November 7 – 20, 2013
Volume 26 – Number 24
AUS $3.95 (incl GST) NZ $4.95 (incl GST)
mickey harte
federal politics
irish soccer job
interview :: Time out
page 9
page 37
Tyrone Boss On Life’s Triumphs And Tragedies
Former Sydney Rose Gets Labor Senate Berth
Fans Dare To Dream Over O’Neill Era
one direction star charms melbourne locals as he stops by for a drink
AFL/GAA rules
Niall wraps up Aussie tour with a quiet pint Code ‘still has life left in it’
confident: Liam O’Neill. Billy Cantwell
WA Belfast woman speaks out on ‘child kidnapping on a grand scale’
Childhood stolen by abuse
Andrea McCullagh
A BELFAST woman has spoken out about the abuse she suffered as a child migrant to Australia. At just five, Ann McVeigh was sent to Australia on her own. She has no memory of the long trip in 1950 as her way of coping was to “blank it all out”. Her earliest recollection is of being in St Joseph’s Orphanage in Perth, where she suf fered physical and mental abuse at the hands of the nuns. “They were cr uel mentally and physically. It was kind of the way they did things in those days,” she told the Irish Echo. “Because they had so many kids there they had to show who was boss. It was their way of controlling you and putting the fear of God into you at the same time. “You saw a lot of abuse. If you weren’t getting abuse you saw your pals getting abuse. It reminded me of a modern-day Oliver Twist.” But Ann had a family who wanted her in Belfast. Her mother placed her in Nazareth House with the intention of coming to collect her when she had her life in order. And one day when she
turned up to collect her daughter, she discovered Ann was gone. “She used to come quite regular and paid for my keep there. It wasn’t as if I was just dumped. She was paying them to look after me,” she said. “When she came when I was five to take me back, I was not there. She was never told that I was going to be sent away.” Ann, 68, was one of about 110 children from Northern Ireland who were sent to Australia in the 1940s and ’50s. A team from the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry recently travelled to Australia to speak to people who were involved. Ann, who still lives in Perth, decided to give her story in Belfast when she was back for a niece’s wedding in August and was the first Australian to be interviewed by the inquiry. She feels it was extremely important to tell her story as it is part of history. And she describes what happened to her and the other children as “child kidnapping on a grand scale”. Ann spent 10 years at the orphanage and the nuns changed her name, something she says happened to many of the girls in an attempt to stop their
ORDEAL: Ann McVeigh.
families from coming to get them. When she was 15, the nuns began to send her out to work on farms. Her first experience was good and she says she was lucky to be placed with a nice family. Her second experience she describes as “shocking” and after her third experience she locked herself in a bathroom and refused to be returned to St Joseph’s. “I wouldn’t get out until they assured me I wasn’t going back to St Joe’s,” she said. “They put me in a juvenile detention centre.”
It was only when she had her own son Danny Michael that Ann became angry about her treatment. She realised what he was missing out on because she did not have the backup of an extended family. And then she realised she had missed out on all those things as well. Ann was reunited with her mother in 1967 and she has developed a strong relationship with her siblings and her nieces and nephews in Ireland. “I wrote to my family when I was 17. Because I was still under the care of the welfare department I wasn’t allowed to go back and meet up with them until I turned 21,” she said. “From 18 to 21 we corresponded. Letters back and forth, to and fro. In the end a couple of my sisters and brothers wrote as well. “We sort of knew each other by letters, not in person.” In the late ’80s, Ann and a friend set up an organisation to help bring institutional abuse into the open. She is now a participant in the Tuart Place initiative in Perth, which is a support organisation for people who were in care during childhood.
See Page 40-41
www.irishecho.com.au | Postal Address: PO Box 256, Balmain NSW 2041 Australia | Phone: 1300 555 995 | Email (Editorial): newsdesk@irishecho.com.au | Email (Administration): mail@irishecho.com.au
Print Post No 100007285
STAR SIGHTING: Niall Horan from One Direction popped into The Snug in Brunswick, Melbourne, last week with a few mates. The Mullingar man had a bite and a few pints, according to Irish host Kim Lynch (pictured). “He’s a very nice and pleasant lad,” Ms Lynch told the Echo. One Direction played to hundreds of thousands of fans during their Aussie tour, which wrapped up on October 30.
The embattled International Rules concept looks like it has at least one more year to run. Many commentators wrote off the hybrid code after last month’s disappointing series, but both the GAA and the AFL have recommitted to the controversial code albeit with some caveats. An Irish squad is scheduled to travel to Australia for a two-game series next October or November. GAA president Liam O’Neill met high-ranking AFL officials in Dublin after the one-sided second Test. He told the Irish Independent he was confident the 2014 series would still go ahead but the AFL would need to field a more competitive team. “Obviously, certain things have to happen. But we had a very constructive meeting with the AFL about the future last week and we’ve left it with them. They will go back and speak with their players and clubs about what was discussed and they will come back to us with a response,” he said. “But I would be confident it is here to stay.” The AFL’s deputy CEO, Gillon McLachlan, corroborated the GAA chief’s remarks. Asked specifically about the future of the concept, Mr McLachlan said: “It was very disappointing what happened in Ireland. If we are going to do the IRS, it has to be with the very best players.” Mr McLachlan said discussions with the GAA had included the possibility of “changing the rules a little bit, so the big guys become more relevant in the game”. But he stressed it must be as close as possible to the All-Australian team taking the field. “The International Rules Series will not continue unless it’s the best players playing,” he said.