G’day From Gary Gray

AUSTRALIA’S AMBASSADOR IN IRELAND

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Australia’s Connection to the Irish Flag IRELAND’S TRICOLOUR FLAG IS RECOGNISABLE THE WORLD OVER, BUT DID YOU KNOW IT’S AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION?

The story of the man who first presented the flag in Ireland, Mr. Thomas Francis Meagher, is fascinating. An Irishman who travelled from Ireland to Paris before returning home to Waterford, and from there to Tasmania and on to New York City - Meagher lived a truly noteworthy life. He died over 150 years ago and his life touched three continents and great moments in history. Believing in the unification of Ireland’s Catholic and Protestant communities in opposition to British rule, Meagher travelled to Paris in 1848 to study revolutionary events. He left behind a truly desolate Ireland, now into its third year of The Great Famine, and he was determined to learn from his French counterparts what was necessary to create a political movement that would unify the Irish people. After a month on the continent, Meagher returned to Waterford and carried with him a gift of solidarity from the friends he had made in France. That gift was the Irish tricolour, and when it was first flown from 33 The Mall, Waterford on 7th March later that year, it paved the ideological path for a coming together of all peoples on the island of Ireland. You may recognise the similarities between the French and the Irish flags – both are tricolour, each divided into three equal vertical bands, with white as the central colour. Meagher spoke of the flag given to him by the French in April 1848 saying, “The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between Orange and Green and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood.” Enthused with this new spirit of kinship, Meagher reached out to the Orange Order to create a lasting relationship of solidarity, and later that year played a central role in the failed Young Irelander Rebellion. For this he was sentenced first to death, commuted to exile in Tasmania. In Tasmania, Meagher married and had a child before escaping exile and travelling to New York. In New York in 1852, Meagher found work as a lawyer and newspaper editor, he then went on to serve as a Union Army General in the American Civil War. He joined an Irish American volunteer brigade, the “Fighting 69th”. Meagher saw action at Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Despite the ravages of drink and a wild life, he formed part of the honour guard that surrounded the open coffin of the assassinated President Lincoln in April 1865. Meagher later became acting governor of the Territory of Montana before falling from a Missouri river boat in 1867 and drowning in the fastflowing river. During an emotional and historic 1963 visit to Ireland, President Kennedy presented the flag of the Union brigade that Meagher led in the American Civil War. Today, that flag hangs in the Dáil Éireann (Ireland’s Parliament). Of all Meagher’s achievements, Ireland’s symbolic national flag is a persistent reminder of legacy and

ideals upon which he stood. The tricolour flag that flew in Waterford 173 years ago represents the best of the Irish human spirit and could have had any number of colours so long as the symbolic white strip existed to bind them together. Meagher’s belief in hope and peace as symbolised in Ireland’s flag is something that extends beyond Ireland’s borders to our international landscape. As we emerge from the pandemic that has gripped the world over the last twelve months, we look forward to what our world could look like. The virus has given us a clearer picture than ever, of the interconnectedness of our world and the importance of viewing our problems from a connected, collective and global perspective. For over a year of this pandemic, Irish nurses and doctors have worked in West Australian hospitals. West Australians have also experienced the virus in Ireland. We have truly been in this together. SLAINTÉ.

HON GARY GRAY AO

AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRELAND, DUBLIN

Right: Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher

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