009 from the Institute of Art Design and Technology (IADT), Dun Laoghaire and I have been based in London and Perth working in various aspects of the industry. I’m fulfilling my life’s ambition really,” Claire said. Claire told us she picked up a camera when she left school and hasn’t looked back. “Over the last four years I’ve been doing my own project work around regional WA with the country and western music scene, so I have been down to a place called Holt Rock, which is near Hyden for the Westfield Country Music Club Biannual Hoe Down. I made friends there and photographed it and built a website for the club and made connections that way.” Claire initially thought she could complete the project from Perth, but soon decided she would need

to relocate to Norseman to truly capture the essence of the town. There she approached Central Norseman Gold, the town’s namesake mine and Australia’s longest running goldmine, to be involved. “[With] Central Norseman goldmine downsizing to maintenance and exploration operations... in mind and this being a pinnacle year for the town I approached the mining manager there and asked if they’d be interested in being involved [with me] and making a commemorative photograph of the employees this year”. Claire also had the opportunity to go underground and photograph there. “The project has kind of grown legs though, initially you have a small plan or goal to achieve a certain set of images, and then all of a sudden you get an opportunity to create something else. The most recent one was to see a gold pour and the process that is involved. For Clare that in itself has been a highlight; since she grew up in Perth she always had an association with goldmining as her father worked in the industry. “These are things you never think you’re going to do, but you always want to.” Claire has photographed at the Harlequin, Princess

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to do Norseman justice and give everybody the true characteristic of what it’s really about.” The coffee table book is going to be launched at the Gold Fever Festival in September 26th-28th , an event locals hope will help attracts tourism to the area. www.norsemangoldfever.com.au www.claireweir.com

ISTEACH SA TEACH Pollies talk about spuds and their own Irish roots Isteach sa Teach was back in Ireland for the month of July on a family holiday. The day we landed in Dublin airport the newspapers and the rest of the media were all about the Cabinet reshuffle that had just happened. Its not every day you find yourself confronting a new executive. In the shake-up of the government’s front bench there was a Perth connection. Former junior minister Allan Kelly (below) was elevated to the rank of Environment minister, a truly responsible and demanding job. Kelly was the government’s St. Patrick’s Day representative to Australia last year, which saw him spend some time in WA for the occasion. Isteach sa Teach met the then ministerial underling but not for quite long enough to be sure what to make of the Tipperary deputy, but the Irish people will have ample opportunity to know the measure of the man quite well as he heads up a number of major and important environmental initiatives and schemes, not least the introduction of water meters on every home in Ireland. Maybe he picked up some hints on how to squeeze every drops worth out of people while in Oz where we now find ourselves having to pay for water every two

months. It will be interesting to see if he returns to Australia again for the March 17 celebrations next year or if the current administration, headed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Joan Bruton, will deem to send another junior minister our way again. Watch this space. Meanwhile, back in the political sphere of WA we seem resolutely stuck with the current administration. It has been a relatively quiet period in the WA parliament, at least from an Irish perspective. In a debate about the deregulation of the potato market in the state it emerged the government pays a lot of attention to the potato and what happens to it. Speaking in Parliament on June 26 Labor Member of Parliament (MoP) for Butler, John Quigley (below) described the situation with some humour and made a personal link to the ordinary potato. “I cannot understand, with 80 commercial growers in Western Australia,” said MoP Quigley, ”why so much effort would be put into protecting this market. It is unbelievable. It was this government that sought to take the opposition to task over protecting retailers and

trading hours. The government said we had to open up trading hours and let the market, the people, decide. However, with potatoes, the government cannot let the consumers and the retailers decide. The Galati family and the Spudshed achieved a certain degree of infamy because they were being pursued for growing the humble potato as though they were growing and selling illicit substances. I remember, going back some years, when the raids carried out by the potato marketing board were on television. One would think that they were growing prohibited substances and not the humble spud.” Then the MoP chipped in (forgive the pun) with this offering. “Being of Irish stock, I do not know whether it is in our DNA, but I really do like my spuds and I would have them with nearly every meal—not all fluffed up as mashed potato with butter, cream and all that gunk in them, but just microwaved and spread with a bit of margarine and eaten with the skin on. I think potatoes are very healthy and a good way to take a bit of starch at a reasonably low GI—but that is another point.” Later the same day during a debate about the issue of synthetic cannabinoids Quigley said that

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a substance which the government and police had ordered to be a danger, was made by the same company that produced a number of novelty items including Instant Irish accent breath spray. Quigley said he was making a silly point to show that the government had no idea or control over what substances were being sold in the state. An MoP who would never need an Irish accent spray is the MoP for the Mining and Pastoral Region, Stephen Dawson (above). In a debate about education cuts in the budget Dawson revealed that he is a native Irish speaker, and Isteach sa Teach knows from having seen him in action on other occasions that he is handy with the Aboriginal language of the area he came to as a teenager. “As someone who comes from Ireland, Gaelic was my first language, so I think it is fabulous for young kids to learn languages early,” he said. “It is a great project. I visited the new Yawuru education centre. It is a fabulous little facility. It concerns me that those Yawuru language classes are in jeopardy as a result of funding cuts this year, not next year. It also concerned me when I was in Broome last week to hear that the Indonesian classes at one of the primary schools also are in jeopardy.” Finally, former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds (left) passed away in late August. Mr Reynolds, 81, who was a successful business man turned politician. Reynolds was arguably most instrumental in bringing about the Peace Process during his period in office but there is an Australian connection to his time in office as leader of the country. Reynolds was Taoiseach when Australian PM Paul Keating visited Ireland in 1993 and amongst other things the Irish leader took his counterpart to a GAA match in Croke Park. For his part, in a speech to the Dail, Keating reminded the House that only the year before then

President Mary Robinson had made what he called a famous tour of Australia. “Ireland is possibly unique in the world in the hold it has on the consciousness of other countries,” Mr Keating said. “I know when my predecessor, Bob Hawke, addressed this Parliament several years ago he spoke about the feeling he had when he arrived at Shannon airport — he said he felt as if he had come home. Bob Hawke (right) is nowhere near as Irish as I am; if Bob felt at home, it must be I never left. Many of the Irish who played leading parts in Tone’s rebellion of 1798 were transported to Australia, among them prominent leaders of the rebellion like Michael Dwyer, Joseph Holt, James Meehan and Michael Hayes. I might add that a concentration of 1798 veterans took up land to the south-west of Sydney in such numbers as to earn the place the name of Irishtown. It is now called Bankstown and it is where I was born, grew up and spent most of my life. It is my hometown and the heart of my political constituency, and the most obvious ethnic groups these days are Lebanese and Vietnamese.”

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Is there a bit of British in your background? GABA GUBU was fortunate enough to be back in Ireland on August 4, the date a hundred years ago when Britain declared war on Germany and World War 1 really got underway. The occasion was marked by all the Irish newspapers and there was a rash of documentaries and programmes on TV and radio about the Great War, and Ireland’s role in it. An estimated 200,000 men in Ireland alone joined up with British regiments and the tens of thousands in other countries, such as England itself, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the then Empire. Ireland was - like it or not - a part of the British Empire in 1914 when the conflict started. The prospect and promise of Home Rule was close at hand when hostilities between the big European powers started, and the Irish bid to self- determination was put on ice. It was precisely for this reason that so many young Irish men enlisted, they wanted to finish the job and do their bit. Approximately 60,000 of them never came home and many thousands that did return came home blind, crippled, shell shocked or some other hangover of the trauma they had experienced in the trenches. Many came home to a country which was coming to terms with the violence of the Easter Rising and the heavy handed response by the British Army. Because of these, and other factors (such as the use of demobbed and unemployed British soliders from England, who were hardened combat soldiers and not afraid to be cruel with it, to quell the Irish War of Independence) the legitimate sacrifice and service of Irish men with the same army that had retaliated

and terrorised the country became something that needed to be put away and forgotten about as quickly as possible. The new government of an independent Ireland rewrote its own version of the country’s history and in the blink of a collective eye families everywhere buried their WWI secrets and lived in trepidation of opening that can of worms for generations afterwards. That mentality had started to break down in recent years and hopefully the commemorations of the War will help speed up that process. It is not all that long ago that it was still considered a blot on the family name and a source of embarrassment for respectable Australian families to have had a convict ancestor and hide the fact away. Today most people are proud about or delighted to discover there is convict blood in the family tree and a connection back to the fledgling days of the building of Australia. Hopefully the same thing will happen on a widescale level as Irish families reclaim the military heritage of their predecessors. There may still be a little ways to go before this fully and finally happens, and there will always be an element that will not be in a mood for forgiveness. This was demonstrated at a war time ceremony in Glasnevin cemetery at the end of July. President Michael D Higgins and the Duke of Kent, accompanied by army units from both countries, unveiled a Cross of Sacrifice to the fallen Irish soldiers in the two world wars. (The Cross of Sacrifice is the first in the Republic but these monuments can easily be seen in Commonwealth war cemeteries here in Perth, and across the country). The event was

marked with the usual pomp and ceremony, flags and military music, speeches and wreath laying and solemn dignity you would expect from such a service. But for some it was more of a crucifixion party with jeers and taunts of “Shame” and “Brits Out” shouted into the proceedings from a small gaggle of Sinn Fein protestors who hurled the abuse through railings. They were loud enough to be heard and were obviously an irritant to the proceedings but where the hard core nationalistic republican voice used to dominate the debate it seems now to be reduced to a few shouty pests. Imagine the shoe on the other foot. If there was a group in the UK that yelled ‘Irish Out’ at a public event they would be classed as extremists and there would be outrage and claims of racism and discrimination against the Irish community. The Cross of Sacrifice represents the faith of the majority of the dead (Catholic, Protestant and other Christian beliefs) while a large bronze sword attached to the structure, represents the military link. It is seven metres tall and based on the original design of the Blomfield crosses - stands close to the graves of some of Irelands greatest leaders, including Charles Steward Parnell, Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins. It is also flanked by screen walls with the names of Irish people who died in the War to End All Wars, and the world war that followed it. It is highly likely that there will be men up there with the same surname as yours and a chance that one of them could be a relation of yours - even if you didn’t know it yet.

A Galway Workhouse Girl in Australia By Fred Rea

ome months ago, one of our readers Marian O’Donovan of Wanneroo sent me a newspaper cutting from the Connaught Tribune in Ireland. The story was about Mary Ann Taylor, an ancestor of Bill Marwick. This Irish Scene story stemmed from a visit Bill made to gathering at Portumna Workhouse early in 2014. Bill Marwick has had a profound influence on the Western Australian cities of Wanneroo and Joondalup. He and his wife, Bernice, started up the region’s first local newspapers

Mary Ann Taylor, c October 1852 Courtesy Bill Marwick

and they have played a major role in keeping the community interested and involved in what was happening in their neighbourhood. Bill was born in York in 1939. In the mid-1960s, Bill lived in Sorrento where he produced and published a small newsletter called Northern Beaches Community News. Local milkmen delivered the paper fortnightly to homes in Sorrento, Marmion, North Beach, Waterman and Trigg. Local community groups submitted notes and copy and local

business advertising funded the fledgling paper. In 1973, Bill and his wife Bernice moved to Wanneroo and in August 1974 they started Wanneroo’s first local newspaper the Wanneroo Community News with another couple Dale and Gladys Anderson. It quickly became a forum for local community groups and the Shire of Wanneroo to advise residents and ratepayers of council services and activities. I am a resident of Wanneroo too and Bill Marwick’s name is synonymous with the area. So I arranged a visit to Bill and asked about Mary Ann Taylor. He sat me in front of his computer and with the help of a power point presentation, told me the amazing story of a great lady. Following the telling of the story, I asked Bill if he knew Mary Ann and with a little emotion, said “Yes”. I can understand that because Bill has travelled the journey with Mary Ann and has done amazing research, travelling to Ireland and walking the roads that Mary Ann herself would have trodden. Mary Ann Taylor became “a gift” to her adopted country, with descendants including parliamentarians, war heroes, lawyers, mayors and journalists. So, who was Mary Ann Taylor and what kind of a life did she have? Her parents were Martin Taylor and Dorothy Fahey. Her marriage certificate revealed she was born in Castleblakeney just outside Ballinasloe and not Castleblaney in Co. Monaghan as was first thought to be the case. An 1834 Tithe document shows that her father Martin farmed a small plot of land on the ‘Course’ at Castleblakeney. Bill was able to establish that Mary Ann - his great great grandmother had travelled to Western Australia from the Mountbellew Workhouse. She arrived in Fremantle onboard

Bill Marwick

the Palestine sailing ship in 1853, just three years after the first convict ship had arrived in the colony. By this time (1850) some 4,175 orphan girls from work houses across Ireland had already been sent to the eastern clones. On her ship were 232 passengers, including 115 unmarried Irish women - including Mary Ann. It had sailed from Plymouth and taken 155 days and was often a rough passage - and was even feared lost at point. During the 22 week long voyage there were 12 deaths and six babies born. No doubt glad to be off the ship and back on solid ground Mary Ann walked the 60 miles to Toodyay through bushland. The arrival of the Palestine was recorded in a Perth newspaper in this way. “The single women by the Palestine, most of whom are from Ireland, have many of them been already engaged in private service at about £12 per annum; few of them have been ever before in service, but the good temper and willingness to do their best and be instructed in household duties, evinced by those Irish girls who arrived in the Travancore, has created quite an impression in their favour. The present importation consists of about sixty fine strong health young women”. In Toodyay, the 18 year old got married to Henry Batty (22) on November 29, 1853, at Hawthornden, Toodyay. Witnesses to the marriage were Chas Davis and Mary Ann Every (Avery) a former shipmate of Mary Ann’s on the Palestine. The wedding was performed by the resident magistrate JS Harris, in a Church of England ceremony. They had two children in Toodyay, William in 1855 and John in 1856. Then

on December 16 1856 Mary Ann of Mary Ann falling foul of the and Henry - a Ticket of Leave man law, when in August 1878 she was (former convict) - were remarried summoned to appear in the York in Perth, this time in a Catholic Court House for using “insulting, ceremony. Their witnesses for profane and abusive language” this occasion were Joanne Walsh towards another woman. A family friend, William Marwick and Mary Ann (Margaret) Egan, another former Mountbellew , who had arrived in Australia on the Workhouse girl. Their marriage is Sir Walter Raleigh in March 18528 ‘...offered to look recorded in Latin as: ‘The encouraging after Mary Ann “The marriage is legitimised between manner, in which these and her brood of children Henry Batty, immigrants have been young while Beard was Protestant and Mary accepted warrants in prison’. William Ann Taylor, Catholic.” my looking forward even petitions for The newly to the arrival of the a retrial of Beard, remarried couple went to Walebing, next shipload, which is but to no avail. Mary Ann and near New Norcia on expected daily.’ William developed the Victoria Plains Charles FitzGerald, Governor a long-lasting de in 1857 where they The Inquirer, Perth, April/May 1853 facto relationship. were employed They had six by Irish brothers Anthony O’Grady Lefroy and Gerald children, Webster born in October de Courcy Lefroy. Mary Ann and 1866 (died of consumption in Henry had a daughter there in 1858 December 1901), William Junior who is thought to have died soon was born in January 1868 (also died of consumption in 1902), Warren afterwards.

William Marwick and Mary Ann Taylor, c 1899 - Courtesy Bill Marwick

Henry was jailed in 1859 for stealing. Mary Ann then appears to have met Henry Beard, another Ticket of Leave man, and moved to York with him. This Henry had a wife and child in England but made no attempt to bring them to Western Australia. He and Mary Ann had two children, Maria (1860-1937), and a son, Alfred (1862-1930). Beard was convicted of sheep stealing in 1864, so Mary Ann was left alone again. There is only one known example

(1868-1955), Sarah (1872- 1960), Joseph Walker (1873-1940), and Thomas Amos born in January 1875. Though William was a Protestant, Mary Ann had all the children baptised in the Roman Catholic faith. In one four year period Mary Ann would lose three of her sons, John Batty, Webster Marwick and Willie Marwick. William was a successful landowner and business man. He was an unmarried workaholic who

This life-sized figure of Mary Ann Taylor is housed at the Castleblakeney Heritage Centre. With her is Mary’s great, great granddaughter Anne Hooper, of York.

had arrived in the colony in 1852. He was employed as a shepherd on Irish brothers Samuel, William and Lockyer Burges farm “Tipperary” near York. In 1860 he started a small farm and became a pioneer in the carrying and sandalwood industries. Four years later William buys his first lot of land through a deal with local merchant John Henry Monger. When gold is discovered in 1887 (at the Yilgarn) York becomes a major trading point on the route for the hordes seeking gold and the Marwick Brothers are formed. The Marwick Bros Estate was estimated to have 22,000 acres in 1905. William and Mary Ann married on 25 January 1906 in their home. Mary Ann died in July 1926 and had 55 grandchildren.... not bad for a poor orphaned Irish emigrant! Mary Ann has been recognised at her place of birth too and is today a permanent feature of the Castleblakeney Heritage Centre where a life size figure of her is on display and her story told. Maybe in the near future, Bill might come to the Irish Club and tell the whole story of Mary because there is so much to be told!

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www.facebook.com/perthcomhaltas Monday Night Session and Irish Language Classes

Cead Mile Failte and welcome to the Irish Scene Comhaltas Perth page....

Every Monday Comhaltas will get together at the Irish Club of WA (61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco) 7pm-8pm: Irish Language (Gaeilge) language classes 7.30pm-8pm: Slow Irish music session for beginners. 8pm-9pm: Irish music classes for people of all levels and instruments, so bring down your fiddles, banjos, whistles, mandolins or whatever you would like to learn to play and join in! From 9:30pm until late: Irish music session for anyone to join in or just listen and enjoy the live music!

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. We’re a non-profit cultural movement with hundreds of local branches around the world and we’ve been working for the cause of Irish music since 1951.

WHAT WE DO.... If you’re a student of Irish music, you might know about the music, dance and language classes that we teach. If you’re interested in learning the music, you might want to join us in The Irish Club every Monday from 7pm. For musicians who like to play socially, you might be interested in joining us and if you’re not sure, how about just coming along to listen. Comhaltas is an international movement with headquarters in Dublin. Comhaltas also reaches into local communities around Ireland and Centres worldwide. Of course, we’d love to hear from you if you have any questions about what it is that we do. So please feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Children’s Irish Music Lessons - Whistle & Fiddle Members from Comhaltas Perth teach classes every Sunday afternoon for children to learn the Irish whistle and the fiddle. Comhaltas is an organisation with branches all over the world dedicated to promoting and preserving the Irish culture through music, dancing and language. 3:00pm – 4:00pm every Sunday Afternoon - The East Victoria Park RSL Club, Fred Bell Parade, East Victoria Park - $12 for one single child and $7 for each additional child For more information please call Joan on (08) 9397 5152, email perthcomhaltas@gmail.com or head to www.facebook.com/perthcomhaltas

Martin Kavanagh Honorary Consul Of Ireland

Christmas travel to Ireland

They say Christmas comes earlier every year. If you are planning on returning to Ireland for Christmas please check that your passport has 6 months validity from the time of your intended travel. This time of year is a very busy period for the passport office so please get your application into the Perth Honorary Consulate as soon as possible. It is currently taking 6 to 8 weeks for passport renewals (longer for first passports). To get your passport earlier why not bring your photographs to us for ID. This will ensure there are no delays verifying your ID.

Don’t forget to transfer your visa to your new passport. It’s important to remember that when receive your new Irish

passport you must also contact the Australian Department of immigration (DOI) and fill out the necessary forms to have your visa transferred. For further information please see Form 929 on the DOI website at www.immi. gov.au

First time passports for Children

Please know that first time passports for children can take 8-12 weeks from the time of processing. Very strict identification procedures are required. It’s also worth noting that emergency passports are not issued to children who have not previously held a passport. None of us like to think of death or family emergency in Ireland. However, the reality is that these events do occur. Please prepare for such an emergency by ensuring your children’s passports are up to date.

2014 Australasian GAA Games and Irish Dancing Championships Good luck to all the WA teams in the forthcoming Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia Championships in Melbourne. And also best of luck to the Irish dancing competitors in the Australasian Irish Dancing Championships to be held in Canberra.

Well Done Sinead Perth Rose, Sinead Lehane was an excellent Western Australian representative at the 2014 International Rose of Tralee Festival. Welcome home Sinead and thank you for being a wonderful ambassador for our state.

Perth Office: 1/100 Terrace Road East Perth Western Australia 6004 - Tel: (08) 6557 5802 - Fax: (08) 9218 8433 Email: info@consulateofirelandwa.com.au - Website: www.consulateofirelandwa.com.au Office Hours: Mon-Fri 10.30 - 2.00pm by appointment only

Follow the Irish Embassy on Twitter: @irlembaustralia

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Local News of Interest from the Past

News Published Every Two Months RE SE ARC HE D

In this issue we reprint stories related to the Celtic Club in West Perth.... The Daily News Tues 12 July 1927

SYMPATHY IN PERTH

Condolence from Celtic Club Mr. J. Monaghan, President of the Perth Celtic Club, stated this morning that the tragic death of Mr. Kevin O’Higgins, Vice-President and Minister for Justice of the Irish Free State, was too painful to refer to. Tho club today despatched the following cable to President Cosgrave: ‘Celtic Club representing Irish sentiment in Western Australia shocked O’Higgins tragic end. Accept deepest sympathy. The West Australian 18 Feb 1908

THE CELTIC CLUB

To the Editor Sir, it would be interesting to know who the committee of the above club recognise as being Celts. The remains of that ancient race, which at one time appear to have inhabited the greater part of Central and Western Europe, are now scattered, and are found in Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, Highlands of Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ireland. The Celtic tongues are the Scotch, Manx, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. I have by me now a photograph of Dorothy Pentreath, a Penzance fisherwoman, the last person known to have spoken in Cornwall the Celtic language. I was under the impression the Irish in Western Australia were the only persons recognised as the true Celts by the club, hence my remarks.-Yours, etc., A CORNISHWOMAN. Perth The West Australian Sat 16 Feb 1918

THE RIGHTS OF SMALL NATIONS... A CELTIC CLUB MESSAGE

The following cable message, was sent on Thursday by the President of the Perth Celtic Club (Mr. D. Mulcahy) to President Wilson: ‘On behalf of the Irish community of Western Australia, I congratulate you upon your pronouncement with regard to the rights of small nations. We trust you will remember and include our motherland.”

FRED

REA

The West Australian Tuesday 17 September 1946

IRELAND’S FREEDOM SPEECH BY NEW ENVOY

Dr. Kiernan at Celtic Club Dr. T. J. Kiernan, first Eire Minister to Australia, and Mrs. Kiernan (none other than Delia Murphy) attended a reception at the Celtic Club yesterday before resuming their journey to Canberra. They arrived at Fremantle on Sunday on the Sarpedon. Replying to speeches of welcome by Mr. Walter Dwyer, former President of the State Arbitration Court and Mr. E. Needham, M.L.A., Dr Kiernan said that Ireland today was not over self-conscious in putting forward her present national claims. She had achieved everything she had hoped for except the ending of the present unfortunate partition. She had the same freedoms that were enjoyed in Australia. She also Photo: THE Irish Minister to Australia had a freedom which was typically (Dr. Kiernan) and Mrs. Kiernan. Irish - a freedom from materialism Irishmen tried to make careers for choosing such an eminent man as themselves, they tried to get on, Dr. Kiernan to be her but there was always some kind representative here, but there was of spiritual background which something reciprocal in this he was more important to them than thought Australia deserved the best material results. that Ireland could send. He believed that the reason the The history of Western Australia Prime Minister of Eire (Mr. De was full of the names of Irishmen Valera) had chosen him to come who had helped to build the State to Australia was that he wanted and Australia. One had only to look at someone with wide general the names of the men who blazed the experience. tracks in the goldfields and founded Dr. Kiernan spoke of his years in fortunes for others to realise this. England, France and Italy, as well as These and others had done much at the Vatican, as having influenced to help lay the foundations of Mr. De Valera in choosing him. Australia’s prosperity. If Perth were typical of Australia Mr. Needham said that wherever as a whole, he said, he did not Dr Kiernan went throughout know how he and his wife would Australia he would find Irishmen ever get back to Ireland. and the sons of Irishmen among the The president of the Celtic Club leaders in the arts and literature, at (Mr. D. Williams) introduced Dr. the Bar on the Bench and in politics. Kiernan to club members and In recent years when Australia had asked found herself in danger of invasion Mr. Walter Dwyer and Mr. it was the son of an Irish man, John Needham to propose the health of Curtin, who was at the head of the the Minister and his wife. State and he had guided his country Mr. Dwyer said that Ireland had to victory. paid a compliment to Australia in

the policy of physical force, Instead of constitutional methods for having Ireland’s wrongs redressed, but there could be no two opinions about the patriotism and self-sacrifice of such men as Messrs. Duggan and Kiely (Cheers,) There was no doubt whatever that the Fenian movement was the prelude to the success of the Home Rule agitation, He was exceedingly glad to meet those two members of the Brotherhood, and hoped they would be spared for many years to come. Tho toast was drunk amid loud cheers. Mr Duggan expressed his thanks for the honour which had been done to his comrade and himself and said he would never forgot the kindness that had been shown them on this occasion. Mr Kiely also responded. Mr. Thomas Duggan is 83 years of age. The committee hopes to be in a position to carry out his wishes and to send him to his relatives In Ireland next month. Some of them reside at Ballinhassig County Cork, where Mr, Duggan was schoolmaster at the time of his arrest. He has been an exile in West Australia for nearly 38 years. Mr. James Kiely is 77, and it is probable that he will prefer to spend the rest of his life in this State. Another of the exiles who is living in the cottage, Patrick Kileen, is about 60 years of age, and a native of Queen’s County.

The Catholic Press Thursday 20 April 1905

Fenian Exiles in West Australia

They Meet Mr. Redmond After the civic reception of Mr. William Redmond by the Mayor and Councillors of Perth, a large party of gentlemen assembled at the Perth Celtic Club to do honour to Messrs Thomas Duggan and James Kiely, two of the Fenian prisoners who were transported to West Australia with John Boyle O’Reilly In 1867. There were amongst those present the four members of the committee through whose exertions a cottage for the accommodation of the exiles has been erected at Mary Street, North Perth, and where they now reside— Messrs, M .O’Dea, M. O’Doheny, P.J, O’Connor and J, Grattan Grey. Mr. Duggan was introduced to Mr. Redmond by Mr. Grattan Grey and Mr. Kiely by Mr. O’Dea. Mr Redmond expressed the delight he felt in meeting much self-sacrificing patriots as Messrs Duggan and Kiley. Mr. P. J. O’Connor proposed the health of Messrs, Duggan and Kiley, Mr. Redmond, in supporting tho toast, expressed the pleasure he felt at the Irishmen of West Australia looking after these two old gentlemen, and seeing to their wants. It was a trait of Irishmen to take care of those who had rendered service to their country, and to him it was a most pleasing recollection that he was one of those who saw the late Mr, James Stephens installed in the house which had been provided for him by his countrymen. There were differences of opinion as to

The Wesleys And The Rise Of Irish Methodism

harles Wesley was arguably the most prolific hymn writer ever, with over 6,500 compositions to his credit. His hymns enabled not only his followers to sing their faith, but also to learn more about it through singing. It is generally well known that during the second

John Wesley

half of the 18th century, Charles, and brother John, reinvigorated the spiritual landscape of England. What is not so well regognised is that they also helped establish the doctrine and practices of Methodism in Ireland. John and Charles were two of 19 children born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley. John was born in 1703, and Charles four years later. Their father, Samuel, was a Church of England rector, although apparently not a very popular one. His attempts to correct the loose living of his parishioners were often unappreciated, and, on more than one occasion his rectory was set on fire. During one such incident, young John had a miraculous escape from

the flames, leading Susanna to believe that God had a special purpose for the boy. John was later fortunate to receive financial support from the Duke of Buckingham to be educated at the prestigious Charterhouse School. He subsequently obtained a scholarship to Christ Church College, Oxford. By 1728 he had been ordained into the Church of England, and later took up religious duties at Oxford’s, Lincoln College. Charles Wesley followed his elder brother to Christ Church, and soon the two brothers formed a small Bible study group. In addition to debating religious matters, they also undertook charitable works and visited local prisons. Their activities soon attracted the notice of other students, who derisively dubbed them, ‘Bible moths’, ‘The Holy Club’ and ‘Methodists’. This last sobriquet mocked their methodological approach to Christian devotion and charity, sarcastically suggesting that they relied more on method than on faith. It was however, a title which the Wesleys and their companions accepted with some pride – and it stuck. In 1735 Charles Wesley was also ordained into the Church of England, and, after a stint in America, he and brother John returned to England in 1738. Following an ‘evangelical conversion’ in a Moravian Chapel, the preaching styles of both John and Charles were transformed. As a result, the brothers became convinced of the value of ‘field preaching’, and proceeded to embark on tours of England and Wales, preaching in village squares and other open air venues. Seeking to further spread the gospel, John Wesley paid his first visit to Dublin in August 1747,

By John Hagan

Charles Wesley

unaware that a Methodist Society was already meeting in the city. British regiments, which formed the garrison in Ireland, recruited their junior officers from amongst the English working class which had readily embraced, and adopted, Methodist teachings. When these soldiers were posted to Ireland they set up a Methodist Society to meet their own spiritual needs. On Sunday 9 August 1747, John Wesley landed at George’s Quay just in time to attend a Church of Ireland morning service at St Andrew’s Church. Later that day he preached his first sermon in Ireland at St Mary’s Church. Most of his meetings, however, were staged at a former Lutheran chapel in Great Marlborough Street. This building could hold about 400 people and Wesley estimated that another 2000 could stand in the forecourt to hear his sermons and sing hymns. On 24 August, Wesley returned to England, heartened by his Irish reception. To consolidate his work, he quickly dispatched Charles, who remained in Ireland from September 1747 until March 1748, preaching and evangelizing in both Dublin and Cork. John continued his visits to Ireland until 1789. Over that period, he made 21 trips, amounting to about five and a half years in total. In 1748 he made his first journey to Connacht, preaching in Aughrim, Co Galway. A year later he journeyed to Munster, speaking in Cork, Brandon and Limerick. 1756 saw him in Ulster, where he ministered in Newry, Lisburn, Rathfriland, Ballymena and Belfast. The only Irish counties John Wesley failed to visit during his entire Irish perambulations were Roscommon and Kerry. Despite his extensive journeys,

Wesley should not be considered a pathfinder because both he, and Charles, only went where a Methodist presence had already been established. Most of the pioneering work in Ireland was undertaken by local Irish preachers and Methodist converts, while the brothers’ main contribution was that of oversight and encouragement. Despite their success, all was not plain sailing for the Wesleys in Ireland. Archbishop Cobbe, head of the Church of Ireland, preached many sermons antagonistic to the work of John and Charles, while the Church of Ireland Archdeacon of Waterford described the Methodists as “grievous wolves”. The Church of Ireland also issued pamphlets castigating the Wesleys’ work. This reaction was no doubt motivated by a perceived threat, and a fear that Methodist enthusiasm for social justice might disturb the ecumenical and political status quo. Despite this harassment by the Church of Ireland, the Wesleys never faltered in their support and affection for all things Anglican. Many Irish magistrates, who were generally Church of Ireland parishioners or church office holders, assisted in the harassment of Methodists by refusing to prosecute the deviants who physically attacked preachers or disrupted gatherings. On one occasion in Clonakilty, the magistrate jailed Methodist, Thomas Walsh, when he contravened a directive not to preach in the town. Walsh, however, was able to overcome his predicament by addressing the assembled crowd through the bars of his cell. In a number of instances, the presence of the Wesleys and their followers led to mob violence. In 1773, John Wesley wrote to brother Charles: “I have been in two mobs since I came into Ireland, one in the South and one in the North”. Following a sermon on the Bowling Green in Waterford, on 25 April (1773), trouble makers roughed up some of those attending,

and the following month in Enniskillen, Wesley was himself pelted with stones. Unlike one of his colleagues, John Smith, Wesley suffered no real harm during the assault. In 1774, while on his way to address a meeting outside Enniskillen, the unfortunate Smith was attacked by a local bailiff wielding a pitchfork. He was so badly wounded that he died a few days later – the first Irish Methodist martyr. It was not in the Irish cities, among craftsmen and shopkeepers, that the Wesleys exerted their greatest influence, but in the rural areas, amongst the tenants and labourers. Despite all their evangelistic efforts, during the 42 years from 1747 until 1789, the membership of Methodist societies rose to just over 14,000, with the greatest concentration of these being in the ‘linen triangle’, just south of Lough Neagh (Northern Ireland). Vigorous Methodist communities were also firmly established in West Cork and North Tipperary. Failure to leave a greater numerical footprint in Ireland may be attributed to political and cultural reasons. The Wesleys, and their preachers, were initially English, and spoke no Irish. Their appeal to Irish Catholics, who conversed in Irish was therefore minimal. The cultural barrier of language was a factor never really appreciated by either John or Charles. On a number of occasions, John Wesley was asked to attend services in Presbyterian churches and Quaker meeting houses. He always refused. As an ordained Church of England priest, he felt that he had no business attending worship services of other denominations. In 1789, John Wesley paid his last visit to Ireland and died in March 1791, just three months short of his 88th birthday. His younger brother, Charles preceded him, dying in March 1788.

My GPS I have a little GPS I’ve had it all my life It’s better than the normal ones My GPS is my wife It gives me full instructions Especially how to drive “It’s 60 K’s an hour”, it says “You’re doing 85” It tells me when to stop and start And when to use the brake And tells me that it’s never ever Safe to overtake It tells me when a light is red And when it goes to green It seems to know instinctively Just when to intervene It lists the vehicles just in front And all those to the rear And taking this into account It specifies my gear. I’m sure no other driver Has so helpful a device For when we leave and lock the car It still gives its advice It fills me up with counselling Each journey’s pretty fraught So why don’t I exchange it And get a quieter sort? Ah well, you see, it cleans the house, Makes sure I’m properly fed, It washes all my shirts and things And - keeps me warm in bed! Despite all these advantages And my tendency to scoff, I do wish that once in a while I could turn the friggin’ thing off!

A Corker of a day By Mike Bowen After some time in Spain, the time had come for us to re-connect with my home town Cork with the help of Aer Lingus our national carrier. Somehow I always feel snug as soon as I step onto that big green bird with the Shamrock on its tail. My first day and a half back home was all about catching up with friends and family while trying to knock down the odd pint here and there along the way (Cork is great for the sport of pub crawling, they should make it an Olympic event). Then it was then down to serious shopping as I needed a classy outfit for the big occasion.  The occasion for me to be in Cork this time is both special and historical. When I grew up in Ireland, Cork was a very hush, hush and prejudiced society. I am not being disrespectful to the people of the time but that’s just how it was then,

because society did not recognise same sex relationships and I was one of those who knew no better. This time for me in Cork it was all about change. My wife, her friend Merelyn and I were invited to attend the civil partnership ceremony (wedding) of same sex couple Michael Mulcahy and his partner of eighteen years Jonathan Smith. The ceremony was held in the Cork Vision Centre in North Main St. The Vision Centre

is the decommissioned Church or St Peter’s that is celebrating 750 years. The best man for the day was Dr Gerald Kean, well known lawyer to the rich and famous and the Best Lady was T.V. celebrity Lisa Murphy. The very long guest list included Cork’s Lord Mayor Cll Mary Shields and her husband Michael also the mayor of the county of Cork Alan Coleman and his partner Ms Yvonne O’Mahony. Five members of the Irish Government attended as did eight diplomatic representatives from various countries, even the Queens representative His Excellency Mr Dominic Chilcott, The British Ambassador to Ireland found his way on to the guest list, while his presence then required that there be special security arrangements in place. This was the first time in 750 years that a civic partnership ceremony was held in St Peter’s. The sun shone brightly out of the heavens for the occasion, to mark the start to an amazing day for Michael and Jonathan.  Everyone was pleasantly surprised when Michael and Jonathan decided to walk from St Peter’s to The Imperial Hotel where the reception was being held, instead of using the fleet of cars that was on hand. The happy couple stopped along the way to meet, greet and shake hands with onlookers while also thanking well-wishers, they also dropped in to some of the shops along the way to meet with owners and their staff for a brief chat. To outdo the Queen’s visit to 50

Cork recently, M&J also visited the stall owners in the English Market to thank them for their support. Finally arriving at The Imperial Hotel to a rousing reception and lead in by a lone piper, the tone was set for one cracker of a celebration and so the Champers flowed on and into the early hours of the following morning as did the first class entertainment. The Imperial is Cork’s oldest Hotel and managed by Joe Kennedy who had the hotel looking its finest and displayed why it is full of grace and class for occasions like this. All that was left now was for me and my two other weary travelling companions was, to wish the newlyweds farewell the next morning, while nursing the day after effects of a great day spent celebrating a historic occasion. My! My! How great it is to return all those years later and see how Cork has embraced change. Now it was time to grab a cab, jump on another train this time from Cork to Dublin. Then it was back on the Qantas big bird for the long-haul back over the Equator to Melbourne. Hopefully this time I won’t have the usual ten day jet-lag hangover. You can catch me on mike@globefins.com.au

by Lloyd Gorman Ireland’s reputation as the country of a hundred the reality of the first people according to Kevin Rudd, thousand welcomes is well known and the Cead Mile who was PM at the time. “It’s taken 41 parliaments to Failte is a part of the traditional Irish experience that get here,” said Rudd. “We can be a bit slow sometimes, visitors expect to find when they get there. but we got here. When it comes to Parliaments of the But Australia too has its own method of putting on future, this will become part and parcel of the fabric of a reception for visitors, one which more and more of the our celebration of Australia in all of its unity and all of thousands of Irish people moving or coming to Australia its diversity.” This was all after his apology to Australia’s are bound to experience as they spend more time here. Indigenous People which was well received. The opening of festivities for last year’s St. Patricks’ Day Some aboriginal leaders have come out and said the Parade and cultural festival in Leederville for example welcome to country is not something they do in their included a Welcome to Country ceremony by people communities and that it is made up for the benefit of from the Noongar community, the those that think it is the kind of Indigenous and spiritual owners of the thing that would be traditional to I would like to land on which much of WA - including their culture. acknowledge Perth - stands. The Welcome to Country As it happens two Aboriginal the Traditional is performed by Indigenous people men from WA have laid claim to Owners of the and can be made up of speech, song, being the modern day ‘authors’ dance and even the burning of native of the welcome to country land on which we vegetation. Non indigenous peoples can ceremony. Actor Ernie Dingo are gathered and give an acknowledgement of country and his pal, Perth performer pay my respects to which similarly recognises and respects and writer Richard Walley said their Elders both the past, present and future owners of the ceremony was based on the traditional custodians of the land. We something in Aboriginal culture past and present. know from archaeological evidence that but was created anew in response the Noongar people have lived here for as much as 50,000 to a cultural chasm that opened up before them in the years which puts the 227 years of European settlement in 1970’s. Australia, and 185 years since the formation of WA as a According to Dingo there was a custom for Aboriginal colony in the chronological shade. people to “get the sweat from under their arms and rub What is less certain are the origins of the Welcome down the side of your shoulders so any spirits around can to Country ceremony itself. There is a line of thinking smell the perspiration or the odour of the local, and say, that it has been a part of the Aboriginal customs and he’s right, leave him alone”. cultural system for thousands of years and an opposing In 1976 Dingo and Dr Walley were performing at view that it is a modern contrivance. Both cases may a tourism event in Perth with the Middar Aboriginal be equally correct, or not as the case may be. I am Theatre. According to the men visiting dancers from only making an educated guess if I’m honest. It is not New Zealand and the Cook Islands refused to perform possible to disprove that the native people of Australia unless they were culturally welcomed to put on the did not have such ceremonies and rituals in their daily display. lives, or for special occasions. Aboriginal people have “I went and spoke to my elders and said these people an oral tradition beyond anything else that exists in the want a welcome,” said Dr Walley. “They said that was a world and a colourful set of cultural and Dreamtime right and proper thing . . . please do it for them. So I did. practices. If they had ceremonies for other events and I did a welcome.” Dr Walley thought it was the first time occasions is it such a stretch that Aboriginal peoples, who that anything quite like this had been done. After this are known to have travelled hundreds if not thousands of impromptu invitation was put together in Perth, similar miles by foot, would have a routine as entertainment and activities mushroomed in other parts of Australia. Today a cultural exchange with others who would traverse their it is a familiar sight at major events and important lands? functions on the national stage or even at community From an official and administrative point of view, based gatherings. There isn’t much appetite for making the Welcome to Country is something new. The first Welcome to Country ceremonies mandatory but it might ceremony of this type at the opening of a parliament in be a nice idea to have them laid on as part of citizenship Australia was just six years ago, in Canberra. Finally the ceremonies, to show newbie nationals the other side of Westminster style of democracy was catching up with the country’s culture. 51

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.

Start enjoying this great Club and become a member today!

IRISH RACE DAY AT BELMONT Some days are luckier than others…. And the luckiest of all

is Irish Day at the races – the day the craic comes to Belmont Park on October 4th. Celebrate the best of Ireland, with an exciting 8-race programme, traditional live music and Irish dancers, and authentic

Irish cuisine. So whether you’re Irish, a little bit Irish, or just wish you were Irish – Celebrate Irish Day at Belmont Park Racecourse! Gates Open - 9.00am General Admission - $15 Concession - $10 Children U/16 - Free Tote, Bar, Restaurants, Bars & Book Maker facilities available on course. To make a table booking, call Chris Lovelle on 9277 0757

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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.

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.

TNO

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.

VEN

Location

Bar & Restaurant

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.

Membership

Doing Business

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.

History:

A: 48 Ord Street, West Perth, WA 6005 P: Phone (08) 9322 2299 E: Email: celtic.club@bigpond.com F: Fax (08) 9322 2899 W: www.celticclubperth.com

Tony O’Gorman’s change of Lifestyle.... Former Member of Parliament for Joondalup, Tony O’Gorman, has been appointed to the position of Club Development Officer (Sport and Recreation) for the Shires of Dandaragan, Gingin and Coorow. He will be based at the Shire of Dandaragan Administration Centre in Jurien Bay with regular visits to both the other Council areas. “I am looking forward to meeting and developing good relationships with the clubs and organisations within the three shires” Tony said. Tony and his wife Bernadette emigrated from Ireland to Perth in 1981 and have raised their family there. They have three adult children Charles, Jessica and Samantha as well as two grandchildren Nadija and Oscar. All of whom will be regular visitors to Jurien Bay. The family started visiting Jurien Bay about fifteen years ago and purchased a block in the Beachridge subdivision five years ago. The intention was to build a holiday house and eventually retire in Jurien Bay. This position has moved that schedule up and they hope to commence building early in 2015. The position of Club Development Officer will require Tony to visit all clubs within the three local government areas over the next six months. Tony will be organising workshops and information sessions to help sporting and recreation groups to develop good governance and build membership over the coming months. Tony can be contacted at the Shire of Dandaragan Administration Centre 08 9652 0800 or email: clubdo@dandaragan.wa.gov.au

Focus on learning or expanding on your “cúpla focal” in an interactive learning environment. Irish language classes for groups and individuals, young and old. Private classes taking place in your home or in Innaloo. Classes commence October 2013. Contact Caitríona Durham 0414 070 477 or visit www.facebook.com/cupla.focal.5

Ma’ Mooney

Bernadette and Tony O’Gorman

The Shire of Dandaragan comprises of four townships; Jurien Bay, Cervantes, Badgingarra and Dandaragan. Situated approximately 200 kilometres north of Perth and covering an area of 6,716 square kilometres, the Shire of Dandaragan has a lot to offer both residents and visitors. The Shire is the pinnacle of the Turquoise Coast, with pristine beaches ideal for swimming, snorkelling, diving, fishing and windsurfing within Jurien Bay and Cervantes whilst the towns of Badgingarra and Dandaragan offer beautiful national parks with native flora and fauna, bush walks, unique Australian wildflowers and farming land. With its Mediterranean climate, the area offers a relaxed lifestyle capturing the best of both the beach and inland landscapes. The summer months (December, January and February) are hot and maximum temperatures can reach 40c. Rainfall in the district ranges from 600mm in the coastal areas to 350mm in the inland area in the winter months (June, July and August) when the temperatures drop considerably.

Go maire sibh bhur saol nua. “May you enjoy your new life.” 53

Est 2012

Irish Sandwich Bar Shure as the Lever Lads used to say...

“if you don’t like it we’ll gladly give you

your money back”

251 Hay St, East Perth PHONE ORDERS

9221 4872 OPENING HOURS: Mon - Fri 7am - 2pm Sat - Sun 8am - 12noon (Breakfast Only)

By Lloyd Gorman

Father Ted 20th anniversary coming up

It is hard to imagine but next year it will be 20 years since Father Ted first hit our screens. It was only made between 1995 and 1998 when, Dermot Morgan, aka Fr Ted Crilly, died suddenly at the age of 45, not long after they had shot the third season. So it is always a pleasure to catch an episode on the box and remember just how great it was. Channel 7Two showed the first episode ‘Good luck, Father Ted’ on June 23. Its the episode where Faith of our Fathers rings the parochial house and wants to interview the priest there. Ted tries to hog the limelight by saying there are no other priests on the island (despite the religious TV show having a record of them). A funfair also comes to the island. Plenty of silly shenanigans as you might expect. More comedy on June 26, with a double helping of Mrs Browns Boys on 7Digital. Watching one episode of MBB is probably as much as you can endure if you don’t enjoy it but

a double bill is probably brilliant if you do. On July 3 there is a double helping of this comic duo, with one Father Ted on 7Two and two MBB - including one with Joe Duffey in it - on that night. Interestingly on June 26 there was a documentary about Lyman Frank Baum who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Baum was a prolific writer but his first success was a play that would go on to tour from New York called The Maid of Arran, a melodrama set to music about a family on the west coast of Ireland. Buam was of German, English and Scots Irish descent and that was the only Irish themed work he would ever write. Telly Nation Telly Station was back in Ireland for July and the start of August. Bill O’Herlihy stepped down and did the decent thing by retiring in mid July, after nearly 50 years on the box, mainly banging on about football and sports or at least prompting his usual

line of guests to say something interesting by lobbing questions at them. I am not convinced this is the last Irish audiences will see of O’Herlihy however. Gay Bryne, for example, is still appearing on RTE with alarming consistency. It is 15 years since he last presented the Late Late Show - which itself had been on air since 1962 with Gaybo at the helm. Since he retired Byrne has fronted or hosted a string of new shows on RTE one. The meaning of Life and For One Night Only are the latest in this line of projects which seem to me to be personal pet projects for Byrne. Its hard to say if he is addicted to being on RTE, or if RTE is hooked on him, but either way there seems to be some sort of unhealthy dependence at work here. If Byrne was at one time and for a long time the undisputed talk show and broadcast king of Ireland those days are long behind him. His manner on screen is arrogant and self indulgent and pompous. Christy Moore was fantastic, genuine and entertaining on the One Night Only that I saw, but Byrne was smug and irritating. No one could take away from his obviously distinguished broadcasting career and longstanding legacy but shouldn’t it now be time for him to stand

aside and allow some new talent to come up behind him? For as long now as anyone can remember probably even Gay Byrne himself - RTE has always shown a film - usually an old war classic or biblical spectacle - on a Sunday afternoon. On August 3 RTE 1 screens The Blue Max, a World War I movie about fighter pilots in bi-planes. It has an excellent cast and is quite a good flick - Kiwi director of Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson ranks it as one of the top all time WWI films. It was filmed entirely in Ireland (mainly in and around Dublin) in the mid 1960’s and the production of this war film is worthy of an article in its own right. A small drop of nostalgia wells up as I remember watching this well made movie as a boy and being told by my own father that he remembers when he was a lad watching the dog fight scenes being filmed in the skies over the skies of Kildare while caddying at the Curragh golf club. Father Ted was on RTE 2 that night, good to see it is still being run at home, as well as overseas. Back in Australia now and on August 10, 7MATE continues with its coverage of the 2014 GAA football and hurling championships which is well watched by all accounts. On Sunday morning August 17 am up early with the kids when a new Australian cartoon called The Skinner Boys comes on Channel Nine, adventure cartoon about four teenagers who hold the fate of the world in their hands. Irish company Telegael, based in Barna, Connemara, are partners on this Aussie production, and yet another example of how creative Irish firms are making an international splash, especially in the growing market of children’s programming. This is the latest in a long line of successful cartoons to originate or incorporate Irish story telling talent. Also based in Galway, is Ireland’s Irish language station. TG4 is one of the many European TV companies and broadcasters involved in the making of “14 diaries of the Great War” on SBS1 on Friday nights during August. This compelling documentary series takes the accounts of civilians, soldiers, politicians and others who lived through the war to give a first hand account of the events and experiences of people at the time. A really worthwhile exercise, particularly at this time of commemoration of the war. Finally, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was also on SBS3. Adams was the main guest for an episode of The Bible series, in which he looked at and followed the life of Jesus Christ and his own life. The prospect of Adams talking about Jesus caused a stir when the

programme was first made a couple of years ago and upset the families of victims of IRA killings and violence. If you can separate that element , and the man’s politics, you are left with some fascinating insights into a controversial figure who is obviously very intelligent, articulate and provocative.

Have I told you about my wife Mary?

Several days Mary left a meeting and desperately gave herself a personal search. She was looking for her car keys. They were not in pockets or purse. A quick search in the meeting room revealed nothing. Suddenly she realised she must have left them in the car. Frantically she told me, she headed for the car park. Now lads let me tell you I have scolded Mary many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. Her theory is the ignition is the best place not to lose them. My theory is that the car will be stolen. As she scanned the car park she came to a terrifying conclusion! My theory was right. The car park was empty. She immediately called the Garda. She gave her location and confessed to the Garda: “I have left my keys in the car, and that it had been stolen, he’ll kill me”. Then I made the most difficult call of all, to my mobile. “Hello my Love”, she stammered; she always call me “My Love” when she is in trouble. “I left my keys in the car, and it has been stolen.” There was a long period of silence. She thought the call had disconnected, but then heard my barking voice. “I dropped you off!” Now it was my time to be silent. Embarrassed, she replies, “Well, please come and get me.” I retorted, “I will, as soon as I can convince this Garda I have not stolen your fekkin car.” Now this is what they call, “a senior moment”.

Dining Guide

Sponsor: Northside Meats with Danielle O’Leary

Changes at the Woodvale Tavern make it even better..... Especially for the family! My sister and I turned up to the Woodvale Tavern, Trappers Dr, Woodvale on a cold, wintery week night. I thought, considering the weather, the place would be empty; it was the opposite! The Woodvale Tavern offers a variety of events every week, from Quiz Night and Steak Night on Wednesdays, to Poker Night on Thursdays and live music across the weekend. The atmosphere was perfect – the restaurant was filled with families creating a welcoming ambience. We were hungry, and knew as we saw dishes arrive at nearby tables that we would be definitely satisfied. The servings at The Woodvale Tavern are generous. With a quick glance over the dessert menu, we decided to do a main meal and dessert. Considering there were only two of us at dinner, the big starters would have proved quite the effort! The Tasting Plate in particular, with mini prawn cocktail, homemade chicken liver pate, chorizo, marinated olives, salt and pepper squid, toasted Turkish bread and house dips looked the winner. The menu is extensive, with hearty meals to pizzas to pub classics and reasonably priced kids meals (all $12). Selecting a

meal was difficult – I tossed up between the slow braised beef cheeks in a red wine and herb gravy, dauphinoise potatoes, green beans and horseradish sauce and the Moussaka, layered eggplant, spinach, zucchini, napoletana sauce, creamy topping, parmesan and walnut crust. In the end, I chose neither and went for one of the specials. Listed as Chicken Maryland, the meal was nothing like I knew an Irish Chicken Maryland to be (thankfully!). The Woodvale’s interpretation of Chicken Maryland is seared chicken marinated in lemon, thyme and garlic served with steamed broccoli, crushed herb potato cake and café de Paris butter. It was incredible; the chicken was flavoursome and perfectly cooked and that potato cake was so refreshingly fresh and light to anything I have had in Perth. My sister ordered the Beef and Guinness Pie, made in traditional fashion with hand cut chips and green beans. It was great to see such a hearty pie on a menu, and the meat was so tender and delicious. I told her I had to help her eat a lot of it for the sake of the review – she was not impressed! For dessert, we shared the homemade Sticky Date Pudding

topped with butterscotch sauce, served warm with vanilla bean ice cream. With other options from homemade Belgian Chocolate Brownie to Apple and Blackberry Crumble, the $9 desserts are some of the best value I have seen for a very long time. The Sticky Date Pudding was perfect – soft, warm and with generous amounts of ice cream. It was easy to tell it was home made as it had a genuine flavour and freshness, which so many desserts in restaurants lack. The Wine List at the Woodvale Tavern is impressive, with glass prices starting at $6.50 to $9.50. I cannot remember the last time I saw a glass of wine under $10 in Perth! A bottle is good value too, averaging between $22 - $34. There are a lot of different West Australian wines on the list, and it is great to see smaller wineries with such a great presence in Perth! The Woodvale Tavern has changed a lot since I was last there – whatever changes they have made in the kitchen has worked very well. The service of those in the restaurant is faultless – the women were chatty, friendly and very welcoming. The Woodvale Tavern is the ideal place to bring your family, especially if you are all hungry!

McLoughlin Butchers Malaga Proud Supporters of the Irish Scene Drop in and see our range of Irish prepared meats mcloughlinbutchers.com.au Like us on facebook

Lemon Tart

with Marguerite O’Dwyer The Cure Tavern Irish bar & restaurant

Chicken Quesadilla with sour cream and tomato salsa Ingredients 200g cooked chicken 2 10” flour tortillas 2 tsp ground cumin 5 tblsp chopped coriander 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese ½ sour cream 3 tomatoes (diced) ½ red onion, finely chopped Juice of 1 lime 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 5 tsp olive oil

1. Mix the chicken, cheese, cumin and half of the coriander together in a bowl. 2. Lay out the two tortillas and divide the chicken mixture between the two, but leaving half of each tortilla clear so as to allow you to fold one side over the other. 3. Rub each side with olive oil and gently cook on a non-stick pan, turning carefully once you get a golden colour. Place in a pre-heated oven for 6 minutes. 4. When the quesadilla is in the oven, combine the diced tomato with lime juice, chopped garlic, chopped red onion and the remaining coriander. 5. Season to taste and add olive oil. 6. Season and taste again. 7. Remove the quesadilla from the oven, cut into squares and serve with a ramekin of sour cream and a generous spoonful of the tomato salsa.

Ingredients Serves 6 210g flour 85g icing sugar 1 egg 125g butter 25g ground almonds 200g lemon juice 5 whole eggs 250g caster sugar 350g butter 1 leaf gelatine

1. In a bowl cream together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy 2. Add in the ground almonds, the egg & flour and bring the mixture together 3. Wrap in cling film and allow resting for 10min. 4. Roll out the sweet pastry on a lightly floured surface. Place in a pre-greased pastry case and trim with the back of a knife 5. Let the pastry rest in a case in the fridge for 15 minutes to prevent shrinkage during cooking. Encase some beans in some parchment paper and place in the pastry case. Blind bake in a preheated oven at 170oC for 15 minutes. Take the beans out of the shell, and bake for a further 10 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool. 6. Meanwhile, place the gelatine to soak in a bowl of cold water. Pour the lemon juice into a saucepan and add the eggs and sugar. Whisk over a gentle heat for approximately 5 minutes without allowing the liquid to boil. Remove from the heat add the gelatine (squeeze to remove any excess water). Add the butter and stir until well combined. 7. Pour over the baked pastry and set aside until needed. 8. Sift some icing sugar over the surface of the tart and place under a preheated grill. 9. Serve with freshly whipped cream Marguerite O’ Dwyer The Cure Tavern Irish bar & restaurant

10 things you should know about Beara in Ireland

1. The Beara Peninsula was named after a Spanish princess, Princess Beara. 2. The warmest place in Ireland is by Adrigole Bridge in Adrigole. 3. The oldest writing on a stone in Ireland is pre-Ogham and can be found in Glentastel, Lauragh. 4. Berehaven harbour is the second safest natural harbour in the world. 5. The Cailleach Beara is one of the oldest mythological antiquities in Ireland. 6. The four mythological Children of Lir are buried in Allihies. 7. The Beara Peninsula is the only peninsula in Ireland that is located in two counties -- Cork and Kerry. 8. O’Sullivan Beare, the only Irish chieftain Queen Elizabeth I didn’t pardon after the battle of Kinsale. 9. O’Sullivan Beare’s march in 1603 is the most famous march in Irish history. 10. The freshwater mussels that live in the Ardgroom area are over 100 years old. 11. In 1796, the French longboat landed in Bere island and Wolfe Tone anchored in Berehaven harbour. 12. In 1914, Berehaven harbour was the most fortified harbour in western Europe. 13. The Beara Peninsula is the most scenic route in Ireland.

Donal Cam O’Sullivan Beare, Prince of Beare, 1st Count of Berehaven (Irish: Domhnall Cam Ó Súilleabháin Bhéara) (1561– 1618) was the last independent ruler of the O’Sullivan Beara

I was back in Kilrush, County Clare last October. I scoured all the local papers looking for gigs. I spotted Tommy Fleming’s name and that he was appearing in Dunbeg. I rang his mobile and I was at his sound check within half an hour. Very shy and taciturn is our Tommy. There was no orchestra, no strings, a very small and contained gig. I persuaded him to go to the bar and switch off. Reluctantly he did. I told him that I could not stay for the gig. To be fair I fully understand the pre-show nerves.

“We were never Beggars”

for RTE radio, has had several of his other works staged throughout many festivals and is inspired by a broad range of social issues such as sudden death, to the more absurd real life drama that surrounded the folksy Percy French. Comerford is a man who breathes and lives and

I know it so well. I had a more important commitment for that evening.

I had noticed that there would be one performance of “We were never Beggars” at the Teach Cheoil in Kilrush the same evening. Like a lot of the former Church of Ireland buildings this one in Kilrush is now a beautifully restored and modified performance space with inbuilt acoustics within the fabric of the place. I loved the irony that we were marking the Famine in such a venue. I was really moved by the ability of the five women to get right into the essence of the performance. It was totally moving. Stark chilled steely blue lighting, four women around a tiny fire, the glow hitting their faces. They passed a very tiny velvet coat around as they spoke. Playwright Brian Comerford knows drama. The little coat was given to one of the characters by the daughter of Poor Law Commissioner Arthur Kennedy, thus the fusion of actual history into dramaturgy happened before our eyes. Ciara Comerford entered from the darkness. Ciara was playing the pivotal role of Mary McMahon.

She joins the women. “The McMahons were never beggars. I got Outdoor Relief last Thursday. My family was myself, my husband and five children. I never made any use of the male, except for the half stone I sold to pay the

rent. I was not able to go out. My husband, myself and family were so wake and exhausted that we could not leave the house. What day was it the child died? The days are long for the hunger”. These words and dialogue were not imagined.

write about our Heritage. He is an auteur, a very fine one. We are privileged to get to stage his work as an integral part of our Famine Echoes this year. The venue for play is St. John’s Anglican Church, King’s Square, Fremantle on Sunday 5th October at 2.30pm. Enquiries and Bookings: Patricia – 9345 3530 or 0417 099 801.

She was re-enacting actual recorded speech spoken by Kilrush mother Mary McMahon who Frank Murphy, Director appeared at the Inquest of the death of her entire family in Kilrush in 1848. The Scar (John Hewitt) Brian Comerford is a prolific and gifted playwright. When I eventually caught up with him and expressed an interest in staging his play in Perth he was truly delighted. When I subsequently researched his published material, I found that he has written award winning dramas

There’s not a chance now that I might recover one syllable of what that sick man said, tapping upon my great-grandmother’s shutter, and begging, I was told, a piece of bread; for on his tainted breath there hung infection rank from the cabins of the stricken west, the spores from black potato-stalks, the spittle mottled with poison in his rattling chest; but she who, by her nature, quickly answered, accepted in return the famine-fever; and that chance meeting, that brief confrontation, conscribed me of the Irishry for ever. Though much I cherish lies outside their vision, and much they prize I have no claim to share, yet in that woman’s death I found my nation; the old wound aches and shews its fellow scar.

The Australian-Irish Heritage Association Review: Poet and Minstrel Boy Tony Curtis The Association was delighted to welcome back their own ‘Poet Laureate’ Tony Curtis, who was a guest at The Perth International Poetry Festival. As usual, Tony charmed the many audiences he read for. He was a guest on ABC afternoon radio, several Perth Universities, Schools, Bookshops and several private gatherings. The AIHA presented him at the Irish Club as usual. There is no doubt that Tony Curtis his words and unique style of delivery, his story telling laced with his distinctive humour and musical presentation, has won him many more fans in Perth. The good news is that he will be back next year. The AIHA presents

Echoes of the Famine

An afternoon of performance, music and readings will feature as this year’s Famine Commemoration. A highlight of the performance is the Australian premiere of ‘We Were Never Beggars’ by Kilrush dramatist, Brian Comerford. This original drama is based around reported incidents at the Kilrush Workhouse in 1846. Songs of famine times will be interwoven into this drama and will be performed by Castagnari. This unique performance is being directed by Frank Murphy. St. John’s Anglican Church, King’s Square, Fremantle Sunday 5th October at 2.30pm Members $10 - Non-Members $15 0 Incl A/noon tea Bookings: Patricia – 9345 3530 or 0417 099 801

THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB

Tuesday 23 September and 28 October Venue: Irish Club Committee Room, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco 4th Tuesday each month except December at 8pm Free, all welcome. Light refreshments provided excluding drinks Enquiries: Maureen 9279 2486

WINNERS OF WRITERS PRIZES 2014 ANNOUNCED

The Joe O’Sullivan Writers’ Prize honours the memory of the Organisation’s late founder, worth $1,000, with a limit of 2,000 to 4,000 words, open to residents of WA only The Topic was “Looking Back”, and the winner was Martin Lindsay, WA The Joyce Parkes Women’s Writers’ Prize honours the well known WA poet. The prize aims at promoting and encouraging women writers in Australia. Limit of 1,000 to 2,000 words, worth $500 The Topic was “Beyond the Horizon”, and the winner was Silda Trainor, NSW. The adjudicators provided the record numbers of entrants with comprehensive reports as feedback and encouragement

BRENDAN AWARD NOMINATIONS -

DEADLINE WEDNESDAY 31 DECEMBER Nominate someone who has made an outstanding contribution to Australia’s Irish Heritage. It may be someone in your community whose service reflects favourably on Ireland and the Irish. Nomination forms are available from AIHA website or by contact details below. See Honour Board in the Irish Club of WA for previous recipients.

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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,Distant (200 kms from Perth) $45 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.

land of

A ‘ Caoin’ for a quiet woman

Ireland

honey

few days ago I went to a funeral in Blackpool in Cork. I sat in the corner of my sofa in Perth and followed the funeral of my friend Noirin - the quiet woman. I read the Mass from the Glenstal Book she had sent me, I knew the hymns she would have wanted. In my mind’s eye I stood with all the friends outside Blackpool Church and talked about years past and I walked the long walk from Blackpool to Rathcooney Cemetry, one of the oldest graveyards in Cork while reading from Anam Cara which she had also sent me. So in a way I was at the funeral to see her ‘slan abhaile’. She had been what is now called ‘locked in’ for two years after a brain operation. Oh’ the operation was a success according to the medics - the patient just didn’t come round. I had been home a few times and she definitely was ‘in there’ so her going was a release of an intellect and spirit who would have hated the constraints placed on it. Had you met Noirin you would have thought “what a nice sensible woman”. You would not have been wrong but appearances are deceptive. There was a lot more to Noirin than

common sense. She had an enormous intellect, a cutting edge intelligence, a great sense of family and an unswerving love of country. I spent a lot of my school years with her and she very kindly and patiently waited for me to understand geometry, calculus and trigonometry. She never quite succeeded there but with her I learned to appreciate and love the Irish language and to revel in its poetry and magic. We went set dancing together, we studied history together and we sat on ditches learning reams of Shakespeare by rote. We cycled out towards Blarney took the books out of the bags and tried to ward off the wrath of Sr. Brendan. Noirin did’nt, in actual fact, incur much wrath but she felt obliged to help me avoid as much punishment as possible. On our last year at school Noirin was snapped up by a Government Department. Her results were superb and off she went to the Big City of Dublin. We kept in touch but the paths separated and I reared a family and ended up in Australia. Suddenly I was fifty and a widow. The children were adults with full lives and I was jangled and out of tune. One day I applied for that marvellous thing called long service leave bought a rain coat and went home. I still remember marching up the South Mall in Cork across the bridge and into the Tax

Department and asking for Noirin Lynch. There she was and suddenly all was well. “We’re going to Doolin for the weekend” she said “You will love it” and I did. She clicked open her circle of friends and let me in and we were back sitting on ditches and singing on the rocks at Doolin at night and looking out over the western ocean knowing full well that Hy Brasil was out there somewhere. She was involved with everything, she painted very credible water colours, she wrote good poetry and ran historical societies in between controlling finances. Most of all she heard confessions - well mine anyway. My life very much reminds me of that popular song “I’ve done all the dumb things” but with Noirin I could talk about things and in the stillness that was part of her presence there was a healing. She was, in the ancient Irish sense a true “Anam Cara”. Well I went home very often after that and Noirin came to Perth four times and loved it. I heard her muttering one day about Colonial Women but I never got to the bottom of that one. Every time I went to Cork there she was, waving tickets for interesting shows and recitals. I will miss all the Sunday night discussions and exhortations to change things. But Noirin, mo cara buan, start booking the tickets!!

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TEACH YOUR CHILDREN HOW TO SWIM. The Australian Royal Life Saving believes that the rapid increase in drowning in young adults aged 1524 year olds is undeniably linked to a fall in the swimming and water safety skills of children in Australia over the past 10 years. In 2011-12 there was an increase of 25% in drowning in 15-24 year olds. 86% of these drowning deaths are males, with many drowning whilst swimming, boating or fishing with friends in the nation’s rivers, dams and at beaches. For several years now, Royal Life Saving has highlighted research showing that many children are

leaving primary school without being able to swim 50 metres or float for 2 minutes; skills Royal Life Saving describes as a basic right of every child living in Australia and mandatory if we are to halve drowning by 2020. Royal Life Saving believes that there are groups of children who are swimming better and younger than in previous generations. These are children whose parent’s value and recognise the importance of swimming and water safety, have ready access to quality swim schools and instructors, and have the financial means to afford lessons and other activities that build confidence and skills in the water. Royal Life Saving believes that parents, community organisations and the swim school industry should all commit to making swimming

and water safety compulsory for all children living in Australia. Because of the wonderful beaches and swimming pools here it is very important that children (and adults) learn how to swim. Laura Sweeney of the Northside Dolphins Swimming Club contacted The Irish Scene recently and asked if we could promote the club within the Irish Community in Perth. Laura told us that the NDSC is a non-profit, family oriented, community based swimming club run by volunteers and families. It’s the perfect club for children and adults who want to develop swimming skills, water safety awareness and be fit, healthy and strong. This year the club was excited to welcome their new coach, Laura who hails from Ireland and has plenty of experience, having taught swimming in the UK and Perth. Laura told us that the 20142015 Summer Season runs from October to March/April with registration is on the 18 October 2014 from 1.00 – 3.00 pm in our clubroom, located at Mirrabooka Senior High School, Nollamara Avenue, Dianella. Training begins the following Monday and the first club swim is Saturday, 25 October. Training times: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday with Juniors: 5.00 – 6.00 Seniors: 5.00 6.30 Memberships and Fees (these include the WASA fee which covers insurance) Competitor, $290, Noncompetitor, $260, Recreational, $155, Guppies: $105 (the littlies who ‘swim’ in the floatie/kickboard events at the club swims while gaining confidence). Adult learners $95 one-off registration fee plus $60 per month. Swimmers can transfer to other levels where appropriate: e.g. a Guppy may become a Competitor or an Adult

Laura Sweeney

Learner a Non-competitor. In these situations the fee will be adjusted accordingly. The fees are inclusive of

pool entry, coaching and insurance. There is nothing else to pay, unless you enter into a special event (Club Championships, Pennants, States) where each race will incur a small fee. Laura said, “NDSC is a Kid Sport club. The Stirling Council will pay $200 toward fees for eligible youths 5-18 years”. Laura said the club also has a great Social environment. “We are a social club and enjoy BBQs, award nights and parties to celebrate special occasions. We hold several fundraising events each season, which keep fees low and the club well resourced. In the past we have gone on camps, which have always been a raging success”. If you think NDSC might be for you or require more information please contact Louise Santarelli: ndswimclub@gmail.com or 0439 978 738 for further information. Web address is: http:// northsidedolphinssc.com Fred Rea

Irish Dancing is alive and Well in Albany O

Lucy with her two boys

n a recent trip to Albany with Lilly our hosts, Robyn and Graham Murray brought to my attention an advert in the local newspaper about Irish dancing classes. I phoned the number and arranged to meet Lucy Fernandez of the Tara Academy of Irish Dance. Lucy told me her family came to Western Australia from Mt Gambier in South Australia in 1974. “I am one of ten and I was then Lucy Foale. I did Irish dancing in Perth and my sister Jane was also doing Irish dancing”. Jane went on to dance in the Nationals but Lucy kept a lower profile. “I came 3rd once the states championships under Ann Murray”. Lucy said she was involved for the enjoyment and competing never bothered her. In 1998 Lucy came to Albany and she started teaching Irish dancing in 2000. “I am supported by Karen Freeman who has been with me from the beginning. Karen is the lead bagpiper in Albany and is just awesome”. Lucy told me she has started classes for adults beginning the following Thursday and will follow the normal kids classes and it will be a 4 hour session. Lucy told me there is a great interest in Albany for Irish dancing and it is purely for the enjoyment and not for competition. Lucy brought to my attention that she saw me heading towards the coffee shop and I walked

passed her sign-posted car. How could I miss it? Lucy said that she brings the Irish dancing kids to local Nursing homes around St Patrick’s Day every year. “The oldies just love it and we do the Albany Show and the Christmas pageant”. Lucy said the kids love entertaining. “We have 20 children in class at present, it being winter time and Albany can get a bit chilly at night”. She said many kids do it for a time and then go away but many come back later. When Lucy first came to town, Mareta had the Shamrock Café and she said it was a great meeting place for the Irish and friends in Albany. Lucy told she has a normal job and 3 boys to keep her busy. “I am happy for my dancing school to be an option for people and it doesn’t matter what age you are and if people feel they don’t fit the criteria in other activities in Albany, if you think Irish dancing is for you, come along. Albany is now a city but as Lucy put it ‘in a country mode’ and I just love it here”. The Tara Academy of Irish Dance meets at Centennial Oval Hall, Lockyer Avenue in Albany and has Thursday classes. For more information, call Lucy - 9844 1892 / 0448 095 314. Fun fitness co-ordination and rhythmic skills learnt. Traditional dances along with upbeat Celtic tunes group and single dances taught. Like them on Facebook! Fred Rea

Tony and Veronica McKee PO Box 994 Hillarys WA 6923

Have The Irish Scene home delivered Call Fred Rea 0418 943 832 for details

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

Tel (08) 9401 1900 • Fax: 9401 1911 • Mob: 0413 337 785 62

Declan O’Rourke AT FLY BY NIGHT

Glen Hansard describes Declan O’Rourke as “…one of the rare breed, he arrived fully formed, his songs, and delivery belie his age, and ours. He’s a timeless troubadour with a voice that breaks through all your defences and gets to the heart of the matter. One of the true greats of our island.” With a recommendation like this it was incumbent on me to go and see Declan O’Rourke at the Fly by Night in Fremantle. What Declan said on stage towards the end of the show was “I don’t want this to end” or words to that effect. Neither did I, and the rest of the audience concurred. Declan took us to his spiritual home in the West of Ireland, he took us to the Irish Famine with Poor Boy’s Shoes and to 1916 Irish rebellion with The Children of 16. Some months ago I was privileged to tick off an item on my bucket list, Leonard Cohen. At the Fly by Night I achieved another on my bucket list, Declan O’Rourke, and he wasn’t even on it. Life gives us so many wonderful surprises and with Declan I saw a true great of Irish music, the new generation. As Frank Murphy commented to me after show, “This is what I was talking about when I spoke of the new generation telling the Irish story their way”, so true Frank! Declan told us of a survey done worldwide on indigenous peoples and it came to the conclusion that the Irish were the Indians of Europe, how true. There is a spirit in our music and Declan O’Rourke seems to have found or inherited that spirit, he is inspirational. I mentioned earlier about the famine song Poor Boy’s Shoes and

following the show a young friend said to me that he was moved to tears with the lyric and delivery of the Declan’s rendition. That is what it’s all about, taking the audience with you as you put to verse this awful part of Irish history and to effect people, this is what Declan does. I am not one for doing music reviews for our Irish Scene but I felt compelled to do this one. I do hope I did this troubadour/poet justice. Declan was supported by Fiona Rea who did her first solo gig and at the risk of bias may I say how she has blossomed. Fiona is on a journey with her music and that night was another step on that road. Her original songs are what we like to hear and the Fly by Night gave her that opportunity. It was also great

To the lucky people who were at the Fly, you know now! To those who have not heard of Declan O’Rourke I do hope you find him. Your life will be all the better for it. Reviewed by Fred Rea

Fiona Rea to see so many of her friends there and their encouragement gave her the confidence to move forward with confidence. We do hope this will not pass and I feel confident after supporting Declan, it will help her to achieve bigger and better things. I must also mention the amazing Charlie McCarthy who played fiddle for both Declan and Fiona. I have seen Charlie play with a Gypsy Jazz group, The Seals country bluegrass but when he joined Declan we saw the genius on the man. One word Charlie... Brilliant! Also to Jane of Sparrow for the wonderful harmonies and flute playing for Fiona’s set.

Hold on to what is good, even if it’s a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, even if it’s a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, even if it’s a long way from here. Hold on to your life, even if it’s easier to let go. Hold on to my hand, even if someday I’ll be gone away from you. Pueblo Prayer

Irish Seniors IRISH SENIORS CHRISTMAS IN JULY AT MIGHTY QUINN

The Claddagh Association held its first Christmas in July for Irish Seniorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at the Mighty Quinn on Monday 28th July. The event was a great success with a wonderful turn out. The festivities included music from Fiona Rea, Kathy McDonald, Frank Glackin and Fred Rea. The aim of the Claddagh Seniors Project is to identify Seniors in isolation in Perth and the surrounding area. If you know of any senior in isolation please help them by contacting The Claddagh Association Inc. via Email: support@ claddagh.org.au Thanks to the following: Brian Corr whose ongoing involvement as MC is very much appreciated. Fred Rea of The Irish Scene for entertaining and promotion, Fiona Rea, Kathy McDonald, Oliver McNerney and Tony Synnott. OUR SPONSORS: Preston Butchers, Eamon at Trinity Meats. Thanks to Sharon Harron from Hettyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Scullery, for providing our hamper prize and wheaten bread/shortbread on the day to accompany the lunch. Special thank Billy and the team at The Mighty Quinn for all the help, excellent food and service, and creating a wonderful atmosphere. Frank Murphy of Song for Ireland on Radio Fremantle 107.9 and Emerald Beats for radio promotion. A very special thank you to the seniors committee with the Claddagh association, all of whom have full time jobs but ever dedicated to the organisation. The support Denis and Patricia Bratton from the Australian Irish Heritage Association who help out with all our functions and events is appreciated. We would like a special mention for Joe Carroll who normally organises these events but is presently enjoying a trip in Ireland. We hope that he will be back on board for the next event. Gemma Hickey, The Claddagh Association

Esme Keane 1930 - 2014

Condolences to the family of Esme Keane who along with her late husband Dick, was a regular visitor to the Seniors lunch at The Irish Club. Esme entered eternal rest on 11th August, 2014 in Armadale, WA. To her family we extend our sincerest condolences.

poem. And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this ‘anonymous’ poem winging across the Internet and printed in our magazine.

Charles Dickens said: “Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow’s hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life”. And… Older people do not decline mentally with age, it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains, scientists have discovered. Much like a computer struggles when the hard drive gets full up, so too do humans take longer to access information it has been researched and proven. Researchers say this slowing down it is not the same as cognitive decline. “The human brain works slower in old age,” said Dr. Michael Ramscar, “but only because we have stored so much more information over time. “The brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary, they simply know more.” SO THERE!!

Cranky Old Man “Look Closer, See Me” What do you see, nurses, what do you see, what are you thinking when you’re looking at me? A cranky old man, not very wise, uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes. Who dribbles his food and makes no reply when you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try!” Who seems not to notice the things that you do, and forever is losing a sock or shoe. Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will with bathing and feeding, the long day to fill. Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what you see? Then open your eyes, nurse; you’re not looking at me. I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still, as I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will. I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother, brothers and sisters, who love one another.

THE CRANKY OLD MAN POEM –

WHEN AN OLD MAN DIED IN AN AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK NURSING HOME I found this poem on the website DirtyDazz. Like the writer, when first reading the “Cranky Old Man”, it touched something deep in my heart also. It also scares me a little picturing myself where he was mentally, emotionally when writing it. And I wonder if there’s a little bit of that “cranky old man” in me at times, wondering what people see when they look at me. I have entertained many times in homes for the aged and retirement villages. Many times the thoughts expressed so beautifully in the poem entered my mind. The story goes like this… When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through his meagre possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Melbourne. The old man’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent,

A young boy of sixteen, with wings on his feet, dreaming that soon now a lover he’ll meet. A groom soon at twenty – my heart gives a leap, remembering the vows that I promised to keep. At twenty-five now, I have young of my own who need me to guide and a secure happy home. A man of thirty, my young now grown fast, bound to each other with ties that should last. At forty my young sons have grown and are gone, but my woman’s beside me to see I don’t mourn. At fifty once more babies play round my knee, again we know children, my loved one and me. Dark days are upon me, my wife is dead; I look at the future, I shudder with dread. For my young are all rearing young of their own, and I think of the years and the love that I’ve known. I’m now an old man and nature is cruel; ’tis jest to make old age look like a fool. The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart, there is now a stone where I once had a heart. But inside this old carcass a young boy still dwells, and now and again my battered heart swells. I remember the joys, I remember the pain, and I’m loving and living life over again. I think of the years – all too few, gone too fast and accept the stark fact that nothing can last. So open your eyes, nurses, open and see, not a cranky old man; look closer – see ME!

Missing your kids in Australia? An Irish family re-unites by Nick Bramhill An Irish couple, who were left heartbroken after their four adult children migrated to Australia, are now counting down the days till they join them permanently Down Under after selling their family home. Janet and Eugene Bennis, who are in their 50s, said they have endured years of heartache living thousands of miles away from their four children. And they said that missing out on watching her four young

Janet Bennis (Home for Sale!)

children - the youngest of who is four-months-old - grow up has been particularly heart-wrenching. But recently the doting parents had a massive reason to celebrate after reaching ‘sale agreed’ on their four-bedroom family home in Limerick, which means their dream of buying a one-way ticket to join their kids in Brisbane is finally about to become a reality. The final hurdle facing the couple is to secure two permanent residency visas, but they said they would be in a position to make the big move by next February at the latest. But the couple’s children

Jennifer, 30, who’s a mother-of-two, father-of-two Eoin, 28, Claire, 25, and Cian, 24, are already planning a huge welcome party for their parents in Janet and Eugene Bennis’s family in Australia Brisbane, where they long and now I can finally start to all live. believe it’s really going to happen. And although the couple won’t “We’ve missed out on so many have much spare cash once they’ve birthdays and family occasions, cleared their mortgage following but not anymore. The alternative the sale of the home they lived would be to stay here, being in for 28 years, they won’t miserable and enjoying our cousins’ have to pay any rent once they children instead of our own.” move to Australia, as they’ll be She added: “I know a lot of moving in with two of their other parents in Ireland can relate kids, Eoin and Claire and their to how we have felt, having seen respective partners. And Bennis, 53, who’ll soon be packing in her job as a catering supervisor at the University of Limerick, said she’s confident of finding work after she emigrates - as she’s already received a couple of job offers from Australian employers, even though she’s yet to set foot in the country. She said: “There’s really no turning back now. A deposit’s been paid on the house and it’s gone to Janet and Eugene Bennis sale agreed and that’s moved us a massive step closer to the airport. their kids emigrate.”I know not “I must admit there are a few mixed everyone can do what we’re about emotions, because we’ve so many to do, but I want to say to other happy memories of our family home parents who are in the same boat and once we move there’s definitely that they can do exactly the same no coming back. thing if, like us, they want it badly “But we’ve dreamed about enough.” moving over to live out the rest of our days with our family for so

Family is a group of people who decided to live together, not only to survive, but to love one another, not only for a moment, but for a lifetime. 66

ULSTER

Rambles with David MacConnell

Sporting success for Ulster Now some of us are not always proud to say we come from Ulster

but in these last few weeks we can all be proud, thanks to our latest hero Rory McIlroy. I had already written my article when he won his fourth major and I simply could not resist changing it. I had proudly written about the success of Northern Ireland (apologies to the three counties) in the Commonwealth games. I had no idea there were so many countries in the commonwealth and that some had recently joined it. Briefly we won 12 medals: 2 gold, 3 Silver and 7 bronze; a

mighty effort. Well done to our boxers Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes. Joe Fitzpatrick joined Michaela Walsh in clinching a silver with Steven Donnelly, Sean Duffy, Connor Coyle, Sean McGlinchy and Alanna AudleyMurphy taking home bronze as we picked up three more boxing medals than their previous best haul in Edinburgh. Belfast judo star Lisa Kearney, 25, had got us up and running with an impressive bronze in the -52kg weight, Neil Booth and his colleagues Neil Mulholland and Paul Daly guaranteed themselves a bowls medal on the opening Sunday which was confirmed as silver a day later following defeat by South Africa in the men’s triples final. Now of course all of the above made me very proud but I could not contain my excitement as I watched Rory finish his last round with a one shot win over Phil Mickelson in the recent major held in Kentucky. Now don’t get me wrong. I know some of you find hitting a silly little white ball into a ridiculously small hole is the most pathetic thing in the world while others are fanatics about the game. In my tender years, I spent many evenings trudging after my parents down a long fairway in Downpatrick. I inherited my father’s clubs when I was fourteen and played off a handicap of 18. Fifty years later I still have a handicap of 18, so I like

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to think I have a fairly conservative attitude to the sport. At this stage, I would like to point out that Rory displays a typical Ulster manner at times. He likes to make a joke at the expense of others who are not so broad minded. He caused a bit of a stir when he told the press which country he might play for in the upcoming Olympics. After winning the Open in Liverpool he teased the crowd this time by stating that he supported Manchester United. Of course the crowd probably did not realise that nearly everyone in Ulster supports Man U. thanks to our other great sporting celebrity George Best. His last tournament win in Kentucky (where I hear that the residents do believe there are some other places in the world) started with a bit of controversy when he was announced as “From Ireland, Rory McIlroy!” Of course this was picked up by another famous Ulsterman David Feherty who deserves a book on his life never mind a mention in this small article. David has the same sense of Ulster humour as Rory which not everyone understands and can often get him in trouble. It is hard to predict whether Rory will be the best over the long haul and frankly who cares. Not me for one. As my American golf partner put it, he will be referred to on a “first name basis for the rest of his career.” I prefer Rory’s own words:

www.dan-dooley.ie

“I’ve still got a long way to go”, followed up by “I don’t know if I’ll ever have a summer like this.” Good man. Those of us who just talk about sports have a tendency to use hyperbole for money. Let’s not forget that Tiger won 12 majors in a decade (the 2000s). No one else is close. Nicklaus had 8. Still, there is plenty of reason for optimism. Rory appears sensible and relatively baggage-free at present. Not everyone would ask Caroline Wozniacki to marry them and then change their mind! Rory also appears to do what many greats can do: win with a bit of a B-game against A-level competition. It cannot be easy for a fast player by nature to have to wait on nearly every hole. In the most recent tournament, he lost the lead on the last day when it counted. But where others lost the lead and then lost the tournament, Rory said, “I knew I could mix it up with the best players in the world and come out on top.” This time he did just that. There is general agreement with Phil Michelson’s measured posttournament assessment: “He’s better than everyone else right now.” Hey thanks Phil for stating the obvious. The above is enough evidence that first-name status is deserved and he’s the hero needed for a sport looking for a transfusion and a transition. Well done Rory. We are all very proud of you and we like a bit of controversy. Life would be simply too boring without it. What would we talk about? Keep it up son. And let’s not forget our Commonwealth Games Athletes. Keep the red hand flying!

Rogues, Pogues & Brogues By Lloyd Gorman and Fred Rea

You don’t have to go far to find a fan of The Pogues but you would be really hard pressed to find a tribute band anywhere which can really do the London Irish rockers justice on stage. Luckily, Perth is blessed with such a group - The Rogues. Whispers about the relatively new ensemble started feeding through just in time for the last issue of Irish Scene, but since then they have really made a big noise and announced their arrival to the local music scene. Fred Rea was lucky enough to stumble across a performance at Fairbridge while others have heard them play the Workers Club in Fremantle and declare they are the finest night’s entertainment to hit the scene in many years. Incidentally you can catch The Rogues again at the Worker’s Club in Freo on the Saturday 20 September… Don’t miss it! Fred caught up with Rogues singer, guitar and mandolin player Nick Turner for a chat about the formation of a new act that is bringing a lot of gusto back to the stage. “We put a lot of work into getting it as energy drive as possible, one of the great things about playing together at somewhere like Fairbridge is that everyone knows what they are doing and is up for the craic, its bloody good fun” said Nick. “Everybody” in the band is Nick, Johnny Reid plays Cittern and singing, his son Sam on drums, Pete Grandison on base and whistle and flute player Stewart Paterson. “It was Stewart and myself had the concept for the band for the last two or three years but we were side-tracked by other things and never got around to it, then this year for Fairbridge we said ‘stuff it’, we’ll go for it. We were looking for band members, people who were really up for it.” They are all self-confessed Pogues tragics of course, first as fans of the music and then as musos pumping out their favourite artists work for others. I love their music and what makes it better is the set of people I play with, we were really lucky with the people we got for the band. “ “Part of the appeal of the Pogues is the legend behind them, Shane McGowan (right) and the craziness of the band” added Nick. “McGowan is such a complex guy, some might point at him say he’s a pisshead and completely useless but if you read the lyrics you discover what a complex person he is. Right now I’m trying to learn the lyrics to a song called “Bottle of Smoke’, it’s two minutes thirty seconds long but it’s got more words per second in it than any other song I know, and its beautifully written, he’s a poet, yet he’s the crazy drunken idiot at the front. The rest of the band is also made up of some really talented and quality musicians who can deliver gorgeous melodies.” Nick has seen McGowan and the boys on stage four times in his life, twice in the UK. They graced the Blues and Roots festival in Perth two years ago and

laid on an unforgettable display of anarchy mixed with melancholy and lunacy to anyone lucky enough to see them. As well as the sound, the Rogues embody the spirit of their musical idols, but add their own stamp and identity onto the music. “Almost everything we play is from the first, second or third album,” added Nick. “We do some outtakes of their later stuff as we imagine they would have done it if the band wasn’t falling apart. We do a couple of other songs that they didn’t play, tunes that we think they should have done them, and how, such as Drunken Sailor. I used to be a musician on the square riggers and we introduce it as they should have done. We played the Workers Club and did a rehearsal for it, at the end of the session I said let’s do another rehearsal and John said ‘You can over rehearse for a gig too, so we left it at that.” Their ad hoc approach ensures concerts that get the audience up and going. “We’re winging it, but it works and part of the fun is being on the edge and its still cranking along. It’s great.” But don’t expect to see them everywhere you go. The Rogues have adopted a policy of almost guerrilla like concerts where they pop up once in a while and hit their target audience hard. “We want to do ‘kick ass gigs’, once every now and then and build up support that way. We want to do less gigs and get more people to them. We want every gig we do to be as memorable as Fairbridge”. Look out for the next Rogues gig on their Facebook page.

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Around the Irish scene... Compiled by Fred Rea Jean Rogers of Lesmurdie with her sister Gwen in Kilkee Co Clare after spending a month touring Scandinavia. She will visit family in Dublin too before touring Spain. Enjoy!

Noel and Brenda Neff showing off their new grandchild in Melbourne.

From the archives: Jen, Fiona & Teresa at Comhaltas sessiun a few years ago!

Sharon of Hetty’s Scullery showing off her wonderful bread & biscuits at the ITP play in the Irish Club. And very popular it was too!

Mayo captain, Andy Moran taken at the Connaught Final with the grandchildren of Sean & Flavia McDonagh, Conor and Ciara McDonagh (top) Lachlan (bottom) following the Connaught final, Sean and Flavia were on holidays in Tubbercurry Co Sligo visiting.

The Tulle Wedding Expo is in it’s 5th year running and is a boutique style bridal expo that promotes small local businesses. It organised and co hosted by Gillian, Sharee and Sophie from Tulle Events. This year they had 5 businesses from the Perth/ Irish Wedding Network, showcase their business and services. For more information you can visit their website www.tulleweddingexpo.com.au

The question is: Who is the man in the green hat? You guessed it its our own quizmaster Dermot Byrne during his latest visit to his hometown Dublin!

Did you hear the one about the Sligoman, the Corkman and the Mayoman? As Jim Egan, Sean McDonagh & Vince Gallagher.

Irish Ambassador HE Mr Noel White with Christina Henri during a visit to the Female Factory in Hobart. We have spies everywhere Noel!

Paddy Casey with Derrick Buckley following his concert in Perth. Paddy was kind enough to join local musos in a session.

Noel and Tess Colgan’s grandaughter Fiona recently married Stephen Enright back in Ireland. We know Noel would have loved to be there but it must be some consolation that she married a Corkman!

Send your photos to fred@irishscene.com.au

Around the Irish scene.

During Lloyd Gorman’s visit to Ireland who should he meet but Anne Magennis and family, daughter of local GAA icon Anrian Magennis. Did the sun ever shine like that when I was in Ireland? Des & Paula Kavanagh with Daragh and Shauna celebrate Paula’s half century at the Woodvale. Above Paula is joined by her many friends. Great night all round they tell me! Paul & Sonya Tanham recently celebrated 60 years of marriage. They were joined by family and friends for lunch at the Karrinyup Golf Club followed by more celebrations at home with friends. Congratulations to you both!

Happy 70th Birthday John!

Eileen Walker, the daughter of my good friend Pat Curran in New Zealand recently visited the grave of her ancestor, Fenian Johnny Golden. Mollie Robinson of Berry took Eileen to the Gerringong Cemetery in New South Wales.

I think I’m going to need a bigger juicer!

Gerry Coleman has been in the gardening game for some time and is himself the offspring of parents who were professional green fingered types back in Ireland. But even for him the sight of a lemon the size of a melon is something special. Gerry - whose gardening business is called The Little Irishman - grew this gigantic specimen in his garden at home in Morley. Such was the stature of tbe produce that Gerry considered entering it for the Guinness Book of Records. Based on the world’s heaviest lemon weighed 5.265 kg (11 lb 9.7 oz) grown on a farm in Israel in 2003, we think Gerrys would have gone very close to beating it.

Ireland-Western Australia Forum

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3. What is your favourite sport and sports hero? Basketball – Magic Johnson. 4. What is your earliest childhood memory? Trying to escape PMH after having my tonsils out.

with Synnott Greg Mills of the Yokine Lottery Centre& Newsagency. Greg has been in the Newsagency business for 14 years. 1. What was the best year of your life? 1972 – I married my beautiful wife. 2. What was your first job? Apprentice Fitter and Turner.

5. Do you watch TV? If so what is your favourite program? Any good crime show, NCIS, Blacklist, CSI etc.

6. Do you use social media, if so which one? No, don’t like it. Phone only 7. What is your opinion of The Irish Scene and why? Good publication and content especially for the older Irish community. 8. Who or what are you most afraid of? I don’t like snakes.

9. Which social media do you use and why? Don’t use anything except email and mainly for business.

10. If you could be anyone famous for a day, who would it be? The great Charles Court – what a man!

11. What is the best film you have seen and why? Patch Adams (Robin Williams) I’m a bit of a rogue myself.

12. If there was one place on earth you would like to go, where would it be? The Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark.

COLIN MERREY

BOOKSBOOKSBOOKSBOOKS FIELD OF PREY – JOHN SANDFORD Welcome to the Spring edition of our wonderful Magazine. I have spent many happy winter hours reading on my own and your behalf and I hope you like what I have prepared for you with this issue. Fiona Carberry and Julia McDonnell won the wonderful prizes donated by Stefen of Stefen’s Books in Shafto Lane in Perth – well done you two! And now to continue with my favourite booksellers - don’t forget that if you should have problems finding a good new- or second hand bookseller, you can try any/all of the following – Stefen’s Books in Shafto Lane in Perth City. Stefen is very helpful and a good supporter of the Irish Scene Dymocks at Whitford City – ask for Tracey (and other locations throughout the State and Metropolitan Area) Corona Books shop at Warwick Shopping Centre – ask for Mark. In the realm of Second Hand booksellers I generally visit Pulp Fiction – who have stores (again) at Whitford City and also at Floreat Forum Shopping Centre Elizabeth’s Bookshop chain, which has shops in Fremantle, Perth City (Hay Street), and Subiaco to name but a few branches. Guildford Book Exchange Warwick Second hand Books at Warwick Shopping Centre Please remember too to let the various stores know who pointed you in their direction. The feedback is great for them and it shows me that you are actually taking the time to read what I have prepared for your enjoyment with each issue. Then my work will not have been in vain, as it were! And so, to my book of the month – absolutely no contest this time -

Simon and Schuster Paperback $29.99 At last – a new Sandford novel featuring Lucas Davenport – love these books – John Sandford is my all-time favourite American crime novelist – and here again he shows why he is rated as one of the best in the literary world at his craft. This time Davenport is called in to assist with the investigation into a disused pit that contains numerous decomposed and decomposing bodies – thereby exposing a serial killer (or killers) stretching back over many many years. So many twists and turns of plot it was difficult to keep up with the frenzied pace of this story that is told literally at break-neck speed. Definitely up to Sandford’s usual standard – a real page-turner – enjoy. And now to continue ……………….

DORK DIARIES: TV STAR RACHEL RENEE RUSSELL Simon and Schuster Paperback $16.99 This one’s for the littlies – the children and grandchildren of you, our readers, and/or our young adult readers themselves. This is Book 7 of this hugely popular children’s series and is proving a big hit with its devotees – I know my granddaughters both loved it and are eagerly awaiting the next instalment (maybe for Christmas, eh girls?). This time Nikki and her friends are about to have their 15 minutes of fame via a reality TV show. Great stuff for the kiddies altogether.

HIGH GROVE – A GARDEN CELEBRATED – HRH PRINCE OF WALES with BUNNY GUINNESS Hachette Hardback $75.00 Here we have a beautifully produced book for your coffee table(s) – High Grove is the home of HRH Prince Charles (the future King of England) and this book commemorates the beautiful and mature gardens that surround his home. There are some wonderful photographs here – most of them absolutely stunning. I loved this book and it is currently sitting on one of our coffee tables – even as you read this! This is a very worthwhile addition to anyone’s library – even if you are not really a Monarchist – High Grove’s gardens are superb and are celebrated here for all time for all to see. And now, I have two books for the eggheads amongst us –

A MISCELLANY FOR WORD LOVERS – ROBIN HOSIE and VIC MAYHEW Murdoch Books P/back $19.99 This book is, I believe, an essential read for all of the journalists amongst our readers – those who are budding ones – and also those who are not so budding but who could (in a lot of cases) get a lot out of reading this tome. Here, all of the highways and byways of the words that comprise the English language are explored and explained – including their proper usage, origins and meanings, etc together with a few quizzes to whet your appetites. Great stuff – I re-learned a lot that I had all but forgotten. Enjoy this one – it makes fascinating reading and I know quite a few people who would definitely benefit from its heady contents. NUMBERS ARE FOREVER LIZ STRACHAN Allen and Unwin Hardback $24.99 Subtitled “Mathematical Facts and Curios”, I found this lovely little book a boon – it deals with and clearly presents an

accessible approach to the world of numbers that I am sure will appeal to all recreational solvers of mathematical puzzles. I must admit that Sudoku and its ilk have always fascinated me but solving those types of puzzles has always proved elusive to me. I have added this one to my library for future reference – perhaps if I consult it a bit more over the coming months by Christmas I may be able to solve some of these in due course. And now to biographies and (assisted) autobiographies. We have a few for you this issue and I thought a good place to start would be with this VERY high profile person HARD CHOICES – HILARY RODHAM CLINTON Simon and Schuster Hardback $39.99 Here we have a “warts and all” tale of a previous FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) – Hilary Clinton – wife (as you must already know) of former president (and tenor saxophonist of note) Bill Clinton. This is a personal chronicle from Hilary and deals with her life before during and after her husband’s presidency and encompasses her time as Secretary of State under President Obama. Fascinating reading – I enjoyed it and it now has pride of place in my library (in the biography section thereof). Hope you enjoy this one, too.

A VERY PRIVATE DIARY – MARY MORRIS Weidenfeld and Nicholson Paperback GBP13.99 We were introduced to this book by Mary’s grandson – who dropped us an email just prior to the last issue of the Magazine – you may recall I told you about it’s impending release at that time. This a lovingly edited chronicle of the wartime diaries of Mary Morris (nee Mulry) a young Galway girl who served as a nurse in London during the Second World War. This is a gripping and dramatic piece of writing – I was thoroughly fascinated by this disturbing tale of a young Irish girl – uprooted from Galway to the horrors of a London in the grip of war. I strongly recommend this book to you - I know you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did. It is available on import from your favourite booksellers locally or via Amazon UK on the Internet. If you have trouble getting hold of a copy, contact me via the Irish Scene and I can put you in touch with Mary’s grandson.

A SONG FOR ISSY BRADLEY – CARYS BRAY Random H ouse Paperback $29.99 This is a difficult book to précis for you – Carys Bray is a devout Mormon who has produced a very tender and moving story of a family trying to come to terms with the loss of a child. It tells how it impacts upon not only the parents of Issy Bradley but also her teenage and infant siblings. I feel that this is a book that is a must read for most of you – especially if this is something that you have either encountered in your own lives or something that you would like to understand in the lives of others. That said, the story is told in a very caring way – sometimes seriously and sometimes humorously.

CONFESSIONS OF A QANTAS FLIGHT ATTENDANT – OWEN BEDDALL with LIBBY HARKNESS Hachette Paperback $29.99 On a much lighter note, this one is a collection of true tales of “what really happens on an aeroplane” that is told in a very lighthearted manner. It covers A DIFFERENT SHADE OF SEEING – all forms of behaviour – both of passengers and ELIZABETH BRENNAN Equilibrium Books Paperback $25.95 crew alike – and touches also on the gossip that emanates from the One now from a local woman, ‘plane’s galley, too. I loved it and Elizabeth Brennan, enjoyed the humorous banter it who is a former contains. Buy it and enjoy it. Parish Associate to the Girrawheen NOW THAT I’VE FOUND YOU – Catholic Parish here in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES – CIARA GERAGHTY Perth. I was pleased RICHARD CLAPTON Hachette Paperback $29.99 to have been asked Allen and Unwin Hardback $32.99 This is Ciara’s fifth novel – loved by Elizabeth to cast As many of you know, the first four – especially “Lifesaving my eyes over the Richard Clapton (no for Beginners”. A great story that manuscript of this memoir prior relation to legendary was altogether. This time we have to its going to the publishers and guitarist Eric) is a the tale of forty-two year old thoroughly enjoyed what I read. prominent Australian Vinnie, a single father who is This is the story of a recent trip she singer songwriter who has raising a teenage daughter made to Ireland that is interspersed been gracing our airwaves (a task he is trying hard to with snippets of Irish history (and here in Oz for a good 40 improve at) and Ellen who is indeed her own history) that are years. I thoroughly enjoy his music afraid to drive. and found this tale of his life from his pertinent to that trip. Another masterly novel from It is a most enjoyable and early years, through his teens (when Ciara that, although aimed he wormed his way into a maximum informative book and one that I at the chick-lit market, I still found enjoyed reading again in its final security hotel in Sydney to hang most entertaining and enjoyable. format. I urge you to read it for out with the Rolling Stones) and his Hope you enjoy it. By the way, if you yourselves – it will make a refreshing prestigious writing and recording haven’t read her earlier books (that change from the murder and years to where he is at the present are all in a similar vein) I suggest you mayhem that I usually recommend time. A great read and one that I give them a try – I know you’ll not in these pages. enjoyed. Buy it and enjoy it too. regret it.

A PERFECT HERITAGE – PENNY VINCENZI Hachette Paperback $32.99 Penny is a new author to me, although this is not her first novel, and I must admit I enjoyed it. I am beginning to enjoy this genre of literature (much to my wife’s surprise!) and found it particularly engrossing with its tale of the House of Farrell and its ladies’ beauty product The Cream. I won’t tell you too much more of the story as I like you to find out things for yourselves as you go along. It is a fascinating one that winds through the conjoining worlds of cosmetics and big business and interfering uberconfident businesswomen. Hope you enjoy it. WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD – DIANA GABALDON Orion Paperback $32.99 This is the latest instalment of Diana’s “Outlander” series and is set, this time, in June 1778. The British army is withdrawing from Philadelphia with George Washington in hot pursuit – now for the first time it appears that the rebels might actually win. Enter Claire Fraser and her family…….. And then the story segues into the twentieth century!!!! That’s all I’ll tell you at this stage – great story very well told – loved it – love historical dramas and I think you’ll enjoy it as well. THE LOST LEGIONS OF FROMELLES – PETER BARTON Allen and Unwin Paperback $32.99 Peter Barton is the first historian to have been granted access to Germany’s war archives and as such is perfectly placed to show us how this momentous battle actually took place and the events surrounding it. It is not at all as we have been told in the past – not at all as simple as we have been led to believe by British and American reports on these events. If you would like to know what really happened – or you are an avid reader of First and Second World

War books – then you should not miss this one. It is a real eye opener. THE LUCK OF THE IRISH – BABETTE SMITH Allen and Unwin Paperback $32.99 This book, from one of Australia’s leading writers/ researchers of convict history, is the story of 250 convicts who were on board the ship “The Hive” when it sank off the New South Wales coast in 1835. By some miracle, all 250 survived! Babette has tracked each of them through their fortunes (and in some cases misfortunes) to see how they impacted on the colonial life of the mid 19th century and shows us how the Irish have helped to lay the foundations of the Australian we have come to know today. This is a fascinating book and an absolute must for all whose interest lie in the Irish influence on this, our adopted homeland. Hope you enjoy it – I know I certainly did – a great read. And so to my favourite genre – be aware that I do not make a habit of delving too far into story and plotlines as I believe that to do so would be a spoiler for you all. MURDER MYSTERY AND MAYHEM…….PLUS

BLACKBIRD – TOM WRIGHT Allen and Unwin Paperback $29.99 Set in Texas in the South of the US of A, this is a chilling story that starts with the crucifixion of Dr Deborah Gold, a psychologist who has (fortunately for some) taken the secrets of a lot of her clients with her to the grave. Detective Jim Beaudry Bonham is tasked to get to the root of this horrendous crime – and this he does after some hair rasing experiences that leave him wondering whether or not he is need of psychological help himself. Great story and very well told. Loved it. This is Tom Wright’s second book – can’t wait to read the first!

THAT NIGHT – CHEVY STEVENS Hachette Paperback $29.99 18-year-old Toni and her boy friend Ryan were wrongly convicted of her younger sister. When she returns home seventeen years later and ready to move on with her life, she finds she can’t because of the town’s prejudice against her. So she sets out to put things right…….and things start to go startlingly wrong for her. This is a great read – the second book from Chevy – the first having won her the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel – which is probably a stronger recommendation than any I could give her and this remarkably tense story. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

FACE OFF – DAVID BALDACCI (EDITOR) Hachette Paperback $32.99 This is the latest book to be released by the aforesaid International Thriller Writers’ Association and this time it is a collection of short stories from some of the World’s greatest writers in this genre. This time, each story is written by two authors and features a pairing of their main protagonists. Writers of the ilk of Jeffery Deaver and John Sandford (where Lincoln Rhyme and Lucas Davenport face off to solve the crime), Ian Rankin and Peter James (where Rebus and Roy Grace face off) et al. You get the picture? This is a great concept and one that I absolutely loved. Extremely enjoyable reading.

THE SECRET PLACE – TANA FRENCH Hachette Paperback $29.99 The photo shows a boy who was murdered a year ago – the caption reads “I know who killed him”. The notice appears on the notice board of a School notice board (dubbed the Secret Place) and from there, the police become involved in the shape of Detective Stephen Moran who has a particularly difficult task ahead of him if he is to solve this case. First, he has to find out who left the anonymous photo

and message. Phew!!! Fast paced, tortuous and most enjoyable read. Buy it and enjoy it.

THE FIRST RULE OF SURVIVAL – PAUL MENDELSON Murdoch Books Paperback $29.99 Set in Cape Town in South Africa, this is the story of three schoolboys who were abducted in broad daylight – never to be seen again. That is until, seven years later, when Senior Superintendent Vaughn De Vries happens upon a new case that casts a light on his original enquiry – the enquiry that cost him his marriage and peace of mind. This is a very twisted tale with a very unexpected and suitably twisted ending. I won’t tell you any more – just go and read it for yourselves – this is one of the greats and indeed a superb first novel from Paul. COP TOWN – KARIN SLAUGHTER Random House Paperback $32.99 I always think that authors should adopt an appropriate name for the genre in which they write – now could be more apt for a crime writer than “Slaughter” now could it? Set in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974, this is the story of Kate, a rookie cop on her first day as a policewoman, who comes from a cop family – all her relatives either are or have been o the force. Then, someone starts to kill cops. Kate and her partner are sidelined in the hunt for the killer – so they must find him on their own – hampered at every turn by the male dominated police force. This is a great premise and a first rate story. Loved it with all its plot twists and turns to its (to me at least) unpredictable and shocking conclusion. Enjoy TERMINAL CITY – LINDA FAIRSTEIN Hachette Paperback $29.99 Terminal City (as the name may suggest) is the subterranean catacombs beneath the Grand Central Station Terminal in New York and is the

eventual setting for the playing out of this gripping story. A young woman is found murdered in a suite in one of the most prestigious hotels in Manhattan – it is adjacent to Grand Central Station. Enter Assistant DA Alex Cooper and her cop cohorts Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace. Together they have to solve this and several subsequent murders – the trail leads them into the catacombs of Terminal City and there they risk everything to find the killer – before he finds THEM! Great read – totally enjoyable – loved it. Well worth adding to your crime collection..

TOP SECRET TWENTY-ONE – JANET EVANOVICH Hachette Paperback $29.99 If you haven’t caught up with Stephanie Plum, Janet Evanovich’s leading lady, and her assistant in the bounty hunter stakes in the form of Lula , Ranger, Joe Morelli and his grandma to name but a few. This time she is trying to find a bail jumper and is impeded at every turn by those who are trying to help her. This as you can imagine, while being a crime story, is told in a very tongue in cheek manner and has the requisite number of laughs per page that we have come to expects from Janet and which also help to relieve the tension and pace of the story. Most enjoyable read – great characters and a great storyline. I always enjoy the Stephanie Plum stories – hope you do to. If you haven’t read any before then this would be a good time to start. THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD – MICHAEL KORYTA Hachette Paperback $29.99 This is the first of Michael’s novels that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed this dark story of an ordinary teenager, Jace Wilson, who having witnessed a crime is forced into witness protection in mountains of Montana, far from his boyhood home in Indiana. But the perpetrators of the crime, the Blackwell brothers, have tracked

Jace down – and want to take him out. How do they try and how does he stop them (that is IF he stops them!) – you’ll just have to read the book for yourselves – and I know you’ll enjoy every minute of it as I did.

CLOSE CALL – STELLA RIMINGTON Bloomsbury Paperback $29.99 This is the latest in the Liz Carlyle series of spy novels from Dame Stella Rimington – who was the first woman to be appointed Director General of MI5 in 1992 – so she really knows her craft – as evidenced by her characters. This time, Carlyle and her team have been tasked with watching the international arms trade. Taking in the likes of the CIA and al-Qaeda and the like, this is a suspense filled adventure through the shadowy underbelly of international terrorism. This is the genre at its best – I loved it immensely and I am sure, if you haven’t read Stella’s books before, that you’ll enjoy this one and seek out her earlier books for a good read, as I did. INVISIBLE – JAMES PATTERSON and DAVID ELLIS Random House Paperback $32.99 James Patterson is a best selling novelist – arguably one of the biggest in the world – who writes not only in his own name but also in conjunction with other authors (indeed such as with David Ellis on this occasion). I always enjoy James’ books and this one is no exception. This time, Emmy Dockery, who witnessed her sister die in a house fire – a fire that was deemed by the coroner to be an accident – has worked out that there are a lot of similar deaths that have also been deemed accidents by the respective coroners. Emmy is sure that a serial killer is at work – but is finding it hard to convince the authorities that this is actually the case! Again a great premise and a story exceptionally well told – this because the killer is the invisible man of the title – a man who looks

so ordinary that people around him can’t “see” him. If you get my drift. I really enjoyed this one with all its twists and turns, red herrings and false trails – you will love it too I’m sure.

TWISTED – LYNDA LA PLANTE Simon and Schuster Paperback $32.99 And last but by no means least, we come to the wonderful Lynda La Plante who has tempted us once more with masterly constructed standalone thriller with probably one of the most “keep you guessing” plots that I have read in quite a while. In fact, if I hadn’t got the new John Sandford as my book of the month, then this would have won hands down. DI Victor Reid is put in charge of the search for a possible kidnap victim, one Amy Fulford vanishes without trace. Is it a kidnap? Is it a murder? Is the “grieving” mother behind it? Is it the destitute father? As the title suggests this is a really twisted tale and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. From Lynda’s early novels and TV series (think “Prime Suspect”, “Widows” and the splendid “Above Suspicion” books and TV series) she has never failed to surprise me with the originality and inventiveness of her stories. I know you’ll love this one – I have read all her books and seen all the TV series – I am a fan – pure and simple. Long may she reign as arguably one of the best crime writers that Liverpool has produced. I have received some real goodies for the next issue that I haven’t had time to read yet! Amongst them are the new Inspector Banks novel from Peter Robinson (my book of the month for the Christmas issue), and new ones from Linwood Barclay, Adrian McKinty, Michael Robotham, James Patterson and Ace Atkins – so we’ll certainly have a bumper crop for Christmas for you!

I also spent a pleasant half-hour with Stefen of Stefen’s Books recently and was introduced to a new author {to me at least} by him – Charlie Huston (author of “Skinner” which I purchased to read on my own time).

I’m always glad to hear of new authors

Well that’s it for books this issue. Remember, if I haven’t heard of an author before or if it is a new author, I hope you will take my recommendations into consideration when selecting your reading matter and give them a good go. I will say no more at this juncture and wish you happy reading, and see you all in the next issue. I hope you enjoy my recommendations as much as I have enjoyed reading them on both your and my own behalf.

COLIN MERREY

MUSIC+MOVIES MUSIC+MOVIES This issue, I have obtained two new CD’s for your enjoyment – firstly the first from Sparrow, a new Perth band that was put together by Fiona Rea with Jane Morris, Jon Edwards and Charlie McCarthy. Together they perform a varied selection of material that ranges from traditional and contemporary songs to traditional tunes (chiefly arranged and played in a sort of melange of traditional and bluegrass stylings). Songs on offer her range from “Red is the Rose” and “Night Visit” to “Ride on” and the wonderful “Caledonia” – that magnificent anthem from the pen of Scotland’s Dougie MacLean. – Great stuff – even their favourite from sessions “Folsom Prison Blues” from the pen of the late and much lamented Johnny Cash. I must admit that while I enjoyed most of this recording, as a traditional musical purist, I was not totally “grabbed” by the arrangements of the instrumental tracks – they were all played in a very competent and stylish manner and hopefully they will grow on me as I have a few more listens to them.

Lastly, one from Perth’s adopted son and guitar maestro, Hank Marvin. Here is a great selection of tunes that have all been given Hank’s own inimitable interpretation. You will I know recognise all of the tunes – some are re-readings of offerings from Hank’s earlier outings with The Shadows while others are fresh musical outings for him. You will find such classics as “A Taste of Honey”, “Summertime Blues”, “Summertime” and “Daydream”, to name but a few, together with “Summer Guitar” composed by Hank and his son. Musicians getting an outing here with hank are his son, Ben, his daughter, Tahlia, and local musicians Nunzio Mondia and Roy Martinez, again to name but a few. A great addition to your music libraries and one that has been in my car for quite a while now and it will remain in my collection (alongside all of his other records) for many years to come. Rock on, Hank! With all of the hype surrounding it, I must make mention of the new film “Mrs Brown D’Movie” Saw it the other day and, while the humour is reminiscent of the TV series, there is quite a poignant story to it – that being developers and Russian mobsters who are trying to replace Dublin’s iconic Moore Street markets with a shopping centre. It has some wonderful comic cameos and one liners (Brendan O’Carroll’s trademark asides to the camera, et al) and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it – I laughed my socks off at most of it. Think a team of blind ninjas and many other new characters too numerous to mention. If you loved the TV show (and I know a good number of you did) then you’ll love the movie.

COLIN MERREY

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE A TRIBUTE TO LUKE KELLY

FROM CHRIS KAVANAGH IN CONCERT RIVERSIDE THEATRE 11th JULY 2014 By Colin Merrey For me, this is probably the best show I have seen in quite some time here in Perth. I have heard and

read several reviews of this show and honestly, with some of them, I wonder if they were at the same concert that I saw. Chris has a powerful singing voice and quite a striking stage presence. His knowledge of the late and again much lamented Luke Kelly was to be admired and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. The show was named for a song Chris wrote at the turn of the New Millennium which was a tribute song to Luke but written, instead of from the view of a third person observer, in the first person – as if Luke was actually singing the song himself. A brilliant and very emotive song – I loved it and it really sets the scene for the show as a whole. His choice of Luke’s songs was almost as I would have selected myself – beginning with “The Night Visiting Song” which was the first song learned by Luke (from his grandmother) and the last he performed on stage prior to his

untimely death at the age of 43 years in 1984. He followed on with the ubiquitous “Wild Rover”, and the likes of “Dirty Old Town”, ‘Town I Loved So Well”, “Raglan Road” – oh, too many of my favourites to mention – we’d be here all day! Chris had two musicians on stage with him – piper Joe Finn and guitarist/vocalist Michael Howard. To break up the evening, Joe played some great tunes on pipes and whistles and (standout for me for the evening) Michael Howard performed a very moving tribute to the late Barney MacKenna. Michael was with Barney when he passed away a couple of years back and he told the audience about his last days with Barney – reading Barney’s philosophy on life (that he took form Shawnee Indian chief Tecumseh) and singing a song that he wrote for Barney called “A Blackbird Lies Heavy in my Heart”. Really moving. Supporting Chris was Paddy Casey, a young Irish singer songwriter who performed what I felt was an overly long set (albeit a well-received set that was to the liking of quite a large section of the audience) that over ran. To the point that Chris didn’t have time to perform an encore at the end of the night (which finished sharp at 11.30 pm). If I had to criticise the evening’s presentation, it is not the performances that I would knock but the behaviour of the audience. Largely they were younger people

who had come to see Paddy Casey and really didn’t seem to know who Chris Kavanagh was! Their behaviour during the performance was less than respectful to the performers themselves – in fact the first few rows all got up and went out to the bar as Paddy Casey announced his final songs for his set. It seemed to me that they treated a concert performance as just a pub session and this I felt was very disrespectful to all concerned – particularly the other audience members, such as myself. I suppose the fault can really be placed at the feet of the promoter who arguably shouldn’t have paired such diverse acts in the same concert. Nevertheless, this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of a great evening of music. Rock on Chris Kavanagh – hope you get back to Perth again soon. Probably the Fly by Night might be a better venue for you next time. Incidentally, I was at the Riverside Theatre again on 14th August (in the company of Lionel Cranfield – from Zenith Music – you know – the best Music store in Perth if not the whole of Australia) to catch the second Perth performance of the legendary Bob Dylan. Great performance marred by similar behaviour from the audience to the disgust of both Lionel and myself. Honestly – how can you walk out of a theatre during the encore of arguably Bob’s most famous and emotive anthem “Blowin’ in the Wind”. I am beginning to despair of some of today’s youth.

I’ve always associated the moment of writing with a moment of lift, of joy, of unexpected reward. Seamus Heaney

UPCOMING

GONE

But never to be Forgotten FORTHCOMING EVENTS, ETC By Colin Merrey Just to let you know that Cork men Mick Flannery & John Spillane will be touring Australia together this November. They had previously teamed up for a series of shows taking on the Marquee in Cork and Vicar Street Dublin, and will be re-uniting to bring their acclaimed show to Australia. Mick Flannery is a refreshingly unassuming artist, whose sole focus is on his craft, songwriting. A Mick Flannery gig has a feeling of intimacy to it; his stage presence exudes no superficial gimmicks, just a man sharing his songs in an understated but powerful manner. His lyrics have won him worthy comparisons with such great songwriters as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits. John Spillane is a multi-platinum award winning musician, and one of the most accomplished artists in Ireland today. His music transports the listener; his live performance captivates the audience. What makes him special is that he is an artist who knows how to deliver all that he has to offer to anyone of any age, male or female, no matter the musical genre be it folk, acoustic, traditional, world or pop – that’s fine with John. He’s a man who is very comfortable in his skin. Whether performing solo with guitar, with gentle accompaniment or with full band before 10, 10,000 or 100,000, John entertains, charms, and mesmerizes. They will be appearing in Perth at the Fly By Night Club on Sunday 30th November 2014. Other Australian dates are as follows: 26 Nov – @ O’Malley’s, Brisbane 28 Nov – Factory Theatre, Sydney 29 Nov – Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne Hope to see you at the Fly.

By COLIN MERREY

I am again saddened to have to tell you about some more notables who are no longer with us. Firstly, Gerard Conlon passed away on 21 June 2014 at the age of 60 years. He was usually known as Gerry Conlon and was a member of the Guildford Four who spent 14 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of being IRA bombers.

He was born in Belfast and grew up in the impoverished but closeknit community on Lower Falls Road. At the age 20, he went to England to seek work and to escape the everyday violence he was encountering on the streets of Belfast. He was living with a group of squatters in London when he was arrested for a deadly 1974 bombing. He continued to protest his innocence insisting that police had tortured him into making a false confession. In October, 1989 his position was vindicated, when the Guildford Four were freed after the Court of Appeal in London ruled that police had fabricated the handwritten interrogation notes used in the conviction. Crucial evidence proving Conlon could not have carried out the bombings had not been presented at the original trial. The whole experience was filmed as “In the Name of the Father” with Daniel Day Lewis playing the part of Conlon.

He battled with lung cancer for a lengthy period before his death on 21 June 2014 in his native Belfast and is survived by his partner, daughter and two sisters. We lost Hollywood and TV actor James Garner at the age of 85

years on 19th July 2014. Hew was probably best known for his roles as Jim Rockford (in the TV Series Rockford Files) and Brett Maverick (also in the TV series of the same name). Probably his best known movie role (from a career that spanned many many years) was in “The Great Escape” in which he starred with Steve McQueen. He will be sorely missed – he was a fine serious and comedic actor and one of my favourites.

I only recently heard of the passing of Francis “Franny” Beecher at the age of 92 years on February 24, 2014 in his sleep from natural causes. Also known as Frank Beecher, he was the lead guitarist for Bill Haley & His Comets from 1954 to 1962, and is best remembered for his innovative guitar solos combining elements of country music and jazz. He composed the classics “Blue Comet Blues”, “Goofin’ Around”, “Week End”, and “Shaky” when he was the lead guitarist for Bill Haley and the Comets. He continued to perform with surviving members of the Comets into 2006. In 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Beecher as a member of the Comets by a special committee, aimed at correcting the previous mistake of not inducting the Comets with Bill Haley. Some of you may not have heard of Johnny Winter who passed away on 16 July 2014 at the age of 72 years. He was a noted blues and rock ‘n’

roll guitarist who was admired and emulated by many of his fellow guitarists and bluesmen and he played on the records of many of his contemporaries and idols, most notably the late Muddy Waters. He was professionally active until the time of his death near Zurich, Switzerland where he was found dead in his hotel room two days after his last performance, at the Cahors Blues Festival in France on July 14. The cause of his death is not clear. He had for many years exhibited signs of lung disease, likely related to years of cigarette smoking, which he has stated he started at age 15.

On 12th August 2014, we lost the wonderful movie actress, Lauren Bacall who died from a stroke in her apartment in the Dakota building in New York. Apart from her many screen roles, she is perhaps best known for her marriage in 1945 to the late actor Humphrey Bogart that lasted until his death in 1957. Amongst her cinematographic achievements were her first film in 1944 “To Have and Have Not” and the Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). She continued working in television and the

Albert Reynolds and the Showband Era!

Like many Ex-Pats in Australia, I enjoyed the Irish Showband era and the many ballrooms spread throughout Ireland. The city ballrooms were often purpose built and the rural dance halls of town and country were often simple barn like buildings at the edge of the town. Painted and lit in bright colours inside and out, they had fanciful romantic names such as “Fairyland”, “Dreamland”, and “Wonderland” and “Arcadia”. Dance halls in smaller towns and villages would host a dance once or twice a month. The fans often travelled fifty km from the surrounding countryside

movies right up until her detah. She was 89 years old. Finally, I have just learned of the passing of the wonderful comedic and dramatic actor, Robin Williams at the age of only 63 years. He was found hanged in his apartment by police. He was best known on TV as Mork from the “Mork and Mindy” show and from such brilliant movies as “Good Morning Vietnam”, “Mrs Doubtfire” , and “Jumanji”.

Some of his best dramatic work can be seen in “Dead Poets Society”, “Awakenings” and “Good Will Hunting”. He was also a brilliant stand-up comedian who never failed to make me laugh with his routines.

Probably my favourite roles of his were in “One Hour Photo”, “Insomnia” in which he starred with Al Pacino and no doubt at all – as Adrian Cronauer in “Good Morning Vietnam” an absolute masterstroke of a performance. We will miss your wicked smiley face, acerbic wit and manic sense of humour. May your gods go with you – until we meet again.

Appropriately, at this time, I would

to see their favourite band. Some city ballrooms were lavish dance palaces from an earlier era. The Mecca in Belfast, Dublin’s Town and Country Club (a Corinthian pillared ballroom in the Georgian era), Rotunda Rooms, the Metropole and the TV Club were prominent among the plusher venues. Most rural dance halls were roughly constructed in cheap materials by local entrepreneurs. Breeze block pebbled Irish Garage architecture prevailed. So, it was sad to hear of an icon of that era, Albert Reynolds died recently. A chain of

also like to mention the demise not of a person but my favourite radio breakfast show (in what I consider to be the best format and musical content of any radio breakfast show I have heard since coming to Perth 40 odd years ago). Curtin FM Radio has parted company with its long time Breakfast Show presenter, Peter Newman. This has saddened me as I felt that he has a great rapport with his audiences and (personally this time) he shares with me a great love of crime literature and the music that I (and obviously Peter) grew up with from the mid ‘50’s to the mid ‘70’s, I shall miss him in the mornings. I hope it’s not too long before another radio station snaps him up and he returns quick smart to the airwaves. May I take this opportunity to thank him for his friendship and his ongoing support to the Irish Scene. Who knows, if we all harass the management of Curtin FM Radio enough, he might be invited back – I sincerely hope so. Good luck, Peter, for the future – hope to catch up again some time in the not too distant!!!!

As always, I can be contacted via the Irish Scene.

venues in the midlands was operated by Reynolds, who would later become Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland. At its height, the Irish showband business employed many thousands of musicians, support staff and managers. There were as many as 700 full and part-time bands travelling the country in the mid-1960s. By the mid-1970s the phenomenon had peaked, and was in decline. Many of the surviving bands reduced numbers and revamped into small pop rock or country music ensembles. A combination of upscale discos, new build modern hotel dance and cabaret rooms with full bar extensions brought the ballroom and showband business to a close in the early 1980s.

“Kabbarli” - Grandmother Daisie Bates Dedicated to her work among Aboriginals

By the passing of Mrs. Daisy Bates in 1951, Australia has lost a remarkable woman — one who’s life among and work for,

Daisy Bates and Jubytch at Smith’s Mill in Bellevue c.1905 From Bassendean Local Studies Collection

the Australian aborigines won her world-wide fame and admiration. Besides her nearly 40 years of practical work for the aboriginals — she lived among them in a tent, giving them food, healing their wounds, treating their ailments and making their laws — Daisy Bates learnt their languages and their legends. She has left as a memorial an extremely valuable collection of manuscripts on native lore which she presented to the Commonwealth Archives. Her book, ‘The Passing of the Aborigines,’ first published in 1938, went through several editions. It is recognised as an outstanding work, fascinating and authoritative, on the Australian natives, to whom she was ‘Kabbarli’ — grandmother. Some of her stories, written around native legends were published. Mrs. Bates had hoped to die as she had lived, among the aboriginals, and it was with great reluctance that, in 1945, her health and her eyesight failing, she allowed herself to be brought to Adelaide

from her camp at Wynbring Siding. She spent the last few years of her life in suburban rest homes and private hospitals. Her one great regret was that she was not able to finish writing all she had learned about the aborigines. In her speech, her gracious manners and her clothes she belonged to the last century. She always dressed with great nicety— even throughout her years with the aboriginals— in the blouses, coats and skirts and hats of the Victorian era. She was never seen without gloves. She had no time for the telephone, radio or the movies. She hated motor cars. They were all new-fangled ‘gigglywinks’ — one of her favourite expressions — to her. To devote herself to the service to the aboriginals in a pure Florence Nightingale spirit. Daisy Bates sold all her pastoral holdings in Western Australia and turned her back on wealth. For years she wandered with the aborigines. Among them she made a home of a tent in which she kept a supply of food and medicines that she gave the nomadic natives who came to her. Convincing the aboriginals that she was their friend, she won their confidence, learned to talk to them as one of themselves. They entrusted their sacred totems to her, sought her advice on their tribal problems, allowed her to attend ceremonial corroborees that white men had never seen, and that even the native women were

not allowed to witness. She became a ‘blood sister’ to Aboriginals — the only woman in the world who was ever so honoured by the natives. She learned the natives’ way of reasoning and to reason with them. She could speak 188 native dialects. She was deservedly proud of the fact that she knew more about the Australian natives than any other white person has been permitted to learn. She talked religion only when a native was dying and lonely, and a little terrified of what would come next, “I would hold his hand, hold his dying hand, and say, ‘When I let go of you, you will be in my Father’s home.’ That was all the Christianity I ever spoke and it was enough.” Daisy Bates was born Daisy O’Dwyer in 1859, the daughter of Irish parents who lived in County Tipperary. Her mother died when she was three, and she was brought up in England as the ward of Sir Francis and Lady Outram. She was given an excellent education and

travelled widely through Europe. A lung weakness brought her on a trip to Australia in 1884. She stayed at the home of the Bishop of North Queensland and later with several family friends who had migrated previously. Because of this she later said ‘Australia was just like home’. She found employment as a governess on Fanning Downs Station and on 13 March 1884 married Edwin Henry Murrant, better known as Breaker Morant, at Charters Towers. However after stealing a few pigs and paying with unsecured cheques, or not at all, Daisy told him to get lost. This he did and eventually he enlisted in the Second Contingent of the South Australian Mounted Rifles. He sailed for South Africa and the Boer War on 26 January 1900. Shortly after, Daisy moved to New South Wales there attending as many parties and outings as possible. Daisy was very popular and soon engaged to Philip Gipps. Gipps died before he could marry her and instead Daisy married John Bates, an Australian born man of action, breaker of wild horses, bushman and drover, on 17 February 1885. Her one and only son, Arnold Hamilton Bates was born in Bathurst on 26 August 1886. None of the marriages was a success and Daisy was soon bored with her husband. She once more travelled far and wide, including Tasmania, often visiting inland towns or

stations. Although fairly well off financially, she lost most of her money and the remainder during the depression and the disastrous bank crashes of 1892. Returning to England in 1894, Daisy Bates became a journalist, working for the noted W.T. Stead on the staff of the ‘Review of Reviews.’ Five years later she decided to return to Australia. Before leaving London she read a letter in ‘The Times,’ alleging cruelty to the blacks by white settlers in Western Australia. She talked to the editor and was assigned to make investigations and a report on the allegations. In Perth she bought a buggy, horses and camping gear, went by boat to Port Hedland and from there set out on an 800 mile journey through the bush — a journey that took six months. In her dispatch to ‘The Times’’ Mrs Bates and provided an intelligent and valuable report on conditions of the natives in that area. Later, she made a trip to the Trappist Monastery at Beagle Bay, and was greatly interested in the welfare work that was being done for the natives by the missionaries. For the Western Australian Government she wrote, from knowledge, gained from the native, a history of one of the native tribes; she accompanied an international expedition as a travelling ‘protector,’ enquiring into many phases of native life; she spent some time

in welfare work on Dorre and Bernier Islands, off the coast near Carnarvon. It was after this long experience among the natives that she made her noble decision to give up everything and devote the rest of her life to the natives. In the years that followed, she went from camp to camp in the desert from Eucla and Fowler’s Bay in the south right up to the Fitzroy River in the north. Her last permanent camp was at Ooldea, on the transcontinental line, where she spent nearly 20 years with her beloved natives. In 1934 she was made a Commander of the British Empire and the following year she came to Adelaide to write her book. After that she lived with the natives for a while at Pyap on the River Murray and she made one final trip to the desert, setting up camp at Wynbring Siding, until her ill-health made it necessary for her to live permanently in Adelaide. The death of Mrs. Daisy Bates removed one of the most picturesque women who have lived in this country. Daisy Bates was buried at North Road Cemetery. “How can we help the natives to a better concept, to a civilised way of life, unless we first take the trouble to understand him?” asked Mrs. Bates, in her crisp, Englishclipped voice, that’s still so faintly touched with an Irish brogue.

From The Passing of the Aborigines, by Daisy Bates Last of the Bibbulmun Race

Joobaitch clung steadily to Maamba, his own ground; even when the doctor urged his removal to hospital. “No,”’ said Joobaitch, “I shall die on my own ground, and not in a white man’s house. When I die, I shall go down through the sea to Kur’an’nup, where all my people will be waiting on the shore with meat food, my mother and my woman, my father, and my brothers. Before it sets out on its journey, my spirit must be free to rest on the kaanya tree. Since nyitting (cold) times all Bibbulmun spirits have rested on this tree on their way to Kur’an’nup, and I have never broken a branch or flower, or sat in the shade of the tree, because it is the tree of the dead, the sacred tree.” One day the cart came to take Joobaitch to hospital. “Don’t let them take me!” he pleaded. I said, “It is all right, Joobaitch. You will die before you pass the kaartya tree at Karragullen, and your soul will rest there before it goes to the sea.” Joobaitch died as the cart crossed the little creek near Maamba, as he had wished it, still on his own ground, close to the kaanya tree. So the last of the Perth tribe was buried in the aboriginal section of the old Guildford cemetery, which formed part of his people’s home. He had had fifty years of Christianity, but he died in the faith of the Bibbulmun, looking westward to Kur’an’nup.

THE

Irish FACTOR IN

Australia by Lloyd Gorman Irish people have been emigrating to Australia in one shape or another since its foundation as a colony more than 200 years ago. A recent research study published by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Ireland however reveals that since 2008 there have been big changes in the traditional patterns of emigration and Western Australia in particular is the focus of those developments. It also offers an insight into the way some Irish people are coping, or not as the case is for some, with the experience of living and working in Australia. “Supporting the Next Generation of the Irish Disapora” tells us that since 2008 Australia has come to prominence as a destination of choice for Irish people going overseas. According to the figures in the report from the Central Statistics Office of Ireland some 78,900 people emigrated to Australia between 2008 and April 2013. This is much higher than the number of people going to America and Canada combined, and only the UK gets more Irish than Australia. In the same period of time more than one hundred thousand working holiday (subclass 417/backpacker) first and second year visas have been granted to Irish citizens, a figure which dwarves migration figures to other countries in the same period. In the period since 2008, it is clear that Australia has been the destination of choice for Irish emigrants. The government report calls this “a new version of the American dream”. Of those coming to Australia in the last six years, the majority have come to Western Australia because of the mining and construction boom. Currently 10% of the Australian population lives in WA but a much larger proportion of people born in

Ireland (21%) are here as they follow the jobs. There has been a definite shift in where the Irish go in Australia. In 2009 the government report tells us New South Wales was the biggest destination for Irish 457 visa holders. But in 2013 Western Australia was getting the lions share of these skilled visa workers of all the states and territories. “A 457 visa holder may be an accountant working for a global firm, transferred Sydney to spend a number of years working overseas,” the report adds. “They could be a nurse, suffering under the public sector recruitment freeze in Ireland and coming out to Melbourne to find employment. They could be an engineer, drawn to Perth to work as a fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) contractor with one of the massive mining companies in Western Australia. The position of the FIFO worker… has it challenges…but the overall sense is that Irish workers on these temporary skilled visas, which present a relatively smooth path to permanent residency if desired, are prospering quite well. Increasingly, Irish graduates see Australia as a stepping stone in a career which will ultimately bring them back to Ireland.” The study does look at the situation of the FIFO worker in some detail and comes to the conclusion that it presents a myriad of challenges. We are told that up to September 30 2103 that 34% of all Irish 457 visa holders were based in WA, more than anywhere else. But every support group and community network in Australia interviewed for the study hightailed the toll this model has taken on Irish people and their families and communities. FIFO workers - who spend long

periods of time away and short stays at home with their families - have higher than the national average of divorce, and their children are more likely to have behavioural issues in school. They are well paid - an average of $130,000 a year - but rarely put down healthy roots for living. “In Perth, often such workers will not rent an apartment but will secure temporary accommodation only, and will have trouble forming relationships, as well as alcohol and substance abuse issues. As the mining industry in the region contracts, as the mines move from a construction phase (where 10,000 people might be needed) to an operations phase (where 600 may be needed), positions will become insecure, and workers will be expected to move on to the next boom area. Although these positions are well paid, the life experienced around them is one which disrupts the normal rhythms of an integrated and healthy social and psychological lifestyle.” There are others who need help according to the report. Community and support groups like the Claddagh Association in WA report that it is overwhelmingly young people on temporary visas (which have strict rules around work and travel) who make up the bulk of emergency and welfare cases. “We are getting calls from the embassy referring young lads to us who are practically homeless,” said Joan Ross from the Claddagh Association. “They might have enough left for a few nights in a hostel, but no other money for food, or anything. That’s the kid of desperation we are faced with at the moment, which is very different to what we have ever seen before. “The profile of the 417s (Visa holders) has changed. It had been in the early 2000s, people who had finished college and were on a gap year, or who had done maybe a year or two of work, and then were coming out for a break before settling down and getting married or whatever. So they were generally well educated, they had resources back home, that kind of profile. And now you’re getting much more - “I’m on the dole in Ireland and I’ll scrape

Irish in Bunbury Monthly Gathering

together enough money to get across here”. They don’t have the education, they don’t have the skills, and they are in a challenging environment here, just because its not home. And we’ve seen that since about 2008.” In the last 12 months alone (to April 2014) she said the Claddagh Associaion have seen a 35% increase in calls for help and assistance. There is a definite resurgence in the numbers of Irish making Australia their home. Between 1788 and 1900 almost 25% of all migrants coming here were from Ireland. The new wave of large numbers of Irish migrants who in the last ten years turned to Australia is the biggest in 150 years. Apparently in 1996 the Irish made up only 1% of overseas born people in Australia. The report says that new this influx of Irish people has sparked the development of new communities, the revival of older ones, and has created a host of new challenges and opportunities for those seeking to support and engage. Perth, for example, is identified alongside Sydney as a place where groups based around key Irish events, namely St. Patrick’s Day festivals, are thriving. Amongst those interviewed and who contributed to the report in WA are Fred Rea (Irish Scene), Marty Kavanagh (Consulate), Gerry O’Leary (Irish Western Australia Forum) and Joan Ross (Claddagh Association). A copy of the report can be easily found and downloaded by googling the name of the research paper.

Kieran O’Brien in Bunbury is organising a monthly gathering at the Rose Hotel. “We are calling it The Friday Club and it is open to all the Irish and their friends”. On Saturday 23rd August Sparrow played at the Rose Hotel for the Gathering and it was a sell-out with a long waiting list. “We are trying to encourage many Irish to turn up in the Rose on the first Friday of each month to enjoy a chat and maybe share ideas for future events”. This has been running for about 6 months and we have a regular small group who come along regularly. Kieran said, “It would be nice to move up a gear and have maybe live music evenings encourage larger regular gatherings”. The management of the Rose Hotel have been very supporting of the idea and Kieran would like to express his gratitude to them. The group is also looking for local Irish musicians in Bunbury who would like to join and perform. It is time to roll up your sleeves in Bunbury and help Kieran in his endeavours. I know other groups have been attempted in Bunbury but I have a feeling, after a long chat with him, Kieran can make this happen. You can email Kieran consult.kieran@bigpond.com and find out more of the future plans or you want to be part of this wonderful initiative.

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

SHAMROCK

Rovers

IN FORM ROVERS COMPETING ON ALL FRONTS

Shamrock Rovers Perth FC are having a great season at all levels with all seven teams destined for top four or better finishes at this stage. It is especially pleasing to see the Club’s senior team sitting just 2 points off the top in State League Div 1. This is backed up by a steadily improving reserves and the under 18s who are in top spot. The Sunday teams are again performing well with the Amateurs top of Div 3 and the Socials in second place in Metro North Div 1, as well as being in the Cup quarter finals. Well done to all players and coaches. The club is looking to set up four juniors squads for the 2015 season. This will include age groups for under 12 / 14 / 15 / 16 and will be based with the State teams at Grimrey Oval in Lockridge. All players interested in attending some summer clinics and becoming part of the new Rovers juniors wing should contact the club by email shamrockroversperth@outlook.com Recruitment lists are being drawn up as early as possible so don’t delay in registering your interest! Keep an eye on the Club Facebook page for updates https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shamrock-RoversPerth-Football-Club-Inc/441804062545886?focus_ composer=true&ref_type=bookmark The Club celebrated its 30 year anniversary with a get together of members and players past and present at Rosie O’Grady’s in Northbridge (see photos right) on Saturday July 19. A great turn out saw many of the old faces and many memories from past years were resurrected (no doubt with great exaggeration) and a great night was had by all. Well done Wayne Brookes. Fund raising and sponsorship remains a high priority for the club and all sponsorship offers and support for fundraising activities is greatly appreciated. With the State League side in their best ever position in the season run in your support at their games would be a massive boost and could be enough to get them over the line at the end of the season. Bill Byrne

www.shamrockrovers.com.au 85

Michael Manning President Shamrock Rovers

A word from Fiona Murphy, President of the Irish Theatre Players (Perth) And that’s a wrap! Perth’s Irish Theatre Players’ 2014 July season has drawn to a close with our five night run of Brian Friel’s Lovers at the Irish Club Theatre selling out to full houses. The support from the local community for our July production has been overwhelming with the demand for tickets so great that additional seats were released. The performance of Lovers (comprised of two parts: Winners and Losers) was very well received and the casts of both parts were highly praised by both the critics and the audience. Liam MacDonald and Bobby Greaney must also be credited for their achievements as directors and the wonderful success of the performances. We tried to shake things up at our July production and the audience appeared to appreciate the changes. Our focus for our upcoming N o v e m b e r production will be to develop and build on this new approach. We reinvented the lounge area of the Irish Club Theatre with a “new look” and Chandelabra in Subiaco was instrumental in helping us achieve a warm theatre style setting with low lighting, chaise lounges, candles and chandeliers. As well as having tasty bites provided for our interval supper by Black Caviar Catering (the catering service at the Irish Club), Hettys Scullery Irish Bread was also sampling her delicious bakes which went down a treat with our audiences. We are delighted to be welcoming back Hettys Scullery Irish Bread to our November production where she will once again be offering complimentary samples of her homemade eats, and such was the audiences’ positive response, next time round you will also have the opportunity to purchase Hettys’ soda loaves and other baked goods at

our shows if they take your fancy. We were very excited to launch our new raffle at our July production and gave away over a whopping $2000 worth of prizes across five nights - from hampers of beautiful bakes, hand crafted jewellery and art work, dinner vouchers, car service vouchers and day spa vouchers worth $250 - there were plenty of top quality prizes up for grabs. We have some big ideas for our group going forward so fundraising will become an intrinsic part of our future plans and our intention is that all funds raised from the raffle will be applied towards the upgrade of the Irish Club Theatre. We would like to especially thank all of the following businesses who made very generous contributions to our raffle: Bistro Des Artistes restaurant in Subiaco; BVM Car Maintenance; Effigy Day Spa on Georges Terrace; Essence of Ireland; Fly Home homeware store in Subiaco; Hettys Scullery Irish Bread; Pantoufle gift shop in Subiaco; Preston’s Exclusive Butchery; Santa Fe Restaurant and Tequila Lounge in Subiaco; Sean Carroll Jewellery; The Irish Club; and Taste 32. Our plan is to continue in the same vein for our raffle at our November production so if you have a business and are interested in supporting The Irish Theatre Players please contact us. The support for the Irish Theatre Players stemmed beyond local businesses and also came from the local community, we were delighted to welcome representatives from all of the following groups to our show: Claddagh; Fremantle Radio; Perth Rose of Tralee; Irish Families in Perth; The Australian Irish Heritage Association; The Irish Club; The Irish Perth

Golf Society; and The Irish Scene. I must give a special mention to The Irish Club whose committee and staff have been unfaltering in their support of The Irish Theatre Players. Our marketing campaign was further supported by Capital Community Radio, Curtin Radio, Fremantle Radio and McLoughlin Butchers. Of course the Irish Theatre Players’ key supporter is its audience - we were thrilled to welcome many new faces to our July production and we were also delighted to welcome back so many of our loyal friends and supporters. We hope that you will join us again in November when we take a slightly different track and bring you to the casino… and not just any casino… Noel O’ Neill’s Big Casino. This is a modern play that the audience will immediately engage with so be prepared to be entertained! The Big Casino is a black comedy set in 1960s London and involves a kidnap that goes terribly wrong. The story is underpinned by strong characters so appropriate casting is integral to the success of this play. We had a super turn out at our auditions in early August and Noel O’ Neill was in the very fortunate position of having a pick of quality actors to choose from. I am very confident that Noel and his cast will make the play shine and that you the audience will not be disappointed. In terms of what’s happening beyond November the Irish Theatre Players continue to look for directors for our upcoming productions and we are keen to build a pool of talent for the future. If you are interested in directing or would like to get involved with the Irish Theatre Players either on stage or off we would love to hear from you so please send us an email, give us a call or contact us on facebook.

Tuesday nights at the Woody in Guildford goes from strength to strength. What people are saying: “Wonderful people, wonderful place. Love that there is somewhere to just relax or go nuts right at my doorstep (especially on Tuesday nights). Thanks to the Woody!!” Make it a date, every Tuesday night... great Irish session... make it anytime... a great spot for a pint and the Craic!

•

The Irish Theatre Players NEXT PRODUCTION

IRISH IRISH MUSIC MUSIC

SESSION

The Big Casino

EVERY TUESDAY

by Noel O’Neill

7PM -11PM

at the Irish Club Theatre in Subiaco at 8.00 pm on 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, and 15 November with a Sunday matinee taking place at 3.00 pm on Sunday, 9 November. Tickets are $20 (concessions $15) (Include a light supper with refreshments)

PIE & PINT DEAL JUST $15

We have changed our booking details so if you wish to book tickets for our upcoming production or contact us to join our group you can do so by the following means: Online: www.irishtheatreplayers.com.au Email: itp@irishtheatreplayers.com.au Telephone: 0406 085 620 The Irish Theatre Players are on facebook. Like our page at https://www.facebook.com/IrishTheatrePlayers

Every Tuesday: Guinness $6 from 6pm

Woodbridge Hotel

50 EAST STREET GUILDFORD

9377 1199 87

on the Saturday to ensure that everyone as well as hurling, camogie and minors get to play a maximum number of games. This will also ensure all players have opportunities to be selected in the All Star teams. For the first time, teams finishing 3rd and 4th in their code will play each other in a “Plate Final” Teams will be participating as follows: MINOR FOOTBALL South Australia, Victoria Blue, Victoria White, NSW WOMEN’S FOOTBALL West Australia, S Australia, Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Wellington SENIOR FOOTBALL West Australia, S Australia, Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Wellington CAMOGIE West Australia, Victoria, NSW, Queensland HURLING West Australia, Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Wellington Watch out for the “Games Poster” featuring the legendary Jim Stynes which will shortly be on the Australasian and the GAA of Victoria Games Facebook pages. Hard copies of the Poster will also be on show at Clubrooms and selected venues. Negotiations are well underway for Jerome Quinn from Ireland to cover the Championships as well as producing a half hour documentary of the games to be shown on television in Ireland and also available online. The Presentation dinner at Etihad Stadium on the Saturday night of the finals promises to be some event with up to 800 people attending. Game results will be available online each day along with match reports.

Australasian Gaelic Foootball & Hurling Association

STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

News Update

RECORD NUMBERS FOR AUSTRALASIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS There will be a record number of teams and players at the 2014 Australasian Games. 25 Teams, around 650 players and support staff equals around 60 games over four days. It will be a wonderful celebration of hurling, camogie and football at Gaelic Park, Keysborough in Victoria. Minors will commence on Tuesday and all other codes on Wednesday. Finals for minor football and camogie will be on Friday and senior, women and hurling finals on Saturday. As there are 6 men’s and 6 women’s teams it would not be possible to play five preliminary games over three days plus semi- finals. As a result there are two groups of three in each code selected randomly. Each team in both codes will play three games against teams in the other group with the top four playing off in semi- finals. With Camogie not starting until Wednesday and the final on Friday it will be necessary for teams to play their third prelim game on Thursday morning and then semi-finals that afternoon. In men’s and women’s football there will be games between the fifth and sixth placed teams

Gerard Roe, Secretary Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia

Dermot Byrne

The Irish Quiz Wiz!

a.k.a. Dermot from Lesmurdie on ABC radio Nightlife program. (1) What county would you be in if you were kissing the Blarney Stone? (2) Can you name the three counties of Ulster which are not included in the Six Counties? (3) In which county is Belleek famous for its pottery and it’s production of fine china? (4) In which county are the Fields of Athenry? (5) In which county is the most northerly point in Ireland? (6) Which county would you go to see the Cliffs of Moher? (7) Which county did The Rose of Tralee come from? (8) In which county is the Giant’s Causeway? (9) Carrauntoohil the highest mountain in Ireland is in which county? (10) Which county is known as the Garden of Ireland? Answers. (1)Cork (2)Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan (3)Fermanagh (4)Galway (5)Donegal (6)Clare (7)Kerry (8)Armagh (9)Cork (10)Wicklow.

Thanks Fred for filling in for me for the quiz in the last edition while I was away in Ireland. For the quiz this time I would like to find out what you know about Irish geography.

Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of WA Inc.

Another great season

BUT!

Rob O’Callaghan,President GAA of WA

FOOTBALL FINALS

Well by the time your reading this the football season will be all wrapped up and all teams including hurling, camogie, ladies and men’s football will be gearing up for their assault on the Australasian championships in Melbourne. Its promising to be a massive few days and I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all players and management the best of luck in their travels. Well I won’t say much more except to say thanks to all who helped out this year to ensure that hurling, camogie and football continued to grow at senior level and also be developed at junior level through the tireless efforts of all at the junior academy, the only of its kind in Australia I must remind you, thanks a million lads. I hope that it goes from strength to strength over the years to come as I’m sure it will. But I think it would be misleading of me to paint everything in a bright light as I think we need to be very careful of what direction the gaa is heading here in WA. All clubs need to seriously take control of our sport to ensure that we are developing for our future and by that I mean looking at developing our sport at underage level. It can be hard at committee level sometimes without support from the clubs so hopefully going forward all can work together to ensure the junior and underage programs are developed to their fullest. Apologies for throwing a dampener on what has been a good season so until next time congrats to all victorious teams for 2014 and good luck to all teams travelling to Melbourne. Cheers Rob.

Good Luck to WA teams at Championships

gfhwa.com.au 89

Junior Academy Update By Debbie Cashman

The Junior Academy has had many interesting training days in recent weeks, with our family fun day in Tom Bateman where the kids and parents were treated to a sausage sizzle for free thanks to Sean O’Casey and Robbie O’Callaghan. There was a bouncy castle and fun games for the kids big and small. We also had a fun parents and coaches night with our fancy dress 70’s/80’s theme disco in the Irish Club. Some great costumes and fun had by all who went, thanks again to everyone who supported our fundraiser. There’s a couple of other interesting developments happening alongside the academy. We were approached by Aoife Stack who is setting up football for ‘Mothers and Others’ they have their own face book page. Training started last week on Friday evening at 6.30pm at Kingsway sports complex, so if any lady out there wants to play Gaaelic Football - socially, please look them up! It is just for a bit of craic, and you can always progress to play real Gaelic with one of the ladies club, or not, as the case may be! Of course Dads n Lads can’t be overshadowed so there is a game at the end of this month for the over 35’s in Tom Bateman so training for the men happens at the same time. Martin Brady is looking after this group. The teenagers also have coaching at this time up at Kingsway (13-15 year olds) so please feel free to come along. We haven’t started Gaelic for OAP’s just yet, we’ll let you know when we do! Sunday 14th Sept is Bring a friend day at Tom Bateman so if your child attends the Southern Academy every Sunday, please feel free to bring a friend on this day to show them the joys of hurling and football! End Of Season: Our last day of the Academy for 2014 will be on Sunday 21st of September, it will be held in Tapping Primary School Oval usual time from 12- 1.30pm. Plenty of fun and games planned again, because we are just a great bunch! There will be laugh out loud events such as throwing wet sponge at the coaches,(this was in the small print when you signed up to be a coach…) tyre runs, obstacle course, and we’ll have sausages and black pudding etc. from Mc Loughlins butchers and so there will be plenty of Irish Breakfast rolls going around (albeit at lunch time!) Facepainting, tug of war and many more activies and tricks up sleeves! If anyone was thinking of joining a ‘club’ for their kids

come along and join in the fun and see if you’d like to join for next year. Schools coaching, is in full swing this term and lots more planned for term 4! This term we have Gerry Crowley coaching in St. Bridget’s, Lesmurdie, Goosebury Hill, and Leeming schools. With a match to take place of ground hurling between Goosebury Hill and St. Bridgets on 11th of Sept. It is great to get a couple of schools playing against each other, well done to Gerry for his continuing efforts. In Term 4 we are going to have schools North of the River taking part in training programs which we are very exciting about as we have always said growing it through schools is the best way forward, so onward and upward!

www.thebreakwater.com.au

58 Southside Drive, Hillarys Boat Harbour Ph: 08 9448 5000 Fax: 08 9448 6000

St Gabriel’s Hurling & CamogieClub The Camogie and Hurling season is now over for this year. For the Hurling, Sarsfield’s deservedly won the championship by defeating Shamrocks in what was an epic final, congratulations from all at St. Gabriels. The Gabs lads were unlucky not to be contesting the final having shown fantastic spirit, skill and determination in the semi-final against Shamrocks, alas it was not to be our year but much credit must go to the players who put in some fantastic performances during “New Members Welcome” the year, and we would to join contact. like to thank Shane, Hurling: Shane 0438 383 517 Ronan, Mark and Paddy Camogie: Louise 0429 859 093 for their work all year. Danielle 0405 418 809 For the ladies, Facebook: St. Gabriels Hurling WA after losing out on the League Final to Our Major Sponsors: Western Swans, all hope was not lost MONFORD and their heart and determination and belief got them through the Championship Final to win the Cup for the second year in a row. It was a fantastic display of Camogie from both St. Gabriels and Western Swans and we look forward to the competition again next year with the Southern Districts also. Well done to all players throughout the year and the Camogie would like to thank Tom, Dessie, Ed, Jamie and their committee for the support and hard efforts this year. We all look forward to the State Championship in Melbourne and hopefully we will have a few representatives from the club to try and make it three in a row for WA Hurling and a second win for the Camogie. Thanks to all our Camogie sponsors (ODH Mechanical; The Irish Club; Ringside Boxing and Fitness and Karratha Plant and Machinery) and Hurling sponsors (Monford Group; PTR Finance; PERI Formwork & Scaffold) for their support throughout the year. We would also like to congratulate our sponsor Monford Group on winning The Telstra WA Business of the Year 2014. UPCOMING EVENTS We will be having our Annual Dinner Dance in the Hilton this year on the 21st November. Tickets will be available soon.

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