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2020 • vol 22 ISSUE THREE
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Page Index
baggage (unaccompanied) & FREIGHT AI Express.............................................9243 0808 Exportair................................................ 9477 1080 Just Move.....................................+353 1 8017550
Stephen Dawson...................................9172 2648
AMA........................................................9447 2226 ASC Migration......................................9301 5905 EasiVisa..................................................9429 8860 Visa4You .........................................0420 907 109
Solicitors & Legal: Kavanagh Lawyers.............................. 9218 8422 Vibe Legal............................................... 6111 4890 Your Legal HQ.....................................9445 9200
IRISH community groups & INFO: Aust Irish Heritage Assoc................9345 3530 Irish Families in Perth The Claddagh Assoc............................9249 9213 IACC................................................... 1300 513 633
Sport & SportING Clubs: GAA.................................................0458 954 052 Perth Racing Ascot Racing Carnival Irish Golf Club Shamrock Rovers...........................0410 081 386
A Place Apart..............................................14 A Message from the Ambassador of Ireland..............................19 Around the Irish Scene.............................72 Australian Irish Dancing Assoc................74 Claddagh Report........................................56 Crooners & Craic Versus Coronavirus....................................44 EasiVisa........................................................54 Editor’s Letter............................................... 4 Family History WA....................................66 Fight & Flight In Time of Crisis.................40 Flying Doctors & Flights of Mercy..........42 Fortune’s Wheel.........................................64 GAA Junior Academy...............................79 G’Day From Melbourne.............................32 I bPonc le Pól Ó Muirí............................... 76 Irish & The Virus..........................................10 Isteach Sa Teach.........................................26 Masters of Disaster...................................... 5 Matters of Pub-lic Interest!.......................51 Meeja WAtch...............................................12 Minute with Synnott...................................71 Paula from Tasmania.................................77 Romancing The Past..................................69 Shamrock Rovers.......................................78 Slow Time.....................................................60 TB or Not TB!..............................................22 Tara................................................................62 The COVID Chronicles..............................35 The Pull of the Plough and The Stars.....24 The Ultimate Home Run!..........................58 The Year of Nightingales..........................34 Ulster Rambles...........................................30 Water Famine, Pestilence & Service to the Sick.....................................20 Western Australian Irish Famine Memorial..............................70
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Mechanics: Travel & Tourism: Killarney Autos.....................Neil 0439 996 764 British Travel.........................................9433 3288 tyres, batteries, brakes, wheels: Tyrepower Perth City................Fiona 9322 2214
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EDITOR’s LETTER Friday 13th spooked March 17th, but not the Irish spirit! Welcome to this edition of Irish Scene, the issue that almost never was. We had just printed and fully distributed the magazine in early March when things started going askew, quickly. Like many others in the community we were looking forward to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival in Leederville and the craic. The front cover of the March edition (above right) featured a picture of a bright red tractor surrounded by throngs of spectators from last year’s parade. Everything was ready to go for 2020 to be another bumper celebration for the Irish community here in Perth, across the rest of Australia and beyond. The Perth parade was to be held on the morning of March 14, a Saturday. On the Monday of that week there were clouds on the horizon, but far off. With each passing day the threat became more real, more immediate. But even as late as Thursday most people were probably thinking, certainly hoping, it was still a goer. The morning of Friday the 13th shattered any lingering hopes. Listening to talk back radio that morning you could sense the tension and pressure piling on, almost by the minute. PM Scott Morrison announced that all public gatherings and events would be limited to 500 people, in effect from Monday. Strictly speaking then, there was no legal impediment to the Perth parade from going ahead the next day, but with less than 24 hours to go, City of Vincent and the organising committee made the only real choice open to them - to cancel the event which usually attracts tens of thousands of revellers. They must have been gutted, a years worth of hard graft, endless meetings and organisation were thrashed on the eve of the parade. Talk about things going viral. Word of the decision spread through the Irish community instantaneously, everybody seemed to know about it all at once. The bad news was omnipresent. Shortly afterwards word went out that the St. Patrick’s Day mass in St Mary’s Cathedral was off. On the same day, the Irish Chamber of Commerce had a big St Patrick’s Day bash at Crown in Burswood. It went ahead and was a great event but it too was being squeezed by pandemic pressure. In many ways that fateful Friday marked the start of ‘lockdown’ conditions and restrictions that would force many of us to work and stay at home. THE IRISH SCENE | 4
Everybody has been touched by this crisis but for those who have lost a loved one, are suffering trauma or lost their job, this is truly a devastating time. We should look out for each other and offer support where we can. We decided to put out this edition of Irish Scene for various reasons. We were inspired by the many examples of others in the Irish and wider community who found ways to overcome life in isolation to share with others. Many of our advertisers and other businesses are changing the way they operate so that they can reach out to customers. We could not print the magazine as normal, but we could publish it online. We wanted to try and tell as many of their stories as well, to share and show the great spirit that has helped us through this ordeal. We wanted to pay tribute and say thank you to all those - from nurses and shelve stackers to our political leaders - who have gone above and beyond to serve the community. As some of the articles in this issue show, our forebears have weathered similar challenges before, did their best, made sacrifices and endured. And it has been such a momentous time, full of worthwhile stories and reactions that we thought it was worth trying to document some of that experience in a special edition. Hopefully the next issue will be a bit more normal, whatever that means anymore.
LLOYD AND IMELDA GORMAN, EDITORS
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D I S A S T E R BY LLOYD GORMAN Unlike his high profile and distinguishable federal counterpart WA’s chief medical officer would probably be unrecognisable to the vast majority of people in the West. Dr Brendan Murphy is a name - one we will come back to shortly - and a face most Australian’s will know from the many times he has stood beside and spoken at press conferences with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other senior politicians. Dr Andy Robertson does not have the same kind of profile, but his role is exactly the same as Murphy’s. Dr Robertson is the Chief Health Officer at W.A. Department of Health. As such, Dr Roberston is to Premier Mark McGowan what Dr Murphy is to Scott Morrison. The premier has repeatedly said all his decisions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are based on medical and public health advice. A lot of that advice would be coming from the state’s top doc.
What is a sound medical opinion - particularly in a time of crisis when good decisions need to be made quickly - based on? Knowledge and experience no doubt count, things Dr Robertson has in abundance. Before his career in public health Robertson had a very different occupation, having served with the Royal Australian Navy from 1984 until 2003, including completing three tours to Iraq as a Biological Weapons Chief Inspector with the United Nations Special Commission in 1996 and 1997. In October 2003, he took up the position of the Director, Disaster Preparedness and Management in WA Health. Just over 12 months later, he led the Australian Medical Relief team into the Maldives post-tsunami, and managed WA Health’s response to the 2005 Bali Bombing. He also, led the WA Health team into Indonesia after the Yogyakarta earthquakes in June 2006 and worked as the Radiation Health Adviser to the Australian Embassy after the Fukushima nuclear incident in 2011. He has also
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Continued from page 5
coordinated the WA Health responses to Cyclone George, the Varanus Island gas explosion, the Ashmore Reef incident, the public health system aspects of the H1N1 (Swine flu) 2009 pandemic, and the 2011 CHOGM meeting in Perth. In 2015 he was promoted to the position of Commodore and Director-General Health Reserves - Navy. The strong defence Western Australia has been able to mount to date against COVID-19 is no doubt down to a lot of factors and the work of many individuals and agencies, but there would seem to be a safe pair of hands and a cool head at work for the people of Western Australia, perhaps that is an important part of state’s successful management of the infectious disease to date.
Dr Andrew Robertson
Trust me I’m a doctor! There is one thing Dr Roberston is missing for the normal purposes of Irish Scene, a known Irish connection, but given his impressive background and the fact we here in WA are all in his hands, he merits a mention. He is not entirely alone in this regard. “Despite his name, he is neither Catholic nor Irish,” Amber Schultz, said in a Crikey article on April 16 2020 called “The Man behind the eyebrows: just who is Brendan Murphy?” [www.crikey.com. au/2020/04/16/brendan-murphy-profilecoronavirus/]. Schultz, an experienced and award winning reporter, did quite a good job of digging into the background of this now high profile figure and talked with people from his past. She found he was a very private, even shy, but fiercely intelligent man whose background was in hospital administration. As they say in Ireland, he came of good medical stock. His father, Leo John Murphy, was a respected psychiatrist and ground breaking educationalist for deaf children, while his mother Betty De Hugard taught blind students. While his father was a well known figure - he was awarded an Order of Australia for service to community health in 1989 - there is very little public information available about Brendan Murphy. What I have been able to find out is that he has two brothers, Fintan and Liam. If nothing else, the names given to the three boys at least hints at some acknowledgement of Irish heritage. Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer also has a name that would not be out of place in the Irish phone book, Paul
Above: Deputy Chief Medical Officer Intern Liam O’Malley (played by Aussie comedy actor Francis Greenslade) on the comedy news program “Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell”. Top right: Australian CMO Brendan Murphy. Bottom right: Deputy CMO Professor Paul Kelly Kelly. Amongst his extensive medical and professional experience and postings Kelly has some specialist grounding in areas of medicine that are no doubt proving to be useful in dealing with the pandemic. He has been a director of the Masters of Applied Epidemiology Program at the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health at ANU as well as with the Centre for Disease Control in the NT Department of Health and his work has taken him over four continents. Kelly is an expert in infectious disease epidemiology, in particular influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis. The ‘Irishness’ of the names of Australia’s top two doctors was not lost on sketch writers for Shaun Micallef’s comedy news programme Mad as Hell on ABC television. On its March 20 programme Micallef played a short clip of Brendan Murphy being interviewed on Insiders in which he said: “For most people we don’t want to encourage major panic buying at the moment.” This of course left it open to Micallef to suggest that at some point then presumably the government would encourage this kind of behaviour. He turned to his ‘studio guest’ for further comment, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Intern Liam O’Malley (played by Aussie comedy actor Francis Greenslade): “The important thing with the panicking is we don’t want to rush into it,” the mock medic said. “We want all Australians to wait until we can declare a state of national panic so we can have an ordered descent into chaos.” THE IRISH SCENE | 6
Ireland’s Dr WHO COVID-19 has thrust another public health official into the world’s spotlight, and there is no doubting his Irish credentials. You will probably have seen him sit at the right hand of the the Director General of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on their daily press briefings about the pandemic, and often fielding questions from journalists. He is one of the WHO’s top figures - executive director for Health Emergencies Programme - but has been at the forefront of dealing with major risks to global health for nearly 25 years. A native of Curry, on the Sligo/Mayo border, Dr Michael Ryan grew up in Charlestown, Co. Mayo. He trained in medicine as a trauma surgeon at the National University of Ireland in Galway and got a Masters of Public Health from University College Dublin. Some 190 new doctors from Ryan’s alma mater in Galway graduated through a virtual ceremony at the start of April, after the university brought forward their final exams so that they could join the Irish health system and the fight against Coronavirus as soon as possible. In July 1990 Ryan - and his then girlfriend (now wife) Máire Connolly who he met while studying at Galway - went to Iraq to train local doctors. Shortly afterwards Iraq invaded Kuwait and the first Gulf War began. The two Irish medics were forced to work for Saddam Hussein’s regime. A vehicle Ryan was driving there was driven off the road by a military convoy and in the crash several of his vertebrae were crush. They
were allowed to leave the country as a result, but the injury - which ruled out him working again as a surgeon - saw him shift into public health and infectious diseases, including working for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Africa.
Dr Michael Ryan
Dr Ryan first joined WHO in 1996, with its new unit to respond to emerging and epidemic disease threats. He is a founding member of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), which has responded to hundreds of disease outbreaks around the world. He has worked on the ground in dozens of countries - often in conflict zones - fighting every dangerous disease and virus known to man. He has battled Ebola more than once in his career, including an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - the second biggest incident of Ebola spread in history (the largest was in West Africa from 2014-2016) which started in August 2018. Thousands of people - including many medics and health care workers - lost their lives in that crisis but the virus was on the brink of being defeated there in April 2020. The Ryan family returned to Galway to live in 2011 but he returned to WHO in 2017, and now lives and works in Geneva.
Comic relief for Ireland’s top doc! While it is a position that would likely command a lot of esteem within medical circles, the job of Chief Medical Officer is not one that has traditionally attracted celebrity. Indeed, most people were probably unaware the top post even existed until Coronavirus raised its ugly head on the world stage. Despite being in the job for the last 12 years (and seven years before that as deputy), Ireland’s CMO Dr Tony Holohan, like many of his counterparts worldwide, has become something of an ‘overnight’ sensation, at least in the public eye. A recent cartoon of Dr Holohan coming out of an Irish telephone box in Superman pose to fight COVID-19 has proved to be a bit hit generally and even more popular with Mná na hÉireann (women of Ireland). The caricature was commissioned by a woman who said she was a ‘big fan’ of Holohan’s. The artist is Dunboyne, Co. Meath based Niall O’Loughlin who went back to doing caricatures for Mothers Day after his weddings and events business died overnight as a result of COVID-19. Demand for his drawings exceeded his expectations and he has been busy since, including making Continued on page 8
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A caricature of Dr Holohan by Niall O’Loughlin. Credit: Instagram @niall.oloughlin.artist
Above: Dr Holohan (centre) at a Department of Health press conference. Left: Ireland’s CMO Dr Michael McBride. Continued from page 7
prints of his hero image of Holohan for other female customers. Indeed, he might have a superhuman knowledge of medical and health issues - ranging from communicable and rare diseases to smoking and alcohol misuse - but Holohan is as susceptible to sickness as anyone else and maybe that is part of the appeal. Midway through a daily COVID-19 press briefing at the start of April Dr Holohan suddenly took a turn for the worst and had to be whisked away for tests and
treatment. Fortunately it was not coronavirus related and just 48 hours later Holohan was back in the hot seat, leading the fight against the virus. He has been described as “unflappable” and “not likely to panic”, very important qualities in a crisis, particularly when the national death count is in the hundreds and with many thousands more confirmed contaminations. Holohan studied medicine at University College Dublin in 1991 and trained initially in general practice, before specialising in public health medicine and graduating with a Masters in Public Health in 1996. Northern Ireland's CMO is Dr Michael McBride and he has been in that role since 2006, even longer than Holohan. Dr McBride is a product of Queen's University in Belfast and spent his early years in the field trying to find drug treatments for HIV. As well as his CMO duties, McBride is also the CEO of Belfast Health and Social Services Trust and has responsibility for 20,000 employees and an annual budget of £1.3 billion. On April 7, health minister Simon Harris and his Northern Ireland counterpart Robin Swann signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of their respective governments to share the fight against COVID-19 on the island of Ireland. Drs Holohan and McBride also signed the document which will set out greater cooperation in areas such as public health messaging, research and even joint procurement where there is a mutual benefit.
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Irish and the Virus! An Irish-born West Australian was one of the very first people in the state to register as a confirmed case of novel Coronavirus. He reached out to Irish Scene to share his story because he wanted to give hope to others worried about catching it. But the man - an active member of the community - asked to be identified only as Jack, because he has experienced that a certain amount of ‘stigma’ comes with having had COVID-19, which he didn’t expect. “I visited New York in early February as I have family there,” said Jack who is now a long term resident in Perth. “My usual stint as always is to get together with my son, daughter and grandchildren. I had planned a five week visit, as I do every year. I moved to New York when I was sixteen or seventeen so it’s always been home to me. We have always had a romance, myself and New York. So I always feel like I’m leaving someone I love when I leave her. I can almost imagine a tear in Lady Liberties eye. I love every moment of my time there. The pulse, the excitement, the whole melting pot of dreamers making dreams come true. I visit old friends, ex-prize fighters, retired actors, street poets and painters who speak through their paints and brushes, not for fame or fortune but for expression to speak to those who just want to share art and beauty. I catch up with their lives, I love the banter between us, it’s loud, sometimes profane but always friendly because we truly miss each other. This trip was cut short however because of this virus. Places hadn’t quite shut down yet but people were very aware that something was coming. I stayed in Queens and only visited Manhattan twice. I went to the legendary White Horse Tavern where Dylan Thomas ended his days*. Many people were masked and the pandemic hadn’t really hit hard yet. I found myself coughing without any rhyme or reason. I immediately isolated myself in my in-laws furnished basement for fear of spreading what I feared might be the worst. I booked an early plane ticket back to Perth,
travelling business class to keep to myself. I arrived here on February 27th, got tested on the 28th and tested positive on the 29th.” The very next day, Western Australia recorded its first Coronavirus death. Chief Health Officer Dr Andrew Robertson announced that a 78-year-old man died in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in the early hours of the morning from COVID-19-related complications. The man - a prominent figure in the travel sector in Perth and his wife had tested positive to the disease and had been evacuated from the Diamond Cruise Ship and airlifted on February 21 from Darwin to Perth, where he was getting treatment in isolation at ‘Charlies’. By March 5 there were just three confirmed cases in Western Australia, all of which were people who had contracted the illness overseas. On March 10, three COVID clinics opened at three metropolitan Perth hospitals, including ‘Charlies’, and hundreds of people queued up to be tested from day one. Back in Perth, Jack - whose symptoms were a dry cough and fatigue - went into isolation, and the authorities checked to make sure he was doing the right thing. “Police come to the top of the driveway three times a week to check naturally that I am obeying the isolating rules,” Jack said. “But I must say in regards to the police, they always ask how I am and it’s heartfelt. They don’t ask out of duty but concern. I have kept busy around the place as I am restless by nature but eventually the fatigue just takes me out but it is a beautiful thing to finally rest. I know there are people in worse condition than myself so I pray for them and those who experienced lost ones. This is a tough one but nothing we can’t win. Perth is probably one of the most isolated cities in the world, but in these particular circumstances that is a plus. If anything, this whole thing makes me think of how
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fragile life is and how grateful I am to God that I am winning this battle. My heart goes out to those who lost their lives and those who miss them and I only hope that when this is all over through this distance that has been created, all of us are kinder to one another, overlook each others faults and misgivings and learn if anything that we need to socialise more, not through phones or internet but to visit, laugh, love and hold onto each other because that’s what life is truly all about.” *Editors note: For those with an interest, May 14 2020 is the annual International Dylan Thomas Day. It was on this date in 1953 that the Welsh poet first read Under Milk Wood on stage at 92Y The Poetry Centre, New York. Months later Dylan Thomas died in New York. The White Horse Tavern (where Dylan Thomas is pictured, left) is associated with many iconic artists and cultural figures and it was there that the Clancy Brothers got their first break in America.
Infection spike around St. Patrick's Day At least two more Irish people in WA - but possibly more - are known to have caught Coronavirus. The revelation was made on St. Patrick’s Day itself, a Tuesday, at a press conference with Health Minister Roger Cooke. At a lunchtime media briefing in the Department of Health’s office in East Perth, Mr Cooke - who is also deputy premier - confirmed three new cases (bringing the state’s number at that point to 31 with 6582 people testing negative), including one of a man who had travelled from Ireland via Dubai. Mr Cooke said all 31 cases were from overseas travel and there was no evidence of community based transmission of the virus. “That’s a very good position for us to be in,” the minister said. Even while the minister was making those comments, that particular situation may have been changing. According to a report on local news site WAtoday later in the week (on Thursday, 19 March), a Perth healthcare worker who was tested on March 17, appeared to be the state’s first confirmed case of coronavirus being spread in the community. WAtoday reported that a nurse working for Therapy Focus - a not for profit business supporting children with disabilities in Perth’s south-easter suburbs - was diagnosed on Wednesday with the disease. “The nurse is an Irish national, and on Thursday, popular Irish bar JB O’Reilly’s warned patrons a woman who attended the venue at the weekend for St Patrick’s Day celebrations had since tested positive for COVID-19, but it is not yet known if these circumstances are related,” WAtoday reported. “She had not travelled overseas, or been in contact with a known case. “WAtoday understands the woman initially presented for testing at Charles Gairdner Hospital after falling ill on Monday evening, but was turned away despite being eligible for priority testing due to her status as a health worker. “The woman went to Royal Perth Hospital on Tuesday, where she was eventually tested. She returned a positive result on
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Health Minister Roger Cooke at a press conference on St Patrick’s Day, March 17 Wednesday and is self-isolating. “While there were initial concerns the woman contracted the illness from family who had visited from Ireland, it is now thought unlikely. “The family stayed in Australia for two weeks until March 2, and the woman only developed symptoms a fortnight after they had left. “Health authorities are carrying out urgent traces on her recent contacts,” the article added. A few days later another confirmed case was linked back to Ireland. At another press briefing on March 21, Minister Cooke announced there had been 26 new cases of COVID-19 detected overnight, which brought the state’s tally to 90. Fifteen of the twenty six cases were related to people travelling back to WA from several countries, including Ireland.
Meeja WA WAtch tch BY LLOYD GORMAN
Western Australia, and the rest of the country, are never far from the hearts and minds of many in Ireland, particularly those who have lived and worked here or amongst those still with family still here. Interest in WA in particular is high if this sample of news and feature articles amongst some of Ireland’s traditional print media are anything to go by....
Pandemic rains on this parade! On March 19, The West Australian carried this short article with photograph about the impact of Coronavirus on the cancelled celebrations for St. Patrick's Day. The story is one the newspaper would have picked up from a news agency. The photograph does capture the scene and sense of emptiness and isolation forced onto a city that should be in full festive flow, not lockdown. It doesn't make any difference to the story at all, but there is a small mistake that most Dubs would probably be able to pick up. The article says the street trader "stands in a deserted O'Connell Street". Nearly right but not quite. There are enough clues in the photograph to pin point his exact location. The lone 'sole trader' is actually pictured in Middle Abbey Street, which is just off O'Connell Street and not really worth quibbling about. Just above the tricolour to the top right of his cart is a small Guinness sign. That sign belongs to the Oval Bar, a good old fashioned Dublin pub, which sits at the side of the Eason's on O'Connell Street.
Rebel spirit channelled for Coronavirus clampdown If the 24 hour news cycle wasn’t already in place, the media concept would have had to be introduced as a result of the pandemic. The early weeks of the outbreak particularly saw the government, media and everyone else scramble to try and come to terms with what was happening. It was a real case of ‘rí rá agus ruaille buaille’ (chaos and confusion). So much happened so quickly and things changed so much that it was hard to keep up with the unfolding crisis. Announcements and developments that would under other circumstances would be major news stories in their own right came thick and fast only only to be replaced quickly by a new wave of rolling updates. It was a blitzkrieg of sorts. The media had the important job of trying to communicate all this information to the public, quickly and accurately. In all the coverage and reporting in the media one there is one headline that we think stands out head and shoulders above anything else. Tabloids newspapers are renowned for catchy headlines and punchy stories but in this case some clever sub-editor at the Irish Daily Star excelled at their craft. On April 8, the Dublin based paper reported to a country already under siege that the lockdown had been extended, which meant Irish people would be forced to stay at home for even longer. The headline ‘Go out your back and tan’ summed it up brilliantly and may well be one of the outstanding headlines ever in an Irish newspaper. Anyone Irish will understand and appreciate the double meaning of the headline but a quick explanation for those without an Irish background might be useful. The inspired headline is a play on the famous Irish rebel song ‘Come out ye Black and Tans’. If you don’t know who the Black and Tans were, google them. In any case it exemplifies how with just a few words a headline can really lift a story and capture a moment in history.
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Irish Scene intends to make a physical impression into the future On St. Patrick’s Day and amongst the deluge of COVID-19 related developments, the Irish Echo in Sydney made a significant announcement of its own. “After 31 years in print, the decision has been made to transition completely to digital,” the title announced on its website on March 17. “The development means that there will be no more print editions of the Irish Echo. Notwithstanding the broader challenges of the media industry and the particular difficulties associated with the coronavirus pandemic, we have made the decision to become a digital-only media outlet with immediate effect,” it went on to add. “This decision has been made in a bid to secure our future so we can continue to be a media voice for the Irish community in Australia.” The Irish Echo newspaper used to come out every two weeks, but some time ago became a monthly publication. It used to be available in Perth from some newsagents (where you would have to pay for it) and from Irish pubs (where it was free). Now it is a digital-only publication, a change it says was driven by demand from readers and advertisers. The Echo is not unique in going down this path, other newspapers and publications - such as Tinteán in Australia - have taken the same road in recent times or even several years ago. Unfortunately some have folded entirely, pushed over the edge by the coronavirus crisis and other factors. As the new owners of Irish Scene, Lloyd and Imelda Gorman wrote to Billy Cantwell, founding publisher of the Irish Echo, late last year to introduce
themselves and wish the Echo continued success. The Irish in Australia were better served by having a diversity and choice of publications to be a voice for the community, we said at the time. Irish Scene still holds that view but now finds itself as the last man standing as a dedicated print title for the wider Irish community [I say this fully recognising the good work of the Australia Irish Heritage Association in Perth who continue to publish The Journal, which is a great read but generally only available to its members and subscribers]. So while this edition (May/June) of Irish Scene is only published online as a result of the virus and its impact on the country and economy, this is only a fallback position. Irish Scene has been around for 21 years and has never missed an issue. We weren’t going to start now. Our aim is to get your favourite cultural and entertainment magazine back into print as soon as possible on the other side of this crisis. Indeed, we will be looking at how Irish Scene can reach further and deeper into the Irish community across Australia. Watch this space!
Ramble away boys, ramble away! In terms of keeping the show on the road in these crazy times, Meeja Watch would like to make special mention of Frank Murphy and Gerry Gannon. Frank and Gerry are the team behind Celtic Rambles on Radio Fremantle. Every Saturday morning starting at 8am they produce their live show which includes plenty of guests, cohosts, music and just about anything else you can fit into a studio and broadcast down a microphone. At the best of times it is a massive and time consuming undertaking to plan and put the show on. Frank - a former RTE man - has some health issues which he has mentioned on air but he keeps doing what he loves, with Gerry at his right hand. Even when in the early - and scary - stages of the pandemic outbreak when events like the St. Patrick’s Day parade and mass were cancelled at short notice, Frank and Gerry kept doing Celtic Rambles. Radio, as they proved, is a great way to stay informed but also to entertained. It was - and still is - a time for all of us to be our best and these two certainly did theirs. Thank you gentlemen!
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A place apart BY LLOYD GORMAN Woodman Point in Coogee, about five miles south of Fremantle, has a long history of dealing with pandemics and contagions. It was built as a quarantine station at the waterside Munster location in 1886 to isolate people with or at risk of diseases such as leprosy, bubonic plaque smallpox. It was used to help contain the spread of the Spanish Flu towards the end of World War I, and for some time afterwards. From about mid 1918, returning servicemen and women from the war were held at the centre for a full seven days before they were able to go back into the wider community.
An isolated incident? Western Australia’s only Irish-born holder of a Victoria Cross medal, Martin O’Meara [who single-handedly and at great personal risk brought some twenty five wounded Australian soldiers and officers from no-man’s land on the Western Front to the safety of their own trenches] was one of the many diggers quarantined at Woodman Point. As it happens, O’Meara’s time there coincided with an historic moment in world history and one that also proved to be a tragic turning point in his life. Thanks to the book about O’Meara “The Most Fearless And Gallant Soldier I Have Ever Seen”, by Perth man Ian Loftus, we know that O’Meara left for Australia from Liverpool onboard the troopship Arawa in September 1918. It also shows that while on board the Irishman filled out a registration form with the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, in which he indicated he wanted to return to his job as a railway cutter, or as a farmer, after his discharge from the Australian Imperial Force. “Importantly, the form did not indicate that O’Meara had any health problem,” Loftus writes. On its journey to Australia, the Aruwa sailed off the coast of Africa and reached Cape Town in October. While fresh
supplies were taken Top: Woodman Point in Coogee. Above: Martin O’Meara onboard, the ship’s passengers were not allowed to disembark because of a ‘pneumonic influenza’ outbreak in the city. Their next port of call was Fremantle, where they arrived on the morning of November 6, 1918 - which just happened to be O’Meara’s birthday, he had just turned 33. There had been cases of flu on the voyage but these were quickly stamped. “The men were quarantined despite the AIF medical officers onboard the Aruwa advising that there were no longer any cases of influenza aboard,” Loftus writes. “Five men were admitted to the quarantine station’s hospital - one suspect case of influenza and four ‘other complaints’ - on November 7, but two days later at least some of them had been discharged.” On November 8, the West Australian published an article based on an interview with O’Meara, probably conducted the previous day by telephone. As a Victoria Cross recipient - and certainly the only one who was on the Aruwa - O’Meara would have a certain
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status in Australian society, and his arrival would have been newsworthy. [Two local civic receptions were organised for the Victoria Cross holder - attention O’Meara would not have been uncomfortable with.] The article - published here in full - is significant for another reason. It offers a precious and rare glimpse into his state of mind at what was a critical time for him.
November 8
BACK IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA AN INTERVIEW BY ‘PHONE
Acting-Sergeant Martin O’Meara, one of Western Australia’s Victoria Cross winners, has returned home after an absence of over two years on service. He is at present in isolation at Woodman Point where he is spending seven days as a precautionary measure to keep Spanish influenza out of the State. Yesterday through the courtesy of Mr. T. Bucknell, officer in charge of the quarantine station, a representative of the ‘West Australian’ was permitted to interview Sergeant O’Meara over the telephone, the result being the following interesting story of the hero’s war experiences. “I was born in Tipperary 34 years ago this month,” he said, “and I came out here in 1911 like a lot of other young Irishmen had done before me, to try my luck in Australia. I spent a couple of years in South Australia, but in 1914 came to the West and
settled in the bush about 34 miles out from Collie. Yes, I was sleeper cutting. In August 1915, I got into khaki and in December of the same year I left with the 12th reinforcements of the 16th Battalion, and in the following August went into action at Mouquet Farm. That was my first experience of war, and it was pretty hot, too, I can tell you. We were carrying up ammunition under heavy shell fire—a sort of fatigue party—and of course a lot of fellows were wounded. I went out to do what I could for the poor chaps that were lying all around waiting for the stretcher bearers and helped a lot of them to get in out of danger. I went down to the cookers and got some hot tea and went out again with a stretcher and brought in more. Then I got a slight stomach wound, and they told me I was recommended for the Victoria Cross for something that had happened during the time from the 8th of August until the 12th. I suppose it was for fetching in those wounded officers and
While we cannot know the mood or spirit O’Meara was in at the time of the interview, his answers to the journalist do not at least on the face of it suggest this was a man with a tortured soul or a wounded mind. “Martin O’Meara had some sort of serious mental breakdown, at Woodman Point between 8-13
‘diggers.’ You see, after the first day’s fighting and while I was out on my own, the battalion was relieved, so I just stayed there by myself doing this little job. “After I got hit I walked back to the dressing station and, to cut things short, soon got over to Blighty. I had about four months in hospital and then went out to France again and had put in about seven months when I was sent to London on special duty, and then the King gave me the Cross. That was on July 21, 1917. Then after I had a look round the place I went back to France and was only there a couple of days when in the fight at Messines I ‘went out’ to a wound on the hip and was sent back to England to be patched up and here I am in quarantine. “Where is my home? Why, I haven’t one. Under any old gum tree I suppose is the best way to describe it. No, I’m not married, and this place’ll do me ‘for the duration.’ We are quite comfortable and happy, and I don’t care when the doctor sees me.”
November 1918,” Loftus writes. “A lack of surviving records and a broad media ‘silence’ on mental health issues at the time made it difficult to accurately determine what actually happened. The Calland WA Sportsman reported that, without being specific about the nature of his illness:
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Continued on page 16
Continued from page 15
“After being released from quarantine at Woodman Point, Martin O’Meara V.C. was so unwell that he was detained for treatment at another hospital. We understand his case will require careful consideration from specialists for some considerable time.” O’Meara never recovered. He spent the rest of his life between various local mental institutions and hospitals until he died in 1935. When it became known this decorated war hero had spent 17 years in a straitjacket, a parliamentary inquiry was launched, but was of no help
or benefit to O’Meara. He died just before Christmas in Claremont Mental Hospital and was buried in a Catholic plot at Karrakatta Cemetery with full military honours. His coffin was carried by three other VC’s and his funeral was given by a Fr. John Fahey, another native of Tipperary. The fact that O’Meara’s sudden mental decline occurred almost simultaneously with the official end of World War I, on November 11, Armistice Day (now called Remembrance Day) makes an already distressing story even more poignant.
Crisis point at Woodman Point
Martin’s VC will linger longer in Ireland
Just weeks after O’Meara was discharged from Woodman Point, the quarantine station was thrust into the heart of a remarkable row that has echoes of today’s controversary around unwanted cruise liners in Fremantle and Sydney.
In what was a first for any Australian Victoria Cross - new legislation had to be put in place to facilitate it Martin O’Meara’s medal was allowed to leave the country on loan to the National Museum of Ireland. The loan was originally meant to last for 12 months, after which his VC was to return to its permanent home at the Army Museum of Western Australia, in Fremantle around the end of July. But the museum has confirmed the loan to Martin’s native country will have to be extended as a result of the panemdic. With the Collins Barracks museum closed for the foreseeable future however, the medal will be displayed in the isolation of silence.
The Boonah, the last Australian troop ship, left Fremantle in October 1918. She carried about 1,200 soldiers destined for the conflict in the Middle East. Expecting to stock up with supplies, the Boonah arrived into Durban, South Africa but found that just three days earlier the war had ended with the signing of the Armistice. The ship turned around almost immediately to return home to Australia, stopping only to take on fresh supplies. The problem however, was that the local dockers who loaded the Boonah also brought the Spanish Flu onto the ship with them. When it reached Fremantle on December 12, more than 300 cases of flu had been reported. Perhaps fearing the station would be overwhelmed by such numbers, authorities refused permission for the soldiers to disembark. After a stand-off, the ship was allowed to anchor in Gage Roads - an area in the outer harbour area of Fremantle Harbour - where the 300 sickest men were then taken to Woodman Point. Three of them died on the first day. Extra help with the large numbers of sick soldiers and sailors came from another Australian troop ship that had just returned just ahead of them. “The troopship Boonah was two days behind us and we picked up her wireless messages nightly, detailing the daily increasing number of men suffering from pneumonia influenza,” commanding officer, P.M. McFarlane of the Wyreema wrote. “The Western Australian Commandant asked me to land twenty THE IRISH SCENE | 16
nursing sisters at the cramped and close Quarantine Station. living conditions were Volunteers were called a perfect breeding for and there was not ground for disease, only a ready response and infections but so many offered continued, leaving that it was necessary the men trapped in to place the names a never ending hell. in a hat and draw As more men became the twenty required. sick the situation They knew perfectly The troubled troopship Boonah worsened, there was well the enormous public outrage but the risk they were taking. state and federal authorities bickered for nine days Yet they were eager to undertake the work and those about what to do. Tensions increased to the point whose names were not drawn were disappointed.” where the Returned Service League threatend to storm In all, 27 servicemen from the Boonah and four of the the ship and release the men by force if necessary. twenty nurses who were infected - army staff nurses Eventually the Boonah was allowed to carry on to Rosa O’Kane, Doris Ridgway and Ada Thompson, and another facility, similar to Woodman Point, the civilian nurse Hilda Williams - from the Wyreema died as a result of influenza at Woodman Point during the Torrens Island Quarantine Station, north of Adelaide, crisis. with 17 more cases Another fascinating aspect of this crisis was the confirmed fact that the rest of the passengers and crew were left languishing onboard the Boonah. To prevent on the way, the spread of further cases the ship was put into but no new lockdown, which would not be lifted until seven days deaths. had passed with no new infections. But of course the
Citizen O’Kane Most of the facilities and buildings at the Quarantine Station were built after World War I, but the place still has at least one reminder of that episode. The address of the station is 74 O’Kane Court, Munster. It is named after Sister Rosa O’Kane, one of the four nurses who lost their lives at that time and who is buried on the grounds, where a monument was also erected in her honour. Not long after she volunteered to look after the sick Second Lieutenant, Sister Rosa O’Kane died. She was just 28 when she passed away on December 21. She had set out on her war service just eight weeks earlier. Most of the dead - including the nurses - were buried in a bush grave site at Woodman Point at the time, but in 1958 most of the service personnel were exhumed and re-interred at the Perth War Cemetery in Nedlands. Only the remains of O’Kane and Williams remain at Woodman Point. Rosa’s mother Jeanie O’Kane in Charters Towers did not want her daughter’s remains disturbed and refused to give consent for her to be moved. Her mother described her daughter as “a fine type of Australian girl, of marked ability and a girl of great possibilities had God spared her life.” We know from Jeanie’s obituary in the local newspaper (The Northern Miner) in Charters Towers, Queensland, in July 7, 1936, aged 77, that: “Mrs. O’Kane was a native of Balleymoney, Antrim, Ireland, where she was born in 1859. Together with a THE IRISH SCENE | 17
Sister Rosa O’Kane sister and a brother, she made the voyage to Australia to join another brother, who, years before, had successfully settled at Maryborough. Educational qualifications she had acquired in Ireland earned her an early appointment to the Queensland Educational Department staff, and it was as a schoolteacher that she came from Maryborough to Charters Towers Continued on page 18
Continued from page 17
in the course of 1879, when the goldfleld was in a very early stage of development. In less than two years she had met and married her namesake, Mr. J. G. O’Kane, and together they found happiness and prosperity in the pursuit of journalism.
For many years afterwards, nurses and others would meet at the bush grave in Woodman Point on Anzac Day to remember Rosa. The monument there was commissioned and paid for by the people of Charter Towers.
“She gave two of her three only children, Mr. Frank and the late Sister Rosa O’Kane, to Australia in the last war, on the return from which her daughter sacrificed her own life in humanitarian nursing service at Woodman Point, West Australia. The death of Rosa was, perhaps, the greatest swordthrust of sorrow that the old lady ever bore. From that moment in 1919 until the day of her death, Mrs. O’Kane idolised the memory of the fine daughter who gave her life for her country. Mrs. O’Kane was in every respect a “war mother,” and no cause was ever so dear to her as that of the digger or the nursing sister. As each year passed she was an outstanding personality among those who organise the annual dinner in honor of soldiers on Anzac Day, and the aim or unanimity in public commemoration of Anzac Day was an objectlve for which she was an unceasing champion.”
Sister O’Kane also had Irish heritage on her father’s side as well. Her grandfather was Thadeus O’Kane, a fascinating firebrand newspaper man with a colourful past and career, which merits a story of its own in another Irish Scene, or certainly worth a quick Google. Thadeus was born Timothy Joseph O’Kane in January 1820 in Dingle, Co. Kerry. He had two daughters and a son, who followed in his father’s footsteps and ran the Daily Northern Miner newspaper. Rosa was born the same year her grandfather died, but considering what a strong character this proud Irish man and Republican was that it is unlikely his legacy was not passed down through his son, Rosa’s dad, and onto her.
Splendid isolation Woodman Point ceased to be a quarantine station in 1979, when it became a holiday camp for groups, which is still run today by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. Tours and other activities are organised by the Friends of Woodman Point - a not for profit group of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about promoting the heritage facility’s unique history. They also work to preserve it. Last August the group helped coordinate repairs to Army Nurse Rosa O’Kane’s grave and headstone. Families with a connection to Woodman Point sometimes call in. In October 2019 Stephen O’Kane, a great nephew of Sister O’Kane, and his wife paid their respect at her graveside. The great-nephew of Sister Ada Thompson, who died there during the Boonah crisis, also visited in December. In January a Dr Glenn Davies, from Queensland, and his wife, who is considering writing a biography about Rosa O’Kane, visited and around that time too a headstone for Nurse Hilda Williams - who also died during the Boonah crisis - was erected at her grave, 101 years after her death. A recently installed model replica of the Boonah, a busy bee to spruce the place up and newly acquired artefacts from that era had all been completed when COVID-19 hit. On March 14, Friends of Woodman Point Recreation Camp announced heritage tours at the site would
A tribute to the nurses of Woodman Point be suspended until further notice. “This is due to the current situation in relation to the Coronavirus problem,” the group said on its Facebook page. “This suspension is in line with the Heritage Council who have done the same, to protect the public and also their volunteers. We will advise when tours will start up. Thank you.” Stephen O’Kane shared his thoughts on the issue on the Facebook site of the Friends of Woodman Point. “Then as now, our doctors, nurses and emergency services protected Australia,” he said. “A big shout out to all essential services workers, especially Coles and Woolies workers, continuing the legacy of the past.”
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A message from
the ambassador of ireland Is tréimhse an-chorraithe i stair an domhain, tréimhse seo ráig an COVID-19. Is dushlán ollmhór é do gach pobal ar fud na cruinne, muintir na hÉireann ina measc, teacht tríd agus gnáthshaol a bhaint amach arís in am trátha. Cuirimis ár neart le chéile is sáróimís an dushlán seo. My wife and I visited Western Australia in December where we followed a very memorable and enjoyable programme of official and Irish community engagements. We have not been able to return to WA due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions. COVID-19 has changed the way we all live our lives. Sadly it has had very negative consequences in Ireland in terms of those affected and deaths, Australia also suffered heavily from the pandemic. However, we have a long history of overcoming the most challenging and tragic circumstances to come stronger on the other side. As President Higgins said in his message on COVID-19: ‘It is important that we do not lose sight of the opportunity we have today to draw on those great Irish instincts of solidarity, empathy and kindness to allow us to help each other through this ordeal. As we continue on this journey, lets us walk in unity, supporting each other, carefully and fully following the advice that we have been given, thus keeping each other safe’. In order to help address the needs of our citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Irish Government introduced a number of support measures. These measures are aimed at the most vulnerable members of our community, the elderly and those most affected by the pandemic. The Embassy, the Consulate General Sydney and the Honorary Consulate Perth are working in close cooperation with the four Emigrant Support Programme funded support agencies to address the needs of our community. I want to thank the Claddagh Association Perth, the Irish Australian Resource and Support Bureau Melbourne, the Irish Australian Support Association of
Queensland and the Irish Support Agency Sydney for the vital role they are playing in providing advice and assistance to our citizens in these very challenging times. I’d also like to acknowledge and commend the generous support provided by other groups in our community who have risen to Ireland’s call in a spirit of generosity and solidarity, a true manifestation of ‘comhar na gcomharsan’. Minister for the Diaspora Ciarán Cannon has emphasised the importance of reaching out to isolated members of our community at this time as well as his hope to see us again when this is all past: ‘We should all make the effort to reach out to family at this time when so many in our global Irish community are facing unprecedented and difficult isolation. I encourage you to pick up the phone and check on family members or other members of your community… We should remain aware that this crisis will pass and that the bonds between us, which we can strengthen through our actions and solidarity during this time, will be all the stronger in the future. You should know that we are keeping the lights on for you here in Ireland during this dark time and are looking forward to meeting you again when this is all behind us’. A chairde guím gach rath agus séan oraibh, tugaigí aire dá chéile is go gcastar ar a chéile arís muid in Perth nó cibé áit, go dté sibh lán.
BREANDÁN Ó CAOLLAÍ Ambasadóir na hÉireann
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Water Famine, pestilence and service to the sick BY LLOYD GORMAN
Main: Sisters of St John of God at their first residence at Adelaide Terrace 1896. Above: Hospital Staff Coolgardie. Photo: Battye Library
Gold fever was not the thing that ran rampant through Western Australia during the gold rush era. Infectious disease was a major problem for the Swan Colony as it became a federated state of the Australian Commonwealth at the turn of the last century. The response by authorities to the problem included some significant input and even sacrifice from Irish people. Gold finds such as that at Coolgardie in 1892 and the discovery by Paddy Hannon in 1893 attracted large numbers of prospectors from around Australia and across the world here in search of fortune. It is estimated that in the ten years between 1890 and 1900 the population of the west quadrupled. Numbers on goldfield spots swelled out of all proportion overnight as prospectors poured into the area, many taken advantage of the new train lines that had recently been completed. Conditions were terrible. Thousands of people were forced to live in overcrowded squalid camps with no running water and very little in the way of water or sanitation. Days were hot, dry and dusty. Diseases such as typhoid spread quickly through contaminated food and water supplies. The situation was little better in Perth where tent cities - effectively shanty towns - sprung up in places like Fremantle and Subiaco. At that time typhoid had a mortality rate of about 20% and could easily claim people who were fit, healthy and strong. Those who caught it experienced rashes, stomach pains, headaches, high fevers and it could lead to internal bleeding and death. An estimated 18,000 people in WA contracted it in the 1890’s, the worst outbreak in
Australian history. At least two thousand deaths were attributed to it, but the real number is widely thought to be much higher. Sufferers also required full time medical attention. Nurses and doctors were in short supply at that time. Bishop of Perth Matthew Gibney - who was born in Killeshandra, Cavan in 1853 - looked to his native country for help. Early in 1895 Bishop Gibney wrote to the Sisters of St John of God and invited them to come to Perth. The order had been founded in Wexford in 1871 and were inspired to nurse those in poverty in the example set by their patron saint, St John of God. On 23 November 1895 the first eight sisters arrived on the RMS Orizaba from Ireland. The youngest was just 21 years old. The eight sisters were: Ellen Dunne - Sr M Cecilia; Bridget O’Brien - Sr M Antonio; Helena Brennan - Sr M Angela; Margaret Kenny - Sr M Magdalene; Veronica Hanlon - Sr M Bridget; Bridget Gleeson - Sr M Ita; Julia Gleeson - Sr M John and Mary Hanley - Sr M Assumpta. “The initial plan was that the Sisters would base themselves in Perth,” a history on the St John of God Health Care website tells us. “When they arrived they set about nursing the sick in their homes, as well as establishing the Adelaide Terrace Convent Hospital. By early 1896 it became clear that the Sisters were needed in the Goldfields. Several sisters went on ‘sick visits’ to tend to particular patients. In late April, Sister Angela and Sister Magdalene travelled to Kalgoorlie to nurse a Mr Vine. They were instructed to leave as soon as he was well again, however they stayed until September, nursing from a tent loaned to them by a miner.
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The first official St John of God Hospital was opened by Bishop Gibney in Coolgardie on 25 November 1896. It was funded and owned by a local committee. It cost 500 pounds and was made up of three timber framed canvas buildings. By 1897 the gold rush population had begun to migrate to Kalgoorlie. So in March 1897 Bishop Gibney blessed and opened St John of God Hospital, Kalgoorlie. Dr Mattei was the resident medical officer and the staff comprised of six St John of God Sisters. Their numbers had been recently bolstered by the recent arrival of a further six Sisters from Ireland in December 1896. This hospital was timber-framed with weatherboard and a corrugated iron roof. Around this time the Sisters also established a number of schools. The sisters knew the risks of being in close contact with patients suffering infectious diseases. Those who went to the Goldfields knew they were to live in hot, dry, overcrowded conditions. Water was scarce, and at times, cost more than gold. Until 1910 they toiled in heavy habits, dresses and capes.” Several of these brave pioneers sacrificed their lives in service of the sick. These included Sister Mary Bridget who never had the chance to work at St John of God Hospital, Kalgoorlie. She died from typhoid just days before the hospital opened and was buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery. “Sister Mary Joseph was placed in charge of St Mary’s High School in Kalgoorlie,” the SJOG website adds. “She became ill in September 1904 and died from peritonitis (infection) a short time later. The local newspaper reported that ‘her loss will be keenly felt’. Sister Mary Kevin initially nursed in St John of God Hospital, Kalgoorlie but after contracting a fever she returned to Subiaco. Five years later she returned to Kalgoorlie. Unfortunately she was soon ill again and died on 15 April 1902. The Kalgoorlie Miner reported “she bore her sufferings with patience and resignation, at times rallying and giving her friends hopes of seeing her again to continue the works of charity to which she sacrificed her life.”
A famine of water It wasn’t only people and scores of working animals including horses and camels as well as livestock who craved water on the Goldfields. The steam powered locomotives that opened up these remote parts of WA were thirsty beasts that could not operate without it. The state’s rail network had been on the point of collapse when Irish born engineer CY O’Connor was made engineer in chief by Sir John Forrest the premier of the day who told him his job would cover ‘Railways, harbours, everything’. Under O’Connors instruction and direction however WA’s train system was stabilised and even expanded into new areas making it easier for people to get there, to rush there in large numbers. The eastern goldfields area did not have a natural water supply of its own and very little rainfall, a major issue for a place that was becoming increasingly built up and important as a source of wealth for the state. The lack of water led to water famines on the goldfields during those long, hot and scorched summer months of the 1890s. The situation got to the unsustainable point where water - which was originally necessary for panning gold - became more expensive to buy than gold. Goldfield residents would take every chance that came their way to drink free water, including rainwater that would fall into any kind of vessel or hole capable of holding water. All these factors made for a breeding ground for typhoid and other diseases such as dysentery.
Sister Mary John survived the worst of many typhoid epidemics in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, only to sucuumb to exhaustion and tuberculosis at St John of God Hospital, Subiaco in 1916.”
Without a regular, secure and large scale supply of fresh water more people would die of thirst and disease and the potential of this gold rich area could not be tapped. As we saw in an extensive set of articles in the March/April issue of Irish Scene the gargantuan job of making that happen fell to the same man who had brought the railways across WA. Indeed when the longest fresh water pipeline in the world opened it would shadow the route already determined by the railways, for plenty of good reasons.
SJOG said the Sisters of St John of God left the green shores of Ireland and devoted their lives to helping the sick and needy in harsh circumstances. The small Irish congregation expanded into Australia and has grown into a major healthcare provider, with some 16 St John of God Hospitals and other health care facilities across Australia and New Zealand. While the Sisters are no longer the working face of the organisation St John of God Healthcare said it: “strives to embody their values of hospitality, compassion, respect, justice and excellence.”
Incredibly the 566km long pipeline - and eight pump stations - was built within just five years (1896-1903). At special ceremony on January 24 1903 Sir John Forrest opened a valve which sent water gushing into the Mount Charlotte Reservoir at Kalgoorlie. Running water was also affordable. The ambitious water scheme transformed the fortunes of the goldfield town and its residents forever. Sadly, CY O’Connor did not live to see the project finished but we still have his legacy today.
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TB or not TB! BY LLOYD GORMAN Every day more than 30,000 people catch it and 4,000 die from it, but this disease rarely - if ever - hits the headlines, possibly because most of its victims are in developing and poorer nations. But there was a time, within living memory, when Tuberculosis (TB) - one of the deadliest killers the world has ever known caused havoc, dread and death across Ireland.
Some 7,000 people a year became infected and until specific drugs were developed in the early 1950’s to fight it, with infection seen as a death sentence. The death rate was appalling. Between 1950 and 1960 about 10,000 people - men, women and children - a year lost their lives to TB. TB is now a preventable and largely curable disease, caused by a bacterium (germ) called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It usually affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body, including the glands, the bones and rarely the brain. It spreads by an infected person coughing, sneezing or spitting. Children, people with poor health, weak immune systems or already suffering from another disease are at greater risk of becoming ill from TB (not everyone who becomes infected develops TB). Poor housing and overcrowded conditions also put people at risk. Another type of TB that may have been a factor at play in 1950’s rural Ireland was called Mycobacterium bovis, which can arise from drinking contaminated milk, but this form of TB is now rare as pasteurisation of milk removes the risk.
The scourge of Tuberculosis The fight against TB was led by Dr Noël Browne. Browne worked in various ‘sanatoriums’ as a young doctor and saw its withering effects. He also saw hospital buildings in terrible condition and an antiquated and inflexible system that was not centred on the patients needs. On a personal level, a nine year old Noël lost both his parents to TB within a short period of time, and he himself suffered from it.
Top: Dr Browne’s book, Against The Tide. Above: A 1948 Cabinet meeting, Dr Browne is sitting far left
In order to achieve social and medical change, Browne went into politics and would have one of the most incredible political careers of any modern day parliamentarian. His Mother and Child Scheme for example, collapsed the first inter party government in 1951*. As minister for health, he spared no time or effort in confronting the TB problem. Amongst other things he introduced a mass radiography scheme which allowed many more patients to have their chest and lungs x-rayed, and created more than 5,000 extra hospital beds. The measures and improvements slashed the death rate, sparked a decline in the number of cases and increased the recovery rate of patients. THE IRISH SCENE | 22
In 2018 some 315 TB cases were notified to the Irish health authorities and according to the Irish Thoracic Society: "With appropriate antibiotic treatment, TB can be cured in more than nine out of 10 patients". In the same year there were 136 notifications of Tuberculosis in Western Australia. According to the Western Australian Tuberculosis Control Program this number was “very similar to the previous four years”. As with Ireland, the majority of reported TB cases can be traced back to people who have come into the country/state from other countries. While the TB situation in Ireland, Australia and most developed nations is one that the health systems can easily deal with, unfortunately there are other parts of the world where it is still claiming many lives. As it happens, World Tuberculosis Day fell on March 24, but this year would have gone by almost completely unnoticed. On that date in 1882, German physician and scientist Robert Koch, identified the causal agent of the disease for the first time. Since the centenary of that discovery in 1982, World Tuberculosis Day has been held annually. *I had the privilege of meeting Dr Noel Browne. His achievements and impact on Irish society were taught as part
of Irish history at secondary school and my late maternal grandmother, who was a young mother in Dublin at the time of his achievements, spoke of him with great admiration. When I discovered that this inspiring man was still alive, the aspiring journalist in me wanted to interview him. I had read his hard hitting biography ‘Against The Tide’ and knew he lived in the West of Ireland but not where, so I wrote him a letter and posted the letter with “Dr Noel Browne, West of Ireland” on the envelope and hoped for the best. Thanks to the nature of Irish society at the time and the efforts of An Post, it reached him and he called me and we arranged to meet soon after, at the Great Southern Hotel on Eyre Square. We spoke for at least an hour. He responded to my questions in detail. He was elderly at that point (this was in the early 1990’s) and withered by a lifetime of battling the big institutions of Irish society such as the Catholic Church, and what he saw as injustices. But Browne was still a man with a blend of fierceness, honesty and intelligence that must have been the trademark of his professional life. Certainly he was an impressive if not slightly embittered figure. But above all he was a hero of the Irish people. My good friend and flatmate at the time Tommy Farrell - who came with me from Dublin for that weekend - and my now wife Imelda joined me at the hotel and also met him briefly. He signed a copy of his biography for me and we parted ways. A few years later, in May 1997, Dr Browne passed away, aged 81. He left his country in much better shape than he found it.
TB vaccine tested against COVID-19 Hundreds of front line healthcare workers in Perth hospitals are taking part in a trial that will test a theory that an existing vaccine for tuberculosis can reduce their chance of becoming infected by COVID-19. In all, some 2,000 doctors and nurses from Fiona Stanley, Sir Charles Gairdner and Perth Children’s Hospitals will participate in the ‘BRACE’ research trial with colleagues from other hospitals in Melbourne. When these volunteering medics go to get their standard flu shot, half of them will also get a shot of the BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine. “It seeks to establish whether the BCG vaccine, which is known to boost immunity against a range of infections, has a similar effect on COVID-19,” WA Health Minister Roger Cook said. Telethon Kids Institute Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis said the Institute - which normally focuses on diseases in children - was ready to roll out new research against COVID-19. “We know from other studies that the BCG vaccine provides protection against a diverse range of pathogens and has reduced the impact of respiratory tract infections,” Dr Carapetis said. “It also has been shown to boost the effects of the flu
vaccine, which will be given to these study volunteers at the same time. This effect alone could be very important.” Interestingly this trial was announced on April 14 and even has the blessing of the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. A scientific brief on an official WHO site - dated April 12 - stated: “There is no evidence that the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) protects people against infection with COVID-19 virus. Two clinical trials addressing this question are underway, and WHO will evaluate the evidence when it is available. In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19.”
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The pull of the plough and the stars A brand new novel from Irish born writer Emma Donoghue has been fast-tracked for publication because of the COVID-19 crisis. There are strong parallels between the subject of her latest offering, a historical novel called The Pull of the Stars, and the events of today. “I started The Pull of the Stars last year to coincide with centenary of 1918 Spanish flu and I had just finished it when Covid hit, so it couldn’t be stranger,” she told RTE presenter Miriam O’Callaghan during an interview on RTE Radio 1 on May 3. “I didn’t think you would be trying to sell anything in this climate but the publisher said now is time to bring it out if we wait until next year everyone might be sick of the subject,” she added. “But one thing I like about this book is its all about nurses and doctors and the incredible people who get up every morning and walk into danger day after day when most of us are huddling away from it.” The Pull of the Stars is set in the maternity ward of a fictional Dublin hospital in 1918 at the height of the Great Flu and is a story about finding light in darkness according to its author. The promotional blurb describes it thus: “Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders — Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.” Donoghue describes it as a largely fictional novel but two important aspects of it are true to life. The medical
material described in the book is well researched and verified by experts, but perhaps even more importantly the character of Dr Kathleen Lynn is based on her historical figure. “I’m casting her as a doctor brought in temporarily and most of the hospital staff are going “who’s that weirdo?”, with the police after her as a member of the SF executive, and they would have seen her as a complete trouble maker in that she was a suffragette and socialist wanting to make a better world and she clashed with the hierarchy, they saw her as an interfering Protestant”. Donoghue said she was an advanced public health figure who campaigned against TB and malnutrition but she was also a Sinn Fein leader in the 1916 Rising. “She also set up the children’s hospital St Ultan’s (in Charlemont Street, near the Grand Canal) at a time when most hospitals wouldn’t take in the children of the poor. So her career intersects the Womens Movement, the Labour Movement, the Republican Movement and wanted a state that would cherish all our children equally. “She’s an extraordinary figure and I’ve been very interested in the new campaign to have the new children’s hospital (in Dublin) named after her, I couldn’t imagine a better way to name it.” The RTE presenter asked her why she chose to set a story about the Spanish Flu, a worldwide pandemic that claimed 2 to 3% of the world’s population - in Dublin. If most people at the time wondered what “those eejits” were doing in the 1916 Rising a few years later, they were voting for Sinn Fein. “There was an astonishing cultural shift in those years and via Kathleen Lynn I decided to look at it in terms of injustice, this Ireland they had was clearly an unjust country where the slum life in Dublin was described as the Calcutta of Europe. The maternal and child death rates in Ireland at the time, Ireland was really struggling by any measures. I could quite imagine idealists like Kathleen Lynn even though I’m a doctor I have to turn to the gun to make some difference to my poor country.” The author highlighted the invaluable role played by medics then and now. “We can very actively treat things now we can analyse a virus but they didn’t know what a virus
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Rebel with a Cause Dr. Kathleen Lynn was living at 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines when she filled out the 1911 Census. The Central Statistics Office in Ireland published this profile of the fascinating and courageous character.
Above: Dr Kathleen Lynn. Right: Her election ad was they were all looking for a bacterium,” she added. “They were mostly treating the flu with whiskey. They were just fumbling around in the dark and the one thing that all doctors admitted was that only good nursing brought people through in the 1918 Flu, enough nursing that people’s own immune systems could fight it off, so its a good pandemic to write about in that they were so powerless but they tried so hard and the sheer gallantry of the nurses and the doctors.” Donoghue - who now lives in Canada but visits Ireland regularly - writes across many genres and has been published in more than forty languages. Her 2016 book The Wonder has a similar theme. She was inspired to write it after studying about fifty cases of ‘fasting girls’ over the centuries. The story is about an English nurse sent to the Irish Midlands in 1859 to watch a little girl whose parents claim is living without food. The Pull of the Stars is due out in July 2020.
Kathleen Lynn came from a comfortable background and she qualified as a doctor. Born in Mayo, she dedicated her life to the suffragette movement, social justice and national liberation. In 1904 she became a GP practising from 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines. The dreadful conditions in which her patients lived and died had a deep impact on her, especially the very high infant mortality rate. She became involved in the women’s suffrage movement, making friends with other Irish feminists such as Countess Markievicz, Maud Gonne McBride, Madeleine Ffrench Mullen and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, with whom she remained life-long friends. During the 1913 Lock-Out she ran a soup kitchen with Countess Markievicz, (a distant cousin), and gave freely of her time and energy to provide medical services to the sick during this struggle. Dr. Lynn held the rank of Captain in the Irish Citizen Army (I.C.A.), and in her capacity as the Chief Medical Officer, she organised the collection of medical supplies and gave lessons in first aid. She played a prominent role in the hostilities of Easter week. James Connolly chose Kathleen Lynn to carry The Plough and the Stars, (the official Flag of I.C.A.), from Liberty Hall to the GPO because she was a woman, a doctor, a protestant and a suffragette and she embodied the type of Republic Connolly envisaged - egalitarian, non-sectarian and one based on gender-equality. Dr. Lynn served in City Hall during the Easter Rising to attend the wounded. After the shooting of Seán Connolly she acted as Senior Officer and presented the surrender when ordered to do so. She was imprisoned in Ship Street and then Kilmainham Gaol, sharing a cell with Madeleine Ffrench Mullen and Helena Molony, until she was sent to prison in England. She was allowed take up medical duties instead of being incarcerated as there was a scarcity of doctors due to World War I. She returned to Ireland in 1918 but went “on the run” but was arrested towards the end of the year. She was sentenced to be deported but was allowed to stay as there was an influenza outbreak and doctors were very scarce. She and her friends acquired an old derelict house at 37, Charlemont Street. The women of the Irish Citizen Army cleaned it up and Countess Markievicz and Countess Plunkett brought bedding. In this house they treated patients suffering from flu using vaccines which Kathleen obtained. Among those treated were Michael Stains and Caitlín, the wife of Cathal Brugha. Once the epidemic was over, Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine Ffrench Mullen founded St. Ultan’s Hospital in 1919 in the same premises and this was the first hospital for the treatment of infants in Dublin. Dr. Lynn was elected to the Dáil in the 1923 elections but did not take her seat. She died in 1955 and was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin with full military honours. THE IRISH SCENE | 25
BY LLOYD GORMAN
ISTEACH SA TEACH Has a terrible beauty been born?
COVID-19 kills Irish Civil war politics
Some events change everything for ever! The final line Talking about being human, it will be interesting to see in William Butler Yeats poem Easter, 1916 “A terrible what way the dynamics between Irish political parties beauty is born” summed up the change in attitude to and individual politicians. the Easter Rising from annoyance to acceptance of their It is easy to forget that Ireland only has a caretaker cause by the Irish people, after the leaders who had administration in place at this time of national crisis. signed the Proclamation were brutally executed by the The recent Irish general election on February 8 British military. COVID-19 - as terrible as it is - would seem to have the potential to be a watershed for how we produced a fascinating outcome. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael each got about a third of the overall vote while see many things, including politics and politicians. a similar share went to Sinn Fein. So while you had It has often been said during this crisis but it is a point three parties with about the same proportion of the worth repeating here. Based on their performance to vote, the real winner was Sinn Fein who went from date, Australia’s politicians deserve credit and our being on the fringes of Irish politics to one of the main respect for the way they have handled the greatest players. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are traditional social, health and economic challenge to the country enemies, dating back to their origins and the Irish since World War II. There were several failures of Civil War. The fact they have agreed to come together leadership in terms of the devastating bushfires during to form government and cast the summer and while there have been a few missteps aside a hundred year old hatred is in some quarters, the big politicos have earned their groundbreaking. Such a thing only keep. a few years ago would have been The creation of a national cabinet made up of the unthinkable and this may well be prime minister and the premiers and first ministers a side effect of the pandemic. But of the states and territories was a solid idea. Petty the new found love in the room is politics have been put aside and now you have Liberal not universal or for everyone. Their and Labor leaders being highly complimentary of each other and likewise employers bodies and unions intention in working together is to Mary Lou MacDonald working closely together. Things that would ordinarily keep Sinn Fein out of government. take years to get through parliament or other decision Their mutual distrust has now been making channels have been done within days and transferred onto Sinn Fein. There is some way to go weeks and rolled out seamlessly. yet before FF and FG - whose ‘anyone but SF’ alliance It must be difficult for premiers or ministers for health needs another third political party to work - can form (in WA’s case Roger Cook is also deputy premier) to government, and a lot is still uncertain. give rolling death counts at daily press It is interesting conferences. The mood of government to speculate leaders can be tense, even grumpy as they on another struggle to cope with an unprecedented impact situation. So Mark McGowan’s spontaneous coronavirus outburst of laughter at a press conference might have on when asked about a jogger over east being Irish politics. arrested by police when he stopped for a Consider this. kebab was a lovely light and funny moment Sinn Fein that reminds us they are just human leader Mary too. Jogging and kebabs were a strange Lou McDonald combination he said, but they would not is the only be outlawed. A sense of humour is a great Boris Johnson in isolation thing in anybody. party leader THE IRISH SCENE | 26
(to date) to have been known to have been infected by the virus. She has spoken publicly of her experience and openly said she has never been as sick. Boris Johnson contracted the disease and after what appears to have been a touch and go few days in ICU come out the other side and went back to work in late April. This puts McDonald and Johnson in a unique position. Politically they are as different as can be and represent constituencies with a long and difficult histories but they now have something substantial in common, like survivors of a shark attack. They have both faced down the virus, a perspective most of their colleagues do not share. Is it possible then that this would be a factor in any future dealings they might have? They may not be easily able to change their positions, but they could find some kind of recognition and respect for the other. This possibility reminded me of the scene in the brilliant play Allegiance about Irish rebel leader Michael Collins and British bulldog Winston Churchill who was the Colonial Secretary in charge of Ireland, which was staged at the Irish Club a few years ago. As the Treaty and Truce talks tethered on the brink of failure, the play imagines the events of a real night that Collins and Churchill spent a night in each other’s company, drinking, arguing, singing and even reciting poetry to each other. In the play, written by Mark Kenny in 2006, the two men talked about being singled out as wanted men by their enemies in war (Churchill in the Boer War) The fact they had both had a price of their heads gave them a common understanding and mutual appreciation of the other. Who knows, maybe its just wishful thinking of sorts and nothing might change at all! Isteach sa Teach would like to make special mention of a group of people in the WA Parliament who have stepped up to the pandemic in their own way. The parliament largely closed down in April but the kitchen and catering crews who normally feed and water the politicians and others found a
way to do their thing and help others. “Today WA Parliament’s catering team prepared their first delivery for OzHarvest, as part of an initiative to prepare thousands of meals for the food rescue charity while Parliament is in recess,” the parliament Facebook said on April 6. In their first week they prepared 1,100 meals, dozens of hot cross buns for Easter and hundreds of croissants and other fresh foods. Parliament’s kitchens have worked with the food rescue and delivery service in the past and collaborations like this deserve some recognition.
A special thanks to the Parliament caterers for their work with OzHarvest delivering food for charity
O’Connor’s good offices celebrated Some other activities at parliament are also worth a mention. On March 10 - on its Facebook page parliament remembered the contribution Irish born Charles Yelverton O’Connor made to Western Australia as “our first Engineerin-Chief”. The date is significant because it was on March 10 1902 when C.Y. O’Connor’s office, located just above the arch in the Pensioner O’Connor ended his own Barracks life, as a result of pressure piled on him by critics of the Goldfields pipeline project. What was particularly interesting about the posting was that it contained a
nice little nugget of O’Connor related trivia which most people would probably not be aware off. “C.Y. O’Connor’s office was located in the old Pensioner Barracks when it was tenanted by the Public Works Department - apparently just above the arch - across from WA Parliament House,” it said. Many iconic buildings and landmark around the world are often bathed in green light for St. Patrick’s Day. Parliament House was lit up in green for a weekend towards the end of February, but it had nothing to do with Ireland’s patron saint. In fact, the reason for the light show was to mark World Rare Disease Day on February 29. Some 300 million people worldwide suffer from a rare disease, something worth thinking about in the current climate. Parliament was lit up for St. Patrick’s Day, but not because of St. Patrick’s Day. The house on the hill turned ‘orange’ for Harmony Week,
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Continued on page 28
ISTEACH SA TEACH Continued from page 27
which started on March 16. Meanwhile, on March 10 protestors used light and the building as a canvas to make a different point. In what must have taken quite a bit of planning they projected the words ‘Proudly owned by Woodside Chevron Shell BP” onto the facade of the state parliament.
Green Day COVID-19 put the kibosh on most celebrations and events planned for St. Patrick’s Day, but the occasion itself was at least marked in both houses of parliament on March 17 by members with Irish heritage. The president of the upper house of state parliament Kate Doust wished Irish born environment minister Stephen Dawson a very happy St. Patrick’s Day. “It is a lovely green tie that you are wearing today,” she told Dawson, who thanked her for the compliment. Alanna Clohesy too got a mention for “wearing a lovely shade of green!”. Meanwhile, over in the other chambers (Legislative Assembly) just before a discussion about the government response to Coronavirus Top: Parliament House ‘painted’ in orange lights for Harmony Week. Above: The words ‘Proudly Jessica owned by Woodside Chevron Shell BP” were projected onto the facade by protestors. Stojkovski (née O’Gorman) Perth with health minister Roger Cooke. took “a moment to wish everybody a Remarkably the press conference very happy St. Patrick’s Day”. Hansard which drew a large number of media records that she got a “Here, here” from was held in a small crowded room with her colleagues. no social distancing measures in place. Hansard also shows another reference Anyhow, at that point in time and as to the patron saint of Ireland, but it the situation was quickly evolving is not clear exactly what happened, the atmosphere was still tense. I got perhaps it was the ring tone of a mobile to ask Mr Cooke the last question of that didn’t quite ring true on the day. the press conference but before I put Prisons and correction minister Fran the question to him I quickly wished Logan - who holds an Irish passport was speaking in the Assembly when he him a Happy St. Patrick’s Day. He was interrupted. The transcript for the recognised my accent for what it is and day shows that Logan said: “I think that returned the sentiment. In some small Scotland the Brave being played in the way, I reckon observing such simple house on St Patrick’s Day is not really especially when they are not expected the right thing to do!”. The source of the - niceties can help lighten the mood. interruption was ‘called to order’ by the An annual bash for members of the deputy speaker of the house. Irish community at parliament which Irish Scene editor Lloyd Gorman was due to held in the same week as St. Top: Stephen Dawson with two attended a daily COVID-19 press Patrick’s Day was called off so as not Rose of Tralee contestants. Above: conference on the morning of March 17 to have people mixing and potentially Jessica Stojkovski with dad Tony at Department of Health offices in East O’Gorman spreading the virus. THE IRISH SCENE | 28
Anti-IRA measures called in to fight COVID-19 threat in WA The IRA got a mention during a debate about the Criminal Code Admendment (COVID-19 Response) Bill 2020 in the Legislative Assembly. Police minister Michelle Roberts rushed the new legislation to the house for its second reading on March 31. The minister said that while very many people had displayed amazing community spirit in the face of the pandemic we had also “see[n] the very worst from a few” such as people claiming to have the virus who cough and spat at police, medicos and others. “As members of Parliament we must step up to enact the laws needed to safeguard the health and safety of the Western Australian community,” she said. “Never more so than in these times will the community turn to our frontline staff, to our police officers, our doctors and nurses, our paramedics and others, to protect, care for, and support them. In turn, those on our frontline need to know they have our support.” She also talked about the issue of trying to balance the need for police and other authorities at checkpoints and the need to keep traffic - especially trucks making vital deliveries and essential workers - moving as freely as possible. Tried and tested technology could help do just that she suggested. “We will be making greater use of automated
numberplate recognition,” Minister Roberts said. “We will make use of that for regional travel; we will also make use of it for those people who are supposed to be quarantining. Interestingly, I introduced Michelle Roberts ANPR during the time of the Gallop government. Automated numberplate recognition was used originally in the United Kingdom to identify Irish Republican Army activists who were bombing stores in London. That automated numberplate recognition technology assisted police to a huge degree.” The number plates of certain people - such as those quarantining at home - can be entered onto a database, and if that plate is picked up by the system, it will ping, letting officers know that vehicle should be stopped and checked. “I met with officers yesterday who are monitoring that list of people in quarantine,” Ms Roberts added. “It is a pretty easy match to know what vehicles people regularly drive and they can be identified through that technology. Many innovative things are happening.”
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THE IRISH SCENE | 29
ULSTER RAMBLES WITH DAVID I began my article for the previous edition of The Irish Scene as follows:
“As well as a new decade, it seems like a new era.’ I mentioned how optimistic many of us were for the years ahead. ‘I hope the decade has started off well for all you readers out there and of course for everyone else as well. Lately, it seems that Boris (probably not him but one of his cronies) has had an idea to link Ulster to Scotland; No, not politically but by means of a bridge.’ Well the optimism did not last long. How depressing that 90% of our news is about one item only. The other 10% is about the weather! I will try my best to avoid it here so, wish me luck. Perhaps I can now clear up the thinking of Boris. It appears that the prime minister’s commitment to “levelling up” the country should not be doubted, and so it should not be ruled out that his promised bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland is not actually intended to be a bridge, but merely a national thought experiment. It is only a few weeks after I mentioned it in my last article that the bridge (that cannot be built) was dredged up again, and inflicted once again on the public conscience. We now learn that the Scottish secretary Alister Jack, thinks the bridge should, in fact, be a tunnel. Well why not. After all, Alice was able to find great adventure when she fell down one. Someone even wrote a very popular book about her adventures. Alister reasoned that a tunnel would be cheaper, apparently, and “more weather proof”. He has told a committee of the Scottish parliament that he has raised the prospect of a tunnel, instead of a bridge. The tunnel would, he said, be a “cheaper” alternative. Why not a floating castle on a cloud, I ask you? Why not carry people from Scotland to Northern Ireland on the back of that weird dragon from The Neverending Story? Bring back Finn McCool. He was able apparently to nip over to Scotland frequently and easily.
Enough of this nonsense! To be honest I had more faith in Trump’s wall, though to expect Mexico to pay for it was going way too far. OK, I can hear you ask if I have lost my mind. I am trying desperately to avoid what is in the news at present but I am finding another topic of interest difficult to find. Anzac day will have passed by the time you are perusing the magazine. It will probably be published online only, so you will not be sitting on the couch with the great little “mag” in your hand but sitting in front of a monitor or fiddling around with your thumbs on a flash phone or iPad. Never mind, you are alive and well. May it remain so! I once sang ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’, Eric Bogle’s famous song, to eight hundred school children. This year I will be singing it to our eight neighbours if they all show up. Well there are only ten houses in our road. I believe it to be the shortest road in Australia if not the world. We are so lucky to be able to communicate with our friends, relations and loved ones by means of the ubiquitous iPhone. I actually like many of the clips sent to me from all over the world by means of WhatsApp, Messenger and of course email. With Facetime and Zoom we can now have conferences with lots of people at once or, like my good wife from Dublin 4, we can have meetings with our friends and chat with all of them together. I noted that my wife’s group had to make up a set of rules for it to work as at the beginning, at least three would be talking at the same time. They came up with the fabulous idea that they would ‘mute’ themselves while one only was able to talk. It worked. How did the iphone come about? Certainly Steve Jobs did not do it all on his own. For example the iPhone wouldn’t be the iPhone without its iconic touch-screen technology. The first touch screen was actually invented way back in the 1960s by Eric Arthur Johnson, a radar engineer working at a government research centre in the U.K.
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Apollo 11 to the moon, its real power lies in its ability to leverage the billions of websites and terabytes that make up the internet. There are countless other research breakthroughs without which the iPhone would not be possible. It is an era-defining technology. Era-defining technologies do not come from the rare brilliance of one person or organization, but layer upon layer of innovation and decade upon decade of research, with thousands of individuals and organizations standing on each other’s shoulders and peering that bit further into the future. In our age of seemingly insurmountable global challenges, we must not only remember this but be inspired by it. We must encourage openness and transparency at the heart of research, ensuring it is disseminated as widely, quickly and clearly as possible. We must remember that every delay and distortion matters. Research integrity and reproducibility, transparent peer review, open access, diversity—these are more than just buzzwords. They are exciting steps toward reforming the infrastructure of a global research ecosystem that has always been our best hope for the future. Our future is looking a little grim at present but the human mind is resourceful, inventive and adaptable. We will come out of this crisis eventually and will be much the better for the experience. Well I almost achieved it; not mentioning what is uppermost in all our minds. Ulster has not fared well but then most countries are in the same boat. I wish you all wellness in the months ahead.
While the Righteous Brothers were losing that lovin’ feeling, Johnson was publishing his findings in an Electronics Letters article published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The 1969 patent that followed has now been cited across a whole host of famous inventions—including Apple’s 1997 patent for “a portable computer handheld cellular telephone.” Battery Low. Blink, blink. We all know iPhones soak up a lot of power, yet they’d be nowhere without the rechargeable lithium battery. British scientist Stanley Whittingham created the very first example of the lithium battery while working in a lab for ExxonMobil in the ‘70s, carrying forward research he’d initially conducted with colleagues at Stanford University. Previous research had already indicated that lithium could be used to store energy, but it was Whittingham and his team that figured out how to do this at room temperature—without the risk of explosion. Of course we cannot leave out the Internet and the World Wide Web or www. When Apple engineer Andy Grignon first added internet functionality to an iPod in 2004, Steve Jobs was far from enthusiastic: Apparently he was quoted as saying “This is bullshit. I don’t want this. I know it works, I got it, great, thanks, but this is a shitty experience.” See all our Monthly Specials at tyrepowerperthcity.com.au The painstaking work of multiple Apple teams took a “shitty During these Covid-19 experience” and made something uncertain times, revolutionary—all collective human we would like experience and knowledge right to mention to there, in your back pocket, at the our Customers touch of your fingertips. Well who that we are invented the WWW? I won’t bore taking all you here with that information just precautionary to say that Sir Tim Berners-Lee is measures with widely credited with the invention. sanitising, seat covers But even Berners-Lee cannot be and workshop given solo credit. protective wear. While the modern iPhone is now 120 million times more powerful Call Fiona or Adrian for a great tyre deal! You won’t be sorry than the computers that took 35 Troode St (next to Licensing Centre) West Perth. Email perthcity@tyrepower.com.au
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FROM MELBOURNE BY MIKE BOWEN
Nurses have always rocked my world - and probably yours! At the time of writing this I have been self-isolated for six weeks, while all my plans for travel in March were squashed. In hindsight I feel blessed that my travels were called to a halt considering the world as it is today. It was expected that I would travel to Doha in Qatar to visit a long time friend of mine – Kirby Kearns, who is CEO of Resolution Productions, the second largest TV Company in Qatar – to work on a mutual product. Even though Kirby was born in Australia to Irish parents, he claims he has 90% more Irish than Australian blood in his veins. From Doha I would have gone on to Ireland for some meetings and lastly on to New York again for some additional meetings. That wasn’t my luckiest escape this year, as my wife and I plus her two friends were tossing up whether we would take a cruise to New Zealand on one of the Princess ships in January. We tossed a coin and opted for the Melbourne round trip rather than a weekend in Sydney. Had we opted for the Sydney trip, who knows what could have happened. Some time ago I wrote an article for a paper in the USA about what I thought was a sad injustice in how some professions were treated compared to others. Why are sports, movie and music so-called super stars paid massive amounts of monies, compared to others? I have always believed that we all have some special talents, for instance Garth Brooks and Madonna sing, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi play football, Shane Warne played cricket. Then there’s the super groups U2, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay and so on. It’s their job and they do it well, it’s their work. They are doing what they are good at, just like you and me. This brings me to a subject that has bothered me for years, as to why some people see some professions as less important than others. For instance if you travel by bus or train to work, there’s a 99.9% chance
you won’t see the drivers face on the next day’s tabloid paper, unless there’s an accident in transit. Is a driver who has the responsibility to deliver you to your stop in good care in a lesser profession and not a hero, considering he or she has your life in hand? Compare the unequal status of nursing compared to the high profile and salaries on the above mentioned superstars. In July 2018 while attending a rugby game in Sydney (Ireland vs Australia), I met with some Irish nurses who were working in Australia. They were protesting in support of their fellow nurses back in Ireland. After a long conversation with them I was shocked to hear of the difficulties that were thrust upon them as they were just trying to do their daily work. For the work the nurses were doing in Ireland they were paid pittance, compared to other professions. I joined their protest in support, by writing about their plight in publications here, in Ireland and the USA, thinking the world might see as I saw the amazing contribution that they make to our lives as I had experienced since my childhood. I have always seen nurses as heroes ever since I was a very young child confined to hospital for very long periods. That was a time when visits were limited and there was no schooling for children in hospitals, no iPad, no iPhone, and no television. Hospitals were a dreary and lonely place for anyone confined there. I used to get so excited in anticipation of the loving wake up calls, from the nurses. The light that always
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Above and left: After a protest by Irish nurses for better wages conditions, their colleagues in Australia went out in sympathy with them.
shone for me was the smile on their faces when they woke me up for breakfast. Then it was tickle time to make me laugh, make my bed, sit and comfort me before they went about their daily duties. In their demanding duties of looking after four large wards of adults numbering fifty and I being only one of two children in one of the wards, the nurses always found time to help. Later on, I had major surgery, during the recovery from surgery I clinically died for a short period, who was there to help? My heroes the nurses, they watched over me day and night to assure me, that I didn’t feel like I was battling the crisis on my own. They prayed for me bedside, they read for me, they wiped my tears when I cried in pain and most important they held my hand through the recovery period. No popstars, no movie stars, no football stars, not one in sight, even if they were there they couldn’t do what my superheroes did. They saved my life and for that I and my family will always remain grateful to them. I don’t understand why people see fit to give more credit to certain professions over others. I’ve had the nursing profession top of my list ever since my times in hospital and I fail to see why they have to fight for fair pay and recognition for the amazing work they do. Nurses are at the forefront of emergencies, dealing with the drug addicted, they’re in operating theatres, making home calls to the elderly and delivering
babies. Let’s be very honest for a moment, when you’ll be drawing your last breath on this planet, whose hand would you sooner to be holding? A movie star’s? A music star? A football star or a compassionate NURSE’S hand? Nurses are the ones who might have to wash you when you won’t be able to. They are the ones who might have to feed you when you won’t be able to. They are the ones who will be there to comfort you in your hour of need, and more often than not, will be there to give you comfort as you draw your last breath. So, the world has finally come to its senses and now understand who the real heroes are and it took a disaster virus called COVID-19 to convince them of that. Now that the world sees what it was blind to for far too long, let’s put it right and give those angels of mercy the credit and the salaries that comes with their effort and dedication to keeping us all safe. Let’s not belittle them by arguing over fair pay for a fair day’s work coated with love. Like all heroes after a battle, the medals and accolades are dished out, so let’s not forget after this battle is over, who the heroes are and let’s bestow the highest honours in the world to those who worked on the front line. Those nurses put their lives at stake and fought a war for all the nations on earth. Until next, be safe and be good to those who love you.
SLAINTE FROM MELBOURNE
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The year of
Nightingales BY LLOYD GORMAN Even before the Coronavirus pandemic hit and put hospital and healthcare workers on the frontline, 2020 was meant to be the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. The World Health Organisation set aside this year to mark an important anniversary in the world of nursing. Exactly two hundred years ago on May 12, Florence Nightingale - the world's most famous nurse - was born in Florence, Italy to English parents, who never wanted her to become a nurse because it was not seen as a safe or respectable occupation for a lady. She would change that perception and nursing forever. The WHO said nurses and midwives play a vital role in providing health services. They devote their lives to caring for mothers and children; giving lifesaving immunizations and health advice; looking after older people and generally meeting everyday essential health needs and are often, the first and only point of care in their communities. According to the WHO, nurses and midwives make up nearly 50 per cent of the global health workforce. But if the Organisation’s target of universal health coverage globally by 2030 is going to be reached, the world will need nine million more nurses and midwives in the next decade. "That’s why the World Health Assembly has designated 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife," the WHO said. There is an Irish and Australian connection with Nightingale. She is best known for her pioneering medical treatment and care she provided to wounded and dying soldiers who also died in large numbers from disease and dirty conditions in the Crimean War (1853 to 1856). She called out for other carers to help her in this work and she was helped by two waves of Irish nuns - the Sisters of Mercy. The leader of the first group of nuns was one Sister Mary Clare Moore (born Dublin 1814), who became Nightingale’s right
Left: Irish nurse Vivien Lusted receiving the Nightingale Medal in 2019. hand at that time and the two women became devoted life long friends. Interestingly Sister Clare met Catherine McAuley when she was sixteen and would join McAuley at her Institute on Bagot Street, visiting the sick and poor in their homes and hospitals. When McAuley formed the Sisters of Mercy as a religious community in 1830, Mary Clare joined her. Mary Clare was training in intensive care nursing when the first great cholera epidemic broke out in Dublin in 1832. Sisters Clare and McAuley, like others in the order, worked long hours under difficult conditions with the poor and sick hit by the disease. In 1868, six “Nightingale” nurses accepted an invitation to come to Australia to establish a training school at Sydney Hospital. In 1907 (Nightingale died in 1910), the Hungarian Red Cross Society proposed that a special medal for women who had distinguished themselves in the care of the sick and wounded should be awarded as world wide tribute to Florence Nightingale, and it was introduced in 1912. In 1992, the rules were changed so that male nurses could also receive the medal. More than 40 Australian nurses have been awarded the Nightingale medal. Just five Irish nurses have ever received the distinction, including Galway woman Vivien Lusted in 2019. A lifelong nurse, she had served in war torn countries such as Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Myanmar with the Red Cross.
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THE
COVID CHRONICLES Life in Lockdown
Here, three correspondents from some of the world’s hardest hit nations offer an insight into their experience of Coronavirus in their part of the world. Seth Kaplan is an American who has for decades been travelling to Ireland to enjoy its culture, literature and Guinness and has made many friends there. Emmett Bowen will be familiar to regular readers as an active member of the Irish community in Japan and contributor to the magazine. Italian Lucia Guarino is a former marketing executive with The Irish Trade Board, before it became Enterprise Ireland.
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COVID CHRONICLES
LIFE DURING COVID
AS EXPERIENCED BY SETH KAPLAN IN WASHINGTON D.C. For those of you who don’t know, Washington DC is a federal district wedged in between the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is the capitol of the United States and has a population of just over 702,000, smaller than you may have thought. I live in the Upper Northwest of the city, a few miles from downtown. It’s quiet, away from the bustle, but close enough that you know your definitely in the city. Our current situation is, like many of you, weird, scary, bizarre and challenging. I will try and present a bit of a snapshot of what my world is like now. I will of course omit things like how poorly I’m eating at times and how much more beer I seem to be drinking, because, like some of you, those are the things I need to ignore right now. DC is under a stay at home order until May 15th. That means the city is asking all citizens to stay at home, isolated from others, and to practice social distancing when you do go out. All non essential business are closed and we are required to wear face coverings in public areas, on public transportation, ride shares, etc. If you do go out it should be for essentials like food and drink, for exercise or to walk a pet. The stay at home order is “due to expire…” but it will not be lifted until there is a two week decline in positive Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. Some speculation is that it could last until July or August. I certainly hope not. I’d like to get back to work, back to normal, back to not being panicked because I’m down to my last two rolls of toilet paper! But I’m not going to rush it or push it. I’d prefer not to have this stupid virus and will certainly do everything I can not to get it or spread it. So, what is life like here in DC? Sure, I’m inside my apartment more than I’ve ever been, and I think I’m about to finish Netflix. But, at times, if the news is off, and you’re nice and distracted, things can seem almost normal. And then you remember what’s happening out there. It’s an unusual time and we’re all experiencing a rather new reality. And, obviously we’ve been at this a while now. Some things have really changed, while others are exactly the same, except you’ll be wearing a mask. What follows are a few things, examples of how life is now in the midst of this pandemic here in Washington DC. Shopping for essentials is a bit of an event. First of all, it’s a trip to the outside. Secondly, it’s more complicated than it used to be. I don’t own a car so I’m lucky to be two blocks away from a big supermarket. I’ll tie my bandana/face mask around my mouth and nose, grab a reusable bag or two and walk up the street to the store. They limit the number of
Seth geared up to go to the market people that can be in the store at one time, so I always try and go at off hours, usually in the afternoon. I walk in, say hello to the masked security guard at the entrance who checks to make sure I’m masked, I grab a few disinfectant wipes provided by the store, get a cart, wipe it down a bit and go. From this moment I’m hyper vigilant about what I’m touching and who I’m near. I’m especially weary of getting my hands anywhere near my face, until I can wash them again at home. For the most part, currently, pretty much everything is available at the market, with the exception of some cleaning products and some paper products (I’m sure you heard about the American obsession to have way too much toilet paper when this all started, that’s still kind of happening. Not sure why…) The store is set up for social distancing, with markers set up on the floor six feet apart at the check out lines, and the aisles are arrowed for one way
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THE
COVID CHRONICLES traffic. I shop and try not to buy too much stuff that catch up. Of course its weird and this lack of social I know I don’t need. But these are trying times and interaction is difficult. But I understand why it has to sometimes you just need potato chips! I usually check be and I’m ok with that. And I think the hard part is out at the self check out lane and pay, I wipe down going to be when this is over, and we all reintegrate the screen with my aforementioned disinfectant wipes back into groups, crowds and gatherings again. I think and I head home. Once home, the crazy continues.. the PTSD from this might be an apparent sense of we’re not done yet. This social anxiety. The idea is a new reality and of being in crowds again for me, coming home is not exactly relaxing. from the market has a Time will tell. few extra steps. I was As mentioned, bars and my hands, I unpack, I restaurants are closed, lightly wash most of my but many do delivery shopping with soap and and pick up. You can water, dry it off and put get anything delivered it away. I’m sure this is these days. The usuals; overkill, but it hurts no groceries, prescriptions, one and why not? I wash booze, but you can also the packaging that may get, well, pretty much have been touched and anything. And, we Connecticut Avenue Northwest by the University of the District of Columbia. therefore contaminated. have entered the age of Normally, where this picture was taken is one of the most congested areas in my I’m not obsessive about neighborhood, for both traffic and pedestrians. “contactless delivery”. it, but I gotta admit, it The pizza ads stress how makes me feel better that once out of the over, your pizza will not be touched by I do it. (And yes, I’m much more of a germaphobe than human hands, until it’s in yours. Yeah, I know delivery I used to be!) Then I wash my hands again. And now, has been around forever and this is not new. It’s just finally, its time for a beer and some chips! more apparent now. Plus, it is a nice way to support These days, when possible, I like to go for long walks. your local restaurants and bars. All the gyms are closed, so it’s nice to get out and This is just a brief snapshot of how life is for me in the stretch the legs. Working out at home gets kind of middle of this Covid-19 pandemic. I am no one special. boring, so it’s nice to throw in some fresh air and I’m doing my part by staying on my couch. I’m a urban hiking in the mix. Again, it’s weird out there. freelance photographer and don’t really have much to Its quiet, really quiet. Traffic on the roads is very offer society in these times (except maybe posting nice light. Dog walkers and joggers are most of who you pictures on Instagram. That could be a nice distraction see on the streets. And we’re all very rude! Someone perhaps. I’m @sethkap5 if you want to look) I do comes towards you, you pull your mask up, you move have close friends who are doctors and nurses and away from them or even cross the street so as not to obviously they would write a different story. I have get near their “droplet cloud” (I believe that’s a term nothing but admiration not only for them, but for all nowadays). I’ll even hold my breath as I walk past. the folks who work at the supermarket, at the beer Still, its nice being outside in the fresh air stretching store, driving the buses, delivering those pizzas… for the legs. all those deemed essential workers. Socially, life is mostly Zoom happy hours, FaceTime group calls (among other social apps), and of course regular phone calls. Sure you might run into someone on the street and have a socially distanced conversation. Or, you might even meet up at a friends house, stand six feet apart and maybe have a beer and
Personally, I know we’ll get through this. Maybe it sounds like I have it easy and maybe I do. I don’t know. I’m working some, I’m worrying lots, I’m trying to do my part and keep busy with the other things in life. Now, I kinda think its time for a beer. Cheers…
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THE
COVID CHRONICLES
Konichiwa from the land of the rising sun AS EXPERIENCED BY EMMETT BOWEN IN TOKYO, JAPAN
The Irish community here in Japan have been showing great support and comfort to each other during these difficult times. All but a few of the St Patrick day parades across the country were cancelled. Tokyo’s parade, which is the biggest in Asia, is run by the Irish Network Japan (which I am the chairperson of), a not for profit volunteer organization run by the Irish community in Japan and their Japanese friends. It aims to promote Irish culture within Japan and to provide a support network for many of the Irish who find themselves in Japan on permanent or temporary basis.
the mystery of who and where the shortage of toilet paper and tissues around the world originated from. It was reported here in Japan by the news that the toilet paper and tissue hoarding started here in Tokyo on February 27th. It Above: Emmett Bowen at the Irish ambassadors residence in Tokyo. was the day Prime Minster Shinzo Abe asked all schools to close from Monday March 1st. The person who caused the hoarding thought everything was made in China, and with my children off school for a whole month they thought, I must get as much toilet paper and tissues as I can because the supply from China might dry up.
While many Irish pubs and restaurants are doing it tough, it is good to see that the Kyojin Stew House (The Giants’ Stew House) run by Irish man Alan Fisher is still going strong here in Tokyo. For those who do not know of The Giants’ Stew House, they make amazing Irish stews, all from Alan’s mothers’ recipes, along with fresh soda bread, Kerrygold butter and Maggies Leap craft beer, just to name a few things on offer. As of last week Alan has managed to change his whole business around – from a sit in restaurant to now offering take away. It’s great to see the Irish and Japanese community get behind Alan, supporting his restaurant with the orders flooding in (www.kyojinstewhouse.com). The Japan GAA are not playing any games or holding any practices but they are still training at home and supporting their community on social media. Above: Tokyo Skytree, an area that is normally very busy Before I go any at night. further, I’ve solved
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While this person was loading her shopping cart with only toilet paper and tissues, other people in the shop saw this, panicked and started doing the same. Which started the herding mentality. What the person who started this did not realize was that toilet paper and tissues are made 100% made in Japan and it is not imported from China. When the officials asked the nation to stop hoarding theses items people were still scared and continued to do it. I believe it took about three to four weeks for tissue and toilet paper supply to go back to normal. Unfortunately, the world did not learn from Japan’s lesson. The hoarding of these items happened around the world. So that is the mystery of the origin of where the toilet rolls and tissue hoarding started, right here in Tokyo. Things here are tough as they are around the world and Japan is dealing with it in its own way. Currently the whole of Japan is in lockdown as of this weekend. All essential services are still running, for example: banks, public transport, drugstores (chemist),
THE
COVID CHRONICLES doctor’s clinic, hospitals and supermarkets to name a few. Everything else is closed until May 6th when the government reviews the situation, much the same as you have in Australia. The difference here is, the government have asked people to stay home and for companies to allow their employees to work from home. However, there is no police fining people for going to parks, travelling to see friends and family etc. That might sound shocking when you compare what is going on in Australia but the thinking in Japan is about the collective good of the community, not individuals. So, with that been said, companies that have been asked to close and don’t will be named and shamed, which will be enough to make sure they
follow the rules. People in general are listening and are staying at home. Things are tough all over the world right now. With that been said there are super heroes among us during these crazy and difficult times we and currently living in. No, I am not talking about Iron Man, Spider Man, Wonder Women or even Deadpool. It’s our health care workers around the world that are doing amazing lifesaving work. I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart and to keep up the good fight against this horrible virus. We need to do our bit also by staying at home, remaining positive and washing your hands. Till next time, sayonara from Tokyo!
THoughts in Milano
AS EXPERIENCED BY LUCIA GUARINO IN MILAN, ITALY I have never seen such a light blue and clear sky here in Milano, or maybe… I have; perhaps only a few times the day after a heavy raining day or a tough wind in Autumn. The grey clouds which used to wrap naturally the town have faded away. Birds are singing any hour freely, not only just before the always proud and busy financial city wakes up. Is its identity still so clear? Is Milano still there? An unusual and strange air envelopes my rare walks: I cannot see or even touch it but I can feel it, it’s like a pressing stone on my heart. Catching a glimpse of a few people walking or queuing outside the few shops opened, almost no cars passing. All around a breathable and stunning silence. Piazza Duomo, Piazza Cordusio, Piazza Affari have been abandoned by the charming and impeccable well-dressed men and women with a briefcase in their hand, as well as the fashion districts, no longer crowded with colourful wealthy, curious or foreign people. On restaurants windows, a pen written scrap of paper with a rainbow telling “We will open soon, everything will be fine”. The “Navigli”, the bright canals in the center of Milanese nightlife seem to sleep, lulled by the calm waters around them. I wonder again: Milano is it you? Are you still alive? The long high-pitched sound of the sirens occasionally interrupts this unusual quiet. A sudden dull shiver runs through my body but I am ready to push it away, I don’t even raise my eyes while I am sweeping out the cloudy shadows inside my mind. What I do not want, I do not like is now behind my back, behind my steps which are getting quicker and quicker on my way home. The 6 p.m. daily bulletin, too much stuffed with figures: survived, infected... really kicks down my energy which I need now more than ever. A finger shuts the tv-screen down. Better now... quiet again... at home... but it’s a warm quietness, sweet and peaceful. I am lucky, I am lucky today too, I am grateful for every minute of my precious life, I feel more free now than ever. Milano has not answered yet but it will, I am sure. THE IRISH SCENE | 39
Top: Lucia at home. Above: Milanese landmarks are all but empty, an extremely unusual sight.
Fight and flight in time of crisis BY LLOYD GORMAN Jennie Beardsley has been in the travel business longer than even she realises. With 36 years experience under her belt as a travel agent, the British Travel boss has weathered previous crises such as SARS and even 9/11 but like the rest of us she has never been through a full blown pandemic. What seemed like a problem in China quickly spread around the world and caught many travellers and tourists everywhere - including here in Australia - completely unawares. All of a sudden a lot of people wanted and needed to get onto an airplane. “One day everything was normal and the next day everything had changed,” she said. Suddenly she was working from 6am until 1am seven days a week. “There were a lot of people who needed to travel, to get out of the country, people who were here on holidays and who had their flights cancelled by other airlines,” she said. “We had so many tourists who were here on holiday visas and I and my team were working around the clock to get them out. We also had a lot of people who had already planned to go back to Ireland and the UK and they need to get back. That was the easy bit before people needed permission to fly, then it started getting harder. There was a lot of work behind the scenes with Border Force. It wasn’t just a case of booking them a flight, getting them permission to fly was very time consuming. I became an immigration lawyer as well as everything else in the last few weeks. But basically we managed to get all our passengers out who needed to travel.”
While it is harder to get away, there are compassionate grounds such as a bereavement of a family member or for someone who has already sold their home in Australia with the intention of leaving Australia - but the exemptions are not easy to get. Jennie estimates there are about 10,000 Irish tourists in Australia and 30,000 Brits. Many of them are visiting family and loved ones and can stay with them, but staying longer than they expected raises visa issues which they need to be aware of and contact the authorities. Jennie has helped many Irish folk to get back to Ireland in recent weeks but she has been doing just that for many years. She has been in Australia for 28 years and had her first office in Subiaco, directly across the road from the Irish Club. “I’ve had a long relationship with the Irish community, going back to when St. Patrick’s Day was held down in Fremantle.” She has helped the Perth Rose of Tralee committee to organise flights for returning Roses and other groups, and travel vouchers and flights back to Ireland sponsored by British Travel often pop up as prizes for Irish fund raising efforts. There is another very important way she helps Irish people when they need it most. She has helped coordinate the repatriation of many bodies back to Ireland. Having lost her 23 year old stepson Jack in an accident in London a few years ago and trying to figure out what arrangements needed to be made or what to do, Jennie says she has a very personal appreciation and respect for what it means. While many sectors - including airlines - have been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis, Jennie and her colleagues have remained busy. “We are still doing bookings, as well as Perth we do the East coast, so we are still assiting people from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and even Darwin to get back to Europe for family bereavements and the like.” Working from home the British Travel crew are also helping people to reschedule holidays - including crusie ship get-aways for next year - and make other arrangements. Anyone who wanted to plan a trip but who couldn’t afford to pay the cost upfront can take advantage of a payment plan which allows the overall cost to be spread out. Even now, if you do need to get back to Ireland Jennie said there are still four flights a day out Perth - compared with seven normally that can get you there or daily services from Melbourne and Sydney. THE IRISH SCENE | 40
Qantas pulls a Ryanair It sounds like a standard Ryanair slashed fare pitch, but a one-way $19 flight between Sydney and Melbourne is the ticket Qantas is hoping will put bums on seats in its planes. While Virgin Australia has gone bust, Qantas is steeling itself for losses of $40 million a week until the sector recovers. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in early May that the cost of booking a seat on a regional route with its budget carrier Jetstar could plummet to $39 or even $19 in a bid to get as many passengers on board as possible. The same deal would not sound out of place if it was coming from Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. Joyce left Aer Lingus in the mid 1990’s to come to Australia where he was involved with Ansett Australia, a new carrier that eventually went out of business in 2001. He joined Qantas in 2000, and was made CEO of its subsidiary Jetstar Airways in 2003 and then overall boss of the Flying Kangaroo in 2008. In the last 12 years he is credited with turning the national carrier into one of the world’s most profitable airlines (sometimes through drastic measures), and about twelve months ago in May 2019 he committed to another three years as Qantas CEO. As part of his response to the coronavirus pandemic, Joyce, 53, said he would give up his salary (about $24 million a year) for the rest of the financial year.
Top: Qantas boss Alan Joyce. Above: Michael O’Leary (right), CEO of Ryanair
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Flying Doctors and flights of mercy BY LLOYD GORMAN Irish Scene was one of the first media outlets anywhere to publish (on March 26 and 27) the story of the sudden exodus of Irish people - including dozens of doctors and nurses - flying at short notice from Perth to Ireland to do their bit in the fight against COVID-19. The first of the two articles - published while they were still en-route back to Ireland - attracted more than 10,000 online readers within hours of the story going live, Irish Scene’s biggest ever readership for a single story, a sure sign of the community interest in their manic mission. But some criticised them openly for abandoning their adopted country, fleeing it in its hour of need. That view demands a response. While they obviously made what they felt was the right decision for them it would not have been an easy choice. Many of them made split second decisions to walk away from lives they had built in Australia. That takes courage. Every one of them would have had their own personal reasons why they chose to go. Family. Duty. Maybe a
friend had contracted coronavirus or a loved one was at high risk. Who wouldn’t rush to protect their family and friends and fellow citizens if they could? They were not flown back at the expense of the taxpayer here, or in Australia, they paid for their own tickets. And what would those critics say about Australian medics living and working abroad who were doing exactly the same thing and trying to get back home to be of help. Should they not be encouraged to come? As events (at time of writing) have proved, the decision of so many Irish medics to return to Ireland was absolutely the right thing to do. Thankfully (again at time of writing) the measures Australian political and health systems have been able to put in place have worked incredibly well. Ireland has not been so fortunate and their need for healthcare professionals is greater. More than a thousand medically trained people returned to Ireland to support their Irish colleagues in the fight against COVID-19. Every single one of them would have made a contribution that money can’t buy. The fact that about ten per cent of them came from Australia, from Perth, is something we should be proud of. Speaking in the Dail recently Health Minister Simon Harris said he would try to encourage as many of them to remain after the crisis has abated. Some may well do that but others may come back to Australia again. Whatever they choose to do they deserve our thanks and respect, just like every other hospital and healthcare worker on the frontline. The following is an edited version of the stories that appeared on the Irish Scene Facebook site on March 26/27.
A Qantas airliner - chartered by the Irish government carrying 170 Irish people - eighty of them doctors and nurses - scrambling to get ‘home’ left Perth, Western Australian on Wednesday of this week. It came as most carriers slash or even stop most of their international routes in recent days and some countries close their borders. The large contingent of medicos - mainly from WA hospitals - all responded to the Irish government’s “On Call for Ireland” drive for qualified or retired personnel to sign up as volunteers in a national campaign against the pandemic. “There were many happy people heading home,” Ireland’s
Honorary Consulate in Perth, Marty Kavanagh told Irish Scene. The mercy mission - which does not appear to have been picked up by local (WA) news outlets but has been reported by some Irish media - is understood to have flown the Perth to London route. Qantas - which is headed up by Irish aviation boss Alan Joyce - launched the direct route in March 2019. Once there other arrangements were made to get the passengers then flying to Ireland where they will have to selfisolate for 14 days, and also register with bodies such as the Irish Medical Council. In a short statement Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney confirmed the “successful departure” on Wednesday (March 25) had 170 Irish citizens on board.
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“Their departure was achieved by the efforts and determination of our Embassy and Consulates in Australia, working with Qantas,” he said. “I want to thank them all. Our consular team at HQ continues their efforts to asset all our citizens around the world who have been affected by the coronavirus and are looking to come home. We are working on a number of options and hope to facilitate further flights in the coming days.” It is understood those who managed to get onboard had registered with Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Irish ambassador Breandán Ó Caollaí recommended concerned Irish citizens in Australia to register on the DFA website as the best way for the authorities to contact them. Irish nationals who may have to extend their stay in Australia should consult the Department of Home Affairs about their visa status, if relevant. “The staff in our three missions are responding to huge demands and are doing a fantastic job in very difficult circumstances,” Ambassador Ó Caollaí said. “Our missions are liaising closely with the Government-funded immigrant support agencies in cases of urgent need.”
As reported last night, the Qantas flight (QF5) from Perth - chartered by the Irish government - safely touched down in London with the 170 Irish people on board - including eighty medics - then making the short trip home with Ireland’s national carrier. Not long after they touched down, one of their number - Dr Hilary Coyle, who was working in Perth until she resigned from her position here - spoke with RTE Radio 1 offering some of the first insights and reactions of the new arrivals. “It’s been a really really long journey, that started in Perth at ten past ten Australian time, on the 25th of March,” Dr Coyle told the Irish broadcaster. “We got on a Qantas flight, which was a 17 hour flight direct to Heathrow, we were lucky enough to be sorted with flights from Aer Lingus. I can’t believe we are home. We are so excited just to be back on Irish soil. I think a lot of us were skeptical it would ever happen.” The sense of the scale of the Coronavirus outbreak in Ireland was evident from the moment they landed in Dublin airport. “We were met by two members of the Irish embassy who really stood back, a two metre distance and there were constant reminders gong through the airport and baggage claim in Ireland to keep your distance,” she added. “It’s really really good that its being enforced and people are taking it seriously. We didn’t see it being taken that seriously back in Australia, as of yet, but I’m certain its to come in the next couple of days.” Every person on the mercy flight from Perth had their own personal reasons and motivations to return to Ireland, but they shared a common sense of purpose. “We all had the joint reason for coming back,” she said. “We want to help out our colleagues on the front line, we are all Irish doctors, we were all trained in Ireland and we have a huge sense of duty to come back and help out the Irish people as well as the Irish health care workers, as well as personal reasons to come home, be close to family.” Before they can do anything all 170 passengers will have to go into isolation for 14 days. For many the pause may give them a chance to (remotely) sort out their registrations. “A few of us have yet to register with the Irish Medical Council but I know they are doing really well to fast track applications to help us get back to work as soon as possible,” she said. “We all signed up to the HSE (Health Service Executive) ‘On Call’, so we’ll have to wait and see those contracts and what they mean for us, where we’ll be placed and everything.” The RTE presenter thanked Dr Hillary and the other for what they were doing. In turn she thanked the Irish public for their support. “We hope now we can give back and get back
fighting this virus.” She also thanked the Department of Foreign Affairs, Embassy and Consulates in Australia, Qantas and Aer Lingus for making it possible for them to get home. As Dr Hilary said, she and the other Irish doctors had responded to the Health Service Executive’s ‘On Call for Ireland’. That national campaign to recruit healthcare professionals no longer in the sector, retired GPs and other former health workers as well as medical students and volunteers was launched on St Patrick’s Day. Within a week of the appeal, some 60,000 people had signed up. That is a remarkable outcome, by any measure. The HSE aims to interview and process 6,000 of them a week. These people - this generation - have proved their worth. The last time there was such a patriotic and overwhelming rush to defend the country - that I can think of - was back in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. Those were different times and a very different situation but the numbers involved are on a par with the modern reaction. As soon as the call went out tens of thousands of Irish men [Unionists and Nationalists/Protestants and Catholics] enlisted as volunteers in what was called ‘Kitchener’s Army’ or ‘Kitcheners Mob’ where they formed Irish Divisions within the British army. Many of them would see action - and lose their lives - at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Kitchener - Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC to give him his full moniker - was a titan of the British establishment and the British war effort. Kitcheners Common in Subiaco, Perth for example, was named after him at the outbreak of the war, and retains that name even today. By coincidence he was also born in Ireland but he never considered himself to be an Irish man - in fact he had a strong disdain for them, particularly the Catholic population. Kitchener - a single handed military industrial complex was born to an English father who had not long before bought land in Ireland as part of a scheme aimed at British officers who sold their commissions, buying their way out of the army. The Kitchener family did not spend long in Ireland, but long enough for it to be the place where little Horatio came into the world. In any case, most people will know Kitchener by sight. His is the face that forms the stern and striking figure of some of the British army’s most successful recruitment posters. The imposing image was crafted by graphic artist Alfred Leete and is credited as being responsible for hundreds of thousands of young men joining up. The American’s liked it so much they stole the concept, substituting Kitchener’s visage and pointing finger with that of Uncle Sam. Just an interesting aside, one of the other artworks Leete created in his career was an iconic “My Goodness where’s my Guinness?” poster. The ‘On Call for Ireland’ campaign did include a poster, one that lacked any artistic merit or iconic imagery, but it seems it didn’t need them to be successful.
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Crooners & Craic versus Coronavirus BY LLOYD GORMAN
And the band played on! As far as disasters go, the sinking of the Titanic 108 years ago is one of almost supernatural proportions. Some 1,517 souls perished in the tragedy including some of the world’s wealthiest people of the time. The terror and chaos that ensued as more than 2,000 passengers scrambled for safety and escape doesn’t bear thinking about. There were many acts of courage and some of cowardice. In the mêlée of madness, it is hard to imagine an act of greater heroism and self-sacrifice than the story of the ship’s band playing music to try and help calm passengers. They played until the moment they could no longer hold their instruments or stand as the deck listed to the point where they would have fallen or been thrown into the bitter dark cold waters. All eight musicians died. The entertainers had been hired for the maiden voyage as two separate separate groups - a quintet to act as a “saloon orchestra” and a trio to be a “deck band” - but performed together just that once. The story of their behaviour and bravery was one of the first stories to emerge and get picked up by the world’s press. Traditional Irish music band Emerald Tide found themselves channelling a similar spirit in the face of a modern day maritime disaster at the heart o Australia’s COVID-19 crisis. The all singing foursome - Killian Shannon (band leader) on banjo and bouzouki, Giselle O’Meara (percussion and Irish dancing), Kate Heneghan on fiddle, harp, piano and Joe Junker on acoustic guitar - went on the adventure of a lifetime together late last year. They joined the Ruby Princess in early December - the first Irish trad band ever to be signed up as onboard entertainment with the cruise ship operators. “We can’t wait to see the adventures you have in Oz!,” the Premier Entertainment International agency in Cork said on social media at the start of their four month long stint. Before long, the players had a loyal following amongst the ship’s nearly 3,000 passengers. The four friends also enjoyed the benefit of being able to fit in some travel - including a trip to the Fiji Islands and New Zealand - as part of their experience.
Above: Traditional Irish music band Emerald Tide were entertainers onboard the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship (top). Above right: The band from the Titanic They celebrated Australia Day on board, celebrated birthdays and rocked the house every time they played together. St Patrick’s Day was their 100th day onboard, by which time the trip of a lifetime was quickly become a nightmare with no end or escape in sight. “It’s an unprecedented and uncertain time for everyone, but we feel more grateful than ever for music (and WiFi) in times like these. Enjoy our version of ‘Hallelujah’,” Kate Heneghan said on Facebook in mid March. With Kate playing the harp and Giselle singing, they recorded (with the help of their friends Aleksandr Kravchenko & Julien) a video of an angelic version of the Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley classic on the top deck, with Sydney Opera House as the backdrop. The boys in the band said they were proud of the girls. “During these tough times, it’s important to stay positive and these 2 girls are certainly doing their part to keep the spirits high not just within the band but with every crew member stuck on board,” they said. Even in self-isolation in their cabins, a few days later the duo performed and recorded another uplifting piece of entertainment with a version of Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. Hundreds of passengers - including people who were infected - from the Ruby Princess were allowed to
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disembark at Sydney’s Circular Quay on March 19, a decision which would have Australia-wide ramifications. As a direct result of them being allowed to go into the community, the number of coronavirus cases in New South Wales spiked. Indeed, by late April one in every ten COVID-19 cases in Australia could be linked to 650 Ruby Princess passengers while other passengers returned home to other parts of the world. Of the 21 deaths traced back to the ship, one was a West Australian. All this was playing out while the MS Artania was docked in Fremantle and and presented the McGowan government and health authorities here with a headache of their own. Interestingly, one of the entertainers on board the Artania was one of those to fall sick and contract Coronavirus. Despite their best attempts to stay positive, the young Irish museo’s four weeks in quarantine without any clue to when they could get out made them desperate to get off the ship. Even more so when they were told the cruise ship and its 1,000 strong crew would be forced to leave Port Kembla, south of Sydney by mid April and they didn’t know its destination. “Throughout all this we have had no clue about what was going on and relying on social media and news to keep us informed with no information at all about when we will be going home,” Joe Junker, a Kildare native, told The Irish Times. “Me and my band mates feel as though we’re hostages or pawns in this political battle which is not one of our making. We feel powerless in this situation.” A petition on change.org to repatriate them to Ireland got more than 9,000 signatures and helped raise their case with authorities. The pressure - and media attention and no doubt
efforts by Irish embassy staff working in the background - got them off. On April 21, the four piece band were amongst 54 people given permission to leave the Princess. A clearly relieved Joe Junker posted a video on social media of him playing his guitar. “I’m off the boat. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyup. I recorded this last night after I found out the news officially. Don’t mind the whites of my eyes that’s what happens to a man in cabin quarantine for 30 days and it means that I’m happy ha. Thanks to everybody at home for all the support and I’ll see you all soon. This is the last ever recording I will ever do in that room. Easy blues by John Martyn”. Kate Heneghan also posted a final video of her playing two reels on the harp, ‘Black Pats’ & ‘The Humours of Westport’, saying “because I’m so looking forward to getting home!”. Her farewell message set the scene for a dramatic exit. “All the Irish along with 54 others disembarked the Ruby Princess this morning,” she said. “Australian border force, NSW Police, the Australian Defence Force, coach drivers, media, nurses, doctors... it was like a movie coming off!! We are currently quarantined in a hotel in Sydney and are waiting for our flights home.” She said the video and tunes were to celebrate the occasion and called them her #quarantunes edition. “Thanks to Sal Heneghan for the nomination. And thanks to Maggie-Mae Heneghan for teaching me the first tune this month through WhatsApp!!. (P.S only had one take to do this coz my next door neighbour doesn’t like harp music apparently).” Back home in Ireland in May, Heneghan wrote and recorded a new piece of music called ‘The Waves of Change’ when she was asked to take part in an live event in aid of Covid-19 relief. “I’d like to dedicate it to the 57,000 crew members still at sea, waiting to get home to their families,” she said. Check it and the group out on their Facebook site, they are a bunch of gifted musicians and great people. facebook.com/emeraldtideband/
We’re the original Coronas Around the same time as Emerald Tide were stranded in their pandemic hell, another Irish band were coming to terms with it in another totally different way. “People are saying to me, ‘Are you going to change your name?’ No, we’re around too long. We can’t let it beat us and let [make] us change the name,” Coronas frontman Danny Reilly told Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show on April 17.
Above: Irish band The Coronas
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“It’s one of those things, I think. It’s just an unfortunate thing. What can you do? We had it first!,” the singer said. The multi-platinum hit makers from Dublin have been The Coronas for about 17 years now, and they were meant to be on tour in America and were due to visit the UK and Australia later this year as well. “You don’t know when things are going to turn around,” O’Reilly added. “It’s such a leveller; no one
knows at all and we’re all in the same boat. It’s a crazy thing. But I think we’re in a better position than a lot of musicians. We’re lucky enough; we’ve had 10 good years of it and hopefully we’ll be able to bounce back.” The boys were to play three gigs - with special guest Ryan McMullan - in Melbourne (Prince Bandroom), Sydney (Metro Theatre) and Perth (Capitol). They have toured Australia more than once already and we look forward to the time they can get back.
Helping those who help themselves The Band-Aid phenomenon (see page 48) inspired a similar but smaller scale event in Ireland in 1986.
Blooming brilliant Quite early into the lockdown in Ireland folk legend Luka Bloom (above) stepped up to do his bit. The original plan was to livestream a session with the singer songwriter but for various reasons that became a live nearly one hour long recording of Luka which was then posted on YouTube (where you can still find it). On March 22 in the quaint The Aloe Tree shop in Ennistimon, Co. Clare (in the People’s Republic of Ireland as he says), Luka proved what one musician can do in a time of need. “I’m not a doctor, I’m not a counsellor, I’m not a nurse or therapist of any kind but I have always believed in the healing power of songs and music in my own life and just because i’m not in the front line in the medical fight we are all in now I can sign a few songs and most importantly be kind and I can be patient,” he said. Like his live gigs Luka gave little insights and anecdotes about his songs and experiences, and made the viewer feel part of the event. “I’m going to imagine when I sing this song people in their kitchens and living rooms joining in I hope,” he said, before breaking into Sonny Sailor Boy. Talking about how St Patrick’s Day this year was so strange Luka said he: “loved watching online videos of parades in their backgarden playing tunes dressing up the kids and putting them online.” youtube.com/watch?v=nFkeBNUktlk
The Irish economy was in crisis. Some 250,000 people were unemployed and on the dole queues while thousands more fled left the country in droves, seeking employment and hope in other parts of the world - the so called ‘Brain Drain’. Successive Irish governments seemed unable to fix the problem, so scores of Irish musicians and artists jumped at the chance to do their bit. Geldof and the Boomtown Rats were there as were Bagatelle, Paul Brady, The Chieftains, Clannad, The Pogues, De Dannan and Thin Lizzy, to name but a few. Self Aid happened on May 17 1986 and within 14 ours the staged concert helped generate millions of pounds and more than a 1,000 job pledges. Conditions were still grim for many after that day, but it marked a turning point for the country and within a few short years Ireland went from being a basket case to having one of the best economies in Europe.
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Zombie
BY THE CRANBERRIES Another head hangs lowly Child is slowly taken And the violence, caused such silence Who are we mistaken? But you see, it’s not me It’s not my family In your head, in your head, they are fighting With their tanks, and their bombs And their bombs, and their guns In your head, in your head they are crying In your head, in your head Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie What’s in your head, in your head Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie, oh Du, du, du, du Du, du, du, du Du, du, du, du Du, du, du, du Another mother’s breaking Heart is taking over When the violence causes silence We must be mistaken It’s the same old theme Since nineteen-sixteen In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie Interesting things are happening on the internet. In mid/late April, Limerick band The Cranberries reached a very contemporary milestone. They became the first Irish band ever - and one of only six in the world so far - to get more than a billion views on YouTube for their signature song Zombie. [It came exactly 12 months after the museos behind other hits such as Dreams and Lingers, put out their farewell album - mixed with lost recordings and songs of Dolores O’Riordain who died in January 2018.] Zombie was the band’s response to the 1993 IRA bombing in Warnington in the UK. Without warning, two Republican bombs exploded on Bridge Street, killing three year old Johnathan Ball and 12 year old Tim Parry, while 54 more people were injured. The Troubles in Northern Ireland claimed more than 3,000 lives through thousands of shootings, beatings and bombings. Zombie was so ‘political’, their record company did not want to produce it but the band insisted. The stylised video to go with the song was filmed in Belfast and incorporated real footage of British soldiers. It was banned by the BBC. Zombie was the main single from their second album ‘No Need to Argue’, released in 1994. It shot to number one in several countries including Australia, and Triple J listeners voted it number one on the station’s Hottest 100 1994 chart. Another measure of how powerful the song was, came from Colin Parry, the father of Tim, who in the wake of O’Riordain’s sudden death paid tribute to her for the song. It was he said “both majestic and also very real lyrics” (which are reproduced, right). The distinctive song must strike a deep chord with people. In the two weeks after it hit the billion mark, Zombie was watched/ downloaded again another six million times, and climbing. An anti-war song has become an anthem for people everywhere around the world. Still mourning the loss of their friend and singer, the rest of the band said she would have had a big proud smile on her face. “Thank you so much to all our fans around the world for supporting us over so many years,” the band said. “Hopefully you are all safe and well in this bizarre time and managing to find some hope and positivity in our music.” The others songs in the You Tube billionaires club are Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” (1992); Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991); Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (1987); A-ha’s “Take On Me” (1985); and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975). THE IRISH SCENE | 47
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He’s got the whole world in his hand The Band-Aid concert in 1985 was a game-changer in many ways. For one, it couldn’t stop famine but it changed the way the world reacted to it. The global music event was organised by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. Ireland’s own Famine experiences were more than 150 years old but in the mind of many who supported the pop crusade.
Declan Kelly
The COVID-19 crisis had its own global Band-Aid moment, again organised by another Irishman. Declan Kelly, originally from Tipperary, was the executive producer of the One World: Together at Home virtual gigs. Kelly, head of Teneo, a global advisory firm, worked in the background to make the event happen while Lady Gaga helped pull together many of the world’s biggest recording artists to take part. Irish singers Hozier and Niall Horan were amongst them. Broadcast live on April 18th, the virtual concert raised $127 million from global companies and corporations to support of health care workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Irishman is a board member of Global Citizen, an international advocacy organisation set up to try and end extreme poverty by 2030. The One World: Together at Home concert was not quite his first rodeo. Again acting as executive producer for the ‘Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100’ he brought together heads of state, dignitaries, many of the world’s most talented artists and influencers, and thousands of global citizens to celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela and led to 60 commitments and announcements worth $7.2 Billion, set to affect the lives of 121M people. Kelly, who studied at University College Galway, also claims to have had some influence back at home. “Prior to Teneo, Declan served as the U.S. Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland at the U.S. Department of State, appointed by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in September, 2009,” his profile on the firms website states. “In his role as Envoy, Declan is recognized as having helped bring significant investment to the region from U.S. corporations. He also played a significant role in supporting the efforts that led to the historic devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly, giving Northern Ireland fully devolved political governance for the first time in its modern history.”
Above: The Healys in their Kitchen
Here’s one they prepared earlier Long before any of us could imagine we would all be forced to stay at home under lockdown, a Perth group hit upon the idea of recording songs and tunes in their house and putting it online. The Healy’s ‘Kitchen Series’ was ahead of its time you could say, and they have been reheating that series on their Facebook site. The series is upbeat and inviting to all, but is not without its own tinge of sadness. In rerunning the series, the boys said they thought about skipping episode 14 - a great version of Hotel California - which they recorded with their late friend and fellow museo Gary Cox, who died in March. But the Irish born boys figured that it was not what he would have wanted, so they showed it in his honour. On their Facebook site the boys said there was a back story to the recording. “A short while after we uploaded the original video it was shut down by the powers that be both here and on YouTube, it was instantly a very popular video but the band that
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Below left: The Broken Pokers home studio. Below right: Punters jam packed into JB O’Reilley’s to watch the Broken Pokers, before restrictions
wrote it & their record label threatened legal action and so it was removed. If you look back through our Healy’s Kitchen episodes you will not find an episode 14. Anyhow it’s just a song in a Kitchen making people happy and we know it made Gary happy so here it is one last time as a tribute to the man himself. RIP Gaz you were awesome.” facebook.com/thehealys/ Now the Healys are taking their jamming sessions from the kitchen into the lounge, with their ‘Living Room Live Sessions’, in association with The Galway Hooker. They will make their first performance since St. Patrick’s Day on May 16, from 4pm until 11.20 pm. As well as getting a fix of great live music, viewers will also be in with the chance to win a ‘feast’ for two, and take part in other games, competitions and giveaways for the broadcast, which they are hailing as “guaranteed to be a ‘night’ to remember!’.
Broken, but not beaten The pub is the natural environment for trad groups. Back in the BC days, (Before Coronavirus) you could find The Broken Pokers and a close following in places like JB’s, as this great pic of them in session shows. They too have been making the adjustment from live music act in public houses to domestic music publishing house as they moved online. The Pokers toured Singapore for a string of gigs around St Patricks Day and returned home to Perth about the 19th of March, just as the local landscape was changing out of all recognition. On April 19 they held their first Facebook Live-stream, a mix of songs and tunes they chose, mixed with some requests. That was the start of something that would grow quickly. On May 4 (May the Fourth be with you!) they updated fans about their response to the pandemic and the restrictions and changes it has brought about. “Its taken us almost 7 weeks to achieve but after launching our Sunday program yesterday, we can finally say that we have 3 (very different) shows per week which we can share with you,” they said on their Facebook site. “It’s been full on and will continue to be as we upgrade and keep improving them all each week. Hopefully, with the variety we are providing, there’ll be something for everyone who enjoyed watching the band in our many iterations pre-COVID. We are excited to bring you all on this journey with us and appreciate your support and patience while we (as humble musicians) learn the necessary skills to bring our band to your living room.”
Club gets in on organised rhyme Less than a week after St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish Club introduced changes to its opening hours, social distancing measures and began to allow take-away orders only from Andy’s Kitchen in response to the rise of COVID-19 concerns. On March 28 it announced it would be closing until ‘these uncertain times have passed’ for the health and wellbeing of everyone linked with the club. As well as all its other regular weekly activities, the Club was due to host an evening with Perth based Irish writer Dervla McTiernan on March 22 to talk about her brand new novel The Good Turn. Whenever McTiernan is a guest at a public (and free!) event like this, it is always a full house as legions of fans rock up to hear her speak and probably sign a copy of her THE IRISH SCENE | 49
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book for them. The talk was cancelled in advance and on the night she was meant to be at the Club the author was instead tweeting from home about a story on 10daily.com. au called ‘The Best Books To Binge While You’re In SelfIsolation’, one of which was ‘The Good Turn’. McTiernan has always had a healthy and positive approach to social media, which became even more important under our new circumstances as she connects with fans and shares her own thoughts and experiences in isolation. The Club’s committee said they would welcome creative ways to engage with its members and the broader community. Connor transported the Club’s Tuesday night table quiz online as a ‘virtual quiz night’ instead. The one hour brain tickler session - which would not have been possible without Gillian, his ‘IT Department/Barman’ - quickly found a following here in Perth but also around the world with friends and family members who heard about the new online format. As well as having a policy of not mentioning the ‘C’ word during the quiz, Dermot also has a tricky question (not easy to Google) at the end which he says he will buy the person who gets it a ‘pint’ at the Irish Club when it reopens. At this rate he will be buying a few rounds, but is still going strong. The Club has also put up past recordings of concerts and events - such as The Gathering from October 2019 - and a composite video of 40 members (in ten countries) of the Online Academy of Irish Music in Doolin, Co. Clare playing The Rattling Bog. But it has also been able to create new musical and entertainment content. A bunch of musicians here in Perth - including Fiona Rea, Tommy O’Brien, Bryan Dalton and others - have taken the old RTE music quiz programme The Lyrics Board and adapted as an online competition (two teams) and good natured fun event open to anyone to take part in. Songs of Ireland was another great initiative out of the Club. The idea was to have a Sunday session over four weeks - one for each provence of Ireland and for every county to play a song. Again the likes of Fiona Rea and Tommy O’Brien pop up as regulars with fellow artists and performers Bryan Dalton, Mary Carroll and Frank
Top: Dervla was meant to introduce her latest book at the Irish Club. Above images: Songs of Ireland online Sunday Sessions featuring local musicians over Zoom, and The Lyrics Board, which has been adapted as an online competition. Over page, top right: Quizmaster Connor hosts a virtual quiz every Tuesday night
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Glackin chipping in. Fred Rea had a hand in Songs of Ireland, and not to let Anzac Day go by without a tribute from the Irish Community, he also staged an online musical tribute, with special guests Gerry Gannon, Mary Ann Gannon, Tommy O’Brien and other guests who ‘popped in’ for a cuppa tea and a song. facebook.com/irishclubofwa/
Happy feet! Finally, ending off with a dancing video we enjoyed: “Dance For Hope: Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance Dances WARLORDS at Home (FULL)”. Dancers isolated at home or in other real life lockdown situations, turn on the power of some flashy Irish dancing to provide a bit of light relief and enjoyment and a few hints about this Covid crazy period. The video is dedicated to all healthcare workers. Its well worth a watch, more than 400,000 others have already. https://youtu.be/Z4RoVVp8JJw
Matters of
PUB-LICinterest! BY LLOYD GORMAN
Coronavirus caused chaos and closure Pubs were amongst the first businesses in Western Australia and across the country to feel the full brunt of Coronavirus restrictions. Perth’s Irish pubs and the Irish Club in Subiaco were able to open for the Tuesday of St. Patrick’s Day, but there were a lot of jitters within the industry and amongst customers, which it is probably fair to say did have an impact on turnout on what would normally be their biggest trading day on the calendar. The mood was one of hoping for the best at a time of total uncertainty. As it happened, March 17 was sandwiched into a week of dizzying changes that tumbled every social norm and custom we know. Only the day before (Monday), the maximum number of people allowed to be in the same place was capped at 500 by the federal government. When we woke up on the Wednesday (no doubt some nursing a sore head or sick stomach from the previous days festivities), that was cut right back to a maximum of 100 people. Shortly after that crowds were to be no bigger than ten people and before long politicians and health bosses were telling us to keep to ourselves, stay at home, not to go out unless it was necessary and certainly not to go near other people, and if we had to have interaction, to practice social
distancing at all times. The world looked very different at the end of that week than it had when it started on Monday, and the changes kept coming. One city Irish pub posted a Facebook message on March 20 that it was ‘business as usual’ and it’s doors were staying open and customers were invited to join them for a meal and drink. But for the health and safety of staff and punters the premises could only hold 100 patrons at the most. But 24 hours later the same establishment updated its social media site to say that due to the impact of COVID-19 the owners and management felt there was “no the reasonable choice for us other than to close our business immediately”. The closure was temporary and dependent on the advice from the relevant authorities they hoped to reopen when possible. It was the first venue to close its doors and soon the rest followed on March 23. Reopening their doors will be more of a marathon than a sprint that could take weeks or possibly months if indications from the federal and state governments are anything to go by. Unfortunately, pubs back in Ireland may face an even longer wait.
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Catering and creating in a crazy climate While some Irish bars remain closed, others have adapted the way they operate to keep trading as much as possible. Kitchens have become their engine rooms as food seems to one way they can keep going. Some have moved into take-away and order deliveries for hot meals, drinks and alcohol. It’s pub grub on the go. Hard working chefs and kitchen crews at Durty Nelly’s, Paddy Malones and Woodbridge Hotel are turning out menus and dishes that customers can order for pick up. Tasty meals are also available for pick up from The Galway Hooker, which has also found a way to give customers even more choice. The bar - which was only two months open when the pandemic hit - has opened a ‘shopfront’ on the premises, selling many Irish favourites and brands which no doubt will bring a bit of comfort in an unsettling time. Likewise
Fibbers is selling alcohol and hot food for takeaway, as well as groceries such as dry aged steaks, sausages, mince, breads and fresh vegetables. McLoughlin’s Butchers is not in the pub game of course but they are another great example of how local Irish businesses in Perth are adapting to the situation. Anyone who has been there knows Paul McLoughlin’s shop in Malaga is about the best place around to get your Irish sausages, rashers and any other meat you’d care to eat, but it also stocks a large range of Irish snacks, foodstuffs, sauces and drinks. McLoughlin’s recently introduced taking orders over the phone from stay at home shoppers and is delivering to customers homes. Maybe when all this has settled down they might keep running this service. The Point Rooftop Bar & Grill isn’t offering meals but even in lockdown it is selling gift cards which of course can be used when its back in business. In fact, most pubs will probably offer something similar. Our pubs will need all the custom they can get on the other side of this crisis.
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Miss you like crazy!
JB O’Reilly owner Paul North posted a message on Facebook on April 1 that no doubt sums up the feelings of a great number of us and applies to every Irish bar in Perth and across Australia. It involved a note which said “We need JB’s open soon. We’re all going crazy!”. “THANKYOU to our beautiful patrons,” he replied on Facebook. “This was left on the pub van yesterday and it seriously melted our hearts. As soon as we can we’ll be back. Love and miss you lots xoxo.” Irish Scene would like to second the sentiment expressed in the note. Because none of us have seen them in quite a while now, below is a selection of photos of friendly faces from our favourite watering holes, for whom this must be a difficult time. If you are looking for a laugh, google the “When the pubs finally reopen” comedy sketch by the Windup Merchantz!!!
Guinness take on self isolation As well as being world famous for its porter Guinness is also well known for its creative marketing campaigns. Over the years the drinks maker has had many iconic and outstanding advertisements in print and broadcast media. Some are more elaborate than others, but sometimes a simple die can be much more than the sum of its parts, as we think this Guinness image created especially for the Coronavirus pandemic goes to prove. THE IRISH SCENE | 53
www.easivisa.com EasiVisa makes migration simple
Principal of EasiVisa, Carol-Ann Lynch, shares her experiences as a migration agent during the pandemic panic January 10th 2020 On a warm January morning, as I was heading to the Royal Perth Hospital on a Yellow Cat bus, a smiling senior Noongar lady, accompanied by a younger male friend, hopped on and sat next to me. We started chatting. The lady (who I shall refer to as Jen) explained that she had a keen interest in genealogy and possessed both Noongar and Irish blood. Jen was wonderfully knowledgeable and deeply engaging. I can’t remember enjoying a bus ride so much! As the bus approached Royal Perth Hospital I was sad that our conversation was drawing to a close. We got off the bus together and continued chatting for a few more minutes before heading to our respective appointments. Mine was with a client and Jen’s was with her medical consultant. Jen’s smiling, happy disposition disguised the fact she did not enjoy good health. I handed Jen my business card and said that I would love to continue our conversation one day. I hoped she would keep in touch. Later that day, Jen appeared at our EasiVisa office in West Perth with her young friend and an older chap. I was taken off guard. I hadn’t expected to see Jen quite so soon! Having said that, I was delighted to see her again and welcomed Jen and her friends into our office where a most extraordinary conversation took place. Those three wonderful people, who had experienced enormous social disadvantage in our “Lucky Country” appeared to have amazing insight into what could be done in order to repair the economic, social and environmental fabric of our increasingly sick world. They wanted to help heal our society and our environment. As our fascinating conversation drew to a close, one of Jen’s friends calmly announced “in four weeks’ time, humanity will face a global disaster. The world’s stock markets will crash, businesses will go into liquidation and there will be mass global
unemployment. It will take up to 2 years for life to begin to normalize. If you have any shares, I’d suggest that you sell them now!” I explained that I didn’t earn enough to gamble on the stock market. Jen’s friend seemed genuinely relieved. It was an unforgettable conversation that delved deep into the fabric of our existence. I was spellbound by the calm and inherent kindness of Jen and her two friends. AND then along came the coronavirus! The first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was identified 15 days after my conversation with Jen and her friends. Within four weeks of that conversation, the world was facing a health, social and financial disaster of biblical proportions. Was it all a coincidence? It certainly doesn’t feel like a coincidence! I was glad I had no shares! 10 May 2020 It’s overwhelming how much our lives have changed over the past four months. We are battling a global disaster that some clearly saw coming. Some highprofile world leaders have plunged their countries into chaos by failing to acknowledge the force of the enemy. Other world leaders are doing a significantly better job. Thanks to the tremendous leadership of Mark McGowan, our State Premier, Western Australia is in remarkably good shape. We’ve been hit hard but we are starting to bounce back. Our Federal government and National Cabinet have done us proud! Australia remains the “Lucky Country” in the eyes of the world. As a migrant to Australia, I consider myself incredibly lucky to be living here. According to the newspapers “Coronavirus travel bans are predicted to smash net overseas migration by a massive 85%”. What on earth does this mean? The Department of Home Affairs is continuing to grant skilled visas, employer sponsored visas, partner visas, parent visas and other visas included in our permanent migration program. Once the visa is granted, the visa holder can travel to Australia but will be required to undertake a mandatory 14-day
803A Wellington Street, West Perth, WA 6005 Phone +61 8 9429 8860 THE IRISH SCENE | 54
Email info@easivisa.com
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
quarantine at a designated quarantine facility. We understand this. It’s for our safety. International visitors, however, which includes tourists, working holiday visa holders, international students and prospective marriage visa holders are currently unable to come to Australia unless they have a compassionate or compelling reason to travel here and can obtain an exemption. Exemptions can be applied for online - on the Home Affairs website. On the flip side, large numbers of international visitors and temporary visa holders are now “stuck” in Australia until they can get a flight home. Many are delighted to be able to bunker down in Australia for the next few months and the Federal government has introduced a number of measures to help temporary visa holders remain lawful in Australia if their visa is about to expire or has recently expired. One of these measures is the COVID-19 Pandemic event visa, which is available to people who are in Australia and unable to depart due to COVID-19. They must have 28 days or less remaining on their current visa OR have a temporary visa that expired less than 28 days ago; not be eligible for any other visa based on their intended activities; have evidence of ongoing work
and can show that the position can’t be filled by an Australian or permanent resident. These visas are processed quickly and there is no visa fee. This visa can be granted for up to 12 months and can include work rights. Working holiday visa holders currently working in critical sectors, such as agriculture, food processing, health care, aged care, disability care and childcare, must be able to show that they have no other visa options available to them as well as being unable to return to their home country. Other visitors can extend their stay in Australia by applying for a new visitor visa (subclass 600 visa) before their current via expires. Fortunately, there are multiple visa options available depending on individual circumstances. If you are unsure about your visa options, feel free to call our team on 08 9429 8860. Advice to international visitors impacted by the coronavirus travel restrictions is provided completely free of charge. Take care and stay safe!
Carol-Ann P. Lynch (MARN 0320658) LLB MMIA |Principal Registered Migration Agent THE IRISH SCENE 55
CLADDAGH REPORT
Crisis Support: 0403 972 265
13/15 Bonner Drive Malaga 6090. Enquiries: 08 9249 9213
www.claddagh.org.au Covid-19: Claddagh’s response COVID-19 has had a significant effect on Claddagh’s work and activities. The committee has indefinitely postponed Claddagh’s face to face Seniors events, volunteer trainings, and visiting activities with Seniors. Our coordinator, Anne Wayne continues to staff our office, but it is now only open by appointment. The Seniors subcommittee have undertaken the task of personally calling every Claddagh Senior. These calls have been a great chance to catch up with our Seniors friends, check that they are keeping well during COVID-19, assess whether they need any extra support or financial help, and find out who would like to receive weekly calls from a Claddagh volunteer. These initial calls are almost finished, and we will shortly begin matching those Seniors who have asked for weekly calls with Claddagh volunteers who are keen to help. We’ve created a page on our website which we’ll update with news and share our latest resources claddagh.org.au/1690-2/. Give us a like on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay in touch!
REQUESTS FOR SUPPORT Claddagh’s mission to help and support members of the Irish community in difficult circumstances has never been so necessary as during COVID-19. To give you an idea of the scale of demand for our services we’ve compared our work with last year. During 2018-2019, Claddagh responded to 59 requests for support. In the ten months of the 20192020 year, Claddagh have responded to 167 requests for support. This includes 118 requests for support
during the pandemic. So far, during the 6 weeks of COVID-19, Claddagh have responded to exactly double the requests we received in the previous year. Claddagh’s support work during COVID-19 has covered three main areas – returning to Ireland, remaining lawfully in Australia and dealing with financial difficulties because of job loss. Many people have needed support and information about returning home to Ireland, including availability of flights, exemptions for travel, requirements on entering Ireland and referrals to support organisations in Ireland. Immediate travel back to Ireland is not an option for some Irish here on temporary visas and we have supported these people with visa information and referrals. Grateful thanks to Patricia Halley, Visa4You, and Tony Coates, both of whom are Claddagh members and migration agents. They volunteer their expertise not only to Claddagh but occasionally to Irish support organisations in other Australian states too. With their help Claddagh developed a visa infographic about the best way to remain lawfully in Australia in common visa scenarios. You can find the latest version of the infographic on our website: claddagh.org.au/ covid-19-visa-information/ The widespread job losses during COVID-19 have hit immigrants on temporary visas particularly hard. We have received many queries from Irish who are now unemployed, living off savings and making enormous efforts to find new jobs. Claddagh are supporting these people with advice and focussing our financial assistance on those within this group who are in crisis and whose current circumstances pose a threat to their life or wellbeing.
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In Remembrance
Support the Claddagh Association
Claddagh were saddened to learn recently of the deaths of two Claddagh members who were dearly loved and will be missed by all here.
VOLUNTEER
Tony Kelly was on the first committee set up to establish the Irish welfare group that is now Claddagh. We will miss his good humour and sense of fun. Sincere condolences to Mary, Brian, Jennifer and all Tony’s family and friends in Australia and Ireland. Marie Moloney will be sadly missed by all the Claddagh Seniors. She rarely missed any of our events and always had a smile for everyone. Marie was keen to assist in any way she could, not least with her witty pieces in the Irish Scene about our seniors’ events. Her friendship and laughter will be very much missed. Our sincere condolences to Richard and all Marie’s family and friends.
As soon as the reality of COVID-19 became apparent, Claddagh received calls from numerous members of the Irish community in WA offering to volunteer to support fellow Irish in WA. It was remarkable how many people wanted to reach out, connect and help others. The Irish values of friendship, generosity and service to the community were strongly expressed amid the pandemic. Claddagh have now invited those who volunteered to be part of our weekly phone calls to Seniors and we’re working on other areas where we will need Volunteer support. If you would also like to help you can contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh. org.au/08 9249 9213.
DONATIONS Thank you so much to those members of the Irish community who, since the pandemic started, have made personal donations to Claddagh or been part of fundraisers on our behalf. A big shoutout to Southern Districts GAC for their fundraiser over Anzac weekend and the promotion on social media! This support is invaluable because the events where we traditionally raise money at this time of the year have been cancelled yet the need in the Irish community will only increase as the pandemic progresses. The committee, through our strategic planning process, had already set an ambitious fundraising target of $60,000 for 2020 to cover our casework. With the onset of the pandemic we believe that will now need to raise $100,000. We know what a uncertain time this is for nearly everyone and Claddagh do not want anyone to put themselves at risk, but if you are in a position to make a donation, however small, this would be gratefully received for our support work. Your tax-deductible donation will help Claddagh continue its work in support of Irish people in difficult circumstances here in WA. With the end of financial year on 30 June around the corner, now is a great time to make a contribution.
Seniors Outing The Claddagh Seniors group celebrated St Patrick’s Day early, on 9 March and they were able to gather before COVID-19 took hold. The 100 strong group enjoyed a delicious traditional Irish lunch at the Mighty Quinn tavern in Tuart Hill. Music by the talented Broken Pokers got everyone up and dancing and a great day was had by all. We can’t wait to meet all the Seniors face to face for more events in the future but in the meantime, we wish everyone good health and safe quarantining.
Donations can be made at our GiveNow page: www.givenow.com.au/ thecladdaghassociation or via bank transfer to Claddagh’s account. The details are: Bank: Commonwealth Bank Acc name: The Claddagh Association BSB: 066153 Acc no: 10771928 Ref: Your initial & surname +DON THE IRISH SCENE | 57
A Big Thank you to the
Mason Family and Friends On a recent trip to Ireland, Peter McKenna, Claddagh Vice-chairperson, had the pleasure of meeting Kathleen Mason, the mother of Brian Mason. Brian (28) had been living in Perth for 3 years. He loved the outback and tragically died in WA in 2018 as he was travelling back to Perth from visiting a friend in Karratha. Brian was from Broadford, Co Clare and his family and friends there held a fundraising tractor run in his honour in November 2018. The incredible generosity of Brian’s community demonstrates the high esteem his family and friends had for him and how loved he was. The proceeds were divided between the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust (KBRT) of Newry and The Claddagh Association of WA. The KBRT alleviates the financial hardship of bereaved families by repatriating the bodies of loved ones who have died abroad in sudden or tragic circumstances. The Claddagh Association are honoured to work together with KBRT as part of our mission supporting members of the Irish community in WA in crisis situations. Peter thanked Kathleen for the very generous donation raised through the Brian Mason Memorial Tractor Run. He presented her with a card from The Claddagh Association which shared some of the ways those funds have been used to support other members of the Irish community in WA in circumstances of bereavement, visa issues, health problems, isolation and loneliness. Brian’s memory lives on in the work his family’s fundraising supports. If you, or anyone you know in the Irish community in WA needs support please contact Claddagh’s Coordinator Anne Wayne on (08) 9249 9213 or by email at admin@claddagh. org.au or call Claddagh’s crisis line on 0403 972 265.
The ultimate
home run! The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions put in place to help contain it have impacted all our lives in different ways. Here Perth solicitor, Catherine Lynch, with Cariad Legal, shares her family’s personal experience and the extraordinary lengths it took for them to be together during this incredible time. “I am pregnant and due to have our first baby in May,” said Catherine, who is married to Co. Meath native Damien Lynch. Damien has been working FIFO in Queensland for some time and was over east when the coronavirus crisis quickly started to unfold in March. “There was a lot of uncertainty for Damien and his colleagues as well as us with changing guidelines and everything else that was happening,” she added. “It was important that he kept working for as long as possible but we knew eventually the day would come when we’d have to make the call as to whether he would leave work to come home. The decision was particularly difficult because we knew that, once he left, he may not be able to get back for a significant length of time.” They were forced to make a decision when on Wednesday April 2 Premier Mark McGowan announced Western Australia’s border would be closed three days later. It was the first time in the history of the country that Western Australia closed the door to visitors from the other states. “We discovered that, even as a FIFO worker, Damien would not be exempt from quarantine requirements,” added Catherine. “We also discovered later that
Below: Brian Mason Memorial Tractor Run. Left: Peter McKenna with Kathleen Mason
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Left: Catherine Lynch, who is due to give birth in May. Below: Catherine and Damien on their wedding day. Top right: Damien’s truck at their home in Perth.
Queensland blocked all interstate FIFO workers from entering their state.” Catherine said it wasn’t a simple matter of Damien just catching a flight back to Perth. “He has a truck with all of his tools and equipment needed to carry out his work. If he was leaving Queensland indefinitely, he needed his truck too. On the Friday (April 3), with the help of his colleagues, he got together all of the required paperwork, he packed his truck with enough barrels of diesel, water and food and set out on his epic fifty hour drive back to Perth. He needed to get back across the border before midnight on 5 April. This meant that he drove for three days straight, crossed the border and then drove another full day to make it home! He kept me and his family back home in Ireland updated through the family WhatsApp group. His cousins’ children were intrigued and followed the journey closely. Their parents used it as an opportunity for some geography lessons while homeschooling the children. The vastness of this country really is incredible.” Fortunately she said there weren’t too many delays or any real dramas along the gigantic journey across four states. “The first night he made it through some
flooding in NSW just before the road was closed off,” Catherine added. “The following day, due to the large amount of water that he had driven through, he had to pull over and informed me that he had a quick lesson in ‘panic management and electrics’ while he dealt with an issue with the truck. Importantly, no animals were harmed along the way and the biggest concern of the South Australian border enforcement was whether or not he was carrying any tomatoes (he was, in a salad, and was told to make sure he ate them first!). The WA border, as expected, was the biggest hold-up and, even though the hard border restrictions hadn’t come into play, he was thoroughly questioned. His exemption from quarantine was granted on the grounds that he was needed to care for his heavily pregnant wife and his mother-in-law who had just that week had surgery for a broken hip.” Catherine said it meant everything to her to have her husband back home and she appreciated the effort and sacrifice he made. “Damien is very modest and feels that he really didn’t do anything special but I personally think that what he did in those four days is an amazing feat and makes me feel so proud,” she said. “It is hard knowing that he no longer has an income but such a relief to know that he will be here with me when I go into labour and when our baby finally arrives. No more concerns about the possibility of being in lockdown in Queensland and unable to get home or coming home only to be quarantined and unable to even drive me to the hospital. Damien sacrificed a lot by driving away from his only source of income but, at times like these, you realise that family has to come first, no matter the cost!”
Irish Scene - and no doubt many readers - will be wishing the Lynch family all the best with the new arrival when he or she comes.
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SLOW TIME BY BILL DALY The past 100 years have given us higher degrees of apparent prosperity, but there is always a downside and a price to pay for this greater affluence. People are certainly under more pressure these days, especially young married couples. In order to feed the always hungry lifestyle, a greater amount of responsibility has had to be taken on in the workplace. This means the people are putting in less of an appearance at home with their spouse and children. Unless this is checked and kept in perspective, it will tend to have a detrimental effect on the overall balancing act between life and work. Step back now and then to see where you are spending your time and reset those switches. More than ever, in our modern and fast paced society, it is important that we slow down now and again to take stock of what is really important in our lives. The following anecdote was relayed to me by a friend, who happened to hear it on the radio some years ago. One day a very successful entrepreneur in his mid forties was being interviewed on the radio and was talking about all the millions he was making for the company he worked for, how busy he was, and all that he could buy with his salary. The telephone rang at the radio station and a caller asked him, did he ever hear about ‘the marble jar’? The caller said it was proposed to him when he was 52 years old, and it went like this… The average male lives until he is 75, and with 23 years left this was about 1000 weeks. He went into town, bought 1000 marbles and placed them in a large jar. Each Saturday he threw one out. As the contents of the jar began to go down he became more focused on the important things in life such as his family, their health, and making time for his friends and other important stuff like that. Today was Saturday and he had just thrown away the last marble. The radio interviewer asked the man what he was going to do that day. He said that he was going to bring his wife a cup of tea to wake her up and then later they would go out for some breakfast, do some shopping, meet some friends for lunch, have a nap at about 3pm, and afterwards go into the garden to smell the flowers, listen to the birds and do a small
‘Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time’ – Voltaire.
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bit of gardening. That evening he would read the paper, have dinner, and hopefully God would wake him up again the next day. It is important that we watch the marbles go down in the jar and focus in on what is really important to us. Life does not last forever and sometimes we have to be visually reminded of this fact. Pull on the brakes now and then, step back, take a good look around, enjoy what you have and make the most of the time remaining. Of course, if people concentrated on the really important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing rods!
BILL DALY: Originally from Tallow in West Waterford, Bill spent 30 years in Cork as a Senior Manager in the Electronics Manufacturing industry with such companies as Apple, EMC and Logitech. He has been working on his own as a Consultant/Contractor in Manufacturing Operations and Materials for the past 18 years. He also attended UCC and has a BA Degree in Archaeology and Geography. Bill is now resident in Connemara, Co. Galway since 2009.
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TARA BY TOM TALLON Have you ever noticed when Irish people meet fellow countrymen for the first time, and after exchanging pleasantries, one of the first questions asked is “what part of the old country do you come from?” The reply to this will allow both to innocently apply preconceived prejudices to each other without saying so. A question or statement to the effect that half the counties of Ireland can be seen from atop the Hill of Tara sometimes pops up, when I mention I come from Meath. Having been to the summit a number of times over the years, I was unable to verify this, as the weather conditions obscured the view in one or more directions. However on my last visit, the country basked in glorious sunshine for weeks, so I took advantage of the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. The Hill of Tara is located in a geological area known as The Drumlins. These are elongated hills in the shape of a half-buried eggs, formed during the last Ice Age, that ended about twelve thousand years ago. For those of you who have climbed Croagh Patrick in Mayo, you are presented with a perfect picture of what a Drumlin field looks like if you caste your gaze over Clew Bay, all those islands are drumlins that are half submerged. The first thing that strikes you as you head for the hill, is that you do not climb it. Rather, you arrive at the top. As you follow the road signs on the narrow country roads, with hedgerows closing in on you from both sides, you lose sight of any reference points that would indicate your ascent. Suddenly the vistas open out before your eyes, as you pull into the car park. Make your way to the crown of the hill topped with the Stone of Destiny. The elevation at this point is 150 metres, which seems rather quaint considering the Great Pyramid of Egypt is higher by ten metres. If the weather conditions are favourable the views will take your breath away. On my visit I naturally looked towards Dublin city. Due to a natural phenomenon
The first thing that strikes you as you head for the hill, is that you do not climb it. Rather, you arrive at the top. known as “Atmospheric Refraction”, the city looked incredibly close. I imagined I could skip a stone across Dublin Bay from where I stood. I suggest a pair of binoculars be taken to make identification of distant landmarks easier - something I forgot to pack. Even with 20/20 vision, faraway objects are blurred due to atmospheric pollution or was that the syrup consumed the previous night. Looking Northeast, the Mourne Mountains can be viewed. South of Dublin city are the Dublin mountains with the Wicklow mountains looking over them. Turning your gaze southwest, a small bump on the horizon is most likely Arderin on the border of counties Laos and Offaly, the highest point in the Slieve Bloom Mountains. On this day when I looked West the area was blanketed in a haze, but speaking to the old chap looking after the bookshop at the site he assured me that the outline of mountains in the west could be seen in favourable conditions. Turning my gaze to the Northwest there was the unmistakeable outline of Ben Bulben. Once again I was looking over parts of counties Cavan, Longford, Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo from where I stood. This is where the statement that half the counties of Ireland can be seen from Tara might fall down. Ben Bulben is in county Sligo, and like other distant landmarks that stand out in the landscape, the countryside in between is just part of a green carpet. Looking North, the view was completely obscured by the Border – only kidding – it was the cluster of large trees blocking the view. As I moved to explore other parts of the site the thought of looking for other
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distant landmarks was temporarily forgotten as we reached the restaurant. Looking at a topographical map of Ireland, one can see that the central part of the country is fairly flat, except for the western part, so I tend to agree with the statement that half the counties of Ireland can be seen from the summit of the Hill of Tara. Now and again the old story turns up claiming that the city of New York can be seen from the west coast of Ireland shortly after the sun sets – an unnatural phenomenon called ‘alcoholic refraction’. The Hill of Tara is also famously associated with many ancient myths and legends, as well as significant events in more recent centuries. The legendary seat of the high kings of Ireland, the area has been an icon of Irish nationhood for centuries and every decade or so it is suggested as the location for a neutral capital of a united Ireland. My preference is leave it as it is. Walking around the site today, there are few signs of a regal past nor any impressive buildings, only simple earthworks, most of which appear as humps and hollows scattered about the site. Unlike ancient recorded history, which in many cases was passed down orally over the generations or depended on how scholars interpreted ancient texts, more recent events are recorded in newspapers and official documents, many of which are accessible today to anyone with a smart phone. The Battle of Tara Hill was fought on 26th May 1798 between British forces and Irish rebels from the surrounding areas of Meath, taking part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Like many similar skirmishes of this uprising, the Irish were out-gunned out-manoeuvred and out-foxed by the enemy. There is a story related that a consignment of whiskey from a Navan distillery, on its way to port, was diverted by the enemy around the Irish camp. The following morning of the battle, the poor croppy boys with their pikes and pitchforks were no match for cannon and musket fire of the opposition.
As well as being the site of the Battle of Tara, this ancient place would again play an important role in the struggle for Irish freedom when, on 15th August 1843, Daniel O’Connell, the Great Liberator himself, held one of his monster meetings there. These gatherings were part of his campaign against the Union of Ireland and Great Britain which came into effect in 1801. The Act of Union is still not repealed, but today only applies to Britain and Northern Ireland. Depending of which source is referenced, this meetings attracted anywhere from half a million to one million souls. This scared the bejasus out of the authorities, and within a few weeks an act of Parliament forbade any further meetings. Can’t imagine U2 or Ed Sheeran pulling such crowds, of course The Donald would argue otherwise. A few months ago I was watching the program Great Railway Journeys on tv, and the presenter Michael Portillo, documenting some rail journeys around Ireland, mentioned something about a group of loonies who got it into their skulls that the Ark of the Covenant was buried on the Hill of Tara. These were a group of British Israelites who obtained permission from the local landlord, Gussy Briscoe, in 1899 to try and locate and recover this treasure. Not alone were the notable Irish dignitaries outraged at the desecration of a site considered sacred, the local fairies were even more upset. The rumour goes that this landlord deliberately buried bits of ‘treasure’ about the site, hoping to make a killing by renting the area out to those who wanted to excavate for ancient artifacts. After much agitation by the intelligentsia of the time, including the likes of W.B. Yeats and Arthur Griffith, they were able to influence the government, sitting in London, to put a stop to this vandalism. The fairies were most pleased. Of course us movie devotees know that Indiana Jones retrieved this sought after treasure from its hiding place in the snake pit known as the Well of Souls located in the Egyptian desert in 1936. Because of the significance of Tara to Irish culture, it was planned that Patrick Pearse – one of the leaders of the Easter Rising - would read the original Proclamation of the Republic of Ireland from the summit of the Hill on the morning of the planned 1916 uprising. However due to a change of plans and some communication problems, this never happened. Come the planning for the centenary commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising it was considered that another attempt should be made. On Easter Monday the 28th March 2016 the National president of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCE), Ann Finnegan, read the Proclamation to an appreciative crowd. Good to see that the politicians were retained in Dublin that day for the official proceedings and some photo opportunities.
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Fortune’s wheel –
a County Down family in the antipodes BY PETER CONOLE
An obscure couple, Patrick McComish and his wife Elizabeth of County Down, somehow endured and outlasted the hard years of famine and social dislocation during the mid-19th Century. Their son Edward McComish (born 1835) enlisted in the British Army as a private in the 12th Regiment of Foot (generally known as the East Suffolk Regiment) on March, 3 1853. As was so often the case old Ireland was a key recruiting ground. A high proportion of both officers and men were Irish. The unit embarked for the Australian colonies during 1854. Edward never saw his homeland again. The regiment was soon involved in one of the most famous episodes of Australian history. Edward’s company went to Ballarat during the goldfields disturbances. The soldiers played a prominent role in storming the Eureka Stockade on December 3, 1854. Private McComish emerged unscathed from the fray and moved to Western Australia with a detachment assigned to our colony for garrison duty.
undeniable self defence issues, was The regimental colours of the East Suffolk Regiment convicted of manslaughter. He was dismissed from the service and served three months in prison. The questionable legal proceedings meant that the veteran’s family also suffered, for he and Ann were the parents of eight children. McComish and his wife struggled to rebuild their lives. Edward worked as a labourer, carter and gardener and seems to have been well thought of, despite his misfortune. He served as a sergeant in the militia (the Guildford Rifle Volunteers) from 1887 onwards. Edward and Ann lost all their personal possessions in a disastrous house fire of 1890. When Edward McComish died in May, 1900 his remains were consigned to a pauper’s grave.
By then his oldest son, Edward Joseph McComish He married Ann Hackett at St John’s Catholic Church (1860-1909), was doing rather well for himself. He in March, 1859. She probably sailed east when joined the WA railways establishment as a labourer in Edward’s section of the regiment was sent to New 1884 and married Alice Barker at Guildford. Edward Zealand in 1863 for active duty during the Maori Wars. the Younger worked his way up to the position of The 12th Regiment Inspector by 1895 of Foot did well and served at against tough and “...it is likely the authorities refused to send various railway fierce enemies in him (Leo) and his mates back to Australia stations before several battles and skirmishes. A high quickly for fear they might be carrying the his health failed. He died of natural point was the costly disastrous ‘Spanish Flu’ virus.” victory at Rangariri causes during in November 1863. December, 1909. Private McComish Three of his five received cash rewards for good service and was sons also gained employment in the railways system, discharged in December 1865. He and Ann returned to including two World War I soldiers. The first of those WA in 1866 to live, work and raise a family. was Arnold George MComish (born 1891) who worked Edward served in the colonial police as a constable for as a blacksmith in the railways workshop at Midland 13 years from 1866, often in hazardous areas. He was a Junction and lived in Maylands. Arnold joined the mounted trooper and worked at Guildford, Fremantle, 1st AIF in 1915 and trained as a sapper at Sydney Bunbury, Stanton Springs and the 36 Mile Station, and in Egypt. He then went to France with the 3rd a key posting on the Perth-Albany road. In 1879 Field Engineers Company and plunged into the grim Constable McComish was threatened and attacked fighting on the Somme. Sapper McComish was killed by his volatile indigenous assistant. He fought back instantly by an artillery shell at Pozieres, July 23, 1916. and hit the assailant on the head with a pistol. The As a report said: ”he did his duty nobly and well”. man died and Edward, regardless of obvious and THE IRISH SCENE | 64
Leo McComish (No.5758) trained at Blackboy Hill and embarked for the Western Front with the 11th Battalion of Infantry, 1st AIF, in July of 1916. That was just one week Leo McComish, who before his brother was played for Perth FC killed. After arriving in England in September Leo was transferred to the 44th Battalion. Being a rather adventurous teenager he had several run-ins with the military authorities. He went absent without leave in England to get an arm tattoo and lost two day’s pay. The battalion was sent to France in November, 1916 for front line service. In March of 1917 Leo McComish failed to turn up for a major parade and was sentenced to five days field punishment, which probably meant digging latrines. Despite such misadventures Leo turned out to be a fine, bold soldier and experienced the worst of war at the battles of Messines and 2nd Ypres in 1917. He won promotion to Lance Corporal in September and was wounded in the hand at Broodseinde in October, a major Australian victory. Only 160 out of 1000 men in the 44th Battalion emerged unhurt. The unit had to be reinforced and retrained during the following winter. Leo returned to duty within a few weeks of his injury before taking ‘time out’ on New Year’s Eve with some mates. His pay was again docked for that escapade. The 44th Battalion men went on to play a fine role in stopping the German spring offensive of 1918. They helped hold the line at Amiens and won further glory at Le Hamel in July, in the great August offensive
and in the St Quentin battle of October, 1918. Leo McComish was wounded once more on September 29, 1918 but refused to leave the field for treatment and placed his trust in front line medics instead. Promotion to Corporal followed on October 10, then to Sergeant on November 13 just two days after the Armistice. By then the 44th battalion survivors had been withdrawn for a rest. Only 80 officers and men were still on their feet. Sergeant Leo McComish and the other survivors – plus the battalion wounded and sick – spent several months in Britain for rest and recuperation purposes. On a now topical note, it is likely the authorities refused to send him and his mates back to Australia quickly for fear they might be carrying the disastrous ‘Spanish Flu’ virus. As is well known the world wide death toll of that outbreak was enormous – as in tens of millions around the world. Australians in general have a right to be proud of the behaviour of their ancestors during the plague back then: there was no hysteria and mass panic, although quarantining was sternly and effectively used. Leo Finally embarked for Australia on the ‘Konigin Louise’ in June 1919 and arrived back in WA during August. He was formally discharged on September 19, 1919 and received the 1914/1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Leo resumed work for the WA railways and married Alice Whiteford in 1923. The couple raised a large family. Former soldier McComish also became heavily involved in sport and emerged as a notable Australian Rules Football star. Leo played for Perth from late in the 1919 season onwards until 1932 and notched up a total of 162 games. He was renowned for his speed and raw courage as a rover and was the club’s leading goal kicker in 1925. Leo was captain of the club in 1929. He represented WA four times in interstate competitions, including the Football Carnival of 1927. In later years Leo played for East Perth until retiring from on-field play in the game (aged 40) in 1938. He went on to work as an umpire and coach for many years. Leo McComish, a credit to both his Irish ancestral homeland and Australia, died in September, 1977.
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IRISH THE
SCENE
Arnold’s younger brother, Leo McComish, was born at Geraldton in 1898. After Leo’s father died his mother settled in Stirling Street, Perth. Her son developed an interest in military matters as a teenager and became active in the militia, serving from 1912 as a cadet in the 88th Battalion of Infantry. He obtained an apprenticeship in the WA railways in June, 1914 but moved sideways into the 1st AIF as soon as possible. He was slightly under-age when he signed up in February, 1916.
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IRISH FAMILY HISTORY
The Great Hunger, an Gorta Mór, comes quickly to the minds of family history researchers when thinking about events that may have influenced their Irish ancestors to migrate. At that time there was much internal migration within Ireland, and sadly, many left Ireland for another country – such as Australia - to escape the devastating effects of the Great Hunger on their family.
COVID-19 and Ireland
Like the current COVID-19 pandemic,0 there were historical epidemics too which affected many countries, including Ireland. They had a huge impact on Irish families, on Irish communities and even on historical record keeping. Just as COVID-19 is affecting families and communities across the world, accounts of the various plagues in Ireland suggest some parallels with our current situation.
You can’t have missed the news coverage of the current COVID -19 pandemic in Australia, but you may be wondering how Ireland and other countries are doing. The website Worldometers1 provides an up to date record of statistics in the over 200 countries affected by COVID-19. But unlike many news reports, here they analyse the raw numbers, taking account of the population size. For example, here are the numbers for 23 April 1.40pm (WAST). Day from GMT+0.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
TOTAL CASES
NEW CASES
TOTAL DEATHS
NEW DEATHS
TOTAL RECOVERED
ACTIVE CASES
SERIOUS, CRITICAL
TOTAL CASES / M
TOTAL DEATH / M
TESTS
TESTS / M
+1
5,045
1,547
45
261
3
466,659 18,300
+25
9,233
7,580
147
3,566
161
111,584 22,598
+638
N/A
118,996
1,559
2,034
276
583,496
+18 75 AUSTRALIA 6,667 17,607 +936 794 IRELAND 138,078 +4,583 18,738 UK
8,595
On this date Ireland had more than twice the number of confirmed cases (column 1) as Australia, but column 8 shows that, once you take account of the different population sizes, Ireland has a total cases per million 13 times that in Australia, and nearly twice the rate in UK. But these differences are likely to be affected by many other things, including each governments’ restrictions, how well they are observed in each country, the population age structure, and testing rates (see column 10). Ireland tests far more people per million population than UK and a little more than Australia. 1Data is drawn from releases in each country
Ireland and the Plagues
Historical plagues and epidemics have had a huge impact on our ancestors and on the availability of records about them. The state of medical knowledge at the time affected how the plagues were treated and spread, and how we interpret the medical conditions described in the records. From pre-history in Ireland there were accounts of plagues, well before the Great Hunger began in the middle of the 1800s.
PRE-HISTORY Published in 1906, The Smaller Social History of Ireland, by Irish historian P W Joyce (1827-1914) described concepts of disease and plague in ancient Ireland. Joyce recounts the belief that was common in both pagan and Christian times that a plague could not travel over more than “nine waves”.
So, during the “yellow plague” St Colman of Cloyne fled with his followers to an island off the coast of Cork so they could be saved from this plague. This yellow plague (Blefed or Buide Connell) swept through Ireland twice - in the sixth and the seventh centuries. The yellow plague was thought to have been caused by a solar eclipse and affected people right across
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the British Isles. Later analysis has put this down to a virulent type of jaundice featuring yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes, resulting from an excess bilirubin in the blood. It’s been later attributed to yellow fever, a viral infection transmitted by the bite of the female mosquito. It devastated Europe and Ireland in the 7th Century, pointing to warm climatic conditions at the time. Those who died from a plague were buried in a single large plot (tamhlacht, or plague grave) which was fenced and respected. Tallaght, in south Dublin was supposedly named after a legendary plague grave where everyone in the Partholonian-settled village there died within one week.
14TH CENTURY The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of the bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. Its arrival in Europe was traced to 12 ships from the Black Sea which docked at the Sicilian port of Messina in October 1347. Most on board were dead. It first arrived in Ireland in July 1348 through ships landing on the east coast. The bubonic plague was caused by bacteria Yersina pestis, was spread by fleas on rats, though this was not understood at the time.. Before long, the epidemic was raging in Dublin, and in co. Louth in Drogheda and Dundalk. By autumn the plague had spread inland to co. Meath. In Kilkenny Franciscan Friar John Clyn kept a chronicle of the deaths and recorded that, by Christmas, 14,000 people had perished in Dublin alone before it eventually disappeared. This rampant disease tore through the streets of Dublin as well as cities all across Europe. Symptoms of the Black Death included fevers, vomiting, coughing and swellings on the body (mostly around the armpit, neck and legs). These painful swellings would start out an angry red colour and then turn a purplish black. Very quickly you would have been confined to your bed. It was highly contagious, and if you caught it, the chances were, everyone in your family would catch it too. It took hold of you so quickly that you would likely be dead in days. Sometimes whole families were locked into their tiny houses to try to keep the disease inside! Once someone had succumbed to the plague, a white ‘X’ was painted on the front door so that everyone who passed knew the sickness had been there. People were terrified to see the disease spread so quickly and to lose so many friends and family so suddenly. They searched and searched for the cause but could find nothing. Some believed it was a punishment from God and hid themselves indoors in the hope they would avoid it. Others were convinced it was the end of the world and everyone was doomed to fall ill eventually. They had no idea, and no way of knowing, that the disease was
carried by the rats which scoured the streets of ports and cities for food and shelter. So there was no way to control or prevent the spread. Bodies piled up on the sides of the street. Coffins couldn’t be made quickly enough to bury the dead, so vast pits were dug for mass burials. It was the job of the carters to gather the dead and carry them through the city to their grave. These carters had a terrible job and were at risk of catching the disease themselves. It was a terrible disease, without a cure then, and it killed thousands of people. The Black Death destroyed lives and families across the city. All in all, a dark time in Ireland’s history.
18TH CENTURY: SEVERE WINTER Severe weather hit Ireland and much of Europe in 1740. It was one of the coldest winters in Irish history. The great frost wiped out an estimated 400,000 people as temperatures plummeted and the cold intensified. The cold weather led to food shortages as crops failed. There was a famine, and riots, epidemics and death.
19TH CENTURY: TYPHUS AND FAMINE Only 77 years later, heavy rainfall rain and cold temperatures ruined both the grain and potato crops in 1817 and left the poor hungry and cold. A lack of hygiene and little to no ventilation meant that typhus spread throughout the country. It’s estimated 65,000 people died as a result. The typhus infection is caused by bacteria transmitted to humans by body lice when the lice faeces enter the body through breaks in the skin, or even through the eyes or mouth. Typhus symptoms include high fever, prostration, mental confusion, body aches and a characteristic rash which covers the trunk and limbs of the body. Death usually occurs from heart failure about the fourteenth day. High temperature, generalised aches and pains, nausea, vomiting, nose bleeding and jaundice are features of relapsing fever. In cases with a favourable outcome, the fever ends after five or six days with a sharp crisis attended by profuse sweating and exhaustion. This drop in body temperature was colloquially known as ‘getting the cool’. The symptoms return after about a week and there may be several such relapses before the disease runs its course.
CHOLERA The first of several cholera outbreaks began in Dublin in the spring of 1832. Cholera is a bacterial infection of the small intestine caused by strains of Vibrio cholera. Symptoms range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhoea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and muscle cramps may also occur. At the time Dublin was overcrowded with slums, and so became the perfect breeding ground for the disease. Temporary hospitals were set
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Continued on page 68
Continued from page 67
up across the city as the disease struck people down in a matter of hours.
20TH CENTURY: LAST BIG PLAGUE THREAT IN IRELAND While bubonic plague evokes images of the Middle Ages, Ireland has had more than one brush with this dreaded disease. As recently as the year 1900, ports across Ireland prepared for an imminent outbreak of the Black Death which had killed over 30% of the population in the mid 14th century. The illness broke out in Glasgow in August 1900. Ireland with its constant and frequent traffic with the Scottish port was immediately at risk of infection. Because the authorities in both Scotland and Ireland acted promptly to improve public sewers, housing and ship inspections, Ireland and Scotland were was spared the anticipated catastrophes.
THE BUBONIC PLAGUE HAS NOT GONE This Black Death (Y. pestis) is still very much with us, said Prof Mark Achtman from the Department of Microbiology, University College, Cork. “People don’t realise that. It isn’t causing a huge number of cases but it is causing panic” in places where an outbreak occurs, he noted. Flare-ups occur all around the
world. “Algeria has intermittent cases of plague, and Kurdistan. In Africa it is endemic.” And even in the US between 20 and 30 cases are recorded each year. A genetic study of the microbe Y. pestis in different countries has helped understand how this plague was spread across the world in history. Prof Achtman led the international effort, which also involved scientists in Germany, France, China, the UK, Madagascar and the US. Today the plague is readily treated with modern antibiotics, but the disease has not gone away (entirely), he said.
Irish Special Interest Group: FAMILY HISTORY AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC During this period of enforced isolation, many people have been taking advantage of their extra time to get into their family history. Some genealogy organisations are offering free access fro home to record data bases during this period. For example if you have a free reader’s card to the State Library of Western Australia or the National Library of Australia you can access Ancestry records worldwide for free from home. Look for licensed eResources after you log in. Members of Family History WA (FHWA) are enjoying free access from home to Ancestry and FindMyPast too. FHWA membership is only $95 for one person (or $135 for two people at the same address) per year. During the COVID-19 period when the FHWA resource centre in Bayswater is closed, the one-off joining fee of $15 is being waived. This makes a FHWA subscription much cheaper than the new member rate for Ancestry worldwide which us currently AUS$340 for just 6 months. So it’s a great time to join FHWA and start digging. Because the FHWA meetings cannot be held at the moment, many of the FHWA groups are going online and holding meetings via Google Meet, where you can see and hear the other participants and hear interesting live talks on a range of genealogical topics. Join FamilyHistoryWA Discussion Group at Facebook to find out what’s on offer (link below). Up until recently the Irish Special Interest Group (Irish
SIG) of FamilyHistoryWA has met every three months on a Sunday at 2pm. The last meeting was on 19 January 2020. The 19 April meeting has been cancelled due to the restrictions on public gatherings but the group is hoping to hold the 19 July meeting online, via Google Meet. It is very much hoped that things may return to normal by 18 October for the final meeting of 2020. New members and visitors are always welcome. If you’d like to join us -and are not yet a member of FamilyHistoryWA (the WA Genealogical Society) do drop a line to the convenor Robyn O’Brien. Please book a free place in the next (online meeting) using the online booking site TryBooking, details below.
Book a (free) place at the next Google Meet meeting at TryBooking (after 19 April) tinyurl.com/ISIG-TryBooking FamilyHistoryWA (FHWA) membership.wags.org.au T 9271 4311 (The phone is not staffed at the present time.) Go digging for resources at the Irish SIG webpage at FamilyHistoryWA tinyurl.com/irishsig Join the State Library of WA and enjoy access to licensed e-Resources www.slwa.wa.gov.au/explore-discover/ eresources/getting-started-eresources Join FamilyHistoryWA Facebook group Researching family worldwide, open to all And join in the chat or ask a question at the FamilyHistoryWA Discussion Facebook group
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ROMANCING THE PAST BY MARIE MALONEY Many TV programs and stories can make the past seem like a wonderful place. Whenever I see pictures of Marie Moloney (who Temple Bar as it is today my mind died in early April flashes back to the Temple Bar of the 2020) was a loved 1940’s with rows of washing hanging figure in the Irish across the street. community and Life in inner city Dublin during my many will mourn childhood was hard for many. Large her passing. A gifted families living in cramped conditions story-teller, she shared in a couple of rooms in grand many beautifully old houses which were originally intended for one family. These written and wonderful properties were frequently badly in memories with Irish need of repair and lacked the facilities required for Scene readers. In communal living. It was common to have as many this reprinted story, as fifty human beings living in a house with one Marie reminded us toilet and no bathroom. Infections were rampant of a different era in and treatment sometimes interesting. One practice I remember was children who had whooping cough were taken to breathe in tar fumes from roadworks. medical treatment News of current roadworks was shared by word of mouth and mothers for sick kids in her pushing prams would take the sick children to the site. native Dublin. I have only one memory of been taken to see a doctor once during my childhood. With large families being normal and incomes low, there never was any money left after the bare essentials were provided. I was a fairly healthy child with just the usual childhood ailments. [Editor: I too remember the Senna There certainly were quite a lot of those and on these occasions my Tea Marie Ugh!!! I saw the following mother would take me to see Mr Mushatt at his chemist shop in extract on the web: Harry Mushatt Francis Street. These visits were dreaded experiences for me as Mr set up his “chemist” shop in Dublin’s Mushatt always recommended Senna tea. He was tall, thin and had a poorest tenement district, known as lot of white hair, he also had a very kindly manner. But, without fail, the Liberties in the 1920’s. An excerpt regardless of what my ailment was, he insisted what I needed was from “Dublin Tenement Life” helps more Senna tea, even now the mere thought of this liquid makes me explain what the times were like shudder. However the Mushatts were known all over Dublin for their back then: “You never saw doctors. wisdom in health issues. People came in droves from all directions to You could go to a chemist and even if seek help. Indeed, without this establishment, many people would your throat was cut, he’d give you a not have had any access to health information. cure for it. He’d put a dressing on it. The Mushatt brothers ran their business in the Liberties area in Mr. Mushatt was in Francis Street - he Dublin for over forty years. They made their own medicines in the was the masterpiece, for a bad chest, back room of the premises and the poor of Dublin believed in them. bad back… from north, south, east Frequently the shop was full of mothers with their sick children, and west, people’d come for them. and the queue spilled out on to Francis Street. Often walking along People trusted him as he concocted the streets of the city people could be overheard discussing the his own old fashioned medicines benefits of Mushatt products and eagerly recommending a visit to in the rear compounding room. His the establishment if any mention was made of feeling unwell. The lotions, potions, and tablets were inexpensive medicines and caring attitudes offered during so many thought to be the purest medicines. years, to the poor in Dublin, is a part of the social history of the city. People really believed in them, swore There is now a website offering Mushatt’s no 9 products, it is also on by them.”] facebook. THE IRISH SCENE | 69
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL BY FRED REA, CHAIRMAN
Western Australia An Gorta Mor Commemoration 2020 Cancelled! Sadly, the WAIFC have had to cancel our Western Australia Commemoration 2020. As you will know, Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected all public gatherings and events. It was planned for World International Irish Famine Day on Sunday 17th May. We ask individuals to visit the memorial over the weekend and lay a flower in memory of An Gorta Mor and the girls who came to Western Australia following the famine.
GERALDTON COMMEMORATION 2020 If restrictions are lifted, we are planning a commemoration in Geraldton later this year. Thanks to the tireless work of Jim Egan and historian Gillian O'Mara, who found six of the Bride Ship girls who settled in the Geraldton area and they will be remembered. A Travel Box has been ordered from Arbour Hill Prison (subject to COVID-19 clearances). The girls and what we know about them are listed below. Bride Ship 'Palestine' Girls • Martha Egan, from Cork - Father John Egan – married Charles Gilbert • Winifred Ward, from Galway - Parents Jacob & Brigid Ward – married Michael Brownrigg Bride Ship 'Travencore' Girls • Honora Barry, from Kilmore, Kerry – parents Thomas Barry & Mary Buck – married John Handley • Honora (Anney) Flannery, from Tipperary - father Patrick Flannery & Mother Maria Ryan – married John Bracken • Biddy (Bridget) Hastings, unknown County – married John Cummings • Mary Ann Tuohy, unknown County – married John Walsh
NEW BROCHURE Thanks to a kind donation by Paddy Monaghan, we have produced a brochure for the memorial. You will find a copy on our website www.waifc.org/ THE IRISH SCENE | 70
MEMORIAL MAINTENANCE Our thanks to the City of Subiaco who are looking after the memorial and surrounds. Our sincere thanks also to Frank Smyth who drops in now and then and also gives the memorial a clean if required.
RESEARCH GROUP The WAIFC are planning to set up a research group for all the girls who arrived on the Bride Ships in Western Australia following An Gorta Mor. If you are interested in helping please contact us via email waifc@gmail.com
Meet...
TOM WARREN since its inception. It seems to attract a decent class of animal there. I also find the Woodbridge Hotel a welcoming and pleasant venue to displace the froth on a few.
WITH TONY SYNNOTT
DO YOU HAVE A HOBBY? WHAT IS THE BEST FILM YOU’VE EVER SEEN? WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE ACTOR?
WHERE IN IRELAND WERE YOU BORN?
St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, the offspring of legitimate parents which wasn’t unusual at the time. According to my loving mother the birth was painless, but the pain endured in my upbringing more than addressed the imbalance!
My hobby is toolmaking (it’s a type of mental illness) but I enjoy nothing better than time in my shed. My motto: “If its not busted I will fix it until it is”. As far as movies go I find it hard to recover the time spent watching most of them.
THE IRISH CLUB IS ALWAYS OPEN FOR NEW IDEAS, WHAT'S YOUR IMPRESSION, CAN YOU HELP?
HOW MANY OF A FAMILY DID YOU COME FROM, GIRLS AND BOYS?
The second and least sensible of three boys I acquired good sabotage skills at an early age. It wasn’t that I was malicious, just needed a method to counteract the favouritism afforded to my older sibling.
HOW DID YOUR SCHOOLING GO FOR YOU, HOW FAR DID YOU GO?
In a word, disastrous. Got shipped off to boarding school to realise a vocation. Along the way I got vocation confused with vacation. To hell with your Latin, the rest is history (my favourite subject).
MOST IRISH GO TO ENGLAND, DID YOU GO THERE BEFORE YOU CAME TO PERTH?
Only as a visitor, to be honest the colonies appealed to me much more, resulting in me opting for selfimposed banishment from the cold and the rain. Got so cold when I came from that priests could be routinely observed with their hands in their own pockets.
WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION OF AUSTRALIA?
Sadly, I think its nigh on impossible to resurrect interest in the Irish Club. It’s a building that demands too much commitment. Would be nice to have a window to look out even if it was to stimulate your desire to be somewhere else. I think it has limited options, one of which would involve a bulldozer.
WELL TOM, YOU ARE VERY HAPPY WITH YOUR LIFE, WHAT KEEPS YOU TICKING OVER?
My expectations are modest and as a result I rarely get disappointed. I’m also a dreamer and I will strive to ensure that I never get too old to dream a new dream.
DO YOU GO BACK HOME OFTEN, HAVE YOU GOT FAMILY TO WELCOME YOU STILL?
Yes, two children and four grandchildren who love to see me and give me the grandest welcome. As for the brother I’m not sure if he’s forgiven the sabotage but its only been 50 years so it might still be a bit early.
HAVE YOU ANY ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE FOR NEW PEOPLE COMING HERE TO LIVE AND WORK?
A welcoming place, a place with opportunities to diversify. I embraced it from the outset, but this country also embraced me. It's got to be the most generous country on the planet with negative gearing and a multitude of different benefits, including long service leave.
My advice is to embrace this great country, fully apply themselves, work like Navvies and it’s ok to question your sanity as you find yourself busting a gut alone in some remote part of the state on a Sunday morning having to listen to Macca on the ABC. Operate on the philosophy of “what's hard to endure will invariably be sweet to recall”.
THE IRISH SCENE IS THE HEART OF THE IRISH PEOPLE. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT?
IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
I like reading the Irish Scene. Its got some great content, especially historical, and its very affordable.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE WATERING HOLE, AND WHY? I have been frequenting and enjoying JB O’Reilly’s
I’d like to be transported to a different era, for example being a part of the industrial revolution, possibly in Switzerland, contributing to the manufacture of the most exquisitely built and performing machines and instruments. Interview edited for brevity
THE IRISH SCENE | 71
Around the
irish scene
A lasting legacy
HAVE YOU HEARD SOME NEWS LATELY? LET US KNOW AND YOU MIGHT BE SEEN IN THE NEXT ISSUE! irishsceneperth@gmail.com
A Car-ona celebration Drive-by birthdays have become a sign of the times and social distancing, particularly in Ireland. The new custom of friends and family forming a cavalcade that hoots and toots its way past the birthday boy or girl was rolled out to celebrate a very special woman. Galway girl Lena Costello turned a big roundy 90 in late April, but a big party wasn’t on the cards so loved ones, friends, well wishers and neighbours formed a noisy mini-traffic jam on St Joseph’s Street, West Leederville. Paddy, 93, and Lena (right) are the street’s longest resident residents. The couple - both from Galway but who met in Dublin - were married on St. Patrick’s Day 1956 and moved to Australia soon after. They bought their home a few months after they got here and have lived there ever since. They were also instrumental in finding and buying the Irish Club’s premises in Townshend Road, Subiaco in the late 1970s and are both past presidents of the Club. Many happy returns Lena and Paddy!
Roses hopes nipped in the bud The International Rose of Tralee Festival is one of the many casualties of COVID-19. Towards the end of April, the organisers said the event would be called off for this year, the first time this has happened in its 61 year history. “Our immediate priority is to support the health and civic authorities in doing whatever we can to keep each other safe and well, and ultimately to protect lives,” Anthony O’Gara, Executive Chair, Rose of Tralee International Festival said in a statement. Everyone involved would have a role to play in restoring communities and local economies following this pandemic, yet “we look forward to coming together in celebration in August 2021”, he said. In the meantime, he saluted the leadership and selfless efforts of frontline and support staff… including the 2019 Rose of Tralee, Dr Sinéad Flanagan. A change to the competition’s rules meant some cities - such as Perth - would only be eligible to take part every second year. 2020 was meant to be Perth’s chance to shine. The last time Perth sent a Rose to Ireland was in 2018 in the form of Donegal native Laura Cannon (right). At the time (and probably still now) Laura was an ICU nurse at St. John of God Hospital Subiaco.
Reds turn Green for St. Patrick The Red Hat Ladies (Kalamunda Happy Hatters, right) went green in honour of St. Patrick's Day. Love your work ladies! THE IRISH SCENE | 72
The main section of the trial for the man accused of the Claremont serial killings of the mid 1990’s was wrapped up in the Supreme Court in late April, with the concluding part expected to open later this year. Ciara Eilish Glennon’s parents Denis and Una - from Mayo and Monaghan - have lived with the anguish of their daughter’s death. She was just 27 at the time and had been out celebrating with work colleagues for St. Patrick’s Day. Ciara’s memory is honoured every year through the scholarship that bears her name. On April 17 UWA announced Ciara’s scholarship for 2020 was going to Isabel Philip, 23, of Subiaco (above). “I can think of no better way to honour Ciara Glennon’s memory than using the proceeds of this scholarship to take the opportunity to step back from paid work and put more energy into helping people who are in a less fortunate position than I am,” Isabel said. The Ciara Glennon Memorial Scholarship was established in 1998 with the support of the Glennon family and is sponsored by Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson), the law firm where Ciara worked as a solicitor. It is awarded annually to a full-time student from UWA’s Law School who needs financial help to continue studying, makes a recognisable contribution to the community, demonstrates an active interest in an area outside the practice of law and shows a balanced approach to life and concern for others. The winner also receives an offer to undertake a paid seasonal clerkship with the law firm in Perth.
Its a matter of life and death Most of us will have family or friends who work in the healthcare or associated sectors and we wish them all well and give them our thanks. Personally speaking I’d like to mention three cousins back in Ireland who are on the front line and working to protect the community and serve the vulnerable. They are Ashling Farrell, a hospital nurse, and Lois Farrell (who used to live in Perth) and Veronica Balfe who both work in aged care homes, a sector which has seen many lives taken and devastated by the virus. On May 4th my youngest brother Philip and his wife Jacqueline had a baby, Isabella Alice Gorman (above), their third daughter after Madison and Lilly Rose. The delivery was carried out under very strict isolation conditions. Philip and Jacqueline wanted to thank the two midwives - one Irish and the other Italian - at the Coombe Hospital in Dublin who they said were excellent and made the whole experience a really positive one. As a pharmacist in Northern Ireland Eilish Horn (left) - sister of Irish Scene’s Imelda Gorman - has been working crazy hours under difficult and demanding conditions. To our friends Clinton and his wife Chris who are medicos here in Perth and have a young family to think about. To all of you and their colleagues who help people and serve their community we say thank you!
R.I.P. Oliver Synnott
Goodbye Old Friend, by Noel O’Neill “I’d like to say a few words about my friend John Spurling (above left), who I often referred to as “My Pillar”. I really can’t remember how we first met, but I think what’s more important is the friendship we shared for over fifteen years and so many productions. He had a discipline about him that I lacked and I somehow had a creativity that he liked, so between the lacking and the liking the two of us we got along very well. He was a quiet man with a dry sense of humour who loved a good joke. We had many adventures and misadventures in the theatre, but what really took place off stage is what mattered between us. I have always been so grateful for not only what he’s done for me but what he meant to me as a person. He was someone I looked up to and respected. He was a decent man who loved his family and they in return loved him back. He loved the sea and he often spoke of where his family originated from. It was a place in England called Hull, and he often said he would look it all up. I wrote a few one-act plays and we kicked it around whether to go to Edinburgh and Galway with them. He said “if we don’t go we’ll never know”. So myself, John and Rex Grey headed for Ireland and Scotland with some success. We had a little credo between us, “Don’t lose your temper, don’t lose your passion and don’t lose your sense of humour”. I hold onto those words as I hold onto every memory of a friend I loved and miss, John Spurling”. John, 74, who was a cornerstone of the Irish Theatre Players, was tragically killed on March 12 visiting Yorkshire, where he had family roots. Vale John.
Happy March 17 and other causes for celebration
Tony Synnott lost his brother Oliver (right) shortly before Christmas last year. As soon as Irish Scene was printed, Tony would post the latest edition to his brother back in Ireland. In fact for 12 years Tony said Oliver waited for it to drop through the letter box. “He said he learned more about Ireland and Irish history than he ever did at school,” said Tony. RIP Oliver.
St Patrick’s Day isn’t just St. Patrick’s Day for some people. Lynda O’Leary (below left) has two things to celebrate on Irish patron saints feast day. Lynda works closely with Marty Kavanagh in the Irish Consulate office in Perth and has her birthday on the same day. Other recent birthday celebrants include Paddy French (below centre), who turned 94 and Tony Cahill, 70, pictured here with wife Deirdre (below right), getting ready to tuck into a hearty Irish breakfast.
Spot the odd one out! One of the people in this cuddle of Corkonians is not from the alternative capital of Ireland. Lily Rea (front) is Italian, but of course she is married to Fred who is very much a Corkman, so there’s no escape and she knows the score.
Get your beef - and other meats - on the hoof! McLoughlin’s Butchers has mobilised in keeping with the times and now offers a home delivery service for customers who can’t venture out to the shop in Malaga. Paul McLoughlin and his team did a trial run in April and found there was great demand for the service. “In light of the times, never has it been more important to offer quality and convenience to you all,” Paul said. “We have over 70 products online and we’re hoping the more who use this will mean we can continue to offer home deliveries to our customers in the future.” THE IRISH SCENE | 73
AIDA WA EXECUTIVE 2020
Australian Irish Dancing Association Inc.
President: Caroline McCarthy TCRG Vice Presidents: Melissa Kennedy TCRG and Samantha McAleer TCRG Secretary: Caitriona Slane TCRG Treasurer: Martina O’Brien TCRG Registrar: Jenny O’Hare TCRG National Delegate: Eileen Ashley
SCHOOL CONTACTS:
Celtic Academy East Victoria Park & Karragullen www.celticacademyperth.com Siobhan Collis TCRG 0403 211 941 Kavanagh Studio of Irish Dance Maylands www.kavanaghirishdance.com.au Teresa Fenton TCRG 0412 155 318 Deirdre McGorry TCRG Melissa Kennedy TCRG Avril Grealish TCRG
Aida WA was able to host their St. Patrick’s Day March Feis. Thank you to the Irish Club for accommodating us. We had a gold coin donation on the day and raised $200 for the Irish Club!!! HUGE thank you to all our Teachers and families for your contribution.
The Academy Mid America & Western Australia Subiaco, Wangara & Pearsall Samantha McAleer TCRG Dhana Pitman TCRG Kalamunda Lara Upton ADCRG 0409 474 557 O’Brien Academy Butler, Mindarie/Quinn’s Rock, Ocean Reef, Connolly, Duncraig www.obrienacademy.com Rose O’Brien ADCRG 0437 002 355 Martina O’Brien TCRG 0423 932 866 O’Hare School of Irish Dancing Doubleview, Wembley Downs & Craigie Jenny O’Hare TCRG 0422 273 596 Scoil Rince na hEireann Rockingham irishdance@iinet.net.au Megan Cousins TCRG 0411 452 370 Scoil Rince Ni Bhaird Fremantle & Lynwood Tony Ward TCRG 0427 273 596 Three Crowns School of Irish Dance Wangara & Padbury www.threecrownsirishdancing.com Eleanor Rooney TCRG 0449 961 669 Trinity Studio of Irish Dancing Morley, Midland, Bayswater & Singleton trinitystudiowa@gmail.com Eileen Ashley ADCRG 0413 511 595 Katherine Travers TCRG Nell Taylor TCRG WA Academy of Irish Dancing, Malaga Glenalee Bromilow ADCRG 0410 584 051 Sue Hayes TMRF 0412 040 719
Stephen Dawson MLC Member for Mining and Pastoral Region Minister for Environment; Disability Services Deputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council PO Box 2440, SOUTH HEDLAND WA 6722 stephen.dawsonmp@mp.wa.gov.au (08) 9172 2648 • 1800 199 344 (toll free)
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SUPPORT IN THE WA G
IRISH COMMUNITY
The 50th Anniversary World Irish Dance Championships unfortunately were cancelled this year due to COVID-19. however, they will be rescheduled for 2021. Aida WA are ZOOMING into Term 2. No rest for these little stars, sneak peak at some of our online classes with students and teachers. Well done to all. Keep up the GREAT work!!!
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óg seo? Garda. Caithfidh gur magadh a bhí ann nó clár teilifíse b’fhéidir. Ach lean Paloma léi. ‘Fág an bealach. Amach as mo chosán,’ agus í ag screadach in ard a cinn. Cúpla coiscéim eile agus bheadh MacGiolla aici. Ba léir go raibh sé tuirseach traochta. Bhí sé ag análú go trom. Bhí a chosa ag titim go trom ar an chosán. Cúpla coiscéim eile.
I bPonc
le Pól Ó Muirí BY BRÍD HIGGINS (ar lean......) Bhí sí ag rith go mear anois. Bhí MacGiolla roimpi. Ní raibh sé chomh folláin sin. Ba léir an méid sin. Bhí an rith ag cur crua air. Barraíocht oícheanta amuigh i gclubanna, a dúirt Paloma léi féin. Bhí sí sásta ina hintinn go dtiocfadh sí a fhad leis ar ball. Ní raibh sé inchurtha léi mar lúthchleasaí. Thaitin lúthchleasaíocht de gach aon chineál léi ó bhí sí an-óg. D’imir sí cispheil ar scoil. Ach thar aon rud eile ba bhreá léi rith. Ní chuirfeadh sé isteach ná amach uirthi cúig chiliméadar a rith gach lá. Leoga, thaitin a leithéid léi. Bhíodh gruaim uirthi mura bhfaigheadh sí deis dul amach san oíche agus rith. D’fhaigheadh sí réidh de strus an lae san aclaíocht. Gheobhadh sí greim ar MhacGiolla. Ní raibh ann ach ceist ama. D’aithin MacGiolla go raibh sí ag tarraingt air. D’aithin sé nach raibh sé chomh gasta léi. Airsean a bhí an scaoll anois. Rith sé amach os comhair na gcarranna a bhí ar an bhóthar. Ba bheag nár maraíodh é. Chuala Paloma coscáin na gcarranna ag screadach. Chonaic sí na tiománaithe agus iad ag croitheadh a ndorn ar MhacGiolla. ‘Amadán,’ a dúirt fear amháin acu. ‘Amadán déanta.’ Lean Paloma MacGiolla. Bhí sí féin ag scairteadh ar na coisithe a bhí ar an tsráid. ‘Fág an bealach. Amach as mo chosán. Garda. Imigh leat.’ Thiontaigh daoine thart agus d’amharc uirthi le hiontas. Cérbh í an bhean
Is ag an phointe sin a tharla sé. Shiúil seanbhean amach sa bhealach uirthi. Níor chuala sí an rabhadh. Bhuail Paloma í agus leag ar an talamh í. Rinne sí iarracht éirí ach bhí an tseanbhean snaidhmthe inti. Bhí an tseanbhean ag mairgneach. ‘Cuidigh liom, cuidigh liom.’ Bhí coisithe eile ag tarraingt orthu anois. Bhí fearg orthu le Paloma. ‘Ba chóir duit bheith cúramach. Ba chóir duit bheith cúramach.’ Níor thuig siad cad é a bhí ar siúl. Níor thuig siad an obair a bhí idir lámha aici. Bhí Paloma ina luí ar an talamh. D’amharc sí suas ar MhacGiolla. Ní raibh sé ag rith níos mó. D’amharc sé síos uirthi agus rinne miongháire mailíseach. Chuala sí carranna gardaí ag tarraingt ar an láthair. Chuala MacGiolla iad. Rinne sé miongháire mailíseach eile. Labhair sé léi: ‘Ba cheart dom bheith ag rith níos minice. Tá mé as cleachtadh. Ach ní gá dom bheith buartha anois.’ Tharraing sé mála beag bán as a phóca agus chaith isteach san abhainn é. Ansin thiontaigh sé thart ar a sháil agus shiúil leis ar nós Cuma liom. Bhí sé saor. Ní raibh sé ag iompar drugaí níos mó. D’amharc Paloma ar an phacáiste beag ag titim isteach san abhainn. Bhuail sé an t-uisce, d’fhan ar snámh ar feadh bomaite. Ansin chuaigh sé síos faoi na tonnta dorcha. Bhí na drugaí imithe. Bhí MacGiolla imithe. Bhí a slí bheatha mar bhleachtaire imithe. (An Bealach Cóir, Pól Ó Muirí 2012, LeabhairComhar)
Seanfhocal
Is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte. Is é seanfhocal é atá oiriúnach don lá atá inniu ann. THE IRISH SCENE | 76
PAULA XIBERRAS FROM TASMANIA One summer’s secrets lead to accountability
The evolution of chocolate from bitter to sweet
Trish Morey has visited Tasmania three times, most recently last November for a writers retreat at Freycinet. It was a creative time with ocean and stormy weather providing an inspiring backdrop to the retreat. Storms or rather stormy relations figure in Trish’s latest book ‘One Summer Between Friends’.
I spoke to Hobart author Karen Brooks about her book ‘The Chocolate Maker’s Wife’. An academic, Karen has also served in the army, acted and authored!
The novel’s main protagonist, Sarah is called back to her former home on Lord Howe Island after her mother sustains a broken hip and requires help to run her shop. It’s not a happy homecoming for Sarah who is dealing with a failed marriage and a failed promotion at work. The smallness of Lord Howe Island means she will come into contact with her two former best friends Floss and Jules. The fact they are former best friends makes for claustrophobic As well as being a story confrontations on the of mending broken small island. Both women have settled into family life, Floss is married with five children and Jules has a four year old daughter that is a painful reminder to Sarah.
‘The Chocolate Maker’s Wife’ is written in the setting of Restoration London, a time beset with medical and natural disaster, the plague and the fire of London respectively. Central to this chaos are characters fitting of the time, with an equal measure of the brutality they live through but softened by love. Similarly the backdrop of the story of chocolate coats its initial bitterness with the addition of sweetness that made it palatable just like love makes the brutality of the times sweeter. So it is that bitterness and sweetness of equal measure flavour the novel.
relationships, the novel is about the brokenness in gender equality and in employment with the highly qualified Sarah being passed over for a young male recruit.
As well as being a story of mending broken relationships, the novel is about the brokenness in gender equality and in employment with the highly qualified Sarah being passed over for a young male recruit. But Sarah is not passed over for her brother when it comes to deciding who helps out in the shop. Her parents believing, in another example of gender inequality, that, as the girl she is the one who should take that role. Tricia was able to draw on her own experience in accounting to give this aspect of the novel credibility. One Summer Between Friends by Trish Morey is out now, published by Harlequin.
The main protagonist Rosamunde Tomkins grows up poor both in physical comforts and emotional ones. Unloved by her family she is given in marriage to a much older nobleman, owner of a chocolate house, a place that seduces with its drinking chocolate. Rosamunde inherits the business on her husband’s passing.
Rosamunde’s story reads like a fairy-tale and this is what Karen, as a lover of fairy tales wanted in her novel. The parallel with chocolate is clear, Rosamunde from her lowly past has had her share of bitterness so much so she can appreciate sweetness when it arrives. Karen gives us an amazing window on the restoration times a decadent naughty period, but it was also a period of religious purity that was manifested in people’s names. This is illustrated, somewhat ironically in Rosmunde’s brothers called ‘Fear God’ and ‘Glory’. The names were actual names taken from a prayer ‘Praise be to God in whom we fear’. The Chocolate Makers Wife by Karen Brooks is out now, published by Harper Collins.
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SPONSORED AND SUPPORTED BY INTEGRITY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS Not much to report for this issue; due to the coronavirus all football activities have been cancelled until May 31st. With a good pre-season, Gerry and the coaching staff were happy with the way things were going and looking forward to the season starting in early April. Covid-19 had other ideas, and we have all been in semi-lockdown for several weeks. Hopefully all the lads have been keeping fit and will be ready to go when the FFA and Football West give the all clear. The pandemic has had a devastating effect on all sporting codes. With the easing of restrictions we hope to get back playing soon. We were all very disappointed that the St Patrick’s day parade could not go ahead as planned in Leederville because of the coronavirus. We are grateful to the organisers who do such a great job of this every year. It was such a pity to see their hard work wasted, but everyone appreciates that the community’s health must come first.
As always thank you to our sponsors below, and also to Nicky Edwards for his continued support:
Pipeline Technics Integrity Property Solutions
On a more sombre note we were all saddened by the sudden death of one of our young players, Michael Harben, in early April. Michael was only 22 years old, a quiet and unassuming lad who always had the club at heart, and was always one of the first to lend a helping hand when needed. On behalf of the committee, coaching staff and players, we offer our deepest condolences to Michael’s family and friends.
s!
oop Come on the H
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Gaelic Games Junior Academy
2020 season
Like every other sport on the planet, we too are affected by the corona virus. We were to start our season on May 3rd, so as restrictions are seeming to lift, we will follow all medical advice and err on the side of caution as everyone’s health is the main priority. Never has the term ‘your health is your wealth’ seemed to ring so true. What we are doing though, is opening up our membership for free through the team app. Go to payments > store and select “Annual Membership”, and fill in the details. We are putting updates on the ‘team app’ and our facebook group page, if you ‘like’ Gaelic Games Junior Academy, you will see our updates. To buoy spirits, we are asking parents to post or send videos or pictures of the children doing anything Gaelic Games related or even remotely sport related that is a bit of fun, to help keep us all connected. Again check out our facebook page to see our entries to date. We are also giving away prizes to the best entries, GAA tshirts and hurleys have been allocated so far (congratulations Kieran L). We are also offering families the opportunity to borrow hurley’s and sliotars if needed so they can keep up their practices.
Contact us
It does seem restrictions are slowly beginning to lift, so we will keep our fingers crossed that we can welcome our Junior Academy friends and families back to HBF Joondalup arena rugby pitch (same venue as last year) on Sundays. We will keep everyone posted so keep an eye out! Any questions (which are always welcome!) please send a message through team app or Facebook or call/text 0406229450. Stay safe, stay connected and hope to see you all soon! Team GGJA
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