Irish Echo, August 2019

BREXIT, BORIS AND THE BACKSTOP What now for Ireland, post Brexit? :: PAGE 8-9

AMERICAN TRICK OR IRISH TREAT? Halloween’s Irish roots to be celebrated at new festival TRAVEL :: PAGE 28

DARA Ó BRIAIN ‘Why I truly love Australia to bits’ PAGE 24

August, 2019 | Volume 32 – Number 8 | AU$5.95 (incl GST)

ASIA-PACIFIC DIPLOMATIC EXPANSION

Melbourne in line for full Irish consulate MELBOURNE is one step closer to getting its own full-time consulate after the Irish government announced plans for a rapid expansion of its diplomatic footprint in the Asia Pacific.

Plans to double the country’s representation in this region were announced last week as part of the next phase of the Global Ireland 2025 initiative. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said full details of a new strategy for the region would be revealed during next month’s Rugby World Cup in Japan to promote Ireland as a great place to invest, study, trade with, and visit.

Currently, the Irish mission in Australia consists of the embassy in Canberra, a full-time consulate general in Sydney and an honorary consulate in Perth. The Melbourne Irish community has long argued for a diplomatic base in Australia’s largest city.

Ambassador of Ireland Breandán Ó Caollaí said the Irish government was committed to “augmenting our diplomatic presence in Australia”.

“While no decision has yet been taken on where that will be, the growing economic importance of Melbourne, with its a large Irish community, will be an important consideration,” he said, pointing to the opening of a new Enterprise Ireland

office in the city in March. Other options for the Irish government might include another new consulate in Brisbane or making the Perth mission a full-time office.

The expansion plans were announced at a special summit at Dublin Castle to mark one year since the launch of the Global Ireland initiative. The government strategy aims to double the scope and impact of Ireland’s global footprint by 2025.

Mr Varadkar told attendees that good progress had been made in the past year with eight new embassies and consulates having opened, including one in New Zealand.

“We are opening new embassies and consulates because we know that by expanding and enhancing Ireland’s presence overseas we can grow our economy here at home and increase our influence internationally,” he said. “As a small open economy, it is vital that Ireland is open to opportunities on a global scale.”

“The new embassies and offices that we have opened are a clear signal of intent and are already providing practical assistance to Irish citizens, Irish businesses and Irish cultural voices,” Minister Coveney added.

“This is where we are seeing the real value of Global Ireland.

“We have to keep the momentum up and build on this investment to enhance our global presence.”

British Open champion Shane Lowry celebrates with wife Wendy and daughter Iris at Royal Portrush in Co Antrim.

Picture: David Davies

Ireland unites to celebrate Lowry’s success DUNGANNON’S Darren Clarke hit the first shot of the 148th British Open at Royal Portrush. But it was Shane Lowry from Clara, Co Offaly who holed the final putt to win the title.

The hugely popular 32-year-old became the first Irish winner of the Open since Rory McIlroy in 2014 and the fourth Irish winner of the Major this century after McIlroy, Clarke and Padraig Harrington (2007, 2008).

Lowry’s first Major victory unleashed a wave of celebration across the island from the dunes of the Causeway coast to his home golf club of Esker Hills in Co Offaly.

His success was particularly special for his family: wife Wendy, daughter

Iris, parents Brendan and Bridget and grandmother Emmy Scanlon who became a celebrity in her own right from her hilarious TV interviews.

Dad Brendan hailed his son’s Open Championship victory as the best birthday present he had ever received. A celebrated Gaelic footballer, Brendan turned 60 days before Shane clinched the Claret Jug. Mr Lowry said his own all-Ireland GAA crown, won with Co Offaly in 1982, paled in comparison with his son’s triumph at the Open’s historic return to the island of Ireland.

“I was 60 last Friday, that’s why he handed me the thing and said ‘Happy birthday Dad’,” Brendan said.

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Days after his success Lowry was still refusing to let the Claret Jug out of his grasp.

“It’s amazing,” Lowry said. “There’s so much history. There are names from 1872 on this. I don’t know if I ever thought I’d win a major, but to win it at Portrush is a dream come true.”

To complete an historic week for Irish golf, Adare Manor in Co Limerick was confirmed as the host venue for the 2026 Ryder Cup. See also Page 17, 31 Print Post No 100007285

BILLY CANTWELL

2 | August, 2019

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THE IRISH ECHO

Opinion

Editor/Publisher Billy Cantwell

Deportation policy smacks of hypocrisy THE Australian government has been criticised for sending individuals who are deemed to be “not of good character” back to their country of birth, no matter how long they might have lived in Australia.

In this edition we highlight one of those cases. Paul Pennie, who was born in Ireland, came to Australia aged six in 1980 along with his Dubliner parents. They settled in Perth. His whole life has been lived in Australia but he never became a citizen.

Like other Irish nationals who arrived in this country before 1984 (along with British citizens) Pennie would have been allowed to vote and enjoyed all the privileges of citizenship without having to become an Australian citizen. This peculiarity of the Australian citizenship laws was grandfathered as of January 26, 1984.

He would have been forgiven for thinking he was a citizen.

But in any case, he is an Aussie. He was raised here, schooled here, moved into adult life here.

Pennie is no angel and through his membership of a bikie gang, he got involved in drugs.

On July 21, 2015 he was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia to three years imprisonment for

“

Australia is looking like a poor global citizen, seeking to wash its hands of people who have been criminalised here and then expecting other countries to deal with the fallout.

”

From the editor’s desk

possession of methylamphetamine with intent to sell or supply to another, and 12 months imprisonment (cumulative) for wilful destruction of evidence. He was sentenced to an additional six months imprisonment on a number of other charges. On January 13, 2016, a delegate of Minister Peter Dutton cancelled his visa.

Having now served his jail term, Pennie is in Immigration detention

awaiting deportation to Ireland.

He is in the process of appealing the decision to cancel his visa but it now looks likely that he will be sent back to the land of his birth.

As a citizen, he will be entitled to access some help from the Irish state but as someone with significant health issues, the prospects look bleak for the now 46-year-old.

The policy of cancelling the visas of non-citizens like Pennie, even if they have lived their whole lives in Australia, has drawn criticism, particularly from human rights activists. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called out the policy, under which thousands of Kiwi-born Aussies have been sent back across the Tasman.

While the irony of Australia, a nation that evolved from a penal colony, transporting its criminals to other countries will not be lost on anyone, it does appear that this country is abrogating its responsibility to people like Pennie.

It looks shifty for the Australian government to ignore the lived experience of these damaged people.

At the very least, Australia is looking like a poor global citizen, seeking to wash its hands of people who have been criminalised here and expecting

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other countries to deal with it.

Pennie will most likely be sent to a country with which he has little affection and with which he has scant connection. He will receive some assistance from the Irish State but welfare experts have said that he faces a very real risk of adding to Ireland’s homeless problem.

In 2017, another Irish-born Australian Jack Watson died on a Dublin street as a homeless man after being deported under similar circumstances. That deportation became a death sentence for Watson.

Meanwhile, the Morrison government is pushing through legislation to prevent Australian citizens deemed to be a security risk from coming home for up to two years.

Once again, it looks like Australia is not facing up to its responsibilities, expecting other countries to accept its less desirable residents.

Paul Pennie’s heartbroken father Gerry has spoken to the Irish Echo about his fears for his son.

If he loses his appeal, Pennie, like the colonial convicts of old, may be transported for the term of his natural life.

See report :: page 7

Design Stuart Middleton Office Tina King-Garde Advertising Lorraine McCann Contributors Elizabeth Morgan Meg Kanofski David Hennessy Frank O’Shea Mal Rogers Telephone: +61 2 9555 9199 Postal Address: PO Box 256, Balmain, NSW 2041, Australia E-mail (Admin): hello@irishecho.com.au E-mail (Editorial): editor@irishecho.com.au The Irish Echo is a national publication published monthly

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August, 2019 | 3

LOCAL NEWS

IRISH ECHO’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATED IN SYDNEY

Milestone for Echo THE Irish Echo has marked 30 years in print with a special celebration at the Consulate General of Ireland in Sydney. Ireland’s Ambassador to Australia Breandán Ó Caollaí and his wife Carmel attended the event along with Irish Echo staff, alumni, advertisers, supporters and politicians.

Ambassador Ó Caollaí said the Irish Echo had “played a crucial role in recording and retelling the Irish emigrant story in Australia”.

He also read out a special message of congratulations from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

“Over the past three decades, the Irish Echo has regularly reflected on and charted the development of Ireland-Australia relations and has helped the Irish Down Under to stay in touch with home,” Mr Varadkar wrote.

“Congratulations to everyone in

the Echo, and indeed everyone who reads it, on the 30th anniversary of its first publication. I wish you continued success for the next 30 years.”

Consul General of Ireland Owen Feeney, who hosted the event, said: “For 30 years now, and long before Facebook and Twitter came along, the Irish Echo has served our community as a source of local news and information as well as sharing the news from back home.”

The Irish Echo’s founding editor and owner Billy Cantwell described the masthead as “a passion project”.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by the reaction to our 30th anniversary edition. It’s clear to me that there is enormous goodwill towards The Irish Echo and that is very gratifying. Please support us as we guide the Irish Echo towards a sustainable future,” he said.

Ambassador of Ireland Breandán Ó Caollaí and his wife Carmel, with Irish Echo’s Billy Cantwell at the 30th Anniversary celebration.

MELBOURNE CELTIC CLUB LEADERS HIT BACK OVER ‘DIRE STRAITS’ CLAIM BY ‘CONTINUITY’ GROUP

No crisis at Club, insists President DAVID HENNESSY

THE President of Melbourne’s Celtic Club has hit back at claims by an anonymous rebel group that has set up a website to air its grievances.

The so-called Continuity Celtic Club alleged online that the Celtic Club was in dire straits, with a declining membership, and was treating its members with contempt.

The Celtic Club’s president says the claims are unfounded smears and says the club is in the best financial position ever.

“They’re full of lies and madness,” Brian Shanahan told The Irish Echo.

“The reality is it’s not dire straits.

As I put in the letter (to members), you could hardly describe a situation where you’ve got $18 million in assets and no debts as dire straits. It’s a better situation than any Irish club in Australia and probably most clubs.”

The club’s old headquarters at

Queen Street was sold to Malaysian developers Beulah for $25.6 million in 2016 but the club held on to the option to return to Queen Street when the site is refurbished in two to three years’ time. In the meantime, the Celtic Club’s temporary home is at the Metropolitan Hotel, Courtney St, North Melbourne with an administration centre in West Melbourne.

“Any move where you sell a property and then negotiate to go back, the change of venue costs you money and we expected to lose money the year or so after the sale. We didn’t expect to lose as much. That’s the issue.

“We have stopped the bleeding. We’re not losing money now and we’re still in a situation where we have $18 million, no debts. The options before us are to go back into prize real estate and we’ve got a temporary place to operate in. We’re renegotiating the lease there in a beneficial way to us.”

Celtic Club President Brian Shanahan.

On the claim that memberships are declining, Mr Shanahan said, “renewals have to be in by August 31. ... There’s no evidence membership is declining. I think most members will rejoin. We have a steady stream of new members as well.

“Are we trending differently to last year in actual membership? The answer to that is no. We’re going through a transitional period for a year or two. Facilities aren’t what we

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want at the moment but they will be.

“A lot of our members will stay members because of their commitment to the traditions of the club which we try to hold fast to, promotion of Irish heritage and culture and Australian-Irish history and culture.”

Asked if members were being treated with contempt and not consulted, Mr Shanahan said: “No. Every member’s treated properly. Ten members make decisions. Members have one decision, they can vote who they want in. Tell me any club, any government, any serious organisation that, before they make an administrative decision, calls a meeting of members to do it? It doesn’t happen. There’s a reason why it doesn’t happen.

“I don’t agree but people like Dire Straits (Continuity Celtic Club) that tell lies should be treated with some contempt. I do have contempt for people that lie and they lie.”

Committee elections are coming

up on September 20 and Mr Shanahan will stand again for president. The new committee will take over after the AGM in November.

Mr Shanahan conceded that activities at the new site have been cut back to rein in costs.

“We found costs were out of control. We tried to transfer all our activities to the Metropolitan. It didn’t work,” he said. “We ended four full-time positions. Not an easy thing to do. We’re in negotiations with the state governement on conditions of operation at the Metropolitan. If those negotiations come off and I’m confident they will, we’ll be able to open seven days a week. “[But] it’s not as if there’s nothing happening. We have a website, we’ve got podcasts going. We’re trying to reach out to younger members.”

The Irish Echo contacted the Continuity Celtic Club for comment but it did not respond.

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4 | August, 2019

‘FR MÍCHEÁL’

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LOCAL NEWS OBITUARY :: JIM BURKE 1959-2019

Tributes for much-loved Armagh-man JIM SHORT

Fr Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin

Well-known Cobh-born priest dies in Sydney COBH-born priest Fr Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin has died at the age of 90 after a brief illness.

Well-known in the Sydney Irish community, Fr Ó Súilleabháin was very knowledgeable of Irish history and had a deep love of the Irish language.

Growing up in Ireland, Mícheál always had a strong connection with Australia. His mother, Sydney-born Mary O’Connell, met his father Patrick O’Sullivan on a trip to visit Irish relatives in the early 1920s.

Laster, in 1939, his mother was on a visit to Sydney with two of her daughters when World War II prevented their return home. The next Mícheál saw of them was on his ordination day at All Hallows College, Dublin, in 1952, after which he travelled to Australia and became a priest of the Sydney Catholic Archdiocese.

In 1953, not long after arriving in Sydney, he was taken to the annual commemoration ceremony at Waverly Cemetery on Easter Sunday.

From then until 1966 he recited the Rosary in Irish as part of the ceremony each year. From 1966, it became customary to say a Mass at the ceremony and Fr Ó Súilleabháin consistently participated in that event.

He had a fascination with the Dwyer Monument to the 1798 Rebellion in Waverly Cemetery and wrote a history of the structure which, he told writer Siobhán McHugh in a 2015 interview for the Irish National Association, was the most impressive monument of its kind to an Irish uprising anywhere.

He is predeceased by parents Mary and Patrick O’Sullivan, sisters Eibhlin Killen and Eilis O’Brien and survived by siblings Donal and Hirma, Gabrielle McDonagh and Margaret (Sr Moira RSC) who is a nun in Sydney.

A pontifical Mass will be offered in Mary, Mother of Mercy Chapel, Rookwood Catholic Cemetery on Thursday August 1, 2019 at 11am. It will be con-celebrated by Bishop Terry Brady and Bishop David Cremin, both old friends of Fr Súilleabháin.

He will be buried in the priests section of Rookwood Cemetery.

SYDNEY’S Irish community is mourning the death of popular businessman Jim Burke, who passed away on July 3, aged 59 after a four-year battle with cancer.

Jim Burke died surrounded by his loving family: wife Gill, children Clare, Liam and Niamh and stepdaughter, Katie. He is also mourned by his siblings in Ireland: Gene, Luke and sister Breege.

Burkie, as he was known, is remembered by his many friends as a larger-than-life, wonderful person who made an impression on anyone who ever met him.

Born in Keady, Co Armagh on September 18, 1959, Peter James Burke went to secondary school at St Patrick’s College, Armagh, from 1971 to 1978, where he was an active member of the school’s Gaelic football and basketball teams. He also played football and hurling for Keady.

After completing his A-Levels, he went to Queens University, Belfast where he graduated with a BSc in computing science in 1982. He then did a postgraduate course in Education and took up a career as a secondary school teacher.

In the mid-eighties, he and his then-wife Stephanie, emigrated to Australia.

He was a teacher at Patrician Brothers Granville, then made the shift to a corporate world which was crying out for people with computer science knowledge. He joined Bank of New Zealand and later Westpac, working in the London office.

On his return to Australia, he worked for AMP and IAG. Returning to Westpac, he became the CIO for

Jim Burke, pictured in happier times with partner Gill, children Clare, Liam and Niamh and stepdaughter, Katie.

Institutional Banking .

There, he managed the introduction of a number of innovative payment systems. In 2013, he was nominated for Finance CIO of the Year. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Lansdowne Club.

His boss and friend, Jim Tate of Westpac wrote of him: “He is the most inventive and intuitive people manager I have met. He knew how to recognise strengths, weaknesses, aspiration, resilience, what person to talk to, who to avoid and what

roadblock to work around, which no amount of faux online personality tester could ever deduce.”

In his last months, he asked Professor Tom Hugh at Royal North Shore Hospital, what he could do to help cancer research. He set up a foundation aiming to raise $120,000.

Through Westpac, Jim helped organise a fundraiser on May 17 last.

At least 300 people showed up.

It was funny, moving and successful and more than $180,000 was raised on the day. The foundation is now up

to $250,000.

One of his oldest friends from St Pat’s in Armagh said of him: “You stuffed in so much over your life that the suitcase of memories and friends burst at the seams” “When I think of you, I smile.”

So should we all.

Jim Burke was farewelled by hundreds of mourners who packed the chapel at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill. Eulogies were delivered

by Jim Tate of Westpac and longtime friend Stefan van Aanholt.

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR IRISH AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS AWARDS

Calling all Irish high flyers MEG KANOFSKI

NOMINATIONS have opened for the Irish Australian Business Awards, now in their fifth year.

Run by the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce, the awards celebrate success and innovation in the Irish business community.

There are six categories for this years prizes: Startup: Less than three years in operation based on FYE19.

SME of the Year: This category is for small businesses in any sector and at any level of turnover operating for more than three years.

Established Business: This category is for businesses over five years old in any sector.

Young Entrepreneur: Under 40 at FYE19 and can be based anywhere in Australia. Must be a director actively involved in the business.

Young Professional: Under 40 at FYE19 and can be based anywhere in Australia. Not a shareholder/direc-

Andrew Harte (centre) and his team from Eire Workforce Solutions at the 2018 awards.

tor and must have their nomination endorsed by a senior member of their organisation.

International Trader: Does business between Ireland and Australia – import/export/both. The winner must demonstrate an international growth strategy which has achieved

outstanding levels of sales, profit and market share improvement.

Higgins Award/People’s Choice : Open class, national finalists, voted on via the IACC website.

For the first time, this year’s prizegiving will have an Innovation Award added to the line-up to further in-

spire creativity in the business sector.

IACC CEO Barry Corr said: “The innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of Irish Australian business has been a recurring theme over the four previous years of the awards.

“We felt that as we go into our fifth year, it was deserving of special recognition and a category of its own to highlight even more of the achievements happening in our business community every day.”

Last year’s winners include Irishborn Andrew Harte, a former labourer whose four companies now have a turnover of more than $20 million, and Stephanie Lyons, who was credited with working to transform the superannuation business while volunteering in her local community.

Nominations close on August 9, with the winners to be announced at the Awards Gala on October 11.

Visit irishchamber.com.au to nominate and vote

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August, 2019 | 5

LOCAL NEWS

IRISH-AUSTRALIAN SINGER’S BID FOR GLORY

FATAL ACCIDENT IN NSW

Perth tenor hits high notes in singing comp MEG KANOFSKI

A PERTH tenor, whose family hails from Co Kilkenny, will perform in the semi-finals of one of Australia’s most prestigious singing competitions in Sydney this month.

Louis Hurley and 11 fellow candidates will take to the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition stage in August, competing for opportunities to develop their musical careers.

Hurley’s talent was evident from a young age, but he said no one knew where he inherited his skill.

“I fell into this as an accident,” he said. “My family is the least musical family you could probably meet … my dad’s into grunge music.”

The 24-year-old began his foray into classical voice training at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at 17 after singing throughout his childhood.

He credited Grammy-winning American opera singer Joyce DiDonato’s with inspiring his ongoing education, and was able to learn from the guru first-hand when performing alongside her in a UK production.

“The first time I actually met her I froze and ran away,” Hurley admits.

The scene of the faralk crash in which a 38-year-old Irishman died.

Kilkenny father-of-one dies in Pacific Highway truck crash Up-and-coming opera singer Louis Hurley

Currently rehearsing both for the competition semi finals and for a Melbourne Conservatorium of Music production, the dual Irish Australian citizen believes winning would help him leap into the next phase of his professional journey.

“Opera has this weird disconnect between finishing your studies and starting your career … the operatic voice generally takes longer to develop, so there are a few years of limbo”.

The awards on offer include the

$30,000 Marianne Mathy scholarship to assist with musical study, a chance to audition for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s artist development programme, and an opportunity to perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The semi-finals are at North Sydney’s Independent Theatre on August 11. Five competitors will move a step closer to joining a long list of winners from more than 30 years’ celebration of opera excellence.

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A KILKENNY father-of-one was killed in a truck collision in New South Wales last week.

Seamus Walsh, 38, originally from Kilcready, Ballyhale, Co Kilkenny, died when his truck collided with another large vehicle on a highway in northern New South Wales at about midnight on Thursday July 25.

Local police revealed that two trucks collided on the Pacific Highway, south of Nabiac, near Forster in northern New South Wales. The driver of the other truck was admitted to hospital.

Local Fianna Fáil TD Bobby Aylward, who knows the family, said: “It’s very sad news for a local family and everyone is very shocked on hearing

[what has happened]. I just spoke to [Seamus mother] Rena and she is devastated. [Our thoughts] are with his family, Pat, Rena, Liam and Claire.”

NSW Police said emergency services were called to the scene following reports that two B-doubles travelling northbound had collided.

It is understood that Mr Walsh, who moved to Australia in 2007 and who ran his own haulage business, died at the scene.

Officers from Manning-Great Lakes Police District established a crime scene and with the assistance of the Crash Investigation Unit, are investigating the circumstances of the crash.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

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6 | August, 2019

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LOCAL NEWS

NEW BRISBANE IRISH THEATRE GROUP LAUNCHES WITH PROVOCATIVE PLAY

Stage door opens for Bosco DAVID HENNESSY

AN Irish-led Queensland theatre company is launching with a production of Mike Bartlett’s provocative play Cock this month.

Bosco Productions has been established by Derek Draper from Dublin and Paddy Farrelly from Meath and will aim to bring Irish plays to the Queensland stage.

Paddy Farrelly has years of experience onstage in Brisbane and in 2016 produced Sean O’Casey’s The Shadow of a Gunman, which formed part of the global centenary commemortaion of the 1916 Rising.

“We decided we would set up Bosco, do this play to start off with and then we’re going to focus on a few Irish plays,” Farrelly said.

“We nail this, play as we will, [and] that opens up a whole new audience for everything else we want to do. If we started with an Irish play it’s not going to have much of a draw outside of the Irish-Australian community.

You’re a one-trick pony. Doing it this way, you got chops.”

Cock’s main character John has always identified as a gay man. However, when John and his boyfriend take a break, he starts a relationship with a female that surprises even

himself. The play by young English playwright Bartlett builds to a showdown where both lovers and genders fight for John. It is described as a sharply observed and witty play exploring complex issues like bisexuality and identity. Rising star Julian Curtis will play the lead role.

Bosco’s co-founder Derek Draper has starred in an acclaimed run of David Mamet’s American Buffalo and been nominated for the Billie Brown Award for Best Emerging Artist for his work in Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West.

Draper explains it is a play that Australia has yet to see in the way it should be done.

“It’s a comedy about the indecisions in life. It’s about trying to fit in. It’s about being in a relationship too long or not having the courage to leave it. It’s about leaving and not having the courage to go back. It’s about choice, people will really have fun with this play. It’s very unique.

“It hasn’t been done the way it needs to be done in Australia. What I wanted to do was take this play and give it the platform it hasn’t got in Australia yet,” he said.

Cock will be directed by Helen Howard who has won four Matilda Awards for her work as both an

Dubliner Derek Draper and Meathman Paddy Farrelly have set up Bosco Productions.

actress and a director. “A ship is nothing without its captain. Helen is an absolute legend of the theatre and screeen here in Brisbane,” Draper said.

“Helen Howard doing this with us would be like Brendan Gleeson or Liam Cunningham landing down at a local drama group in Ireland saying, ‘Lads I’ll give you a dig out’.

DINGLE BAND FOR FIRST AUSTRALIAN TOUR

“It’s on that level,” Farrelly added. We nail this play with the level of difficulty that it has, with the level of interest that people will have to see how we deliver it, we nail this and we absolutely have a platform to bring all the really good Irish stuff in here.”

“Getting people together to celebrate anything Irish. I think is such a wonderful thing,” Draper added.

“Nobody’s doing it and I don’t know why. If there isn’t an appetite for the great writers and the fantastic black humour that we have then I think it’s kind of up to us to introduce it.

“What we really need to do is get people excited about culture again and that’s going to be a mammoth task that is going to be well beyond mine and Paddy’s capabilities. But maybe we can inspire two other people who are thinking about it and maybe in Western Australia or Sydney. If anyone’s reading this article, get in touch.

“If you’re a director or a producer or you’re a showrunner or you’ve got an idea or you’re just passionate about Irish culture, let’s connect.

Trust me, we’re the same. I don’t know you either and I’d love to.”

The company is already looking at productions in Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and elsewhere.

Why is the company named after the children’s TV character? “Bosco is the underpinning thing from our childhood,” Draper says.

“It’s a homage to childhood and that is where we’re going to get all of our creativity.”

Cock plays at Metro Arts Centre, Brisbane 21- 31 August.

ANTIDOTE FESTIVAL

Fintan O’Toole to talk Brexit at Sydney Opera House

Live treat as Walking On Cars head for Oz KERRY band Walking On Cars, described by Hot Press as “one of the top Irish bands to catch live” will tour Australia for the first time this year.

The four-piece from Dingle shot to fame in 2012 with debut single Catch Me If You Can, and have been shaking up the scene ever since with their chart topping hits.

Just last month the indie-pop heroes (pictured) played a sold-out 12,000 capacity show in Ireland.

In November and December the band will perform their first headline shows in Australia and New Zealand. The dates follow a summer of European festival shows, a completely sold-out UK tour and a clutch of huge arena and outdoor shows in their homeland, in support of the band’s new album, Colours.

The band have been clocking up millions of views on Youtube, including the first single from Co-

lours, Monster. After shows in Wellington and Auckland, Walking On Cars play the Factory Theatre in Sydney on Friday, November 29, Max Watt’s in Melbourne on Sunday, November 30 and Badlands in Perth on Monday, December 2.

Fronted by the charismatic Patrick Sheehy (singer/lyricist), Walking On Cars also features Sorcha Durham (pianist), Paul Flannery (bass guitarist) and Evan Hadnett (drummer).

AWARD-WINNING Irish columnist, author and political commentator Fintan O’Toole will be among the speakers at Antidote, Sydney’s leading festival of ideas, joining a panel discussion on national identity.

O’Toole has written for The Irish Times for over three decades, with a career-long focus on political corruption in Ireland and abroad.

His columns on Brexit for The Irish Times and The Guardian have earned him awards and accolades.

He also wrote the bestselling book Heroic Failure: Brexit And The Poilitics Of Pain.

Seamus Heaney once said: “Good journalists like Fintan O’Toole are the ones to look to if you want your lifelines to the contemporary reopened or the jump leads to your ethical sense connected up.”

Festival organisers say he will bring valuable insight about Britain’s relationship with Ireland and the European Union as well as Boris Johnson’s rise to prime minister.

The State We’re In panel event at the Sydney Opera House involves global thinkers, including O’Toole, discussing the trials and tribulations of a world and political atmosphere obsessed with national borders.

O’Toole (pictured) is sure to stir up bold conversation, having described

the current political landscape a “trial run for fascism’s return”, in a 2018 article read by millions the world over and nominated for a European Press Prize.

Antidote is one of the Opera House’s flagship contemporary festivals, presenting innovative ideas about contemporary culture on stage and through online content.

This year’s event will run from August 31 to September 1.

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 7

LOCAL NEWS

PERTH IRISH FAMILY FIGHTING TO STOP DEPORTATION

‘It would destroy us’ says dad MEG KANOFSKI

THE Irish family of a former Bandidos bikie is despairing at their son’s imminent deportation from Australia under a controversial policy.

Paul Pennie, 46, is awaiting a Federal Court appeal hearing to determine if he will be sent back to a country he barely knows after being sentenced to prison on charges including possession of methylamphetamine with intent to supply.

The Pennie family migrated to Australia in 1980 when Paul was only six. His father Gerry is worried his son’s deportation will have a devastating effect on the close-knit family.

“It would destroy us,” he said. “He doesn’t know anyone in Ireland.”

Mr Pennie said his son’s battles, which ultimately led to his visa being cancelled in 2016, stemmed from the sudden death of his younger brother and a workplace injury that left him unable to continue his job as a security guard.

The Australian government deported more than 1,000 people between 2016 and 2018 on character grounds, a policy recently criticised

by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

The issue was having a “corrosive” impact on Australia’s relationship” with New Zealand, Ms Ardern said.

She argued that deportations should not be enforced after an individual has lived in a country for 10 years.

Gerry Pennie emphasised that his son had never been charged with or engaged in violent crime, and had severed ties with the Bandidos bikie club.

“I know him as my son. He has never laid a hand on anybody.

Never,” Mr Pennie said.

His son was allegeldy nearly bashed to death by fellow bikieconnected inmates in prison after he refused to participate in a stabbing, his father said.

The Irish-Australian suffers from both mental health issues and heart disease, and is concerned about his ability to access and afford treatment should he be deported.

During Mr Pennie’s 2018 Federal Court hearing, the then Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Petter Dutton, said he accepted that Mr Pennie’s deportation would potentially exacerbate his psychological conditions “given his history of depression and suicidal ideation”, but that he would likely be able to access health support in Ireland as a habitual resident.

The Pennie family (from left) Paul, his mum Evelyn Pennie, sister Clare Flint, dad Gerry, sister Karen Derrick and brother Keith. (Above right) Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton.

It is uncertain if Mr Pennie would satisfy the conditions necessary to be eligible for social assistance, because factors considered by Ireland’s Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection include the applicant’s intention to live in Ireland for the foreseeable future.

Mr Pennie has no desire to live in Ireland, where he has no ties, and his family is concerned he would not be able to independently establish a new life or find accommodation

having been either incarcerated or in a detention centre since 2015.

There are more than 17,000 people on the housing waiting list in Dublin.

Paul Pennie has guaranteed work with a friend’s lawn-mowing business if he is allowed to stay in Australia, the family said.

His sister Clare Flint accepted some Australians would believe deportation was necessary as part of a tough stance on crime, but she emphasised that other foreign crim-

inals had avoided expulsion after being sentenced for more serious, violent crimes.

Early this year it was revealed that hundreds of immigrants who had their visas cancelled after committing crimes in Australia have been spared deportation, including a drug trafficker who had spent more than 10 years in prison.

“Put your feet in our shoes,” his sister says. “Everyone’s made mistakes, but Paul’s paying the ultimate price in losing his family.”

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8 | August, 2019

irishecho.com.au

IRELAND

VARADKAR DEFENDS IRISH BORDER BACKSTOP AMID JOHNSON CRITICISM

Taoiseach digs in on backstop MICHAEL MCHUGH

THE Taoiseach has challenged Boris Johnson’s assertion that the border backstop is anti-democratic.

The new Conservative Party made the claim in his first speech as Prime Minister.

Leo Varadkar said a clear majority in Northern Ireland did not want to leave the EU and did want the backstop guarantee, which is designed to prevent a hard border on the island if there is a no-deal Brexit.

“We must always remember that in Northern Ireland there are 1.8 million people,” the Taoiseach said. “They vote for lots of different parties and they come from different communities and the vast majority of people, or at least the clear majority of people in Northern Ireland, don’t want to leave the EU and they do want the backstop.”

The backstop is an insurance policy within the withdrawal treaty. It has been castigated

by Unionists, who prop up the Tories’ slim majority in the House of Commons , as threatening the integrity of the union.

“This is something that the majority of people in Northern Ireland want; the majority of mem-

bers of the Assembly want; two out of three MEPs want; the majority of political parties support,” Mr Varadkar said.

“Bear in mind the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted Remain ... and, as one of the co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, I have to respect that and I have a solemn duty in that regard.”

He said a no-deal exit from the EU will be Britain’s choice alone and nobody can blame Ireland or the EU if the UK crashed out.

Mr Varadkar warned Britain it would not secure a free-trade deal without the backstop, which has been strongly criticised by many unionists and Brexiteers.

“No deal can only ever be a British decision because there are many ways by which no deal can be avoided, either by revoking Article 50, by seeking a further extension, or by ratifying the Withdrawal Agreement.”

The Taoiseach said he hoped the new British Prime Minister proved as true to his word as his predecessor. The Irish Government came to office in 2016 and is on its third UK Government and Prime Minister.

The Taoiseach said he hoped to meet Mr Johnson soon.

New British prime Minister Boris Johnson says the so-called backstop is undemocratic. Picture: PA

TÁNAISTE ISSUES STARK WARNING OVER NO-DEAL BREXIT

AHERN MOCKS BORIS BLUSTER

Halloween threat not scary, just dumb, says ex-Taoiseach SAM BLEWETT

Tánaiste Simon Coveney (right) on Andrew Marr’s widely-watched BBC current affairs show.

No-deal Brexit will be a ‘British choice’ alone MICHELLE DEVANE, BEN COOPER

EVERYONE in the EU is in trouble if the new British prime minister wants to tear up the Withdrawal Agreement, Tanaiste Simon Coveney has warned.

He said that if a no-deal outcome would be a British choice, not an Irish or an EU choice, then the future relationship with the EU could be changed. He also reiterated that Ireland would have to carry out border checks in the event of a no-

deal Brexit “to protect [Ireland’s] place in the EU single market” but those checks would not be at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. He would not be drawn on specifically where sych checks would happen.

“If the approach of the new British prime minister is that they’re going to tear up the Withdrawal Agreement, then I think we’re in trouble. We’re all in trouble, quite frankly, because it’s a little bit like saying ‘Either give me what I want

or I’m going to burn the house down for everybody’,” Mr Coveney told the BBC’s Andrew Marr.

Mr Coveney said a no-deal would only happen if the House of Commons facilitated it.

“If the House of Commons chooses to facilitate a no-deal Brexit and if a new prime minister chooses to take Britain in that direction then it will happen.

“But this is a British choice, not an Irish choice, not an EU choice.

A British choice.”

BORIS Johnson has been warned by one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement that it is “not bright” to force a rigid deadline on Brexit negotiations.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the British Prime Minister’s aim to secure a new deal with the European Union (EU) is barely achievable by the October 31 deadline.

Mr Johnson has made a “do or die” commitment to achieve Brexit by that date, even if it means leaving the EU without a deal. Mr Ahern, who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, urged against seeking simplistic solutions to the complex problem of the Irish backstop to prevent a hard border on the island.

“I think we should all avoid trying to come up with simplistic solutions that this can all be done just by waving a hand, or the stroke of a pen,” he said. “It is complex, it is difficult, it is new, and I think forcing a deadline into that is not bright, and I put it no stronger than that.”

The man who brokered the heralded peace deal with British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed the challenge Mr Johnson will face in getting a deal by the deadline.

“I just don’t see how such a tight timescale. [It has] nothing to do with

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern

the determination, or skill, or ability, or anything – just to agree a whole new agreement. It’s just very hard to see how that can be done by Halloween,” he said.

Mr Ahern said former British Prime Minister Theresa May’s thrice-failed Withdrawal Agreement clearly states that an alternative solution in the transition period would halt the necessity for the backstop.

He recommended Mr Johnson studies the deal.

“When he gets time to read it and see[s] there’s an enormous amount of language written about having an international arbitrator that will decide whether this can continue indefinitely,” he said.

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 9

IRELAND

NORTHERN IRELAND VOTED TO REMAIN, VARADKAR REMINDS BREXITEERS

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin

FF LEADER SLAMS ‘SANDALOUS’ LACK OF POWERSHARING AT STORMONT FIANNA Fáil leader Micheal Martin has said it is scandalous that powersharing in Northern Ireland is not up and running as Brexit looms.

The Cork South Central TD said it was a shocking indictment of Sinn Féin and the DUP. Political talks to restore devolved government at Stormont resumed in recent months but the DUP and Sinn Féin have clashed over the lack of progress that has been made.

“It is a scandal that the Assembly is not up and running and the Executive is not up and running and, in the context of Brexit, which is the greatest threat to Northern Ireland in terms of society and economy there for a long, long time, that there is no government in place as per the Good Friday Agreement and there is no parliament in place,” Mr Martin said.

He added that he did not like the “casual way” the Good Friday Agreement and its institutions had been “cast aside”.

North will ‘question the union’ after no-deal Brexit, Taoiseach MICHAEL MCHUGH

A NO-DEAL Brexit would prompt more liberal unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland to consider joining a united Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said.

Those uncomfortable with a nationalistic Britain, which is considering reintroducing the death penalty, could join forces to support Irish unity and continued membership of the EU, the Taoiseach added.

He said it would be provocative for the Government to take steps towards engineering a united Ireland now and the country simply wants to maintain the status quo.

“Certainly in the event of a no-deal more and more people in Northern Ireland will begin to question the union,” Mr Varadkar said.

“People who you might describe as moderate nationalists or moderate Catholics, who were more or less happy with the status quo, will look more towards a united Ireland.

“And we will increasingly see liberal Protestants and liberal unionists starting to ask the question as to where they feel more at home.

“Is it in a nationalist Britain that is talking about potentially reintroduc-

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

ing the death penalty or something like that, or is it part of a European home and part of Ireland?”

Reintroduction death penalty refers to comments made by the new, ultra-conservative British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, who has spoken of introducing the death penality as a deterrent to crime. Her comments were made in 2011.

Ireland has urged the UK to ratify the draft Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, which led to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s fall from power. It supports the backstop insurance policy intended to prevent

a hard Irish border and keeping the UK’s trade regulations aligned with the EU’s. Unionists fear that would threaten the integrity of Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, while Brexiteers believe it could prevent the UK from striking trade deals with other countries.

Mr Varadkar was speaking at the MacGill summer school in Co Donegal. “One of the things that ironically could really undermine the union of the UK is a hard Brexit, both for Northern Ireland and for Scotland, and that is a problem they are going to have to face.”

He reiterated that the Government is making no preparations for unity now, a key demand of Sinn Féin, since it believes that would be provocative to unionists.

The country is not using the issue to leverage constitutional change in Northern Ireland, he said.

“If there is a hard Brexit ... if the UK takes Northern Ireland out of the EU against the wishes of the majority of people of Northern Ireland and takes away their European citizenship and undermines the Good Friday Agreement in doing so, those conditions will arise, whether we like it or not.”

Former UK attorney general

Dominic Grieve has also expressed concern about the chances of a socalled border poll after Brexit.

The Conservative MP said the status of Northern Ireland would be “thrown into jeopardy” in the event of a no-deal scenario, and he is also worried about the union in terms of Scotland. He said the risk of violence post-Brexit if there is a no-deal withdrawal is also a concern.

“A crash-out Brexit makes a political crisis in respect of Northern Ireland’s future status more likely ... clearly the chances of a border poll go up for a whole variety of reasons.

“The status of Northern Ireland, under the Good Friday Agreement, remaining in the UK has worked because there’s been a clear majority of the population who have been very comfortable with the arrangements that the Good Friday Agreement has delivered, and that includes sections of the nationalist community as much as the unionist, and that will be thrown into jeopardy by a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Grieve said potentially bringing about Irish unification through the mechanism of Brexit had always struck him as being “a very bad idea”.

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August, 2019 | 11

IRISH ABROAD

US DETENTION OF IRISH OVERSTAYER SHINES LIGHT ON TRUMP CRACKDOWN

Corkman released but not free STAFF REPORTERS

AN Irishman who was detained by US authorities as part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration says he is optimistic about winning the right to stay in the US. Keith Byrne, 37, from Fermoy, Co Cork, was released from detention in Pennsylvania last week following a court ruling and was reunited with his family. However, he still faces deportation proceedings and may have to return to custody once his 30day temporary release period expires.

Mr Byrne, who lives in Philadelphia, first entered the US on a 90-day Visa Waiver programme in 2007. He stayed on in the US after his visa expired and he married his wife Keren there two years later.

He has been attempting to regularise his immigration status through the legal system for several years but a minor conviction from Ireland for cannabis possession has complicated his efforts.

Mr Byrne told RTÉ last weekend he was shocked and confused by his arrest because he had “been fighting for a long time to make things right”.

“To pounce on me the way they did, it was pretty shocking. Yeah I was scared, I was very scared,” he told

RTÉ News on Sunday. He said it was “really special” to be reunited with his wife and children following two weeks in Pike County jail.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested Mr Byrne in Philadelphia as he drove to his painting business. He said he was put in cuffs and shackles before officers “threw him in a cell”.

Being sent back to Ireland would be “horrible”, he said, given he has a family and business in the US. “Nothing good comes from sending me home”.

He said he was optimistic about winning the right to stay in the US with his family.

“I’m optimistic. I’m hopeful. I’m just going to leave it with the law and hopefully my lawyers can make it happen. I’m just going to keep working hard and keep doing what I was doing,” Mr Byrne said.

Mr Byrne said he “never hid” in the US and that his conviction for drugs possession was embarrassing.

“It’s a 14-year-old fine that I paid in court. I don’t know what kind of message people are giving out by sending me home over that.

“I’ve made a good life over here so, I’ve paid my penalty.”

Mr Byrne has until the end of

Keith Byrne, pictured with his wife Keren and his young family. Mr Byrne is facing a deportation order from the United States.

August to seek a judicial review of the decision of the US authorities to deny his legal status.

However, the order states that “nothing ... precludes the United States and ICE from redetaining Keith Byrne or reinstituting removal proceedings”.

Mr Byrne’s arrest was part of a

IRISH SANCTION FOR FORMER SYDNEY NURSE

wider crackdown by ICE officers in 10 major US cities. Most of the 2,000 migrants targeted were from central America and had crossed the US-Mexican border. The sweep had been touted ahead of time by Donald Trump as a show of force against illegal immigration. However, the majority of the migrants targeted by

ICE evaded arrest. According to the New York Times, only 35 people were detained..

Byrne’s release was contingent in part on his applying for an Irish passport so that he can travel to Ireland. But his lawyers now believe he has a fighting chance of remaining in the US with his family.

CITIZENSHIP RULING ALARM

Would-be Irish citizens must not leave the country: judge STAFF REPORTERS

An Irish nurse, who sent a lewd picture to a patient while working in Sydney, has had his Irish registration suspended.

Court backs decision to ban sexting nurse A NURSE who texted a picture of his penis to a patient while working in Australia six years ago has had his Irish registration suspended for a year.

While on night duty at Concord Hospital in Sydney in 2013, nurse Edward Keegan sent an explicit photograph to his partner. Mr Keegan then left his personal mobile phone on the desk – and the photo of his penis on the screen – while he answered a call on the hospital ward phone. A drug and alcohol detox patient saw the photograph and, according to evidence given to the Administrative Appeals by Mr Keegan last year, began to pressure him into sharing the image.

Mr Keegan said the patient demanded he make contact after discharge in September 2013 because he wanted to see what was in the photograph “for real”. The experienced nurse said the patient left several threatening messages on his phone, so he sent a text asking to be left alone, along with the explicit photograph, the Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard.

In January 2018, the tribunal disqualified Mr Keegan for two years, and would have cancelled his registration if it was still current, finding he failed to observe professional boundaries, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Keegan resigned from his position after the incident came to light in 2015, and moved back to Ireland.

Last month, the president of Ireland’s High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, confirmed sanctions sought by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) against Mr Keegan, who is on the Irish general nursing register. The judge made orders suspending Mr Keegan’s registration for a year.

The NMBI held an inquiry after the Nursing and Midwifery Council of New South Wales notified the NMBI in 2016 that Mr Keegan’s registration had been suspended there following allegations of “inapp ropriate contact” with a patient.

LEGAL experts have described as absurd’a High Court ruling that says that a person applying for Irish citizenship must not leave the country for an entire year before lodging their application.

The ruling came during a case in which an Australian man, Roderick Jones, challenged the Justice Minister’s refusal to grant his application to become a naturalised Irish citizen.

During the one year period before the date of the application, Mr Jones, who works in the university sector in Dublin, was out of Ireland for 100 days, 97 of them for holidays, RTÉ reported.

In order to apply for Irish citizenship, a judge has ruled that applicants must not leave the country for 12 months beforehand.

In previous cases, the Minister for Justice had allowed applicants to spend time out of the country for holidays and other reasons but Mr Justice Max Barrett ruled that this discretionary practice was not permitted by law.

The judge said that might seem unfair in a world where many people travel abroad for work and take foreign breaks more than once a year, but he said, that is what the relevant law requires.

He said the cure for any such unfairness lay in the gift of the legislature.

Under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, those wishing to naturalise as Irish citizens have to be legally resident in the State for at least five years out of the last nine (or three out of the last five if married to an Irish citizen).

This includes one year of “continuous residence” in the 12 months up to the date of application.

The judge said the word “continuous” bore its ordinary meaning and was defined as “unbroken, uninterrupted, connected throughout in space or time”.

Justice Max Barrett has conceded that his judgement may seem unfair.

The judge said the law did not allow the Minister any discretion in relation to this requirement.

He said the minister had manifested very real humanity in trying to nuance the very clear wording of the legislation by applying a discretionary absence period to allow for the realities of modern life, but he had gone beyond what was legally permissible. Ireland’s Department of Justice said it was examining the ruling and in consultation with the Attorney General”.

The plantiff Roderick Jones has declined to comment.

12 | August, 2019

irishecho.com.au

IRELAND

MARTIN O’MEARA’S VICTORIA CROSS WILL SOON BE DISPLAYED IN DUBLIN

War hero’s medal goes ‘home’ MEG KANOFSKI

A VICTORIA Cross medal awarded to an Irish-Australian soldier is on its way to Dublin to be displayed in the National Museum of Ireland.

The medal, which was awarded to Irish-born Sergeant Martin O’Meara, will be displayed for 12 months, marking the first time an Australian VC has been loaned to an inter national museum in more than 60 years.

The Australian Minister for Defence, Linda Reynolds, said O’Meara’s heroic actions in France during the First World War had undoubtedly saved many lives.

“Showing utter contempt for danger, Sergeant O’Meara is a true representation of the ANZAC spirit,” Ms Reynolds said.

Just four years after arriving in Australia in 1912, O’Meara joined the Australian Imperial Force and was posted to the Western Front.

O’Meara faced a barrage of German artillery and machinegun fire while he retrieved his wounded fellow soldiers from No Man’s Land over a four day period during the Battle of the Somme. His bravery was rewarded with the Victoria Cross, the highest individual honour for a soldier.

The medal was awarded by King

George V at Buckingham Palace in 1917 and has been housed at the Army Museum of Western Australia.

O’Meara was promoted to the rank of sergeant before returning to Australia in 1918. However, the mental scars of war took their toll on O’Meara who spent much of the rest of his life in mental hospitals.

He was celebrated as a hero during a visit to Ireland when the residents of his hometown of Lorrha raised funds to recognise his courage.

In yet another display of his character, O’Meara donated the funds to the town’s historic Abbey.

Eighty years after his death, the returned soldier will once again be honoured in his home country when the symbol of his service and gallantry goes on display. The event marks a significant milestone celebrating Australia’s longstanding historic relationship with Ireland.

“I am very proud, on behalf of the nation and the Army Museum of Western Australia in Fremantle, to announce the loaning of Sergeant Martin O’Meara’s Victoria Cross to the National Museum of Ireland,” Ms Reynolds said.

“More than 80 years after Sergeant O’Meara’s death, the Victoria Cross, a symbol of his service to his adopted nation, will return to his homeland.”

The Head of Museums at Australian Army Headquarters, Neil Dailey (centre left) holds the Victoria Cross with Marty Kavanagh, Honorary Consul of Ireland Western Australia along with the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia’s Manager, Major Henry Fijolek (left) and Mrs Leith Landauer during the official ceremony of the loaning Sergeant Martin O’Meara’s Victoria Cross to Ireland at the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia in Fremantle. (Inset) Martin O’Meara.

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August, 2019 | 13

IRELAND

COUNCILS UNDER FIRE FOR LACK OF SPENDING ON TRAVELLER ACCOMMODATION

Traveller housing rort AOIFE MOORE

ONLY 18.5 per cent of Traveller accommodation funding has so far been drawn down in 2019.

In accordance with the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, local councils submit funding proposals for individual Traveller specific projects and developments on a yearly basis in order to improve the living conditions of communities across Ireland.

Information released in a parliamentary question to the Department of Housing by Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Bróin shows less than €2.4 million of the €13 million allocated has been drawn down to date by housing authorities for Traveller-specific accommodation.

Local authorities in Cavan, Carlow, Cork city, Donegal, Kerry, Kildare, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Monaghan, Roscommon, Tipperary, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow have so far not drawn down any of their allocated money for Traveller accommodation this year. Mr Ó Bróin said the figures was totally unacceptable, and he called on Housing Minister,

Travellers advocate John Connors

Eoghan Murphy, to take urgent action to ensure all available funding is spent this year.

“Figures released to me in response to a parliamentary question indicated that just €2.4 million out of a budget of €13 million was drawn down for Traveller accommodation in the first half of 2019.

“This means that a huge 81.5 per cent of the €13 million remains to be drawn down over the latter half of the year. The underspend trend by some local authorities on Traveller accommodation is continuing.

“Nineteen counties have failed to

VARADKAR APOLOGY TO DAY STUDENTS

draw down any funding yet this year.

Five local authorities have not even requested any funding for this year, including Dun Laoghaire, Fingal, Galway City, Laois and Mayo.

“All these local authorities have a significant Traveller population and therefore have a significant level of Traveller accommodation need.

“We are awaiting the publication of the report of the expert group that is reviewing the Traveller accommodation programmes.

“In the meantime, Traveller families are continuing to live in unsuitable accommodation, despite the funding being available to spend.

“I’ve written to Minister Murphy calling on him to take urgent action to ensure all monies are drawn down by the end of the year.”

In 2018, 107 homes were provided under the Traveller Accommodation Programme at a cost of €6.8 million, an underspend of 44 per cent. In 2017, €4.8 million was drawn down out of a budget of €8.7 million.

Meanwhile, the Travelling community says it is in a state of panic as Dublin’s councils seek to hire a full-time security company to evict

families from private land. A joint tender document from the four local authorities was published by Dublin City Council saying they are seeking a security firm to help evict Travellers from sites around the county, seven days a week.

The contract’s estimated total value is more than €750,000.

John Connors, actor and Travellers’ rights activist, said politicians who supported formal recognition for Travellers as a distinct ethnic group in 2017 are hypocrites for their silence on the issue. Thousands of travellers could be evicted during the worst homelessness crisis in the history of the state.

“Dublin has a lot of Travellers, dozens and dozens of families. In Coolock alone we have around 300 altogether; that’s not even going into Fingal or other council areas. We could have thousands of Travellers evicted. Where are they going to go?

“There is an absolute panic. They don’t want us travelling, but they don’t want us near them. They’re just evicting Travellers to a different council area. It’s always someone else’s problem.”

LEST WE FORGET

Taoiseach apologises to abused students for redress exclusion MICHELLE DEVANE

THE Taoiseach has apologised on behalf of the State to people who were sexually abused in the country’s day schools.

Leo Varadkar also apologised for the State’s delay in acknowledging that it had the responsibility to protect the children who suffered abuse. It comes after a judge found that the Government had misrepresented a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by excluding children abused in Irish schools from a redress scheme.

“I believe that sexual abuse is the most heinous of all crimes especially when the victims are children,” Mr Varadkar told the Dáil.

“It stays with them forever. Trust is betrayed, lives forever destroyed and families broken.

“So, on behalf of the State, I want to apologise to people who were sexually abused when they were children in our day schools before 1992 and for the State’s delay in acknowledging that it had a responsibility to protect them.

“As Judge Iarfhlaith O’Neill has reported, had a system to report abuse … been in place in the years before 1992, when all of the historic child sex abuse occurred in national schools, the prevailing culture of impunity which permitted these crimes to occur could not existed or survived.”

The Taoiseach thanked Judge O’Neill for the two years of work he had completed since he was appointed by Education Minister Richard Bruton. “Procedures should have been in place before 1992 to record and act on allegations of sexual abuse by teachers and staff,” Mr Varadkar continued.

“They were not, and governments prior to 1992 failed in their responsibility to do so. Since then successive governments, including this one, have not put right this historic wrong, and so have perpetuated it and we will seek to right that wrong now.

“The intentions may have been honourable, to provide for abuse survivors while protecting the taxpayer who ultimately has to pay the bill for things that they weren’t responsible for, but it was wrong to make the terms of the ex-gratia scheme so restrictive.”

He said the State would now make payments to the people whose appeals were successful “without undue delay”.

The Taoiseach added that there were other cases where survivors did not appeal, or survivors did not apply, and these would have to be re-examined. He said this could involve reopening the scheme and called on patron bodies to make information available.

Without meaningful action, apologies do not count for very much, the Taoiseach added.

IN BRIEF

ISLAM CONVERT SAYS SHE MAY NEVER RETURN TO IRELAND A FORMER Irish solider who went to live in Islamic State-controlled Syria has said she does not believe she will ever return to Ireland.

Lisa Smith, a 37-year-old originally from Co Louth, is detained in a refugee camp in Syria. In an interview with RTÉ News the Islam convert, who emigrated to Syria a number of years ago, again denied travelling to the country to fight with IS. Ms Smith said she wants to return to Ireland but fears being made an example of.

“To be honest I don’t think I will be going back, ever,” she said. “That’s what I feel. That’s what I think.”

She has a two-year-old daughter, whom she claims was born to a British father while living in IS territory, a man she says died earlier this year.

TAOISEACH SAYS SORRY FOR ‘SINNING PRIEST’ JIBE THE Taoiseach has apologised for comments he made in which he compared the opposition leader to a sinning priest.

Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that he offended people he never intended to offend. The comments were made during a leaders’ debate on the national development plan, when Mr Varadkar compared Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to a priest “who preaches from the altar, telling us to avoid sin while secretly going behind the altar and engaging in any amount of sin himself”.

Later, Mr Varadkar said: “I made some remarks in relation to sinning priests during Leaders’ Questions.

They caused offence to people I never intended to offend. I want to apologise to anyone I offended, including the deputy and want to withdraw the remarks.”

TRIBUTES FLOW FOR BARRISTER NOEL WHELAN, DEAD AT 50

Patrick Pearse Kelly, from Drogheda, who served with the Royal Irish Fusiliers at the National Day of Commemoration Ceremony, held to honour all Irishmen and Irishwomen who died in past wars or on service with the United Nations, at Collins Barracks in Dublin on July 14. Picture: Brian Lawless

BARRISTER and political pundit Noel Whelan, 50, has died after a short illness. The father-of-one was instrumental in leading the campaign to introduce same-sex marriage and repealing the Eighth Amendment.

He also founded the Kennedy Summer School, a festival of Irish and American culture in Co Wexford. He was married to Sinéad McSweeney and they have one son, Seamus.

President Michael D Higgins said Mr Whelan was propelled by his social justice values. “Noel was not only a commentator but a driving force in some of the most important political campaigns of recent times,” he said.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin described Mr Whelan as a man with “sharp intellect”.

“Noel was a man with a sharp intellect who was born into a Fianna Fail family [but] he had a wide circle of friends across the political divide and was very well respected and admired.”

14 | August, 2019

IN BRIEF

LIMERICK BOXER DIES AFTER HIT AND RUN A MURDER investigation has been launched after a 20-year-old man was killed in a suspected hit-and-run in Limerick. Kevin Sheehy, who was a champion boxer, died after he was knocked down on Hyde Road. He died at the scene after he was hit by a black SUV, partial registration plate number WV52, which left the scene.

The victim, from John Carew Park in Limerick, was taken to University Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

He was due to become a father for the first time in five weeks. Two men were arrested on suspicion of murder in relation to the incident.

irishecho.com.au

IRELAND RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION UP BY 50 PER CENT AS PRICES DIP

Building boom takes off MICHELLE DEVANE

CONSTRUCTION of residential units is up more than 50 per cent on last year, a new survey shows.

According to Ireland’s address database GeoDirectory, more than 14,000 residential buildings were under construction in June 2019, up 52.8 per cent on the same period last year. Most of the construction was located in the greater Dublin area while construction activity was weakest in Connacht and Ulster.

The residential buildings report, prepared by EY-DKM Economic Advisory on behalf of GeoDirectory, also found the average house price nationally in the 12 months to April was €289,146. When Dublin was excluded, the average house price fell to €214,679. Only three counties recorded prices higher than the national average. These were Dub-

lin (€432,327), Wicklow (€341,217) and Kildare (€297,356), while Meath, Cork, Kilkenny, Galway and Louth were the only other counties to record average prices over €200,000.

The county with the lowest average property price was Longford at €115,330, followed by neighbouring counties Leitrim (€116,468) and Donegal (€122,953).

In total, there were 2,009,809 residential dwellings in the State in June 2019. A third of these dwellings were detached, terraced dwellings accounted for 27 per cent of the properties, while semi-detached dwellings accounted for 25 per cent.

There were 184,535 apartments in the country, representing 9.2 per cent of the total stock. Almost two thirds of all apartments are in Dublin. The national vacancy rate remains unchanged from the previous buildings report last

Residential construction is taking off.

December at 4.8 per cent, with the highest vacancy rates on the north-west coast. “The construction industry is rising to the challenge of demand for housing, but it is clear that there is still some way to go to reach the required level of supply,” GeoDirectory’s chief executive, Dara Keogh, said.

LEITRIM TOWN GETS CREATIVE WITH ITS SILAGE

NEW US ENVOY BEGINS IRISH TERM EDWARD Crawford (above) has begun his term as the US ambassador to Ireland. Mr Crawford presented his credentials to President Michael D Higgins, officially becoming United States ambassador to Ireland.

“I am deeply honoured to serve in this role,” said ambassador Crawford, whose parents emigrated from Ireland in the 1920s. “When I was a young boy, my parents instilled in me a deep love and sense of connection to Ireland.

“As ambassador, I plan to build on our important relationship and strengthen the bonds between our two countries.”

He and his wife Mary have one son, Matthew, who is married to Deborah, and three grandchildren, Colin, Catherine and Claire.

€10M TO IMPROVE PAY FOR MILITARY A €10M PACKAGE has been announced to improve pay for members of the Defence Forces.

The move comes after a report by the Public Service Pay Commission on recruitment and retention in the Defence Forces made a number of recommendations. Among these were a 10 per cent rise in the Military Service Allowance (MSA) and the restoration of 10 allowances, including the Patrol Duty Allowance, the Security Duty Allowance, the Army Ranger Wing Allowance and the Explosive Ordnance Allowance. Premium rates of certain allowances for duties performed at weekends are being renewed as well as the restoration of a 10 per cent cut to the Overseas Peace Support Allowance and Overseas Armed Peace Support Allowance.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the recommendations of the report are being accepted in full.

Hay there, it’s a game of cones Drumshanbo girls (from left) Roise Foley, Pixie Christie, Lily Christie and Cadhla Foley, alongside their silage creation titled ‘Game of Cones’.

(Below right) Rachel McDonagh with her creation.

Photo: Brian Lawless

MICHELLE DEVANE

MORE than 60 creatively decorated silage bales are adding some life and colour to a small Irish town as locals battle it out to win an unusual best dressed award.

Families, community groups and businesses are involved in decorating and designing colourful silage bales for this year’s Stylish Silage competition. The event, which is now in its

third year, is part of the annual An Tostal festival in Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim, which began in 1953.

A giant ice-cream dubbed the Game of Cones, an electric Postman Pat van, a giant fire extinguisher, and a garda speed van are among the quirky artwork entries dotted around the town.

Organisers of the festival said the family-orientated competition has boosted tourism in the area.

“Construction activity levels are almost four times higher than this stage in 2015 and this is reflected in the number of new property purchases. One in five houses bought in the last 12 months was new, and in commuter counties such as Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, this proportion was much higher.”

“It’s encouraging to see that Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area are benefiting from increased construction activity … having felt the strain of a lack of supply in recent years,” Annette Hughes, a director of EY-DKM Economic Advisory Services, said.

“However, with such low levels of construction activity outside of Leinster ... more still needs to be done to encourage more balanced regional development to … achieve the ambitious objectives set out in the National Development Plan.”

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 15

IRELAND

STROKE STATS

SIX NEW REGIONAL BODIES ESTABLISHED IN HEALTH SHAKE-UP

Stroke deaths at record low

‘Radical’ reform of healthcare system

STROKE mortality rates are at their lowest level in Ireland, the Government has claimed.

Minister for Health Simon Harris published the fifth report of the National Healthcare Quality Reporting System last month, outlining a range of improvements in the health of the nation. Key points include heart failure and asthma hospitalisation rates being below international averages, while antibiotic consumption is decreasing. The report highlights a number of improvements in the health service over the past year, including a significant reduction in mortality rates for strokes, increased screening rates for CPE and improved uptake in bowel cancer screening.

It also shows room for improvement, including in the area of vaccination. Uptake of the influenza vaccine among over-65s and healthcare workers is still not meeting national targets. The department also noted “worrying trends” on the issue of Benzodiazepine medicine as figures for the first time show usage in people over 65 years is high as compared to internationally reported averages. Benzodiazepines are used to treat anxiety and insomnia.

HOME HELP

Thousands on waiting list for help A SHORTAGE of home help hours has led to some families being put through the trauma of proving their loved one is terminally ill in order to access supports, it has been claimed.

Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary told the Dáil that some community health organisations (CHOs) in some parts of the country had advised families that home help hours will not be made available unless the person has a terminal condition.

Mr Calleary said more than 6,000 people were on a waiting list for home help hours and packages, and the lack of hours available was delaying discharges and consequently impacting on acute hospital services.

New figures provided by the HSE showed home support is short by more than 160,000 hours in the first five months of this year, the TD said.

Mr Callery claimed families were being “put through the trauma of having to go to their consultant and get a letter to say that their loved one is dying so that they might get an hour or two of home help”.

Mr Coveney said the government was aware of the pressures on the supports needed to allow people be discharged from hospital and that it was trying to prioritise how the money for home help hours was being allocated. Almost 7.52 million home help hours had been provided

by May this year, he said.

AOIFE MOORE

THERE is to be a radical reform of the health sector in Ireland after the cabinet approved plans to split the service into regional divisions.

Minister for Health Simon Harris confirmed that cabinet gave the go-ahead for the six new regional health bodies which will deliver “people-centred” health and social care, with their own budget based on local population needs, deprivation factors, age and other factors based on the health of residents.

The goal of the plan is that most care will be delivered in the community and not in acute hospitals. The proposed regions will be based on population data, averaging at about 50,000 people, lettered Area A through to Area F, However, patients can choose to be treated elsewhere if they wish.

While the HSE will continue to be the central executive with responsibility for planning and strategy, regions will have greater autonomy to make decisions at local level, including budget allocation, a “one budget, one system” approach, a move the minister said would “improve accountability and transparency”. The minster spoke at length about “radical reform in the delivery of healthcare”, “a new direction” and that “the HSE as currently constructed will not continue”.

He went on to deride opposition leader Micheal Martin’s former tenure as health minister, saying the HSE in how it was set up and as it stands “is not workable”.

Both the minister and CEO of the HSE Paul Reid said there will

not be more managers, but a more “streamlined national centre” which will avoid duplicating personnel.

However, the final structure of the organisations has not yet been decided on, and it is not known how many personnel may be lost after services are amalgamated. In terms of price, “there is no cost expected in this initial step of the process”, the Government statement said, but later adds: “The establishment of new regional bodies will require an organisational change programme which will require investment.”

“This is a key day for the delivery of Slaintecare and for the reform of our health service,” Mr Harris said.

“This announcement identifies the six regions which will be used in developing structures for the delivery of integrated care.

“This will result in clear financial and performance accountability, empower frontline staff and devolve authority from the HSE to the local regions.”

The new health areas are in line with recommendations made in the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare Slaintecare Report (2017), that regional bodies should be responsible for the planning and delivery of integrated health and social care services.

Stakeholders in each of the areas will be invited to contribute to the design of the services.

Work will also now be undertaken to detail the national and regional organisational design which will be brought back to Government for approval within 12 months.

The regions, and each of their budgets will come into effect in 2021.

A government-issued map shows the six new regional health bodies.

ANA KRIEGEL’S MURDERERS WILL NOT BE SENTENCED UNTIL OCTOBER

Sentencing delay for killers REBECCA BLACK

THE sentencing of two teenage boys convicted of murdering Irish schoolgirl Anastasia Kriegel has been adjourned until October.

Boy A and Boy B, both 14, were found guilty of the murder on June 18. The naked body of the 14-year-old victim, known as Ana, was found in an abandoned farmhouse in Lucan, Co Dublin, last May, days after her parents reported her missing.

Boy A was also found guilty of aggravated sexual assault.

The two teenage boys are the youngest convicted killers in the history of the State, and have been granted lifelong anonymity due to their age.

They were not handed mandatory life sentences for murder because of their age, and are being held on remand at a children’s home in Dublin.

Both boys were present at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday for the brief hearing, as well

Ana Kriegel’s parents Patric and Geraldine leave the Central Criminal Court.

as members of the Kriegel family.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott heard that psychiatric reports on the boys are still pending. Brendan Grehen SC, for the prosecution, told the court that probation reports on the two boys have been completed, but psychiatric assessments have not yet been carried out.

He also told the court that Ms Kriegel’s parents, Patric and

Geraldine, have completed a victim impact statement and have requested that it be delivered at the hearing when the reports are read out.

The judge said it would be “inappropriate to proceed” in the absence of all the psychiatric reports.

He adjourned the sentencing hearing to October 29, and ordered that all the completed reports should be circulated to all the parties by Mon-

day October 21. The teenagers’ legal teams will be prevented from seeing their respective client’s full probation reports. Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Grehan SC, applied to the court that only edited versions of the boys’ probation reports be given to the defence teams.

Justice Paul McDermott agreed that only evidence in the report relating to the crime should be made available to each solicitor and not “anything pertaining to personal circumstances”.

Justice McDermott also indicated that he would be limiting the number of media in the courtroom during sentencing on October 29. Only five members of the media will be able to be present in the court room, with overflow of journalists being accommodated in another room in the court building. Mr McDermott added that the move was in order to “maintain an appropriate environment for a children’s case” and that it was not “unusual or extraodinary”.

16 | August, 2019

irishecho.com.au

IRELAND

FAMINE SHIPWRECK VICTIMS LAID TO REST IN CANADA

Closure for victims after 172-year wait REBECCA BLACK

THE remains of 21 Irish shipwreck victims, discovered on a beach in Canada, have been laid to rest.

Human bones were found on a beach at Cap-des-Rosiers, Quebec, between 2011 and 2016.

It was confirmed earlier this year that the remains were from the Carricks ship, which left Ireland in March 1847, under the command of Captain R. Thompson. It was carrying 180 emigrants ejected from the Irish estates of Lord Palmerston, whose agents chartered the ill-equipped boat to get rid of them.

The Carricks set sail for Quebec port but on April 28, 1847, the ship ran into a severe storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and was wrecked about four miles east of Cap-des-Rosiers. It was heading to the quarantine station at Grosse Isle and then the Port of Quebec when it sank.

Of the approximately 180 on board, 47 people are known to have survived and either settled in the area or continued their journeys to Quebec or Montreal. To date, 87 bodies of those who perished have been found.

The ceremony at the Irish Memorial on Cap-Des-Rosiers beach in Canada.

The bones found at Cap-des-Rosiers were identified at the bioarchaeology laboratory at the University of Montreal as belonging to three children, aged between seven and 12.

In 2016 the remains of another 18 people were discovered, mostly women and children. The analysis also revealed the victims had been suffering from pathologies, probably caused by malnutrition.

The remains of the 21 were laid to rest following a ceremony at the Irish

Memorial on Cap-des-Rosiers Beach.

Pat Ward, 63, from Keash, Co Sligo, told the BBC his family believes some of their ancestors were among those who died in the shipwreck.

He said it was very emotional to think his ancestors may be among those recovered, but the ceremony would bring closure” Marie-Eve Murray, of Forillon National Park, said the ceremony was attended by about 150 people, including descendants of survivors.

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DOMESTIC ABUSE ‘RAMPANT’

Sharp rise in number of DV cases as problem deepens MORE than 50 applications for domestic violence protections were made every day in Ireland last year, it has been revealed.

The courts dealt with 18,672 applications, an increase of 16 per cent compared with 2017.

The Courts Service’s annual report says the number of emergency barring orders rose by 38 per cent to 1,270 while there was also a 28 per cent increase in the number of longer term barring orders sought.

The report coincides with the launch of a campaign to highlight rampant domestic violence and abuse among teenagers.

Ainie Grainger, 21, from Dublin (pictured), suffered mental and physical abuse at the hands of her father from an early age. Ms Grainger, who has been campaigning on behalf of victims since she was 13, advises youngsters on how to deal with domestic violence. She said she has helped hundreds of men and women through her work with her mother Priscilla and their campaign group Stop Domestic Violence in Ireland.

“I use Snapchat and Instagram for an advice service, people can message me and it won’t look suspicious on their phones,” she said.

“I get so many messages from young people who are either suffering violence from a parent or their part-

ner – and some of them are so young.

“With young people these days, domestic abuse is rampant. I think the amount of drugs available to young people adds to the problem, and young people might grow up looking at their parents’ toxic relationship as a model and repeat the pattern.”

“When you’re starting out in relationships you don’t know what’s normal and parents have no idea what’s happening. Both boys and girls come to me and tell me what’s happening but I don’t know of any dedicated service for young adults who have suffered domestic violence.”

In 2018, there were 16,994 disclosures of domestic violence against women noted during 19,089 contacts with Women’s Aid Direct Services.

The full number of domestic violence incidents in Ireland is unknown.

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 17

IRELAND

IRELAND CONFIRMED AS HOST OF RYDER CUP ON ‘GREAT DAY’ FOR COUNTRY

Adare Manor to host ’26 Cup CATE MCCURRY AND MICHAEL MCHUGH

THE announcement that Ireland will stage the 2026 Ryder Cup marks a great day for the country, the chief executive of the host venue says.

The JP McManus-owned Adare Manor in Co Limerick will host the major golf tournament. This will be the first time in 20 years, and the second time in its history, that the Ryder Cup will be held in Ireland.

“It’s a great day for Ireland and this region and a great day for Adare Manor,” the five-star hotel’s CEO, Colm Hannon, said: He said that the completion of the Limerick to Cork bypass before the event is critical because they are expecting up to 60,000 spectators a day.

“Our course was only built recently, with the goal of having a tournament here,” he added. “It was built tournament-ready, in terms of spectator movements, sky box locations and infrastructure around the course. It’s exciting times ahead.”

The Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort, about 18km south of Limerick, underwent an extensive €70 million makeover. Irish businessman and racehorse owner JP McManus bought the hotel in

December 2014. “It is a wonderful tribute to the many great Irish golf ambassadors and success stories Ireland has had in golf over the years and a nice follow-on from Shane Lowry’s momentous Open win on Sunday in Portrush,” Mt McManus said.

“I am confident that the people of Ireland will get behind the Ryder Cup and take the opportunity to showcase Ireland on the world stage and ensure that the 2026 Ryder Cup will be an outstanding success.”

After an 18-month closure, it reopened in 2017 with a number of new additions, including a bedroom wing and a ballroom. The main house is set on a 840 acres, including an 18-hole championship course, redesigned by architect Tom Fazio.

A round of golf costs a resident €270; non-residents pay €375.

Ireland has hosted the Ryder Cup event once before in 2006 at the K Club in Co Kildare.

“Its return in 2026 will generate enormous focus on Ireland,” Sport Minister Shane Ross said, “and the golfing and tourist attractions we have on offer.”

The event could be broadcast to 375 million homes and be worth about €100 million to Ireland in promotional benefits, Mr Ross said.

Adare Manor in Limerick will host the 2026 Ryder Cup. (Inset) The resort’s CEO Colm Hannon and owner JP McManus.

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irishecho.com.au

IRELAND

GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF ‘FUDGING’ DATA ON MIGRATION AND IGNORING REFUGEE LAW

Concerns raised about how Ireland treats new arrivals CATE MCCURRY, AOIFE MOORE

THE Government is under fire from human rights activists over “fudging” data on migration integration and for allegedly breaking EU law on refugee welfare.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has claimed that the government’s Migration Integration Report gives a false impression of Ireland’s progress on immigration issues.

The ICI’s Joe O’Brien, the organisation’s integration outreach officer, said the report raises issues in a number of areas including its progress on increasing the number of migrant representatives in public participation groups.

The Government’s Migration Integration Strategy is a three-year project to support migrants in participating fully in life in Ireland through a range of targets and actions.

The report sets out the Government’s framework for tackling barriers to integration and promoting intercultural awareness.

It includes actions to combat racism, strengthening laws against hate crime, moves by An Garda Siochana to address the under-reporting of racist crime and funding for anti-racism interventions.

“The Government have categorised this as being ‘on track’, which is

The Immigrant Council of Ireland’s Joe O’Brien believes the government’s report on integration is ‘fudged’.

hilarious, as there is no proper data on migrants in public participation groups,” Mr O’Brien said.

“I have some anecdotal knowledge of a few here and there, but generally they have no participation in networks like sports groups, tidy towns, local community centres and environmental groups.

“It’s clear from their answer that they don’t have the data. There are fudging it and it’s a dangerous fudge.

By scoring yourself too generously you are giving the country the impression that we are making more progress on this issue than we actually really are. We are not making as much progress on this as the report

would say and that’s dangerous.” Mr O’Brien said there are further issues in the English for Speakers of Other Languages programmes and the adequacy of support in schools. ‘ “Again, it’s clear that they don’t know how well the English language supports are meeting the needs of children [because] there’s a complete lack of data,” he added.

“It’s one of the most important things a state can do, to ensure that everyone who wants to learn the main language has a reasonable opportunity to do so, and it seems we are not even doing that.”

A target set by the strategy aims to have 1 per cent of the Civil Service workforce from ethnic minorities, which Mr O’Brien says is “woefully unambitious”.

“It’s clear from the response in the report that they don’t even know the percentage because, again, the data is not there,” he added. “They are guessing whether it’s done or not. My concern is that we have convinced ourselves that we have done enough and then we will discover, when it’s too late, that we didn’t do enough when we had the chance to do so.”

Housing and homelessness issues are not included in the strategy, despite migrants being over-represented in housing needs.

“When you are thinking about

POLITICS :: FIANNA FÁIL MOST POPULAR PARTY

integration and people being part of a community or society, their basic needs have to be met first and housing is up there.”

Meanwhile a new Irish Refugee Council (IRC) report has found that Ireland is in breach of EU law over failures to meet reception conditions.

The council is calling on the State to fulfil its obligations under the Reception Conditions Directive, which became legally binding in Ireland in July 2018. They say almost 1,000 asylum seekers are living in hotels and struggling to access services, healthcare and employment opportunities.

The report found that despite a clear obligation on the State to assess each person within 30 days of seeking asylum to determine if they have special reception needs, there is no vulnerability assessment in place. Meanwhile, there are 936 people seeking asylum living in emergency accommodation such as hotels and B&Bs, an increase from 196 in November 2018, and those living in emergency centres struggle to access support such as medical care or welfare support.

The report also found that 30 per cent of the adult population of Direct Provision have been employed or self-employed but still face significant barriers to work.

The IRC’s chief executive, Nick Henderson, said the government has failed to keep its promises.

“Despite the promise of reform ... this year has seen the situation in Direct Provision deteriorate,” he said.

“Based on our direct experience of working with people in the asylum process, there are a number of ways in which Ireland is breaching requirements of the directive. We are particularly concerned that there is still no vulnerability assessment in place.

A voluntary medical screening is not the same as a vulnerability assessment, which must be a formal, holistic process for assessing a person’s full psychosocial needs. Failure to create such an assessment is a clear breach of Irish and EU law,” he said.

The report also considers the effect of the introduction of the right to work. Since the right to work was implemented 2,713 people have been given permission to work, and 1,160 have been refused.

The IRC’s policy officer and the report’s author, Rosemary Hennigan, said those entitled to work are still facing obstacles like accessing bank accounts and applying for a driving licence.

As of June 2019, there were 6,108 people living in Direct Provision, and none of those people have been assessed for being vulnerable.

RETAIL GURU MOURNED

FF top poll as FG mull coalition with Greens MICHELLE DEVANE

FIANNA Fáil is the most popular political party in Ireland, an opinion poll shows, but the ruling party, Fine Gael, is confident of holding on to power, possibly in coalition with the Greens.

Fianna Fáil is more popular than Fine Gael for a second consecutive month in a row.

The Behaviour and Attitudes poll for the Sunday Times showed support for Fianna Fail up by 2 per cent to 30 per cent; Fine Gael was at 26 per cent, up by 3 per cent.

It found that Sinn Féin had recovered some support, up by 2 per cent to 14 per cent, but the Green Party had dropped by 4 per cent to 7 per cent.

Despite the polling numbers Fine Gael frontbencher Michael Ring has predicted his party will win the next election. But the Rural and Community Development Minister did not rule out the possibility of a Fine GaelGreen Party coalition after the next general election, adding that it would depend on their policies.

“Fine Gael is going to win more seats and we are now looking at every single constituency in the country,” Mr Ring said. “We are going to be

Fine Gael Minister Michael Ring.

looking for candidates that can stand for Fine Gael. I believe Fine Gael will win the election and are going to win the election.”

“People will have to make a decision when the election comes. Do they want somebody who wrecked the economy or do they want someone who brought the economy back?”

Asked if a coalition with the Green Party might be on the table after the next general election, Mr Ring said Fine Gael would have to wait to see what their policies are.

The Greens had “some good policies”, the Mayo TD said, but some of its policies would not sit well with him, nor with people in rural Ireland, he said.

“It is all right talking about climate change and carbon tax, it is all right talking about electric cars and all that. But there is no point in me coming from Dublin in an electric car if I do not have the [recharging] points between Westport and Dublin.

“I could be stuck on the roads six or seven hours a day,” he said.

“We have to get the infrastructure in place first. There’s a lot of work to be done before we can start talking about a lot of that.”

Mr Ring said Fine Gael was committed to action on climate change but change had to be implemented in a reasonable fashion and it had to make sure the public was fully on board.

“We learned that before from water [charges] and from other issues,” he said. “You have to bring people with you.”

The Green Party has been celebrating a surge of membership since its success in the recent local and European elections in May, when 37 councillors and two MEPs were elected.

Mr Ring insisted Fine Gael had also performed well. “[We] got 23 per cent of the vote, the same as Fianna Fáil. You’d always expect the government to get a bit of a kicking in the mid-term,” he said.

A Penneys staff member looks at the window tribute to founder Arthur Ryan.

Death of Penneys founder

PENNEYS founder Arthur Ryan, who died last month aged 83 after a short illness, opened the shop 50 years ago in Dublin. Penneys staff lined Jervis Street in central Dublin as the hearse carrying Mr Ryan passed by. They applauded in poignant tribute to a man hailed as a retail giant. Penneys had to change its name to Primark for its European stores because JC Penney owns the copyright.

Half a century after its foundation, Primark now has 370 stores in 12

countries, employing 75,000 people.

Mr Ryan was chief executive until 2009, stepping into the chairman’s seat until his death, overseeing much of the expansion, including opening the first British Primark store in 1973.

At the funeral, George Weston, chief executive of Primark’s parent company, Associated British Foods, told mourners Arthur Ryan did not fit any stereotype.

“He was a brilliant, complicated man. And I adored him,” he said.

irishecho.com.au

KARL SHIELS RIP

DUBLIN CHEF TAKES ON MALE-DOMINATED LONDON FOOD SCENE

Haugh’s that? Anna’s got the recipe for success AOIFE MOORE

Karl Shiels appeared in Fair City as well as Peaky Blinders.

Tributes for Fair City actor, dead at just 47 DAVID YOUNG

FAIR City actor Karl Shiels has died at the age of 47.

Confirming his death, his agent Lisa Richards paid tribute to the “uniquely talented” actor, who played wheeler-dealer Robbie Quinn in the long-running RTÉ drama.

Shiels, who was also an acclaimed theatre actor, was filming scenes for the show until the day before his death, on July 15.

The former electrician’s acting career included appearances in the movie Batman Begins and the BBC crime drama Peaky Blinders.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden passing of our client and friend Karl Shiels, yesterday,” Ms Richards said.

“Karl was a uniquely talented individual, simultaneously intense, light-hearted, funny, sharp-witted, outspoken and intensely powerful as an actor, director and artistic director of the Theatre Upstairs – where he was such a support and mentor for young writers, actors and directors – and of his own company Semper Fi. “Karl was a remarkable force in Irish theatre and hugely loved and respected by all who worked with him.

“Our thoughts are with his partner Laura and his family, his children and their mother Dearbhla, and his many close friends among whom we count ourselves lucky to have been for so many years.”

The executive producer of Fair City, Brigie de Courcy, said Shiels brought warmth, talent and humour to the show. “We are absolutely devastated and he will be so greatly missed by the entire cast and crew,” she said. “Our thoughts are with his family.”

August, 2019 | 19

IRELAND

A CHEF from Tallaght is breaking barriers in London’s food scene with an Irish-inspired menu and a female-dominated kitchen.

Anna Haugh, 38, recently opened Myrtle in London’s Chelsea borough, her first restaurant as an owner, and said training in Irish kitchens prepped her for the tough, male-dominated culinary scene in the English capital, where she worked as a head chef for Gordon Ramsay, and as a judge on the US food show Hell’s Kitchen.

“I do feel that people are more open to female chefs than they used to be in London, but Dublin has always been far better in terms of welcoming female chefs,” she said.

“I still do have moments when I go to an event and people assume I’m the PR girl or with somebody, or ask for my husband.

“When I was in Dublin, I was working in (Michelin-starred) L’Ecrivain, that was almost 50/50 gender split, with lots of women in senior positions. When I got to London I was almost always the only girl in the kitchen – in kitchens with around 15 chefs,” she added.

“They used to say, ‘women can’t cook like men’, there was a huge cultural difference with Dublin and London in that sense.

“London might be forward-thinking with certain aspects of the industry, but they’re a patriarchal society.

Dublin is more matriarchal; it’s just different.

“Before I worked in L’Ecrivain, I interviewed for a job and didn’t get it. When I met the head chef a few months later and asked for feedback, he said, ‘listen, I had a kitchen full of

lads and we didn’t need a pretty little girl running round disrupting it’.

I remember feeling so irrelevant.

“I’m sure that still happens, you don’t get rid of that mindset easily.”

Haugh, who returned to Ireland last month for the Meatopia culinary festival, said there was still much work to be done to achieve gender equalirty in the kitchen.

“We’re miles away from any type of equality of hiring, opportunities or wages. I don’t remember anyone ever asking me when I was going to be head chef, or when I was going to open my own restaurant. They just weren’t questions women were being asked,” she said.

“At the minute in Myrtle, we outnumber the men, three women and one man, which was accidental but it works. I was interviewing the second hire via email and didn’t recognise her name, and was shocked when she arrived and she was a girl, so I didn’t do it intentionally, but it works for us, and the guy loves being the only man now.”

Irish produce is a key component to Myrtle, as well as the Irish-inspired menu, which was 10 years in the making.

“Seventy per cent of my meat comes from Ireland, all my smoked fish, all the cheese, although I still use some produce from Britain as well, I try my best to use Irish as much as I can,” she said. “There’s a lot of produce that chefs in London buy that comes from France, but I was seeing in Ireland that we had ingredients that could compete with the French, but people don’t automatically think of it, they don’t know about it. I’d rather be buying Irish than French if the standard is good, why not?”

Anna Haugh from Tallaght in Dublin is making waves in the London food scene after opening her own restaurant, Myrtle, in Chelsea.

MARIA BAILEY REMOVED FROM COMMITTEE ROLE AFTER COMPENSATION CASE

TD loses role over swing saga AOIFE MOORE

MARIA Bailey has been demoted by the Taoiseach from her role as chairwoman of a prominent Oireachtas committee. Ms Bailey was at the centre of a scandal when it emerged she had taken legal action against a Dublin’s Dean Hotel after she fell off a swing in its cocktail bar, Sophie’s.

The action, which was initiated in 2015, before she was elected a TD for Fine Gael in Dun Laoghaire, claimed that she suffered painful injuries, which resulted in her being unable to run properly.

When the case was first publicised Ms Bailey attracted a lot of criticism because Fine Gael was said to be cracking down on the insurance industry to fight the high premiums Irish businesses were paying because of allegedly fraudulent claims.

It was also found that Ms Bailey had run a 10km weeks after the incident, despite her claim she had been left severely injured.

An internal review was ordered by

Demoted: Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey

the Taoiseach, Leo Vradakar, to investigate the circumstances of the claim, conducted by David Kennedy SC, amid further reports that fellow TD and solicitor Joespha Madigan had given legal support to Ms Bailey.

Last week, the Taoiseach confirmed the investigation had been finalised, and he would be removing Ms Bailey as chairwoman of the Oireachtas Housing Committee.

“The accident happened and the injuries were real and were confirmed by medical reports. The inquiry states that it was not a fraudulent claim,” Mr Varadkar’s statement said.

“There were concerns that a finding of contributory negligence against her was likely and this was communicated to her on several occasions.

Deputy Bailey signed an affidavit that overstated the impact of her injuries on her running.

“There have been inconsistencies in Deputy Bailey’s account of events to me and the media that I cannot reconcile,” the Taoiseach said.

“Deputy Bailey made numerous errors of judgment in her handling of this matter from the outset, during and even after she’d withdrawn the case, and her approach jars with that of a Government taking action to reduce personal injury payments, claims and insurance costs to people and businesses.

“For these reasons, I am demoting her and removing her as chairperson

of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing. I hope this will send a clear message to other public representatives about taking such cases.”

The Taoiseach said he would not be removing the whip from the TD, because of the “devastating effect this saga has had” on her and her family.

“She has endured considerable negative publicity, public criticism and is now personally liable for significant legal and medical costs.”

He added he would not be publishing the entire internal investigation report, because he had been told by Mr Kennedy that he had received the co-operation of the individuals and parties involved on the basis of confidentiality, and “it would be wrong of me to breach this confidence”.

Ms Bailey released a brief statement moments after the Taoiseach’s, saying she accepted the decision.

“I regret very much that I took the case,” she said. “I recognise and regret the difficulties this issue caused for the Taoiseach and my colleagues during the recent elections.”

20 | August, 2019

irishecho.com.au

IRELAND

SHOCKINGLY LOW PROPORTION OF GOVERNMENT HOUSING FUND SPENT

Housing minister under fire MICHELLE DEVANE

ONLY 8 per cent of an almost €200 million government housing fund has been spent three years after it was launched, new figures show.

So far just over €16 million of €195 million allocated to the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) has been drawn down since 2016.

The fund, which provides investment in public off-site infrastructure such as roads and water to prepare sites for construction, forms a core part of the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland policy to tackle housing and homelessness.

Thirty major public infrastructure projects received final approval under the fund, to help build almost 20,000 new public and private dwelling by 2021. To date only 814 homes have been built, Department of Housing data shows.

The low drawdown of the fund was outlined by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to Fianna Fáil’s housing spokesman, Darragh O’Brien, in

response to a parliamentary question.

Mr O’Brien said the rate of spending by the LIHAF was shockingly low and said it was compounding the housing crisis.

“It has delivered just 814 homes out of 19,979 after three years,” he said. “The fund has spent just €16 million out of the €200 million earmarked for investment, 8 per cent of what was promised.

“The major time lag between Government promises and delivery is compounding the housing crisis across the country.”

Fine Gael launched its Rebuilding Ireland programme in July 2016.

“LIHAF was a flagship policy to affordable homes but it seems to be sinking under the weight of delays,” the Dublin Fingal TD claimed.

“The three-year time lag raises serious questions around the effectiveness of the fund and its operation.

Clearly the red tape surrounding the scheme is clogging up drawdowns.”

Mr O’Brien called for the fund to be reviewed to ensure it is fit for purpose and its drawdown “speeded

Housing minister Eoghan Murphy.

up to help get bricks and mortar into the ground”.

Mr Murphy said the fund was a key initiative and that it aimed to “enable housing developments to be built on key sites at scale”.

The Dublin Bay South TD said that 629 of the 814 homes delivered through scheme by the end of the first quarter of 2019 were affordable or cost-reduced properties.

He added that of the 19,979 properties due to be completed by 2021, some 7,986 would be afford-

able and cost-reduced homes. The minister has also come under fire for comparing co-living spaces to boutique hotels.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Murphy said the buildings, which would have single bedrooms, with a shared kitchen and living space, would be aimed at graduates or young professionals. One previous plan for a co-living space in Dublin had proposals for 40 adults using one kitchen.

“It’s something I’d seen abroad in other cities, where you have your own private room, ensuite, but you also have shared community spaces, a gym, a movie room, a games room potentially, a kitchen, a living room,” Mr Murphy said.

“Like prison,” the radio presenter responded.

“No, not at all,” the minister said.

“It’s more like a very trendy, kind of boutique hotel type place.

“I can see people coming here to Ireland who can’t sign a 12-month lease because they’re not going to be here for 12 months maybe, who don’t want to share a place with three

strangers, and who want to have a bit of privacy, but also a bit of that communal or social aspect to living,” Mr Murphy added.

“They’ll do that for six or 12 months, until they’re six or 12 months into their first job, and then go with two or colleagues from work and say ‘let’s rent a house’.”

Mr Murphy’s comments drew considerable criticism from political rivals.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd, whose Dun Laoghaire constituency had planning permission for co-living spaces rejected, said Mr Murphy did not understand the housing crisis.

“These comments show that the Minister for Housing is living on another planet and simply does not understand the housing crisis.

“For the Minister to make these remarks is appalling. It seems this government is standing with the speculators and the developers rather than the huge number of people who are finding it impossible to put an affordable roof over their head.”

CROWDS LINE STREETS TO SAY GOODBYE TO FATHER AND MUCH-LOVED COMEDIAN BRENDAN GRACE

‘His only vocation in life was to make people happy’ MICHELLE DEVANE

VETERAN entertainer Brendan Grace was loved by everybody and his only vocation in life was to make people happy, his funeral Mass heard.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of the Liberties in Dublin to pay their respects to the much-loved Dubliner, who died on July 11 at the age of 68 after a short illness.

The crowd cheered and applauded and the sang the words of the Dublin Saunter along with the Forget Me Not Choir as his coffin arrived at the Church of St Nicholas of Myra on Francis Street. There was standing-room only for the large crowd of mourners inside the church, while the huge crowd outside the church listened to the mass on speakers.

Figures from the music and political world came together to pay tribute to the stand-up comedian and Father Ted star. The actor played Fr Fintan Stack in the popular comedy series about three priests and he also starred in the 2013 TV film Brendan Grace’s Bottler.

Comedian Brendan O’Carroll and his wife Jennifer Gibney; former taoiseach Bertie Ahern; Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin; entertainer Twink and singer Dickie Rock were among those who attended the Mass. Former Ireland international footballer Niall Quinn, singer Daniel O’Donnell and RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey and DJ Ronan Collins were also present to pay their respects.

The Mass began with Grace’s grandchildren James, Patrick and Aiden, bringing gifts to the altar to

symbolise the comedian’s life. They included a microphone, a book of jokes entitled Amusing Grace and a guitar. Red Hurley, Paddy Cole and Finbar Furey paid a musical tribute to their friend.

Fr Brian Darcy, who celebrated the funeral Mass, told mourners: “Brendan Grace will never die because all of us have enthusiastic, brilliant and long-lasting, life-lasting and life-changing memories of the wonderful man that he was. The humanity of the man, the generosity of the man, the goodness of the man.”

Grace’s legacy to the world would be one of goodness, laughter and generosity. “All of his vocation in life was quite simply nothing more, nothing less than to lift the gloom of the nation and to lift the gloom of the people who came to see him,” he said. “His only vocation in life was to make people happy.”

Grace’s four children, Amanda, Melanie, Bradley and Brendan Patrick gave a eulogy in which they each tried to answer the question they had been asked all their lives: what it is like to have Brendan Grace as your dad?

Brendan Patrick described his father as “the kindest, gentlest and most compassionate person” he had ever known.

Bradley fondly described his father as “generous, wise, confusing, beautifully strange and yes, hilarious” and said having him as a father was fun and “like experiencing unbridled kindness”. Amanda said her father was “a force of nature”.

The funeral of Irish entertainer Brendan Grace attracted massive crowds of mourners, fans and celebrities including (below from left) former Irish soccer stars Kevin Moran and Niall Quinn as well as TV star Brendan O’Carroll. (Right) The late Brendan Grace pictured in Sydney during his last Australian tour in 2015.

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 21

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Visa-bility

Dear John, I’m in Australia on a 485 temporary visa expiring in April 2020.

I am looking at lodging an Expression of Interest application for the 189 permanent Skilled Independent visas in September this year. I have the 65 points needed to apply.

How long do I need to wait for the 189-visa invitation?

Do I get a bridging visa?

Gráinne H

irishecho.com.au

THE IRISH ECHO

Your Visa questions answered. Co Antrim native and registered migration agent John McQuaid provides a uniquely Irish perspective on immigration issues.

DEAR GRÁINNE, The process to apply for the Skill Select 189 Skilled Independent visa, and the similar 190 and 489 state-nominated visas is to make the Expression of Interest (EOI) application. You then wait for an invitation from Immigration to apply for the actual visa.

The EOI itself is not a visa application, so the bridging visa is only granted if and when you make the actual visa application while you are in Australia.

The EOI is valid for 24 months and can be updated. Updating revalidates the EOI for further periods.

The process is competitive. Immigration sweep the EOI pool once a month and pick the highest points scorers in each occupation. Popular occupations such as accounting have higher levels of competition.

As such, there is no guarantee of a visa invitation in the skill Select stream.

The minimum points needed to be eligible for the Skill Select 189-190-489 visas is 65 points.

“

However, despite the pass mark being 65 points, since April 2019, only people on 80 or more points have been invited to apply for these visas.

For prospective 189/190 applicants, its best to look at any options to increase your points claims.

Don’t settle for the minimum pass mark. Taking or re-taking English language tests to gain a higher score is one good option.

If you have expressed interest in being nominated by a state government for the 190 or 489 visas, the state government nomination is worth five or 10 points. Continuing to work in Australia in your occupation can allow claims for extra points – five points for one year or 10 points for three years’ experience in Australia.

The EOI can be updated at the appropriate time.

Since the current migration program year, starting on I July, 2019, Immigration has

Getting your visa strategy right is critical, and a regular review of your plan, considering any law changes, is always needed.

”

allowed 160,000 permanent visas for this year; 108,000 of these will be in the Skilled visa stream.

The competition for permanent visa places is getting tougher and will continue to be tougher in 2019 2020.

The invitations for the 489 regional visas have dropped to 10 places per month so don’t hold out on getting invited for this visa. The 489 visas will close in November 2019, as it is being replaced with the new regional 491/494 visas.

If your maximum points are in the lower range 65-75 points you may well not be invited to apply for the 189 visas.

With a visa expiring in early 2020, a further temporary visa may well be needed to stay on in Australia.

You should consider sponsorship by your employer on 482 temporary one- to fouryear visa.

There is also the 186 Employer Nomination Scheme permanent visa with a direct entry stream. These can prove to be more certain options than waiting for an ‘skill select’ invitation that may never arrive.

The permanent residence skilled visa fee increased on 1st July to $4,045 for the primary applicant.

Getting your visa strategy right is critical, and regular review of your plan considering any law changes is always needed.

Consider consulting a registered migration agent to assess your best option: mia.org.au

Tune in Every Saturday from 8-11am.

Visit us at www.irelandcallingradio.com.au

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 23

TIME OUT

Cr ssCountry Mal Rogers scans Ireland’s regional media for what’s making news in your county

responsible should be punished.

“I can’t answer. I don’t know. And I don’t know who’s telling the truth and who’s lying.” But she insisted she is not a terrorist, has never picked up a gun, nor trained other women or girls to fight.

Mr Varadkar confirmed that Ms Smith has requested consular assistance. However, he said: “I do need to bear in mind that where she is is a war zone and we don’t want to put any of our diplomatic staff or officials at risk in any way.”

He added that “despite what people may think about Lisa Smith, her child is innocent and her child is an Irish citizen and we will try to assist them both”.

KERRY

Sunburnt dolphin spotted off Kerry

Matt Molloy, the talented flautist who was named as one of the recipients of the Cong Hands Of Fame Award (CHOFA), has had moulds made of his hands, which will be cast in bronze cast in September and put on display. The CHOFA accolade recognises artists who have made a unique contribution to Irish life. Photo: Michael Mc Laughlin/PA Wire

CLARE

Cork man’s pub compensation claim withdrawn A PENSIONER who claimed he has suffered chronic pain since slipping on a pub floor has suddenly withdrawn his High Court case for compensation.

Maurice Durnin, 71, who worked as a waiter at Cogan’s Bar in in Milltown Malbey, Co Clare had claimed he was unable to work since slipping and twisting his ankle while working at the pub 10 years ago, Mr Durnin’s withdrawal came after his cross-examination by counsel for Cogan’s Bar. The plaintiff claimed to suffer from continual chronic burning pain.

Padraig McCartan SC had asked Mr Durnin why, in 12 clips of him in video footage taken by a private investigator, he had never used a crutch nor had a limp, except when visiting doctors.

Mr Durnin replied that none of the videos showed his chronic pain.

Counsel said there was “nothing like the limp” he exhibited on his first day in the High Court and that he was exaggerating his claim.

“I am not trying to exaggerate anything,” Mr Durnin replied. “You can’t exaggerate chronic pain. You either have it or you don’t.”

When the court reconvened in

the afternoon, Mr Durnin’s counsel, Michael F Collins SC, told the court the case had been settled on terms whereby it did not include a payment of compensation and the claim in its entirety was being withdrawn.

Ms Justice Bronagh O’Hanlon, who had heard evidence over two and a half days, wished both sides well.

The claim included one for special damages totalling about €250,000 and a large proportion of this was hospital bills.

TYRONE

GAA apologises for rebel song rendition TYRONE GAA manager Mickey Harte has apologised after some of his players were filmed singing a rebel song as a loyalist band parade passed their bus.

The Belfast Telegraph reports the incident happened in Aughnacloy as the team were returning from a game in Clones, Co. Monaghan.

Players can be heard singing Come Out Ye Black And Tans as members of Lisgenny Flute Band went by.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said she hopes Tyrone GAA “deal with this in a sensible way and we all move on”.

“The bands were unaware of the singing or the comments until this video appeared,” she said.

In a statement to the BBC, Tyrone

manager Mickey Harte said the behaviour of some of his players was unacceptable. He apologised to “anyone who has been offended by the unacceptable behaviour of some of the panel”.

“The matter is being dealt with in-house and we won’t be making any further comment,” he added.

LOUTH

Dundalk woman says she is not a terrorist A DUNDALK woman being held in a Syrian refugee camp has insisted she is not a terrorist, as the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, revealed that she would certainly be investigated by authorities if she returns to Ireland.

The Argus reports that Lisa Smith travelled to Syria three years ago. She is being held at the Al Hawl refugee camp on the Syrian border with Iraq.

“I’m not like a terrorist,” Ms Smith, a former member of the Defence Forces and Air Corps in Ireland, told the BBC. “I’m not out to kill anyone. I’m just interested in trying to bring my daughter up and get her educated.

“I want for myself an actual caliphate, like as in a Muslim country, not like a group or a brutality group.”

Ms Smith accepted there was a lot of brutality in the so-called Islamic State, but could not say if those

A DOLPHIN that survived being badly sunburned has surprised scientists by turning up off the Kerry coast on Ireland’s western seaboard last week, hundreds of miles from its usual location in the Cromarty Firth on the north-east coast of Scotland.

BBC News reports that Spirtle was stranded out of water on mudflats on the Cromarty Firth in May 2016.

Rescuers refloated her but did not think she would survive her injuries caused by severe sunburn. But her injuries have gradually healed and it appears to be thriving.

The new sighting makes Spirtle the furthest travelled of her pod..

The east coast population of bottlenose dolphins feed and raise young in the Moray and Cromarty firths.

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen’s Lighthouse Field Station at Cromarty, who monitor the group, have been intrigued by the sighting made by the Irish Whale Dolphin Group.

Charlie Phillips, a Whale and Dolphin Conservation field officer iun the Scottish Highlands, is perplexed as to why a dolphin would make its way from the east coast of Scotland to north Kerry: “We are still trying to work out what is going on. Is it lack of food in the area or is it a genetic need for new DNA in the population?

“I can’t say for sure yet but it’s certainly very unusual.”

DONEGAL

Sixteen asylum seekers arrive in Donegal SIXTEEN asylum seekers arrived in Donegal last week, the Donegal Democrat reports.

Speaking on Highland Radio before the refugees’ arrival in Portsalon, Donegal, Councillor Liam Blaney said he had confirmation that the 16 asylum seekers would be staying for about six months.

“It’s the secrecy of the whole thing.

It is very hard to get information on it, I’ve been looking for 10 days,” Cllr Blaney said.

“The local people feel let down by the powers-that-be that 16 people coming to a remote area like Portsalon, it nearly doubles the population – that is going to be

about [the population of] Portsalon in winter.” He spoke about the accommodation being offered to the asylum seekers. “It’s supposed to be emergency accommodation. I believe that the property is leased for six months to start off with but knowing the way that this government does things, I am quite sure that it will just be beginning.”

He said that he feels that there is a need for more transparency in relation to the process.

LIMERICK

Elderly woman conned in shopping centre car park AN ELDERLY lady was parking her car at the Ennis Road retail park recently when a man approached her, offering some household items at a huge discount.

The elderly lady felt coerced into buying the items. She gave the man a €20 note, expecting to receive change, in exchange for the goods. The man ran off with her money.

Gardaí say the thief was approximately 30 years old and had a Northern Irish accent.

Gardaí are continuing their investigations, and have warned the public about the scam

DOWN

Catholic man left for dead in Kilkeel sectarian attack A CATHOLIC man suffered horrific head injuries when he was brutally beaten in a sectarian attack in Co. Down.

The Irish News reports that father-of-two Paschal Morgan (48) had extensive surgery.

His wife Rachel, 43, said he was left for dead, suffering bruising to the front of his brain, shattered eye sockets and cheekbones, and a possible broken jaw.

His family, including his daughter Shannon, 24, and his son Christopher, 21, believe he was targeted because he is from a well-known Catholic family in the town.

Mrs Morgan said her husband, a building contractor, went for a drink with friends in the Kilmorey Arms Hotel. A man followed him into the toilets and asked his name.

She said when her husband returned to the bar, another man began screaming sectarian abuse him.

Mr Morgan left the pub at 11.10pm and rang his daughter to ask her to pick him up. He was attacked just as his daughter arrived.

Following the unprovoked attack Mr Morgan was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast Sinn Féin councillor, Seán Doran, related to Mr Morgan by marriage, said Mr Morgan was lucky to be alive.

“I thought Kilkeel had moved on from these sort of incidents. He is a hard-working fella and I just hope he recovers,” he said.

A 34-year-old man was arrested and released on bail after questioning.

24 | August, 2019

ARTS

Interview Dara Ó Briain, who returns to Australia in September, tells David Hennessy why he loves Australia ‘to bits’ and how RTE messed up his plans to get to the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

ONE of Ireland’s best loved comics is on his way back to Australia.

Dara Ó Briain is well known from British television shows such as Mock the Week and The Apprentice You’re Fired but he was familiar to Irish audiences long before that from shows like Don’t Feed the Gondolas and The Panel.

Fast-talking, charismatic, incredibly sharp and intelligent as well as very funny, Ó Briain brings his Voice of Reason tour to Australia in September.

It is a country for which he has plenty of affection from the time he spent here as an up-and-coming comedian in the early noughties.

“I had a couple of big years in Australia when I was much younger as a comic. I came over for the Melbourne Festival, did the Adelaide Fringe and I genuinely thought I was going to be spending a lot of time in Australia.

an interesting tension to play with.

“You couldn’t just fall back on the idea of it being an Irish expat crowd, that kind of, ‘oh my God, remember the old days?’ Luckily I don’t have to do that so it keeps you fairly honest.

“The (Australian) audiences are not that different, they’re storytellers like the Irish.” Ó Briain may be familiar from his television presenting, and has been announced as the host of a forthcoming revamped Blockbusters, but his own stand-up shows allow him more freedom.

“Mock the Week, the panel show is great fun to do because you’re amongst friends ... but in terms of delivering the best comedy I can do, that happens when I’ve got you for a while, when I’ve got you for the evening. When I’ve got you for two halves of the show, I know I can set something up at the start that pays off an hour and a half later.

A Reason for

g n i h t y ever

“I even looked at buying a flat in Melbourne. I totally fell for the place and then I didn’t go back for 16 years because of work.

“I got screwed over by RTE at home basically: ‘No, no, no, don’t go to Australia because we’re definitely going to do a thing with ya’. And I lost out on the Melbourne Festival because RTE promised me to do something.

“Basically it got to a point in my life where it was difficult to justify to my new wife why I would spend three months partying in Australia so it became less of a priority and it became a distant thing until a few years ago when i went back again.

“It was like, ‘where have you been all my life?’

It was fantastic but it was very different to go from playing a small room at a comedy festival in Melbourne to doing two nights in the Opera House in Sydney which is what we did last time. That was like, ‘Okay, this is great, I haven’t had to do any work to get this but I’m in the Opera House, fantastic’.

Australia’s golden, glorious for me. I love it to bits.”

It was in 2017 that the now 47-year-old was last here to do those two shows at Sydney Opera House as well as gigs in Melbourne and Perth.

He constantly met the young Irish in Australia at the time and empathised with them and the dreaded farm work requirement for those who want to extend their stay.

“There was a bit of irritation over their whole 88 days. The opening line I had was, ‘Hello Sydney, I’m going to Melbourne, then I’ve got to do 88 days working on a farm, then I’ve got a show in Perth’.

That was the opening line that I had and that got a huge laugh from the Irish, all of whom were trying to avoid doing 88 days working on a farm.

“The audience was one third Irish, one third British and one third Australian so it made kind of

“When you’re doing a panel show, it’s really in and then out of there and that’s great, great for getting gags out, gags rather than stories.

“On stage, you really come across as who you are, personality-wise and can play with that. I have their attention now and instead of going boom, boom, boom with the jokes, I’m going to set them up and the dominoes will fall later. Especially as I’ve been doing it for so long now, the shows work in a complicated way.”

His Voice of Reason show has been described as a hilarious reflection on some of mid-life’s mundanity with some topical issues like Brexit thrown in.

Would he like to describe the show himself?

“Do you know what? I hope to never have to describe the show because it’s kind of like a band having to describe an album: ‘Well, there’s a couple of fast ones, a couple of slow ones, hope you’ll like it’. Comedy shows are a bit like that. Towards the end, it feels a lot more connected than it was earlier on but some of it will be off the cuff.

“It will be the 167th time I’ve done the show so to be frank, if it isn’t working by now, I don’t deserve to be up there.”

The Bray, Co Wicklow native is also known for grilling individual members of the audience.

“Sometimes you say, ‘What do you do?’ ‘And someone will say I work in database management or finance insurance or something. But when that pays off, then it becomes the thing that defines the show.

The audience will always have more stories than I have but it’s a case of finding them. People come up and say, ‘do you remember such and such a show?’

I say, ‘Well, who did I speak to?’ They’ll go, ‘The bus driver who had been on sick leave for a year’. ‘Ah, I remember that show well’. Because that’s the thing I remember.”

irishecho.com.au

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Review

August, 2019 | 25

ARTS

Crime and punishment BOOKS THE SCHOLAR

By Dervla McTiernan HARPER COLLINS 362 Pages $32.99

CCCC THE WAY HOME

Tales from a life without technology

By Mark Boyle ONEWORLD 266 Pages $29.99

CC Frank O’Shea IS there no end to new Irish writers?

Dervla McTiernan was born in Cork and did her degree in Galway before working as a lawyer; she moved with her family to Western Australia after the financial crisis. Following the international success of her first book The Rúin, she now works full time as a writer. This, her second book, will enhance her reputation.

All the action of The Scholar takes place in Galway, mostly at the university with an occasional visit to Athenry. A young woman is killed in what is quickly established to have been a deliberate hit-

those aspects to take from the central and-run. The investigation of the event investigations. McTiernan manages falls to Sergeant Cormac Reilly, the same this wonderfully and readers may well detective who featured in McTiernan’s be as much in anticipation of how those first book.

From there, we have a standard police characters will develop as in the actual outcome of the case. procedural, but with the difference The other aspect that is attractive is that there are no heroics, no flaunting the way that, until almost the end, the of proper practices for unexpected reader is never quite sure who exactly outcome. In fact, the strict requirement the criminals are. There are subtle to follow correct procedures holds misdirections and hints of possible up the investigation, so much so that malfeasance among people who are Reilly has to step back from the case actually quite innocent. In these books, it to be replaced by a female colleague. is often the case that the main detective The reason is that the original body follows an unusual line which proves to was discovered by his partner Emma, be correct; in this a researcher at book, we have police a pharmaceuwho take a particular tical company view which turns associated with Hints of possible out in fact to be a the university.

Reilly’s private malfeasance among dead end. It is easy to imagine that this life has a bearing the innocent. is how police work on the case in actually happens. another way The other delight because the dead of the book is the way that Galway – city, girl has a possible connection to Emma’s university and county – are central to research. the story. It is almost like we are seeing Enter a Garda superintendent who a part of Ireland we knew existed but is anxious not to antagonise a powerful never gave much thought to. university entrepreneur; one of Reilly’s This is a totally captivating read, a junior colleagues who insists on strict book that will bring new followers for nine-to-five days, and another sergeant Cormac Reilly and new readers for who is overworked and stressed. The Dervla McTiernan. result is that much of the action of the ________________________________ story takes place within the local Garda headquarters.

THE Way Home is the kind of book In a book such as this, obviously part that makes you want to discuss the of a series to feature Cormac Reilly, the philosophy behind it rather than offering author has to manage the story threads an opinion about the finished product, in a way that reveals new material about the bundle of pages in front of you. the characters who will continue to be Reading it, you are caught between part of the series while not allowing

“

”

Theatre :: The Cripple Of Inishmaan

CRIPPLING LAUGHTER IN WILD WEST

STAGE THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN

By Martin McDonagh Old Fitz Theatre Directed by Claudia Barrie

CCCC Billy Cantwell MUCH has happened to Martin McDonagh since he wrote The Cripple Of Inishmaan in 1996. He’s now an Oscar and Golden Globe

winning writer and director, deploying his sledgehammer humour on the big screen, most notably in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Sydney audiences have a chance to revisit The Cripple Of Inishmaan with a fine production of the play at the Old Fitz Theatre in Woolloomooloo.

The cripple of the title is Billy, an orphan who lives in the care of his adoptive spinster aunts. He, like everyone else in Inishmaan, is bored and dreams of a better life elsewhere, anywhere. The arrival of a Hollywood crew to shoot Robert Flaherty’s Man Of Aran creates an exit strategy for Billy but will he get away or will his plan be derailed by secrets and lies?

McDonagh unflinchingly holds a satirical mirror up to rural Irish life,

its preoccupations, obsessions and insecurities. There are dark secrets and benevolent lies, family betrayals and belligerent blackmail, vengence and violence and eggs, lots of eggs.

The characters are cartoonish versions of people we instantly recognise and McDonagh, who spent his youthful Summer holidays in the west of Ireland, skillfully captures the cadence and musicality of the vernacular he would have tuned into as a young man. He also challenges myths surround Ireland and Irish people. Are we friendly? Or simply nosy?

The result is painfully hilarious, poignant and profound. It may be that Billy is the least crippled member of the Inishmaan community.

The Mad March Hare Theatre

admiration for what it describes and anecdotes, of small events that made up annoyance that someone should forbid his day from building his little cabin with themselves innocent helps like running no more than a hammer and saw to his water or a clock or a public pay phone. interactions with the local community.

The author decided to do without a Although he had lived a few years earlier fridge or a wind-up radio and or even without using money, that seems to no a box of matches. He found himself in trouble when he had to send his material longer be the case as he buys stamps from a shop and pints from a local pub. to the printer: they admired what he The writing is almost boringly was doing, but were not about to accept optimistic, the life of a man who has left material submitted in pencil – not in the rat race in favour of a simpler life. biro which was technology – however He refuses to blame the Irish weather: neatly written. So he grudgingly obliged “The following morning I walk the letters by booting up his computer and taking along with the dog, the 12 km round a week to copy out his handwriting. He trip to the post office. The weather on describes himself as a hypocrite for the way is changeable – light rain one this concession to technology. “The minute, heavy rain the next – and I feel experience of it was such that, having invigorated by it.” No negative commade the compromise, I’m not sure I ments on the weather or his sometimes would make it again.” eccentric neighbours; even his critique Mark Boyle was lucky in the area in of our normal technology hungry world which he set up his cabin and slowly is reasoned and not unfriendly. worked his few acres of boggy Galway “My life is my life,” he writes, “and land into a plot that enabled him to it’s prone to the same contradiction, live without having to visit the shops complexity, for food. He had confusion and good neigbours conflict as the who helped him next person’s. My in his difficulties A challenging, ideals are often as he helped them maddening but down- one step ahead in their normal of my ability to farm chores. He to-earth account. fulfil them, and describes some that is no bad of the weeds and thing; in fact, I other local plants wonder if hypocrisy might be the highest and leaves that he used to supplement ideal of all.” Challenging and sometimes his diet and that of his partner Kirsty. maddening, but also down-to-earth and She lasted a few years, but as the book avoiding any form of preachiness, this is ends, she seems to have left to follow a book which is as close to philosophy as her own understanding of simple living. to a description of everyday living.

The Way Home is a series of little

“

Company’s production is faithful to the spirit of the dark humour and almost all the actors comfortably inhabit their characters and embrace the terrible beauty of the script.

William Rees, a young actor who lives with a disability, is impressively compelling as Billy. Laurence Coy is a standout as the scheming village gossip Johnnypateenmike and Jude Gibson is outstanding as his alcoholic, bed-ridden mother. A cleverly adaptable set, which makes the most of the limited space at the Old Fitz, is put to good use. A shop counter becomes a currach which becomes a bed.

Director Claudia Barrie’s attention to detail is impressive and she is well supported by lighting director Benjamin Brockman and production designer Brianna Russell.

While some of the Irish accents are a little sketchy, it would be churlish to say that this slight shortcoming takes away from what is a very enjoyable night of theatre.

”

26 | August, 2019

FIREDAM CIVIL P/L

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THE IRISH ECHO

FIREDAM CIVIL P/L JUNE

Firedam Civil P/L would like to congratulate the Irish Echo on reaching 30 years.

Happy 30th Anniversary Irish Echo, and good luck for the future.

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Hurler

Pot, kettle, black TRUMP’S America is truly shameless.

Last month, US authorities warned American citizens not to attend a music festival in Ireland due to the “potential for violence”.

The Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs and the US Embassy in Ireland issued alerts

They said it...

on the ditch

F***in oath

THE path to an Australian republic remains sadly strewn with obstacles but there are, dare I say, green shoots appearing.

At the swearing in of the newly elected members of the NSW parliament recently, there was a small but noteworthy shift in sentiment.

Members of the NSW Parliament once were compelled to swear an oath to the Queen alone. But thanks to Hibernophile Labor MP for Liverpool Paul Lynch’s 2004 private members bill, members were given the option of pledging their loyalty to Australia and the people of New South Wales.

In 2015, 19 members of the parliament took the monarchist oath while 74 opted for the ‘Australian’ pledge.

In 2019, only 14 of the 93 MPs opted to swear an oath to the Queen of England.

Baby steps but we’re at least heading in the right direction.

August, 2019 | 27

TIME OUT

“This individual, who had worked in the NIO for between 15 and 20 years, claimed that under human rights legislation it was unfair to him to have to work where he was offended by portraits.”

comment on statements by third parties but said the event went off without incident, in any case.

Gardaí even posted a number of Twitter pictures of its officers posing with festival goers. One was accompanied with the message: “The party has started at Longitude, have a brilliant weekend. GardaÍ getting in the party mood with revellers”.

One wonders why other countries do not issue safety warnings for citizens travelling in the United States where, in 2016 for instance, there were 11,004 gun homicides.

Lord Magennis of Drumglass, commenting on claims that an Northern Ireland Office civil servant was paid £10,000 for being offended by portraits of he Queen and Prince Philip hung in the office.

“I have found myself taking a particular position with regard to same-sex marriage, which was forced upon me when my elder daughter got married to her girlfriend.”

Lord Trimble (DUP), former First Minister of Northern Ireland, makes a surprising contribution to the same-sex marriage debate.

“I never feel my safety is in question. I never feel like I need to get out of there. I don’t get scared, so it’s different. Whereas a woman might, if it happened with 20 guys crowding around her.”

Bog Boris a hit

A reveller at Durrow Scarecrow Festival grabs an intimate selfie with new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

ahead of the Longitude Festival at Marlay Park in Dublin.

The US embassy urged citizens to avoid the park in the Rathfarnham area of south Dublin and surrounding areas. If people did attend, they should “exercise caution, monitor media for updates, keep a low profile and notify friends and family about their safety”, the alert added.

Gardaí said they did not

Quiz 1. Boris Johnson has become prime minister of the UK. Born in New York, he is the only prime minister to be born outside Britain since an Irish-born PM in the 19th century. Who was he?

2. Which bird, once common in Ireland but now scarce, is the equivalent of the American whip-poor-will?

3. Which two Irish writers (one primarily a novelist, the other primarily a playwright) contributed to the erotic revue Oh! Calcutta!, premiered in 1916?

4. Fissured limestone terrain, such as the Burren in Co. Clare, is called (a) karst; (b) loess; or (c) steppe?

5. Professor Higgins, Colonel Pickering, Alfred P. Doolittle and Freddy Eynsford-Hill are all characters in which George Bernard Shaw play?

6. How are these towns known in English: (a) Tearmann Féichín (b) Lúbhadh (c) Cionn tSáile?

7. Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Darcy, Deane, Ffrench, Ffront, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martin, Morris and Skerrett. What?

8. Which Tipperary-born writer wrote the novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy?

9. What is the name given to the yacht race which begins at Cowes in England, and travels to the coast of Cork before returning?

10. Fred Daly was the first Irish golf major winner, back in 1947. Who are the other five Irish players to win golfing majors?

Actor Aidan Turner speaking about his popularity with the opposite sex, and how he will often be mobbed by as many as 20 women at a time.

A SCARECROW depicting Boris Johnson in a public toilet has become a popular attraction at a festival in Laois.

Durrow Scarecrow Festival is known for its wry take on current affairs. In previous years it has featured US President Donald Trump and last year a depiction of the Pope in his popemobile before his visit to the Republic won joint first prize.

One creation featured the Beatles on Abbey Road.

A Marilyn Monroe-themed scarecrow and a giant version of Irish boxing champion Katie Taylor in the ring entertained festival-goers. Another involved a depiction of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel about women’s rights.

But Boris on the bog was the most popular attraction.

“It is a unique place where people have a birthright to identify themselves as British or Irish or both. Its people did not vote for Brexit. A no-deal Brexit will devastate the Northern Irish economy with tariffs and rules that will fundamentally disrupt the all-island economy upon which so much progress has been built.”

The Tánaiste, Simon Coveney.

“Following enquiries, no offences have been detected in relation to a video that was circulated online.”

Superintendent Mike Baird confirmed that detectives are not pursuing anyone in relation to an incident where players on the Tyrone GAA team sang rebel songs as they passed a loyalist accordion band.

“The Good Friday Agreement promised that there was going to be a new future for the islands, that there were going to be new relationships built, new institutions. That doesn’t seem to have happened, frankly.”

Actor James Nesbitt.

The ‘Echo’ Crossword Clues across: 1 Remain – no, go. Problematic for English-Irish batter (5,5) 7. Irish river, it’s said, certainly (4) 8. Former scrutineer, reportedly in Treasury department (9) 9. Moya rearranged details to visit part of Antrim (4) 10. Protagonist gives the woman nothing (4) 11. Gullible person in France not returning (3) 12 & 15 across: New Part of the US where disturbingly a hen whimpers (3,9) 14. Scheme to trim plant (4) 15. see 12 across 18. Odd sounding Scottish island (4) 19 & 24 across: I’ll train hands roughly on Irish place surrounded by sea (7,6) 21. A crime about an individual Continental (8) 23. Hi, I cut Van’s distorted sexist figure (10) 25 across, 7 Down: The rest happens confusingly in Irish novel (3,7)

straightforward (10) 2. Co Kerry beach about two centimetres

1

2

3

4

5

wide? (4) 3. Queen returned in the morning the day before (5)

7 8

4. A curious broadcast without one is

9

harshly loud (7)

10

5. Possibly cares for pieces of land (5) 6. Insect making bloke on knees sit

12

around? (7,6)

11

13

14

15

7. see 25 across

16

17 18

13. Whale wit wrongly exhibited by Northern Ireland secretary (8) 16. Short man plunges into water in

6

19

20

tropical isles (8)

21

22

17. Beginning to move, cooked slowly and plunged into water (8) 20. Highland town Highland town

23

transformed by Belfast man into a magical world (6)

Clues down:

22. Sound currency including sterling (5)

1. Sherlock’s periodic verdict is

23. Tell a better story of a deerstalker (3)

24

25

LAST EDITION’S ANSWERS: Clues across: 1. Equestrian. 6. Ogre. 9. Ellis Island. 10 & 31 across: The Liberties. 11. Algernon. 12 & 22 across: Ten four. 14. Dot. 15. Ends. 17 & 26 across: (Father) Ted Crilly. 18 & 28 across. Inch Abbey. 19. Welded. 22. see 12 across 23. Limavady. 24. Lute. 26. see 17 across 30. Ivy. 31. see 10 across 32. East. Clues down: 1. Emerald Isle. 2. Ullage. 3. Twinned.

4. Inland. 5. Ninette de Valois. 7 & 17 down: Gate Theatre. 8. Events. 13. Needfu. 16. Deductions. 17. see 7 down 20. Ely. 21. Talc. 25. Able. 27. Root. 29. Eye.

Answers: 1. The Duke of Wellington (born in Dublin); 2. The nightjar; 3. Edna O’Brien, Samuel Beckett; 4.

Karst; 5. Pygmalion; 6. Termonfeckin; Louth; Kinsale; 7. The Tribes of Galway; 8. Laurence Sterne; 9. The Fastnet Yacht Race; 10. Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell,Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Shane Lowry.

28 | August, 2019

Travel

The Americans might have adapted it and Australia may have embraced it but Halloween is an Irish invention. Picture: Shane O’Neill

Exciting new festival for the home of Halloween

The Púca festival will be held around the Hill Of Ward in Co Meath, the ancient home of Sámhain, the Celtic precursor of Halloween.

Walk Ireland’s poignant National Famine Way A new waymarked trail evokes the tragic journey of emigrants who fled Ireland’s Great Famine.

STRETCHING 165km from County Roscommon to Dublin, the National Famine Way commemorates the poignant journey of 1,490 people who were evicted from Strokestown Park estate in 1847 at the height of the Irish Famine.

The families, carrying their scant belongings, walked to Dublin to board the famine ships that would take them to America and Australia. They were just some of the two million people who either died or emigrated during Ireland’s Great Hunger.

The new heritage trail follows the emigrants’ path along rural roads and alongside the evocative Royal Canal through counties Longford, Westmeath, Meath and Kildare, finishing in Dublin at the iconic Famine Memorial on Custom House Quay.

Along the route are some 30 bronze sculptures of children’s shoes. These

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TIME OUT

interactive sculptures tell the stories of individuals and families from the 1,490, bringing to life their tragedy and adding a thought-provoking dimension to the trail.

The National Famine Way is bookended by two unique museums – The National Famine Museum in Strokestown and EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin – which help to explain the context and legacy of the Famine.

The National Famine Museum is housed in Strokestown Park House, which became infamous when its owner Denis Mahon was assassinated after forcing his tenants to emigrate.

The museum tells the story of the Great Hunger, eviction, migration, and the murder of Mahon.

EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum, named Europe’s Leading Tour-

The homeland of Halloween in Ireland’s Ancient East is creating a brand new festival for the scariest time of the year.

ROOTED in ancient tradition and taking place in counties Meath and Louth, Ireland’s all new Púca festival (October 31– November 2) will celebrate the birthplace of Halloween.

Adding to the many entertaining reasons to come to Ireland at Halloween time, Púca will include stunning light installations, playful interactives and awe-inspiring bespoke projections at ancient sites, as well as a new music festival across unique venues.

There will also be delectable harvest-inspired food experiences, folklore, flame and fun as the playful púca (fairy shapeshifters) come alive and get up to mischief in the streets.

The main locations for festival events are the towns of Athboy and Trim in Co Meath and Drogheda in Co Louth, all of which have rich histories.

Athboy is regarded as the location of the first Sámhain festival, and the locals annually light the sacred Sámhain flame on the historic Hill of Ward. Trim is home to the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, while Drogheda is one of the oldest towns on the island.

The three towns sit in the historically and archaeologically significant Boyne Valley, a key location in Ireland’s Ancient East, where a multitude of ageless sites tell the story of a fascinating mythical past.

Halloween originates in the ancient Irish and Celtic tradition of Sámhain, which is the old Irish for ‘summer’s end’. Sámhain marks the end of the old Celtic Year and the

NATIONAL FAMINE WAY

beginning of winter. The Celts believed that this was a time of transition, when the veil between our world and the next came down, and the spirits of all who had died since the last Oíche Shamhna (Night of Sámhain) moved on to the next life.

Halloween itself always falls on the last day of October, the day before the Christian feast day of all souls or hallows. It was once known as ‘hallows eve’ before becoming Halloween.

In pre-Christian times, Sámhain was the last great gathering before the days became shorter and the cold weather set in, when clans came from all over Ireland to celebrate, trade and connect.

It was a time for fires, feasting, remembering what had passed, a time of reckoning, rebirth and preparing for the winter ahead.

The harvest was in, the animals were in shelter and there was an abundance of nuts and berries.

But alongside that feeling of plenty, was an awareness that winter was coming, that food would be scarce and that sacrifices would need to be made. Fast forward to today and those customs have been integrated with modern-day traditions to create the worldwide festival of Halloween.

Celebrated in Ireland with more gusto and enthusiasm than anywhere else in the world, the island is still the best place to enjoy the most authentic of Halloween experiences.

PÚCA FESTIVAL

31st October – 2nd November FIND OUT MORE AT www.ireland.com

Caption:

All Year Round

FIND OUT MORE www.ireland.com www.nationalfamineway.ie www.strokestownpark.ie ist Attraction 2019 at the prestigious World Travel Awards, is the world’s first fully digital museum. Encompassing 1,500 years of Irish history, it is an interactive and entertaining presentation on how, where and why the Irish emigrated. Nearby, the Jeannie Johnson, moored on the River Liffey, offers the chance to see first-hand the conditions that the emigrants endured during the long Atlantic crossings in what became known as ‘coffin ships’.

The National Famine Way can be joined at numerous locations along its route and, as well as offering a pleasant walking trail, gives a glimpse into the human suffering endured during the darkest chapter of Ireland’s history.

The trail was officially opened in May when a group of walkers, re-enacting the emigrants’ journey, completed the 165km route.

The Famine Way charts a tragic chapter in Irish history.

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 29

SPORT

Cricket :: Irishman leads England to World Cup success

All hail Captain Morgan

Eoin Morgan, from Rush Co Dublin, lifts the cricket World Cup for England.

WORLD Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan was always destined to make it to the top in cricket, according to his first coach at Rush Cricket Club in suburban Dublin.

Morgan’s men wrote their names into the history books at Lord’s, winning their first World Cup title in a final that will go down as one of the most dramatic ever.

The scenes in London were a long way from where the 32-year-old began playing the sport in Rush, close to his Dublin home. His father was captain at the Rush Cricket Club.

Although small in stature at a young age, Morgan always played ahead of his age group and captained the Rush side which won the Under-11 Leinster Cup. Matt Sheridan was his coach back then and he told Sky News: “From an early age we could see some talent to nurture. He played here from when he was a baby, I remember him dragging his bat through the car park and into the nets and the bat was as tall as Eoin was.

“His parents knew where he was when he wasn’t at home. He was at Rush Cricket Club. He played under-age cricket until 11 years of age but at seven, eight and nine we could see he was an outstanding talent.

“I suppose he was no different from any other 10 or 11-year-old, but we knew he was a serious competitor.

He loved the sport, he intended to be a professional and an international cricketer at an early age.

“It was probably too soon to see

personality traits but we knew he was a winner. So we are not surprised and we’re very proud at how he has progressed.”

Former England batting coach and player Mark Ramprakash was full of praise for Morgan following the World Cup success.

Ben Stokes stole the headlines with his heroics towards the end of the match but Ramprakash thinks Morgan’s work since the last World Cup should be recognised.

“Eoin’s calm leadership and clarity of thought over the last four years and during this tournament have been crucial,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“What a captain he has been, and the group as a whole really deserve it.

There has been a lot said about Eoin and of course he was at the previous World Cup in 2015 (where England went out at the group stage) and learned a lot from that.

“And really it was (former England and Wales Cricket Board director of cricket) Andrew Strauss who got together with Eoin Morgan and had this vision which they built over four years. They have talent right through the squad. You look at the players who aren’t in the team who are very, very good, so that shows you the strength of the squad.”

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen also gave credit to Morgan and Strauss for revamping the English team. He tweeted: “Strauss had a huge influence over this team’s win.

Him and Eoin paved the way to play this aggressive brand,” he tweeted.

Football :: A League :: Brisbane Roar add two Irish players

O’Donovan ready to Roar for Liverpool legend CORK’S Roy O’Donovan says he very is excited to be part of Robbie Fowler’s revolution at Brisbane Roar.

The 33-year-old striker is one of many new signings for the Liverpool legend’s new look A League team and has already netted his first goal for the club.

“I’m glad to be here,” O’Donovan told the Irish Echo. “It’s a lovely club.

It’s going places. It’s all set up for success. It’s a nice change of environment. I’m enjoying it so far.”

Brisbane Roar’s new manager Robbie Fowler was banging goals in for Liverpool when Roy was a young football fan. Was Fowler a hero for the young O’Donovan back then?

“Absolutely, yeah. As I said to him, which he wasn’t too happy about, I was a Man United fan growing up with the Roy Keane and Dennis Irwin connection. But he was a quality player, quality goalscorer. That was my era growing up. I was nine or ten when the Premier League was really in its heyday and the likes of Robbie Fowler, Andy Cole, Alan Shearer were the real deal so to get the opportunity

Roy O’Donovan is now a Brisbane Roar player with Robbie Fowler as manager.

to work under him is terrific.”

O’Donovan joined Brisbane Roar from Newcastle Jets despite interest from several other A League clubs.

Fowler was a big part of his decision.

“He’s coming here, he’s bringing his family out here for a reason. He wants to be successful so that got me excited,” he said.

Brisbane Roar finished down the ladder last year but O’Donovan says the club is intending on being much more competitive this season.

“We’ve done the first part, we’ve

got a new coach in. The second part is him getting his recruitment right and so far I think we’ve got 11 new players through the door.”

O’Donovan is not the only man to join Fowler’s squad with Dubliner Jay O’Shea coming in from Bury.

“He’s a good lad, he’s going to do very well for us and any way I can help him with the landscape in Australia, I’ll be there and help him any way he needs. So far, so good. He’s fitted right in, he’s one of the lads already,” O’Donovan said.

“The supporters of Brisbane Roar have something to get excited about because he’s a really quality player.”

O’Donovan joined Central Coast Mariners in 2015 before he moved to Newcastle Jets. He has scored 39 A-League goals and played in the 2018 A-League Final during which he was sent off in the defeat to Melbourne Victory. If he does achieve A-League success with the Roar, he would be the first Irishman to claim the honour since the late Liam Miller did it with the same club in 2014. “[Miller] was a good friend of mine, lovely guy. Very, very sad what happened. It would be lovely to come here and replicate a little bit of what he done success wise,” he said.

With two Irish players on board and a Liverpool great at the helm, Roy would love to see the Irish community in Brisbane supporting Roar as they enter a new era.

“It would be fantastic. I feel there’s so many Irish people over here, they need to get into the football because the there’s some quality football played,” O’Donovan added.

IN BRIEF

HULL SIGN DEFENDER FROM CORK CITY HULL have signed defender Sean McLoughlin from Cork City for an undisclosed fee on a three-year deal. Centre-back McLoughlin, 22, a Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, made 63 appearances in all competitions for the Irish League side. McLoughlin told the club website: “The move has been going on for the past couple of weeks now, so to finally get over here and sign - I’m delighted. “I’m buzzing to be here and to be a Hull City player. I know I’ve still got a lot to learn, but it’s a fantastic opportunity and I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

IRISH BLOW CHANCE AT HISTORIC TEST WIN OVER ENGLAND IRELAND cricket captain William Porterfield attempted to raise the spirits of a sombre dressing room by reminding his players how proud they should be of their efforts in a memorable Lord’s Test against England.

Ireland walked from the field defeated after Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad wiped them out in the final innings of the game for just 38 in 15.4 overs last week. The manner of their defeat was drastic - jointly the second shortest in the history of the format and the lowest total anywhere in the world since 1955 - but that is only the final chapter of a story that had looked so promising for the test match rookies.

Having lost the toss and been asked to field, Ireland skittled their hosts for just 85. In a single session they had proved their worthiness of Test status and laid claim to more opportunities against established opponents at the highest level. “We’re pretty gutted,” said Porterfield. “We had a real chance to win it.”

LONDON IRISH FANS WILL ‘BACK JACKSON SIGNING’: LES KISS LONDON Irish head coach Les Kiss insists the majority of Exiles fans support the decision to sign Paddy Jackson who will be entrusted with the playmaking duties next season after completing a year at Perpignan, the French club where he began rebuilding his career after his Ireland and Ulster contracts were terminated.

Along with team-mate Stuart Olding, the 27-year-old was acquitted of rape in March last year following a nineweek trial during which it was revealed the provincial colleagues exchanged lewd text messages that were derogatory towards women. An outcry from women’s rights organisations ensued and some London Irish fans have vowed to boycott the Madejski Stadium in opposition at his arrival, while sponsor Diageo has ended its sponsorship of the club.

But Australian coach Kiss insists the only consideration in recruiting him was his playing ability.

“If you look at everything, I think there is more support than not. That’s my view,” Kiss said.

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AFL :: Tadhg Kennelly

AFL: Pearce Hanley

Pearce Hanley has played more than 150 AFL games.

MAYO SHIP HAS SAILED FOR SUNS’ IRISH STAR DAVID HENNESSY

Tadhg Kennelly is now part of the coaching set-up at the Sydney Swans.

Kennelly can see both sides of AFL recruitment row DAVID HENNESSY

SYDNEY Swans coach Tadhg Kennelly says he understands the frustration of some GAA fans who see talented young players abandon Ireland for a crack at Aussie Rules.

Two years ago Kennelly was criticised in the Irish media by his former Kerry team-mate Tomás Ó Sé for his part in taking top prospects away from GAA in his role then as AFL Talent Coordinator.

“I see both sides of the argument,” the now 38-year-old said. “I understand if I was a young man at home in Kerry and I’m watching Mark O’Connor go and play for Geelong.

“I wouldn’t be happy. It would be tough to watch because that’s what you bleed at home, you bleed Kerry football and you don’t want to see your best talent going.

“But I also see the other side of the argument. He’s a young man getting an opportunity to play professional football, getting to challenge himself in a game he knows nothing about and an opportunity to put it up against people in a game that you don’t know. I understand both sides of the argument. Which one’s right?

Who knows?”

Kennelly is in a unique position of having reached the pinnacle of both games: in 2005 with the Sydney

Kennelly with the Sam Maguire in 2009.

Swans and in 2009 with Kerry.

“I’ve been able to live both of them, going back to play football at home and getting to play as a professional here with the Swans,” he said.

“It’s a tough one and I see both sides of the argument. But I also understand there’s been close to 70 Irish players that have come out here.

There’s only a handful of us who have played over 150 games of AFL football, the majority go back.

“That’s the first thing I say to players or anyone who talks to me about coming out here. It’s f**king hard and it’s a hard thing to do because you’re playing a game you knew nothing about, you haven’t been able to grow up with it, you don’t understand it and it’s tough. The majority of players go back and they go back better Gaelic footballers because they have lived in an environment of being a profes-

sional for a couple of years.”

Kennelly is also a veteran of International Rules, having played in six series. While he is a fan of the concept, he is not confident that the hybrid code can find a way forward.

“It’s difficult, it’s hard and I understand the demands on both codes as far as the GAA and AFL are concerned,” he said.

“There’s a lot going on, a lot on their plates. It’s hard to get momentum up because it’s a year, two years between games and it’s hard to get the momentum going.

“I’m a huge fan of it, it’s an opporunity for you to represent your country which both codes don’t get and you talk to any player who’s played in it, they absolutely love the experience and love playing for their country. I hope it does continue because it’s an opportunity to represent your country.”

Having spent his entire AFL career at the Sydney Swans, Kennelly returned to Sydney Cricket Ground two years ago and is now defensive coach.

He is also a member of the club’s Hall Of Fame having played 197 games for the ‘bloods’ becoming the first Irishman to win an AFL premiership in 2005.

Check out our video interview with Tadhg Kennelly online.

PEARCE Hanley has conceded that he will not now play a role in ending Mayo’s almost 70 year wait for an All Ireland crown.

“That definitely was a dream when I was younger and I felt like I could have performed and actually helped them win an All-Ireland but I think that ship has sailed now,” the 30 year old told the Irish Echo.

“Watching the Mayo team now, there’s some great young footballers coming through. Mayo is in their hands now. I would have loved to. I was actually very serious about heading back four or five years ago, I was actually having the conversation with my parents but it just didn’t eventuate. Do I have any regrets? No. Would I have loved to? Absolutely.”

Hanley joined Gold Coast Suns ahead of the 2017 season but has found it hard to find any rhythm with injuries disrupting each one of his campaigns since he moved from Brisbane Lions with a dislocated shoulder and a recent corked thigh among the complaints to keep him out of the action. Pearce has also had personal

tragedy to deal with having to return home to spend time with his terminally ill brother Tommy who then passed away.

“I haven’t found my form or my Brisbane form for three years now.

I’ve had interrupted pre-seasons and seasons so I haven’t had that continuity but I’ll keep working hard and my luck will turn eventually. I’m not sitting here feeling sorry for myself and no one else is. I’ll just keep working hard and it will turn for me.”

The Suns are bottom of the ladder and have not recorded a win since April. But Hanley says morale is not suffering despite the problems.

He recently reached the milestone of 150 matches in the AFL, only the fifth Irishman to do it after Sean Wight, Jim Stynes, Tadhg Kennelly and Zach Tuohy.

“I’m in some good company there.

There’s obviously been a lot of talent come through the ranks in terms of Irish players and there’s a lot more to come. There’s a few boys lining it up like Conor McKenna. He’s stealing the show at the moment but there’s been some great players. I’m happy for my name to be in amongst them.”

AFL: Colin O’Riordan

Swans extend contract for young Tipperary star SYDNEY Swans Irish defender Colin O’Riordan has been given a major vote of confidence by his club after accepting a two-year contract extension.

The new deal will see him remain in red and white until the end of 2021.

Originally from Tipperary, O’Riordan joined the Swans as an international rookie in 2015, following in the footsteps of Kerrymen Tadhg Kennelly and Tommy Walsh.

A star Gaelic footballer and hurler as a teenager, O’Riordan captained Tipperary to the Munster U21 football title in 2015 before deciding to try his luck at Aussie Rules.

He earned NEAFL Team of the Year honours in his first season on Sydney’s list in 2016. Then, in Round 17, 2018,

O’Riordan’s hard work and thriving NEAFL form were rewarded when he was called up for his AFL debut in a six-point win against North Melbourne. He also captained the Swans NEAFL side in the grand final loss to Southport last year.

After breaking back into the senior team in Round 8 this year, the 23-yearold has not looked back, playing ten games in a row. He also scored his first AFL goal against Essendon.

Swans Head of Football Charlie Gardiner said: “Colin’s such a driven and competitive person who works incredibly hard to improve each year.

He’s gone to another level again this year and has emerged to become an important member of the team.”

irishecho.com.au

August, 2019 | 31

SPORT

Golf :: British Open :: Royal Portrush, Co Antrim

New champ sets sights on Ryder Cup PHIL CASEY

Huge crowds welcomed Shane Lowry back to his hometown of Clara, Co Offaly.

CLARA EMBRACES ITS WORLD BEATER CATE MCCURRY

SHANE Lowry said the feeling of winning The Open “hasn’t sunk in yet” as he was welcomed home to Offaly.

The British Open champion told the huge crowd that gathered in his home town of Clara that it was an “incredible” experience to see his family at the 18th hole.

Thousands of people packed the small town for his homecoming to celebrate the local hero’s major triumph at The Open. Lowry was surrounded by his family, including his wife Wendy and grandmother Emmy Scanlon, as he arrived by bus holding the Claret Jug. The town was decked in the Clara

Gaelic Football colours of black and white with bunting and flags hanging from lampposts. Posters of Lowry’s victory at Royal Portrush were proudly displayed in the windows of every home, shop, cafe and pub.

The town was brought to a standstill as barriers prevented traffic from passing through to allow local fans to welcome their hero home.

Lowry hugged his 82-year-old grandmother before they slowly made their way to the stage walking behind Clara Town Band.

People from across Ireland and of all ages gathered in “The Green” in the blazing sunshine to see the 32-year-old golf star.

He told the crowd: “It was an emo-

tional day - walking up to the 18th and seeing my family and seeing how happy people are, it’s an incredible day.

To see this this evening is incredible.

Hopefully in years to come, there’s loads of kids out here, hopefully I’ll inspire them to take up the game.”

Paying tribute to his dad Brendan, who was an All Ireland winning footballer with Offaly, and mum Bridget, he said: “I wouldn’t be here without them, they sacrificed a lot for me to be here.

“To be able to hand them the Claret Jug on the 18th green, I never thought I would be doing it. I’ve played in loads of huge events and I’ve won a couple of decent ones, but to win The Open in Portrush was unreal.”

OPEN champion Shane Lowry is targeting a Ryder Cup debut after his dramatic success at Royal Portrush.

Roared on by a sell-out crowd as the Co Antrim course made a memorable success of staging the Open for the first time in 68 years, Lowry cruised to a six-shot win to become the fifth Irish player to lift the Claret Jug after Fred Daly, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy.

The victory lifted Lowry to 17th in the world rankings, equalling his career best, and to 18th in the FedEx Cup standings, boosting his chances of claiming a US$10million bonus by winning the season-long event at the Tour Championship later this month.

Lowry, 32, will then turn his attention to Ryder Cup qualifying as he tries to seal a place on the European team which will attempt to retain the trophy at Whistling Straits next year under Harrington’s captaincy.

“Obviously in the short term I’m going to enjoy this, there’s no doubt about that,” Lowry said. “But in the long term you obviously want to back up your success.

“My big goal remains the same and that is to be on the plane going to Whistling Straits next year. That’s my plan for the next 12 months. Hopefully that involves a couple of wins along the way,” he said.

“I’ve learned my trade on the European Tour, I’m a European Tour member and love playing the Euro-

Lowry in action at Royal Portrush.

pean Tour. I’ll be back in September to start my quest of making the Ryder Cup team next year and that’s my focus the next 12 months.”

The fact that his golfing hero turned good friend Harrington is captain means Lowry is more determined than ever to be part of the biennial contest against the US. Lowry, who turned professional after winning the 2009 Irish Open as a 22-year-old amateur, said: “There’s a lot of people that helped me along the way. Gary Murphy, Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie made sure that I flew with them, stayed in the same hotels, went to dinner with them, played practice rounds with them.

They were great for me. And obviously Paddy and G-Mac (McDowell), they’re two really good friends of mine now. To be able to hang around with someone like Padraig who paved the way for the success of Irish golfers.... I’m just so happy I can add my name to the list of major champions.”

Irish Players In The Majors

Tenth Irish Major win this century PHIL CASEY

SHANE Lowry’s heroics at Royal Portrush gave him access to a very exclusive group of Irish golfers who have won Majors this century.

2010 US OPEN - Graeme McDowell With Dustin Johnson three clear at Pebble Beach after 54 holes it did not look good for McDowell. But Johnson, who had an early triple and double bogey, crashed to an 82 and world number 37 McDowell held his nerve.

2011 US OPEN - Rory McIlroy Two months after a closing 80 when four ahead at the Masters, McIlroy started at Congressional with a 65.

From three in front he went six clear with a 66, then eight ahead with a 68,

setting 36-hole and 54-hole records.

2011 OPEN - Darren Clarke English amateur Tom Lewis and 2003 Sandwich runner-up Thomas Bjorn led after opening with 65s, but at halfway it was Clarke and American Lucas Glover out in front.

A Saturday 69, one of only three sub-70 scores in the wind and rain, left Clarke one ahead and at the 20th attempt he became Open champion.

2012 US PGA - Rory McIlroy Sweden’s Carl Pettersson was the surprise leader after an opening 66 and shared the halfway lead with Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, but McIlroy surged clear with his second 67 of the week in the weather-delayed third round. A closing 66 gave the 23-year-

old a second major title and a second eight-shot winning margin.

2014 OPEN - Rory McIlroy McIlroy led from start to finish at Hoylake, opening with back-to-back rounds of 66 to open up a four-shot lead at halfway. In anticipation of bad weather on Saturday, a two-tee start was used for the first time in championship history and McIlroy who was six shots clear - was giving his post-round press conference when torrential rain began falling. A closing 71 gave McIlroy a two-shot win and third major title.

2014 US PGA - Rory McIlroy Rounds of 66 and 67 at Valhalla gave McIlroy a one-shot lead at halfway and a third-round 67 maintained

his slender advantage over Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger. Torrential rain in the final round forced a lengthy delay and meant a dramatic finale in near-darkness as Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler stood aside on the 18th to allow McIlroy to tee off and make the par required to win by a shot.

2007 OPEN - Padraig Harrington At the 2007 Open Championship, Harrington defeated Sergio García in a four-hole playoff at Carnoustie Golf Links, becoming the first Irishman to win The Open Championship in 60 years, and the first ever from the Republic of Ireland.

2008 OPEN - Royal Birkdale Eight days prior to defending his title, Harrington injured his wrist. But

the Dubliner successfully defended his title, overcoming a two-shot deficit to Greg Norman with a final round 69. He shot a four-under-par 32 on the back nine, which enabled him to pull away from Norman and Ian Poulter. His eagle on the par-5 17th all but sealed the tournament.

2008 USPGA - Oakland Hills Just three weeks after retaining the Open Championship, Harrington won his third major. Although at five over par after two rounds, he shot eight under par for the weekend, carding successive scores of 66 in the third and fourth rounds. His three under par 277 saw him become the first Irishman to win the USPGA and the first European to win it since 1940.

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Sport

Jake Morris celebrates during Tipperary’s All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi Final win over Wexford at Croke Park.

Picture:Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Gaelic Games Wrap :: Hurling finalists decided, Dublin footballers stay on track

TIPP, CATS FOR DECIDER DAVID HENNESSY

KILKENNY and Tipperary will renew the fiercest rivalry in hurling in this year’s All-Ireland Championship senior final.

The resurgent Cats and the Premier County will meet for the Liam MacCarthy for the fifth time this decade and for the first time since 2016. Earlier on in the championship, Westmeath were shooting practice for Cork who came out 1-40 to -20 winners in Mullingar in their preliminary quarter-final. Eddie Brennan’s Laois pulled off the biggest shock of the championship when they beat Dublin who had toppled last year’s All-Ireland finalists, Galway.

TJ Reid then inspired Kilkenny to overpower Cork in a powerful second half for the Cats.

Brian Cody’s team had trailed by two points at half-time but the Rebels were no match for them in the second period.

Laois’ fairytale was ended by a Tipperary team who never looked back after Seamus Callinan dispatched their second goal.

Kilkenny did just enough to make sure of their place in their first All-Ireland since final since 2016, beating champions Limerick by a solitary point. Limerick had battled back twice including when Colin Fennelly put them nine points down after 14 minutes.

In the football, Dublin continue to stream through the Super 8s with maximum points from their first two games. First they would dispatch Cork thanks to a late barrage of goals

that flattered the four-in-a-row champs in their 5-18 to 1-17 win. However, it was all one-way traffic when Dublin met Connacht champions Roscommon. Tyrone have also come through with maximum points to set up a crunch clash with the team that beat them in last year’s final.

First, Mickey Harte’s team proved too strong for Roscommon by 0-17 to 0-13 at Dr. Hyde Park. Then a storming second half performance against Cork saw them come back from two first half goals to come out 2-15 to 2-12 winners.

In the other group, Kerry and Donegal have emerged as the inseparable leading forces.

Patrick Mc Brearty scored 1-6 as Donegal overcame a persistent Meath team by 2-19 to 1-13 at MacCumhaill Park. Meanwhile Kerry devastated Mayo to show they are serious All-Ireland contenders with Sean O’Shea and David Clifford doing most of the damage as they came out 1-22 to 0-15 winnners at Fitzgerald Stadium.

The crunch clash of the group ended in stalemate with a last-gasp Michael Murphy point rescuing a point for Donegal after Paul Murphy’s point looked to have handed a win to the Kingdom. In the other tie of the round, Meath showed glimpses of greatness but Mayo’s experience took them to a 2-17 to 0-14 win.

All Ireland Hurling Final

Kilkenny v Tipperary Sunday, August 18

Paddy Small of Dublin barges past Conor Hussey of Roscommon during the GAA Football All-Ireland Super 8 match at Croke Park in Dublin. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile