Claddagh Report CLADDAGH SENIORS The Claddagh Seniors group started the New Year with a lovely film in January. They watched ‘Summerland’ in the comfort of their own dedicated cinema at Innaloo and found it joyous and uplifting. Their February event, lunch and bingo at the Greenwood Tavern, was very popular. All tickets sold almost as soon as the bookings opened and the Seniors Subcommittee organised a second lunch date the following week for those who had missed out. The Seniors group welcomed local politician Jessica Stojkovski to their first lunch in February. Patricia Bratton presented Jessica with a copy of the publication from the Claddagh Oral History Project, From Home to Home: Oral Histories of Irish Seniors in Western Australia. Jessica was delighted and is looking forward to reading these important stories from the Irish Community.
Clockwise from top: Claddagh seniors at the cinema. Claddagh Seniors enjoying lunch at the Greenwood Hotel. Joe Carroll singing for the Claddagh seniors at the Greenwood Tavern. Jess Stojkovski and Patricia Bratton.
If you would like to join the Claddagh Seniors in celebrating St Patrick’s Day or know a senior from the Irish community who would like to attend the group’s events you can register by calling Patricia Bratton of the Seniors Subcommittee on 0417 099 801 / 08 9345 3530 or by contacting Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org.au / 08 9249 9213.
CLADDAGH APPLYING TO EXPAND ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Claddagh’s oral history project in 2020 gave a unique insight into the wide variety of migration journeys undertaken by a group of eleven Seniors from the Irish community in WA. The interviews we gathered highlighted the reasons emigrants left Ireland, the close bonds they still have with Ireland and Irish culture, the contributions Irish migrants 64 | THE IRISH SCENE
make to Australia and the complex identity of Irish Australians. The oral history project was also a wonderful way to build connections and community. The Seniors generously welcomed the Claddagh volunteer interviewers into their homes and opened the story of their lives to them. The Seniors interview recordings and the interview excerpts we published in our oral history book, From Home to Home: Oral Histories of Irish Seniors in Western Australia mean that these Seniors stories are also available to the entire Irish community wherever they are in the world. If you’d like to read them the book is available free of charge via Claddagh’s website at: claddagh.org.au/claddagh-oral-history-project/ We’ve had great feedback about the oral history project and book. So many people have enjoyed reading the stories. Readers often commented that their own migration experiences were similar regardless of whether they came to Australia in the
