Free Spirits and Fugitive Folk

BY LLOYD GORMAN

FENIAN FEVER WILL RUN RIOT AT THE START OF THE PERTH FESTIVAL IN FEBRUARY – AND THERE IS AN OPEN INVITATION TO JOIN IN THE FRANTIC FUN!

“The opening event ‘Escape’ is a massive, madcap, free, multi-site family adventure through the streets of Fremantle, inspired by the Catalpa convict escape,” David Templeman, Minister for Culture and the Arts told state parliament in late November. Around the same time, Perth festival artistic director Ian Grandage expanded a little on 6PR. “We open dockside in Fremantle with Escape, a massive free event that tells stories of arrivals and departures across the waves and of one of the greatest escapes of all – the Fenian convicts on the ship Catalpa,” Mr Grandage said. “Music, projections and a vast array of performers are sown into a glorious anarchic carnival by the team who brought you Home and Boorna Waanginy. It is part of our remit in putting on a festival for many people that we put on this large free event (opening or closing event) Highway to hell, Home, or the Giants, they are some things the Festival is well known for and it is beautiful to be able to celebrate it again in 2022.” The Perth Festival is almost 70 years old now and still going strong, and last year was one of the few events of its kind in the world that was able to be staged. Due to start on February 11 – just days after WA’s hard border is due to come down on February 5 – and run until March 6, the resilience of the festival could be put to the test but organisers will no doubt have made every preparation possible to help make it a success. The official programme describes Escape as celebrating the ocean and diverse voyages, cultures and experiences that help define Western Australia. “From the Noongar stories that enter from the western horizon to the waves of subsequent migration, from sail to steam, from convicts to Irish revolutionaries, from the flowering of Mediterranean cultures to the contributions of the African diaspora, to the greatest escape of them all – the Catalpa rescue. Escape is a feast for the eyes, ears and heart. Be part of this free, action-packed experience built by the extraordinary team that brought you Boorna Waanginy.” Further details about Escape are due to be announced on January 27, too late for this edition of Irish Scene. But we did hear whispers about a huge ceilidh (group Irish dance) being staged, in which large numbers of people will be able to take part and have a crack! Bathers Beach and Kidogo Arthouse too will no doubt feature large. The scale of the festivities sound impressive and it will be quite a sight to see throngs of people – who for many this will be their first encounter

with the escapade – willingly throw themselves into some kind of Hurley-burley historical re-enactment of a remarkable event in Australian, Irish and even American history. The story of the Fenians in WA is worth telling and sharing, and indeed there are several dedicated individuals and groups committed to doing just that. Indeed, not so long ago on December 9 the Fenians Fremantle & Freedom group held its annual walking tour, this year called ‘The Daring Escape of the Fremantle Fenians’. Tour guides Joy and Mike Lefroy’s knowledge of the subject in hand is world class. (Amongst the many books and titles they have written is a beautifully illustrated book called The Catalpa Escape, which you can pick up in the gift shop of Fremantle Prison where the Irish political prisoners were incarcerated). At the end of the tour it was back to The Norfolk Hotel for a few drinks and more conversation about the Irish fugitives. Another local institution has paid homage to the incredible story of their escape. Named after the last transport ship to carry prisoners to Australia – including 62 Fenian prisoners and the six in question who dared to get away – the Hougoumont Hotel in Bannister Street is also home to the amazing “Escape Artist” mural created by Australian artist Fintan Magee. Occupying more than 4,000 square feet of wall space the giant picture pays tribute to Fremantle’s rich past, its history as a port city and seafarers. “This work is dedicated to six Irish Fenian Prisoners who escaped from the British penal colony of Western Australia,” Magee said about the artwork on the hotel’s website. “The prisoners were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish independence movement who were transported to Australia between 1865-1867. On the 17th of April 1876 six Fenians escaped onboard the Catalpa, a whaling ship that had been organised as an escape boat by fellow Fenian John Boyle O’Reilly, the prisoners were able to escape to the United States and lived the rest of their lives as free men. The work depicts six flying Geese symbolising each prisoner that escaped. This references the name of the handwritten newspaper the prisoners created on their journey to Australia. Irish Fenian rebels often referred to themselves as ‘flying geese’ as it was the name of the Irish Jacobite army that escaped Ireland after the British Victory over the country. The ‘Wild Geese’ continued the fight against the British as units in French Armies. The work also references Irish cultural notions of life/ death and new beginnings, in Irish mythology Tir

A fun and anarchic choose-your-own-adventure.

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Image: Rob Dose A PERTH FESTIVAL COMMISSION

ESCAPE

Celebrate the opening of Perth Festival 2022 in immersive and unforgettable style.

Over two magical nights the quays, docks, warehouses and beachfront of Fremantle will undergo an extraordinary transformation. Music, stunning light installations, mass community participation, performance, food, dance, ceremony and mayhem fuse into a joyous affirmation of belonging.

Escape celebrates the ocean and the diverse voyages, cultures and experiences that define us here in Western Australia. From the Noongar stories that enter from the western horizon to the waves of subsequent migration, from sail to steam, from convicts to Irish revolutionaries, from the flowering of Mediterranean cultures to the contributions of the African diaspora, to the greatest escape of them all – the Catalpa rescue. Escape is a feast for the eyes, ears and heart.

Be part of this free, action-packed experience built by the extraordinary team that brought you Boorna Waanginy. WALYALUP / FREMANTLE VARIOUS

M T W T F S S FEBRUARY 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 MARCH

1 2 3 4 5 6

Fri & Sat from 7.30pm FREE

Start your adventure at Victoria Quay

Please register for access services. See p82 for details.

Visit perthfestival.com.au from Thu 27 Jan 2022 for all the details of how you can be part of the action.

Supported by Statewide Staging Systems

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Opposite: This fabulous mural, titled ‘Escape Artist’ by Sydney-based artist and muralist Fintan Magee, is dedicated to six Irish Fenian Prisoners who escaped from Western Australia in 1876. It also pays homage to Fremantle’s rich past and the port’s history and the concept of new beginnings. The work depicts a man floating

in the ocean and six flying geese. Photo source: reddit.com/user/AjdeJednuRakiju/ Above: The free, action-packed experience in Fremantle entitled ‘Escape’ celebrates the ocean and the diverse voyages, cultures and experiences that define us here in Western Australia, including the greatest escape of them all – the Catalpa rescue. (Image: Perth Festival brochure)

na n'Og is a mythical land across the sea, there are stories of gods and humans turning into birds to travel there. This references the afterlife for the Irish and also explores the concept of new beginnings in foreign lands. Something that relates to the experiences and stories of all people who have migrated to Australia to build new lives.”

THE CRIES OF DREAMERS

The incredible saga of Irish patriot John Boyle O’Reilly and his daring escape from the Swan Colony in January 1869 followed seven years later by his promise to help free six Fenian comrades is almost legendary within Western Australia, but has been “almost criminally ignored in his native Ireland” as one commentator put it. When the late Galway born singer songwriter Seán Tyrrell was introduced to the O’Reilly story, he was astonished by the adventures and achievements of this figure he had never heard about and made a conscious decision to celebrate and share it through his music. Tyrrell began his musical career in America – where he formed the band Apples in Winter in 1975 – but moved back to Ireland (the Burren in Co. Clare) in 1978 where he worked in NUI Galway (UCG) and collaborated with uilleann piper Davy Spillane on tow of his albums. In 1992 his ‘opera’ of Irish music set to Brian Merriman’s epic 18th century poem ‘Cúirt an Mheán Oíche’ (The Midnight Court) staged by Druid Theatre for the Galway Arts Festival was a critical and commercial success for Tyrrell and established him on the Irish music scene. His next project – his acclaimed debut album which was named folk album of the year – was Cry of a Dreamer, which centred around three poems written by O’Reilly (including one from which the album drew its name) to which he set music. [A live version of Cry of a Dreamer performed by Sean and Aine Tyrrell also made the cut to be included on the stand out 2018 album ‘Exile: Songs and Tales of Irish Australia’. “He was the most amazing man, the most amazing human,” Tyrrell told The Journal of Music in an interview. “When I first found the ‘Message Of Peace’ I thought it was the most unbelievable piece, particularly when you think when it was written. I was up at the launching of the John Boyle O’Reilly summer school in Drogheda this year, so finally they’re going to honour the man. “Anyway there’s this story going around that when John F. Kennedy was here in Ireland he quoted John Boyle O’Reilly in many of his speeches. I’d say ninetynine per cent of the people didn’t know who he was. But I have to say that I was the same ‘cause I played in a club in Massachusetts, in Springfield, called the John Boyle O’Reilly and I hadn’t clue who this John Boyle O’Reilly was. I used to do this regular afternoon gig in Galway and this friend of mine from Mayo used to come into it and he was the first person I’d met who had ever heard of him. We swapped books. I gave him A Thousand Years Of Irish Poetry and he gave me a loan of The Complete Prose, Speeches and Poetry of John Boyle O’Reilly. There was a whole thing on his life in that. And besides being a brilliant writer, he was an amazing character. And I fell in love with his stuff. I just wonder sometimes why we’re not more aware of men of his calibre. I think his life would make an absolutely brilliant film. I’d love to get somebody interested in it.” Amongst his other solo records, Tyrrell recorded Message of Peace in 2009, another album inspired by O’Reilly. Tyrrell died at home in Co. Clare in early November 2021, 78. President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins was one of many to pay his respects to an old friend and recognise him as “one of our finest, most talented, original and creative troubadours”. “Seán Tyrrell will be remembered too for works such as Message of Peace, his work on the life of John Boyle O’Reilly, his collaboration with a number of international artists on Songs of Peace to

Left: The six Irish Fenians who escaped on the Catalpa. Right: Irish singer songwriter Seán Tyrrell, by Kevin Byrne

commemorate the life and work of Francis Ledwidge, and his landmark album The Orchard amongst his many contributions to the world of folk music,” President Higgins said. “Seán and I walked into UCG on the same day in Autumn 1962 and through the years to have had his friendship, as so many know, was a great gift”. Frank Murphy paid his own tribute to Tyrrell and his music on his Saturday morning show Celtic Rambles on Radio Fremantle when news of his death came through. “I had the privilege of knowing Sean Tyrrell and getting to know him over a few occasions,” said Frank. “Not least the first time he and Aine came to Kidogo Arthouse and there was the most amazing weather outside. The rain came on the roof and the sea started lashing outside just at the time he was talking about the journey on the Catalpa, it was amazing.” The radio host remembered an evening of music to O’Reilly they took part in some years ago in a hotel in Busselton. “I can’t help reflect on the fact that Brendan Woods [a musician and singer originally from Dublin who also died last year] and Seán Tyrrell, both coming from different angles and different perspective, but with the exact same passion.” That passion for the Fenian story and its significance to WA and Irish history was also shared by the late Liam Barry and Ormonde Waters through the books and events they produced. Today that torch is carried by the likes of Peter Murphy, Sharon Barba and others from the John Boyle O’Reilly Association, as well as the hardworking Fenians Fremantle & Freedom committee members and hopefully in our own little Irish Scene magazine.

PERTH MP HAS FENIAN BLOOD

At least one member of state parliament can claim ‘Fenian’ roots. During debate about (Persons Linked to Terrorism) Bill 2021, Christine Tonkin, the local member for Churchlands, was able to pluck some interesting ancestors from her family tree during a debate in the Legislative Assembly last October. “The notion of terrorism is that it is related to extremist ideology, but that is something that may or may not be in the eye of the beholder,” Ms Tonkin – who has lived and worked in Ireland* – said. “One person’s extremism is another one’s justifiable perspective. What would be regarded as extremist at one time or in a particular context may be regarded as mainstream at another time or in another context. “One of my other ancestors, my great-grandfather, was a Fenian. His name was Patrick Thomas Brady and, as a young man, he migrated from Ireland to South Australia in the 1880s. He came from a family of “hedge teachers”, who were regarded as the types to incite lawlessness and profligate adventure. These teachers often taught children in the open, sometimes beside hedgerows. This informal system of education of Catholic and Presbyterian children was necessary because of the impediments to their formal education imposed by the British. “Patrick therefore grew up in a subversive Christine Tonkin culture and his Fenian ideology would have been regarded as extremist in Ireland by the British and likely in South Australia, too. I do not know whether he ever acted on his Fenian beliefs against the British. All I know is that Patrick and his siblings left County Cavan for the United States or Australia.” The Labor MP also revealed another family secret – a convict ancestor. “I have a visceral reaction to the notion of locking someone up and throwing away the key. I dare say that this ingrained attitude may be genetic. My earliest ancestor to call Australia home was my great-great-grandfather Henry Mottram, who was transported to Western Australia as a convict in 1851. Henry was 26 years old when he arrived here, having been convicted in 1849. Henry Mottram’s crime was serious: highway robbery with violence. However, he went on to live a productive life and to raise a family here in Western Australia. His life is evidence of the reality of rehabilitation.”

*In her maiden speech to Parliament on May 5, 2021 Ms Tonkin said for the past 20 years she has been working internationally in the area of public procurement. “Having based myself in Brussels while undertaking research, I was offered a

secondment from the Queensland government to the Department of Finance in the Republic of Ireland. For a year I worked with 11 civil servants who had little or no background in procurement, helping them develop their capabilities in modern procurement management and practices. From Ireland, I was recruited by the United Nations Development Programme, where I held a directorlevel post for three and a half years. While based in Copenhagen, my work supporting UNDP offices took me all over the world.”

ESCAPE IS A STATE OF MIND!

Secret state papers of the Irish government – declassified in late December after a 30 year confidentiality gag was lifted – revealed details of a highly unusual approach in an attempt to break out of one of Northern Ireland’s most hated prisons. The Maze Prison outside Belfast was used to intern paramilitary prisoners during ‘The Troubles’, starting from 1971 when the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army carried out a large number of raids and arrested hundreds of suspected IRA members. The prison would exercise an enormous influence over the situation in Northern Ireland. In September 1983 it saw the biggest breakout of prisoners from a British prison. Thirty eight prisoners stole a prison meals truck and used it to smash their way out. Several prison guards were stabbed or hurt by the prisoners, including one who died from a heart attack. Half of the escapees were soon rounded up but the other 19 were never tracked down. Then in March 1997 – during the Peace Process – a 40ft (12m) tunnel from one of the H-block buildings was discovered just 80ft (24m) short of the perimeter. Authorities believed they had foiled an escape attempt, but a letter dated April 16, 1997 showed the opposite was true. An official from the Anglo Irish secretariat in Belfast disclosed a conversation he had with Breidge Gadd of the Northern Ireland Probation Board, to a high ranking civil servant in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. “Ms Gadd believes, from recent contacts with inmates, that the work on this tunnel did not constitute a serious escape bid,” the letter stated. “Her understanding is that the work was approved by the republican leadership in the Maze but that the latter, for various reasons, had no intention of allowing it to be completed.” Senior IRA prison leaders who supported the Peace Process were worried “hard-line republican prisoners” who were determined to keep fighting, could get out derail the fragile peace talks. Instead, the tunnel served another function. “The project would have had value as a form of occupational therapy to keep prisoners occupied and away from drugs,” the previously confidential letter said. “However, the republican command structure would have been aware that, had the escape succeeded, the prisoners concerned would in all likelihood have been rearrested not long afterwards and would have found themselves back in prison paying a stiff penalty in the form of an additional tariff and at a time when, conceivably, a renewed ceasefire might be letting many of their colleagues out.” ☘

Top: The Maze Prison with its distinctive H Blocks, in 2002. Credit: Alamy/Irish Eye Above: An RUC archive photo of the entry point for the tunnel to nowhere