The Irish Scene July/August 2020 Edition

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SCENE

2020 • vol 22 ISSUE 4

Australia’s new ambassador to Ireland speaks exclusively to Irish Scene!

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Gary Gray, pictured with ‘Kangaroos on the Terrace’ sculptures, created by Smith Sculptors, who also created the Famine Memorial An Gorta Mor in Subiaco.

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Business Contacts

Page Index

baggage & FREIGHT

37 AI Express............................................................9243 0808 85 Exportair............................................Geoff/Tim 9477 1080

Butchers

96 McLoughlin’s Meats...........................................9249 8039 90 Meat Connoisseur..............................................9309 9992

CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING:

93 M&T Construction............................................... 6108 4458

Entertainment & RADIO:

88 Frank Murphy Celtic Rambles.................................107.9fm 78 Fiddlestick...........................................David 0413 259 547 89 Oliver McNerney........................................................88.5fm 65 Torc Ceili Club

Funerals:

34 McKee Funerals....................................................9401 1900

Immigration advice:

80 EasiVisa..............................Carol-Ann Lynch 9429 8860

IRISH community groups:

59 Aust Irish Heritage Assoc................................9345 3530 56 The Gathering................................................0431 018 388 62 Irish Families in Perth 60 The Claddagh Assoc...........................................9249 9213 17 IACC...................................................................1300 513 633

Mechanics:

1 Killarney Autos....................................Neil 0439 996 764

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT:

74 Stephen Dawson..................................................9172 2648

Property maintenance:

91 Integrity Property Solutions.......................0423 618 506

Psychology:

53 General Psychology Services......................0414 251 967

Pubs, Clubs & restaurants:

13 Durty Nelly’s, Perth.............................................9226 0233 13 Galway Hooker, Scarborough 57 Irish Club of WA, Subiaco..................................9381 5213 2 Paddy Malone’s, Joondalup............................9300 9966 58 The National Hotel.............................................9335 6688 67 Woodbridge Hotel, Guildford............................9377 1199

Solicitors & Legal:

8 Kavanagh Lawyers..............................................9218 8422 12 Vibe Legal............................................................... 6111 4890

Sport & SportING Clubs:

93 GAA................................................................0458 954 052 91 Shamrock Rovers..........................................0410 081 386

Travel & Tourism:

28 British Travel.........................................................9433 3288

€600,000 for Sculpture city.......................... 44 Around the Irish Scene....................................90 Astral Weeks Ahead...........................................4 Australian Irish Heritage Assoc.......................61 Australian Irish Dancing Assoc.......................74 Book Reviews......................................................82 Claddagh Report...............................................60 Cooking with Lee................................................ 81 Dervla’s A Thriller Killer...................................77 Empress of Paraguay........................................ 86 Eternally Grateful to SAT................................ 48 Extra Rambles.....................................................70 Family History WA............................................72 Fionn O’Donaill.................................................. 63 GAA Junior Academy.......................................95 GAAWA...............................................................92 How Ireland Unceremoniously Dethroned a Queen...........................................26 Honorary Consulate of Ireland.........................41 Ice Age Art Is a Chip Off The Old Block.......37 In Judgement of Joyce.......................................42 Ireland’s Deep Rooted Legal System.............35 Irish Choir Perth..................................................62 Irish Lawyers Thrust Into Legal Limbo...........16 Irish Women Raising the Bar.......................... 20 Isteach sa Teach.................................................22 Matters of Pub-lic Interest!..............................53 Maurice Had The Midas Touch.........................9 Minute with Synnott..........................................76 Perth Judge Has Irish Roots............................ 46 Paddy Kavanagh is the Benchmark of Our Story.........................................................32 Paula from Tasmania.........................................78 Poetic Justice?......................................................31 Roo’s Bounced As Aussie Icons........................8 Sculpture By The We......................................... 18 Shamrock Rovers................................................91 Tipperary’s Devil Advocates...........................50 The Brendan Bowyer Story............................. 89 The Gramaphone.............................................. 66 The Monument Man......................................... 64 The Summer Ireland Went Stone Mad...........14 Tony in Fine Fettle...............................................49 Two Irish Scene’s For One!..............................40 Ulster Rambles.................................................. 68

tyres, batteries, brakes etc: 25 Tyrepower Perth City...............................Fiona 9322 2214

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by contributors in articles, reproduced articles, advertisements or any other printed material contained in Irish Scene magazine or on www.irishscene.com.au are those of the individual contributors or authors and as such are not necessarily those of Canal Walk Media. The publisher and editor reserve the right to accept, reject, edit or amend submitted material in order to make it appropriate or suitable for publication. Irish Scene welcomes submissions, ideas and suggestions for articles and features as well as photographs of events happening around and within the Irish community in Western Australia.

THE IRISH SCENE | 3

Astral weeks ahead

for Australian ambassador in Ireland

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Van Morrison and Scott Morrison both have a lot to do with Australia’s new ambassador to Ireland. The incoming diplomat - who fills the position that has been vacant since the start of the year - has enjoyed a life long love of the music of the ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ singer. Last August the former Australian politician Gary Gray made a pilgrimage from Perth to Ireland for a very special concert by the Northern Ireland artist at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy, Derry. Just twelve months later Gray will return to Ireland as Australia’s envoy in August.

Irish Scene was the first Irish media to break the story of his appointment on social media, and here Mr Gray speaks exclusively with editor Lloyd Gorman in his first interview in his new role as ambassador elect. His journey to the ambassadorship has been paved by a long and varied professional and public career and a personal life that has known great heartache and loss.

“Prior to the Van Morrison trip, my wife Deborah and I visited Ireland in 2012,” said Gary. Deborah’s family name was Walsh and her ancestors on both sides could be traced back to Ireland. Her grandfather was Robert Walsh - known as Bob or Pop Walsh - and his father was also Robert Walsh, and is believed to have been born in 1862 in Ireland. “Robert’s mother died when he was born and Robert was reared by an aunt in Carrick on Suir, an Irish village on the River Suir near Clonmel Tipperary,” explained Gary. “Robert married Margaret Agnes Kelly, the daughter of Peter Kelly. Peter Kelly was born in Cork, in 1844, the son of Cornelius Kelly and Mary Murphy. They arrived in Victoria via South Australia in about 1842. His daughter Margaret Agnes Kelly married Robert Walsh Senior in 1901.”

Gary and Deborah were happily married and had three sons. Tragically, the same week that Michael D. Higgins was in Perth in October 2017 and they should have been celebrating Deborah’s Irish heritage, was the same week she died.

In August, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she died on October 20 and was buried in early November. “That part of 2017 is deeply etched on my psyche,” said Gary, who spent that time caring and grieving with their boys, family members and loved ones. Together with some of her best friends, Gary has just written and compiled a book about his wife ‘A Life That’s Good’ as a way to preserve her memory and life and share it with their children.

He has now read all the speeches President Higgins gave on that visit and found them to be “an eloquent description of a modern view of the Irish Australian relationship”. It was a relationship that would reach out to him in his darkest hour.

“When Deborah died, a number of members of the government THE IRISH SCENE | 4

of whom I was close had long discussions with me about what I would do next,” he said.

“It was known that I needed to rebuild my life. Deb and I had been married for 30 years and so as part of that rebuilding of my life, friends on the other side of politics were well aware of that. So when the invitation came I was more than open to it and I had made it clear I was open to it.”

Top: Gary’s wife Deborah, who passed away in 2017. Above: Australian PM Scott Morrison

That ‘invitation’ came in the form of a phone call from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“Scott Morrison knows my affection for the music of Van Morrison, and it was well known that when I went to Ireland last year I had gone to see him play,” he smiled. Wasn’t it unusual for a Liberal PM to offer the job to a former Labor Party organiser and minister in the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard governments, I asked.

“It’s not uncommon for the Australian government to make appointees to diplomatic postings from outside of the formal diplomatic/bureaucratic process,” he replied. “There’s quite an extensive record of political appointees into the Australia embassy in Ireland, maybe not so much in the last decade or so but the longest serving ambassador to Ireland was a former Liberal cabinet minister appointed by John Howard, just before John Howard’s own personal visit to Ireland. I’m a member of the union, I’m a member of my party and I’m proud of those things and that won’t change but serving the government of the day is important to me and that will take absolute supremacy in my role, but I will remain a member of the union and a member of my party.”

The last time a West Australian was made ambassador to Ireland was when Labor PM Bob Hawke (who spent much of his childhood and life as a young adult in Perth) gave the gig to Brian Burke, one of his most loyal backers. Burke had resigned as premier of Western Australian on February 25 1988 - which he had held for five years. It was also his 41st birthday.

Brian Burke was Australia’s ambassador to Ireland

and the Holy See from 1998 until 1991.

From the outset Gray was also something of a rising star in the world of the Australian Labor Party. “I was the youngest ever national secretary of the Labour Party, I did that job longer than anyone else had ever done,” he said. “After that I went into a medical research role, then I went into an oil and gas role and then into federal parliament. I’ve had a wonderful and interesting and varied life that’s been an amalgam of a business life and a political life, and I see the work I’m about to do in Dublin as being an extension of that.”

He held the Division of Brand in WA in the House of Representatives from 2007 until 2016, and was a Cabinet minister first under Kevin Rudd and then Julia Gillard when she challenged and ousted Rudd from office. Those events sparked a period of unprecedented churn in the prime minstership of Australia.

“In global terms it was not anything extraordinary, but in Australian terms, because we normally have very stable leadership arrangements, it looks turbulent and it is,” he said. “In the course of the last twenty years we’ve had Prime Minister (PM) Morrison, PM Turnbull, PM Abbot, PM Rudd, PM GIllard, PM Rudd and PM Howard. In the 20 years before that we had PM Howard and we had PM Keating, so we’ve had a lot of churn in the top role to what Australia would normally have. But if you look forward two years to the next election, its not possible to see a change in the current Prime Ministership, and then we will have had two PM’s in seven years. So we’ve been through a turbulent time but you can see us returning to a more normal environment.”

He admits it is “tough” to live through a period like this, but despite the fear and loathing generated within Labor itself, and between Labor and the Liberals, he still counts Tony Abbot and Julia Gillard amongst his friends. “I may have differences of opinion with them but I respect the purpose they brought to public life and the purpose they brought to their prime ministership.”

He argues that to be effective in modern politics, you must be able to talk to all sides, understand their purpose and be open to finding solutions everyone can live with. Good tried-and-tested skills for a diplomat to possess.

Interestingly his appointment - announced on June 26

by Foreign Affairs Minister Marisa Payne - came just one day before the final piece of a very complicated jigsaw fell into place that would allow a new Irish government to be formed since the Irish general election five months ago.

“You could look at Ireland and say you had an election in February that produced a one third, one

THE IRISH SCENE | 5

Contined on page 6

Contined from page 5

third, one third result, an indeterminate outcome, no Taoiseach for how long?, no government for how long? Or you could look at it another way and say the electoral outcome produced a stable political environment to deal with the pandemic and then an agreement in power transfer and sharing going forward. I much prefer to believe in the power of good will, certainty and thoughtful management rather than racing headless chooks.

WA send off: From left, Freda Ogilvie, Marty Kavanagh, Gary and Pippa, Governor Kim Beazley, Premier Mark McGowan and Richard Matias took part in a recent function for Gary “Forming a government out of those forces at this time takes a lot of heart, a still remain strong and deal with all the public lot of skill, and you see that administration challenges that life throws at us in a in Ireland. One of the substantial hallmarks of Irish thoughtful and vigorous way. politics has been the ability to come together to find enduring solutions that bind the country together. I’m Gary and his partner Pippa had planned a looking forward to my time in Ireland not just from reconnaissance trip in April to ‘suss out’ the country the perspective of somebody who loves politics and that will be their new home for the next four years. political engagement Irish culture brings us, a lot that Coronavirus put paid to that plan, and now they will is replicated in Australian politics, but it also brings make the move at the start of August and go into us in the modern day strong and thoughtful views quarantine when they land. Their pet dog will follow about how to build a strong economy, a strong society, as soon as possible. Gary’s sons all hope to travel to strong culture and strong social connectivity to help Ireland at some stage too, but at the moment would people through tough times. I think events of just this face two weeks in isolation when they arrived in week shows the triumph of modern Irish politics,” he Ireland and then another two weeks when they got said. back to Australia. The newly minted emissary plans to “You see Ireland ascend to the UN Security Council get the ball rolling by introducing himself and holding meetings online. His ambassadorship will become effective and official after he has presented his credentials to Michael D. Higgins in Áras an Uachtaráin.

“

Building relationships is what I’m good at and a politician who can build relationships across the divide in Australia is surely going to be of some use building those relationships in Ireland.” and the creation of a tripartite coalition government.

You see the resolution of political conflict through talk, negotiation and discussion and agreement, not through conflict. And you see that happening at a time of pandemic, so you see a lot in Ireland that gives us great hope about how modern western economies can face the great difficulties of the pandemic and

While there are many ceremonial functions to the role it is also very much a working and vital position, for him personally and for Australia.

“I’m doing this because its an interesting thing to do, not because its cushy or nice or uplifting my salary, its interesting work and I’m rebuilding my life,” he said. “Building relationships is what I’m good at and a politician who can build relationships across the divide in Australia is surely going to be of some use building those relationships in Ireland.”

Like all politicians who entered federal parliament

THE IRISH SCENE | 6

Top: Gary’s love of Van Morrison took him on a pilgrimage in 2019 from Perth to Ireland for a very special concert by the Northern Ireland artist at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy, Derry.

Above: The Andromeda Galaxy after 2004, Gray does not get a parliamentary pension. He plans to work until he’s 70, and has given up a well paid position in the private sector - as general manager external affairs at Mineral Resources - to head up Australia’s mission in Dublin.

While Ireland and Australia enjoy deep rooted historical and cultural connections and share many common values they are also well established trading partners. Economic ties between the two nations in 2018-19 alone for two-way goods and services trade was valued at $4.5 billion. In 2018, Ireland’s stock of investment in Australia totalled $21.8 billion and Australian stock of investment in Ireland was $15.4 billion.

Ireland has been crucial to the development of Australia, and Western Australia he said.

“Between 2010 to 2015 Australia invested the equivalent of two Marshall plans in our resources sector in Western Australia alone, in the Pilbara in LNG and hard rock mining,” he said. “In a province of less than 150,000 people we invested the equivalent - inflation adjusted - of two Marshall plans. We could not have done that without our relationship with Ireland that gave us access to the skilled labour both to carry out that construction, to do it

safely to do it efficiently and in our hospitals and schools, so the closeness of that relationship is at very deep levels and the importance of it in an economic context is simply fundamental. We could not have achieved what we achieved without the support of Ireland.”

The small island nation of just five million will also be “central” to developing and maintaining future trade links.

He added: “We have a substantial free trade agreement we are attempting to negotiate with the EU, Ireland is central to that, central in the context of the European Trade Commissioner but also central in the context of our ambitions to establish a strong agricultural trade presence in Europe that underpins our desire to conclude that free trade agreement.”

On top of all that he will be largely responsible for organising and commemorating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Australia in 2021.

While he will be certainly earning his crust the incoming ambassador also it won’t be all work and he is looking forward to the chance to indulge his hobby - star gazing - in a whole different hemisphere.

“I’ve had a fantastic life, I thought at one stage I’d be an optical engineer,” he admits, “but then my love of politics and the cause of seeking social justice took over in me and astronomy became a really important hobby. My telescope is packed and gone already,” he said. “I’ll have to figure out how to run it on a different power system, because my lithium ion battery couldn’t go in cargo. The telescope itself, a big automated one, has been shipped. I will be setting it up for the northern hemisphere and I’m looking forward to seeing objects in the sky, such as the Andromeda Galaxy - a mere 2.5 million light years from Earth and the Milky Way’s nearest neighbour - which I can’t see from here. Ireland has made a massive contribution to planetary astronomy, from the discovery of planets to the design and construction of scientific instrumentation, telescopes and the creation of accurate timepieces and optics, and Ireland as a contributor to that engineering and technology in the early part of the 20th century was second to none so I’m looking forward to exploring that. One of my enjoyments now is understanding indigenous stories and the stars and indigenous astronomy, and I have memories of being in the Central desert where the stars of the Milky Way will cast a shadow. That remains one of my great moments of understanding the power of the universe, the stars and the value of a dark sky.”

No doubt there will be another star he will be on the look out for as much as possible. Considering he will have just landed in the country at the start of August, will need to quarantine and has a big job ahead of him it could be tight, but to borrow an old Irish phrase ‘by hook or by crooke’ Scomo’s man in Ireland may just be able to catch a glimpse of ‘Van the Man’ in concert for the 2020 City of Derry Jazz Festival, scheduled (still) to play two gigs on Friday 21 August and Saturday 22nd.

Irish Scene would like to thank Marty Kavanagh, Ireland’s Honorary Consulate in Perth, for helping to arrange our interview with Ambassador Gray.

THE IRISH SCENE | 7

Roo's bounced as

Aussie icons

Ambassador elect Gary Gray is pictured on our front cover with ‘Kangaroos on the Terrace sculptures’, a family of public art pieces created by Smith Sculptors, (who also created the Famine Memorial An Gorta Mor in Subiaco).

The humble kangaroo has outlived its usefulness as an Aussie icon by apparently by becoming too synonymous with their native country.

The Native Brand Advisory Council – a so called industry-led group, chaired by West Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest and includes Qantas boss Alan Joyce as a member – was set up in June 2018 to develop a new Australian brand that would promote the country in education, foreign investment, tourism, export and other sectors.

The group has concluded its work and made its recommendation to the federal government.

“We love our kangaroo – it is currently the most internationally recognised shortcut to Australia,” the Council said. There was a but! “We considered whether it would shift perceptions of our nation, or simply reinforce what people already knew about us.

Gary Gray pictured with one of the “Kangaroos on the Terrace” sculptures in Perth City, the proposed new Australia Made logo and the current (bottom left).

“Our proposed nation brand mark balances a literal and abstract interpretation of a wattle flower. It’s an optimistic burst of gold positivity. Co-created with our Indigenous design partners Balarinji, the mark is embedded with a cultural richness and graphic voice that speaks distinctively of Australia.The hearty resilience of the wattle has come to represent the enduring spirit of the Australian people. This small, beautiful flower is an organic burst of positivity – in bright joyous gold.”

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THE IRISH SCENE | 8

REST IN PEACE

Maurice had the Midas touch, wisdom of Solomon and charm of the Irish

BY LLOYD GORMAN This story was intended to be an interview with an incredible man in his prime. Instead it has became a tribute for a life well led.

Maurice Spillane was a senior member at the State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia. The Tribunal was created by former Attorney General Jim McGinty who amalgamated multiple WA civil and administrative review boards into a single ‘super’ tribunal. The new jurisdiction set up to be an accessible one stop shop for a wide range of disputes and appeals against decisions of government and industry bodies. Cases would be dealt with by members with the relevant expertise and the process was designed to be quick and carry a minimum of formality and cost.

It also took over the disciplinary functions of dozens of self-regulated trades and professions, everything from doctors and nurse to lawyers, architects to plumbers and estate agents.

“It will cover everything from an appeal in a complex state revenue matter involving millions of dollars through to a decision about whether a dangerous dog should be put down,” Mr McGinty said.

Four ‘senior’ members (Jill Toohey, David Perry, Clive Raymond and Murray Allen) were appointed with effect from January 1, 2005, as were nine ‘ordinary’ members. Maurice Spillane was one of the nine. He was a practising lawyer in Perth with experience in planning, medial law and indemnity issues.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of serendipitously discovering this Irishman - a native of Castleconnell, Limerick - in action at the tribunal.

As a reporter for the Subiaco POST newspaper, you would frequently need to trek into the Tribunal in the Perth CBD to follow up on some appeal or another - usually but not always planning related - against a council or Development Assessment Panel refusal for a project. I can’t recall what issue it was that brought me into the tribunal that day but I will never forget thinking ‘who is this guy?’. The distinctive Irish accent and way of speaking immediately hooked my interest. His ‘thick brogue’, as a POST colleague called it, was quickly followed up with generous amounts of wit and warmth, qualities that were trademarks of his refreshing style and character.

Future visits to the tribunal were always on the cards and on a good day Maurice would be the presiding member. Even a dry directions hearing where nothing of much happened was enjoyable. Sometimes I would even linger longer in the tribunal after the business I was interested in was concluded, just to prolong the ‘fix’ I got out of watching him at work.

Being Irish person myself, I was a bit partial to Maurice but my fellow reporters on the local newspaper also discovered and liked the same THE IRISH SCENE | 9

Maurice Timothy Spillane passed away in St John of God Hospital in Subiaco on May 28, 2020. He was 65.

His funeral service including a beautiful eulogy by his son Patrick, touching tribute by close friend Gary Smith and his wife Jane was held at Karrakatta Cemetery and can be viewed at https://livestream. com/accounts/29307044/ events/9158995/ videos/207252420 This edition of Irish Scene is dedicated to his memory.

things about him as I did. We would commonly ask each other when we had returned from the tribunal “did you get Maurice?”.

As a mark of our respect POST journalists wrote a tribute to him.

I am sure he had that effect on everyone he dealt with, even the most fractious and cranky of characters. Certainly he was highly regarded by his peers.

Honorary Irish Consulate and lawyer Marty Kavanagh was very saddened to hear of Maurice’s death and expressed his condolences to Maurice’s family.

“I knew him as a highly respected and talented lawyer and Continued on page 10

Page 6 – POST, June 6, 2020

Maurice had wisdom of Solomon and Midas touch

Continued from page 9

By DAVID COHEN, BEN DICKINSON and LLOYD GORMAN

The news Maurice Spillan e would be in the room always gladdened the hearts of POST reporters.

side fence being shifted back 38cm.

Mr Spillane had a wonder ful turn of phrase, and a gentle sense of humour.

Three years ago, during a between a council and a hearing business, he likened himself to the creditors of the late tycoon Alan Bond.

At the time Mr Spillane had invested a lot of timesaid he in the matter.

He said it reminded him of Mr Bond’s boast that banks wouldn’t let him go under because he owed them so much money.

“You’re into me for so much time

ST PO LE EOP P

phone in a bag.

During a hearing the device chirped for a couple of texts and distracted people in the room.

A little later, when the phone the ever-cheerful Mr Spillanerang, in a polite tone: “If that phone said rings again I will donate it to charity.”

The phone was quickly taken outside.

But we were saddened this to learn of the State Adminis week Tribunal senior member trative last Thursday at St John’s death of God Hospital Subiaco.

The Law Society said Mr Mr Spillane, a softly-spoken was appointed a full-time Spillane SAT memwith a thick Irish accent, man ber when the body was had a formed in calming effect on the sometim 2005, and became a senior esmember heated legal battles he in 2011. oversaw.

He often heard cases “Maurice relished his role in western suburb develop about the tribunal,” society ments of president all shapes and sizes.

Nicholas van Hattem said.

In the POST’s experie “He was very much a nce he was always kind and patient person, and loved helping people with people affected neighbours, most fi nd new ways to solve problems.” represented themselves of whom SAT president Justice little understanding of and had Pritchard said she and Janine the legal her colprocess. leagues were deeply saddene d, “Who are you?” he was asked and their late colleague at a would be directions hearing in 2018 greatly missed. ... I’m invested,” Mr Spillane by Joan Ballato, the owner of the said.

“He was a much admired Onslow He urged the lawyers and represent- respecte Square Shopping Centre in d colleague and friend Park, when Shenton Park Shenton ing the parties to go faster. to us all,” SAT executive “This has been swanning manager Centre tenant Rod Phelps Lottery around Kathleen Halden said. to the tribunal to try to took her out there for 18 months … BHP can “Maurice served with distincti on chaining off the eight-ba stop her have a board meeting in 24 hours,” in all streams y of the tribunal’s work, outside his newsagency. carpark he said. and was especially renowne In 2015 he was unflappable d for “You’re here now, welcome when his outstanding abilities ,” Mr fire alarms went off as a meSpillane told her, before carefully new offices in Hay at the SAT’s diator, where his common sense, Street. explaining to her how the kindness and good humour tribunal A hearing between Pepperm assisted process worked.

Grove council and lawyers int in the resolution of even the most He would often invite interest ed Radhika and Pankaj Oswal for complex and protracted disputes.” parties to address his over Maurice was also an hearings, the demolition of accomeven if they had no legal the Oswal’s half- plished standing built 100-room mansion figure outside of legal in the case. had to be circles. quickly abandon ed.

“I also want to be fair to He was the founding chairma “Welcome to our new building he said of the neighbours them,” n ,” of the Leederville apartment of a West Mr Spillane said, when everything and Perth Symphony Orchestra project in had returned 2017. to normal after the to served on its board from 2014 2018. false alarm and busines In 2012 he made four site s started He was also chair of the to a lane off Cottesloe’s John visits at 10.09am.

Clinical Ethics Committee at Street Two years Princess when a resident was trying to stop his patience was ago Mr Spillane’s Margar et Hospit al and tested by a mobile Edward King Seeing for himself …

Maurice Spillane toured Memorial Hospital. the thencontentious Ocean Mia site in City Beach in 2017.

‘

If that phone rings again I will donate it to charity

’

From above left to right: Maurice with Marty Kavanagh. The tribute to Maurice in the POST newspaper. The ‘Easter Rising’ memorial concert held at the GPO building during Maurice’s time as chair of the Perth Symphony Orchestra. Below left: Maurice with ???

SAT member,” Marty said. “He had that rare combination in a decision maker, a sound command of the law but more importantly the ability to empathise with the members of the public appearing before him. The SAT deals with very difficult issues and it is easy to overlook the human element. Before first appearing before him I checked with colleagues. The message was always the same: a fine legal mind and a generous heart. Maurice was always very fair and respectful to the lawyers appearing before him.

“That’s not always the case and it’s a sign of his empathy for others that all who came before were treated with respect. As if he didn’t have enough to keep him busy, his work for the arts was excellent and it shows how rounded a man he was. His was a life well lived and we are all the better for having had Maurice in WA. He worked honourably in a long line of distinguished Irish lawyers who have served the community of WA so well.”

On June 3, the Tribunal issued its own testimonial on behalf of the judges, members and staff who worked alongside him.

“Maurice has been a member of the Tribunal since its inception in 2005 and a senior Member of the Tribunal since 2011. He was a much admired and respected colleague and friend to us all. Maurice served with distinction in all streams of the Tribunal’s work, and was especially renowned for his outstanding abilities as a mediator, where his common sense, kindness and good humour assisted in the resolution of even the most complex and protracted disputes. We extend our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Maurice’s family and friends. He will be greatly missed by all at the SAT.” Similarly the death notices published in the West Australian on the same day resonated with the humanity he showed to all. McLeod’s, where Maurice had worked Right: The Perth Symphony Orchestra with Maurice (top right of group) THE IRISH SCENE | 10

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the surgery surgery, in times to remove the room order to discus patient’s I sat in tribunal many ins tumours, reducing treatment with your GP, please visit time from three to four weeks of sjog.org.au/Subiaco/IORT casesdaily inradiatio which Maurice was involved, n to a single, targeted treatment. and from the articles I wrote as a result I am sure he knew I was a journalist with the POST but probably nothing more than that [indeed from observation I think it is fair to say the POST is about the only newspaper in Perth that has reporters who regularly attend the tribunal]. during

About a year ago there was a highly unusual occasion where for a few brief minutes it was just him and I in the room. I searched

for something to simple to say - just to break the silence and so my Irish accent would give a nod to our shared cultural heritage - but the words never came and the room was soon occupied by associates, lawyers and the like and the moment was lost.

Earlier this year when I realised the tribunal was marking its fifteenth anniversary with a set of activities and events, this presented the perfect excuse to approach the courts service and request an interview with him. As an original line of members to still be with the tribunal, Maurice, who had been involved in many of the biggest legal cases in WA’s legal history, would have a one of a kind perspective on the organisation and its development over the years.

A one-on-one interview would also be a great way to find out more about his Irish background, including about the first ten years he practiced in Ireland after graduating in 1978, before coming to Perth with his family in 1988. If Maurice could be completely charming and convincing within the constraints of being a tribunal member and the legislation, what would he be like speaking about himself in a personal capacity, I wondered. That opportunity never came.

The day I had resolved to write to the courts service to request the interview was the same day I learned of his death.

Many in the legal fraternity will lament his passing, but many more outside legal circles and even the Irish community will also mourn him.

Bourby Webster, CEO of Perth Symphony Orchestra was devastated when he learned Maurice lost his six month battle with cancer.

“Maurice was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Perth 20 years ago and became almost like family to me,” she said. “His unwavering support of me personally and determination to see Perth Symphony Orchestra become sustainable is why we are here today. Maurice was a lawyer and chair of the ethics committee at Princess Margaret Hospital [and King Edward Memorial Hospital] so I’m sure he had so many tough decisions in his life that were much harder than anything Perth Symphony Orchestra threw at him, and yet nothing I asked of him was too much. He guided the orchestra through so many transitional things. The one thing about Maurice, while the company really mattered to him, what really mattered were people every single time. We are Continued on page 12

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Continued from page 11

the lucky ones as we had the privilege of knowing him and having his wisdom, loyalty, humour and warmth on a regular basis. From all of us at PSO we are indebted to you, the musicians loved you, my team adored you we often had Irish people involved too and they found a connection with your beautiful Irish history and accent. I will miss you immensely and I want to thank you on behalf of all us for the amazing journey and I hope wherever you are now there is music playing.”

During his time as chairman, the Perth Symphony Orchestra and the Irish community in Perth came together for a remarkable once-in-a-lifetime event.

On Wednesday 23 March 2016 the orchestra - and several traditional Irish musicians - performed in concert to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Irish fiddle player Rob Zielinksi and classical concert virtuoso Paul Wright also faced off in a fiddle battle. To add to the sense of occasion, the venue was held inside Perth’s own GPO building, in its heritage foyer before the building was closed and refurbished.

Amongst the entertainment for this special occasion guests were also treated to Irish cuisine (colcannon cake, Irish stew and Irish Baileys Cream triple fudge brownie). It was a true and brilliant display of Irish culture at its best.

Outside of a courtroom or concert hall, Maurice embraced life and living in Perth. He regularly swam in the Rottnest Swim, enjoyed kite surfing and was

a part of several communities and clubs - from North Cott SLSC to the Twilight Sailing group at Freshwater Bay. “He absolutely loved the water and could regularly be seen going for an early morning dip at Cottesloe beach,” added Webster. Siera and Kiera from the North Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club extended their love to Jane and the family. “Farewell to a wonderful man and gentlemen. We will miss our morning meetings at NSCLSC,” they said.

Wembley woman Laura Gillam met Maurice and his wife when they first came to Australia to check it out with a view to living here. Their friendship came about serendipitously when the Spillane’s then very young son Patrick wandered up to Laura and opened his arms to be picked up. “Apparently I looked very much like his granny,” she said. Laura and her husband became fast and firm friends with them, and they would often have dinner in each other’s houses. Laura remembers Maurice as being a very kind, patient and loving dad with his children and he was even calm on one occasion when a dishwasher sprung a major leak in the early hours of the morning. Almost nothing phased Maurice but he did lose his first wife Kathy to cancer. Laura remembers her fondly and says she was also a brilliant lawyer: “She handled Alan Bond’s sale of Observation City in Scarborough.”

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam/May his soul be on God’s right hand

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THE IRISH SCENE | 12

THE IRISH SCENE | 13

The summer

Ireland went stone mad

BY LLOYD GORMAN AND BRIAN CORR

The summer of 1985 was an unusually fine one in Ireland but there was only one thing Irish people were talking about, and it wasn’t the weather.

Statues - specifically moving statues - swept across the country like some crazy ‘next big thing’ fad.

The whole population - or at least very many of them - were in the grip of an epiphany. If you didn’t actually witness one do a little shimmy or spend hour after hour in a field with a cast of thousands of others peering intently and praying at a Marion shrine or grotto, then you weren’t a player. Funnily enough, priests were thin on the ground at these ‘mass’ gatherings. The Catholic church and its Irish bishops didn’t exactly approve of these events that saw humanity turn up at the normally secluded spots at the faintest hint there might be a mini-moving miracle on the way. Some statues of Mary moved, while other sightings were of divine figures and saints who appeared in stains on church walls.

It all happened so quickly that the church’s experts barely had time to study the phenomena. The new kids on the block – so to speak – potentially posed a risk or at least competition to Ireland’s big established Marian shrine and place of pilgrimage, Knock in Co. Mayo. The faithful believe that the Virgin Mary, Jesus, St. Joseph, John the Evangelist, and angels, appeared there in 1879. Knock was one of Europe’s great Catholic shrines, alongside Fatima

and Lourdes, with 1.5 million pilgrims visiting each year. Knock Airport (now known as Ireland West Airport) opened in October 1985 with three Aer Lingus charter flights to Rome. (Knock Airport reopened again on July 1st after closing due to COVID-19).

There were more than 30 separate sightings, but one case in particular stands out above the others and made the tiny town of Ballinspittle world famous.

Located about five miles outside of Kinsale, County Cork, the country village had little more than a post office, a national school and a GAA pitch. It also has a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary on the side of a hill.

On July 22 1985, two women claimed they saw a roadside statue of the Virgin Mary move on its own!

Things started to happen very quickly.

Many thousands rushed to visit the sites overnight.

An estimated 100,000 descended on the sleepy Ballinspittle over a matter of weeks. A circus of TV crews and media from around the world landed at the hot spot, busloads of religious and other groups and curious tourists all flocked to this corner of Cork.

Fleets of chipper vans turned up to feed the hungry hordes and the ‘Grotto’ burger was born. The local pub did a roaring trade and enough tea was made to quench a small army’s thirst. Public toilets needed to

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Left: Crowds at the statue of the Virgin Mary at Ballinspittle, Co Cork in 1985. Photograph: Jack McManus. be put in, unused rooms (and even probably some occupied ones) were dusted off as pop up B&B’s responded to the need for accommodation. Ballinspittle was a boom town.

Anyone with a sighting to report was eagerly gobbled up by other believers and reporters on the look out for a story. Some even claimed miracle cures such as being able to walk again, vision restored and the like. For all the eyeballs and cameras directed towards the figurines, no actual movement of a statue was independently confirmed. It remained a matter of faith and as quickly as it started, the trend quickly faded, while a few small ‘cults’ persisted for some years. One set off by road to convert Russia.

It will be interesting to see how – or if – Ballinspittle will mark the 35th anniversary of that incredible time in Ireland. You can still find old news reports and documentaries about the moving statues online and on Youtube.

After all the fuss had died down, some gentle fun was poked at the whole affair in Father Ted, which hit Irish (and UK) screens about ten years later. In one episode Dougal “scares the bejaysus” out of Ted by pretending to float a statue of Mary outside a window. At the start of another episode – ‘Entertaining Father Stone’ – Ted and Dougal panic over the arrival of the painfully boring Father Stone for his holidays in their pokey parochial house. “Why didn’t you lie to him?,” asked Dougal.

“I did!” replied Ted. “I told him great big massive lies with feckin’ bells hanging off them! It’s like asking the Holy Mother to stop appearing to schoolgirls at Ballinspittal.”

This little anecdote – tweeted by one John King/@SeanMacAnRi – could have fitted neatly into a Father Ted script. “During the moving statues craze in Ireland someone put a sign around Mary’s head in the grotto at my local church. Sign said ‘out of order’ Was uproar in the local community!! Found out several years later it was my mum. the church organist!”

Below: The charismatic and capable Monsignor James Horan pictured here on the opening day of Knock Airport. He died just one year later but has been immortalised with a nine foot tall bronze sculpture of him in this exact pose in May 2013 (left). An inscription at the base reads: “From Famine fields to jet streams”. Newbridge, Co Kildare based artist Barry Linnane created the sculpture. His other works include Temple Bar Man, Ark of Thought and Memory (Cork County Council) and Justice Figure (Nenagh Courthouse).

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Irish lawyers thrust into

legal limbo

BY LLOYD GORMAN Exactly 100 years ago (June 1920), Irish lawyers were in unchartered territory and unsure of the legality of the changed circumstances Ireland found itself in, as this piece published recently by The Law Library of the Bar of Ireland shows.

“In 1920 the War of Independence was raging across the country and the Irish bar was not unaffected by events,” the Law Library article states. “At a meeting of the Council on 23rd June 1920 one issue in particular was to put barristers at the centre of the struggle between those who would retain the current status quo and those who were looking to create a new Ireland. The issue was the newly established tribunals, later known as the Dáil Courts, and their effect on the practice of barristers at the time.

Bottom: The Four Courts in Dublin as it appears today. Inset: The bombardment of the courts in 1922.

“The tribunal referred to here is a reference ad hoc tribunals set up by local leaders within communities to arbitrate disputes where people no longer wished to go through the court system. Throughout 1920 groups of volunteers within communities all over Ireland began to come together to form policing groups, taking on roles previously carried out by the Royal Irish Constabulary such as dispersing riots, policing fair days, investigating criminal acts and conducting trials. By May of 1920, Austin Stack, under the auspices of Dáil Éireann, had circulated details of agreed arbitration procedures to be organised in districts and parishes throughout Ireland. These would become known as the Dáil Courts. It seems that in June 1920 a barrister approached the Bar Council to find out if it was lawful or otherwise for barristers to appear before one of these ‘tribunals’. The Council contacted the Attorney General, Law Advisor to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Solicitor General for their opinion and were informed by telegram that each felt that barristers appearing such a tribunal ‘are guilty of professional misconduct’. Interestingly the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland at the time resolved that they saw no objections to solicitors appearing at these tribunals to protect their clients interests. The Bar Council resolved on 23rd June 1920 “that it is professional misconduct on the part of any member of the Bar to appear before such tribunals.”

Four Courts in firing line Much worse was to come. The Irish Civil War started with an attack on the institution of the Irish courts service.

On April 14 1922 the Four Courts in Dublin - home to the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court and Dublin Circuit Court, which were preceded by the Chancery, King’s Bench, Exchequer and Common Pleas - was stormed and occupied by some 200 “irregular” soldiers, - including Sean Lemass, a future Taoiseach (Prime Minister) opposed to the 1921 Anglo-IrishTreaty (declared law on December 6 1921 by

THE IRISH SCENE | 16

a royal proclamation) that had ended the War of Independence and created the Irish Free State.

Seizing the courts building was a direct challenge to the authority of the freshly minted pro-treaty Irish government. English PM Winston Churchill said it violated the terms of the Treaty. The fledgling Irish administration came under intensive pressure to dislodge the rebels but Michael Collins, who had helped broker the treaty and was in charge of the ‘regular’ Irish army, resisted moving against them, conscious that doing so would ignite full blown civil war. But an escalation of events on June 22 (an assassination of one of Britians highest ranking WWI officers and the arrest by Four Court “irregulars� of the Free States’ Deputy Chief of Staff) proved to be the breaking point.

A last ditch offer on June 29 to evacuate the building was ignored and the next day Free State forces armed with two British Army 18 pounder field guns and artillery began shelling the historic building. “A loud explosion was heard as the Public Records Office, containing seven centuries of Irish history, was destroyed,� the Law Library of the Bar of Ireland said in a series of tweets to mark the recent centennial anniversary. “The main Four Courts building was taken down by a second explosion, collapsing

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the dome and leaving the famous Roundhall, the beating heart of the barrister’s profession since 1796, in complete ruin. An inspection of the buildings in the aftermath recorded that the Law Library was ‘completely destroyed’. As a result the Bar moved to temporary accommodations in the King’s Inn where on the 14th July the Bar Council had its first meeting since April. From the Inns the Law Library was moved to Dublin Castle, specifically St. Patrick’s Hall, where they began the overwhelming process of rebuilding a library that had taken 106 years to create.

The profession today may take solace in the solid foundations laid down by past colleagues and take pride in the resilience of the Bar through the ages,� the Law Library added.

It took ten years to rebuild the Four Courts to the building as it stands today. But much of the original lavish interior decoration of the courts complex was never replaced due to a lack of archival information and lack of funds.

All criminal trials moved from the Four Courts to the Criminal Courts of Justice near the Phonexi Park when it opened in 2010. A new ₏140 million dedicated Supreme Court building - with 21 courtrooms, 30 judge’s chambers and 31 consultation rooms for solicitors and clients - is due to open at the nearby Hammond Lane location this year.

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Supported by:

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THE IRISH SCENE | 17

@IrishChamber

Sculpture by the we

BY LLOYD GORMAN Statues are not easily toppled. A profound and rapid shift in society and an angry mob are two of the key ingredients needed to tear down these standing symbols.

Neither are they easily erected. It takes a collective will, creative cooperation, community effort, luck, money and voluntary input. They never just happen or come about by mistake.

I was not involved with the push to get the Famine Memorial An Gorta Mór installed at Market Park, Subiaco but I got some glimpses into the process and the staggering amount of work and worry involved. A million things can go wrong and any one of them can derail the project.

More than anyone else, Fred Rea, chairman of the Western Australia Irish Famine Committee, summed it up best in his address for the unveiling. “Without the dedicated support, effort and vision of the Irish and West Australian communities it could not have happened,” he said.

It is worth listing the names of those involved as a demonstration of how many people (who went over and beyond) and groups were involved in making An Gorta Mór a reality. There was the genius and generosity of the sculptors Joan Walsh-Smith and Charlie Smith (originally from Waterford but now local to WA), and donation of a site and a cash contribution by Subiaco council under mayor Heather Henderson.

WAIFC committee members Peter McKenna, Sheila Murphy, Sean McDonagh, Allan Smith, Jim Egan, Vince Gallagher.

Peter McKenna was project manager and was helped by Frank Smyth, Mark Price, Denis Burke, Nathan Colgan, Olan Healy and Andy and Sally Ann McDonald, John Whelahan, Sean King, Mark Keogh, Gay Collins, Carl and Marie Holmes, Henry McLaughlin, Mike Frawley and Dan White.

December 2017 edition of Irish Scene.

Once upon a time, the King decided he didn’t want to live on the same soil as criminals, so he established a penal colony in a far off land that would later be called Tasmania. Hobart Town was the main population centre.

That was 1803. It was no fairy-tale back then.

Today, Hobart is a thriving city, the state capital of Tasmania; population c.220,000. It is one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world, boasting lush vegetation, diverse wildlife, a long coastline and marvellous weather. A great place to live.

In Famine footsteps The event at Subiaco marked the official start of the president's visit to Australia and New Zealand. About a week later the presidential tour was in Tasmania where, amongst other engagements, President Higgins unveiled another famine related bronze sculpture of four convict women called “Footsteps” on the Hobart waterfront. In his speech at the unveiling ceremony, the president said the 14,000 convicts shipped there were “victims of a harsh judicial system that valued property above people’s lives.” The following piece written by Brian Corr was originally published in the November/

And Hobart has grown up! Gone are the days when people hid the ‘stain’ of a convict ancestor, many of whom had been transported for petty crimes, such as the theft of food, or coins; stolen to help a starving family; destitute people trying to survive.

So, when Uachtaráin na hÉireann Michael D Higgins, came to Hobart on the 14th October 2017, to unveil the life-size bronze sculptures of three women and one child - sculptures that represent the stories of women and children convicts, who arrived in Hobart more than 150 years ago - it was reason to celebrate.

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Groups and companies who also put in included: Irish Families in Perth, Irish Golf Club of WA, Irish Club of WA, GAAWA, Claddagh Association of WA, Ireland-WA Forum, Irish Theatre Players, Perth Glasgow Celtic Supporters’ Club, Flightworld, Paul McLoughlin, Northside Meats and Paddy Monaghan.

Quite apart from the all of this, there were endlessly Above: Irish President Michael D long hours spent in Higgins and his wife Sabina (right) planning meetings by with Fred Rea at the unveiling of the An Gorta Mór statue in 2017. members of the Irish Below left: President Higgins at the embassy, Irish consulate “Footsteps” statue in Hobart. Photos: in Perth Marty Kavanagh Courtesy Maxwell Dublin and his team, officials from Subiaco council, WA police, protocol staff from the premiers office and other agencies.

In the end the whole thing went smoothly. There were a few finishing touches that came after the memorial was unveiled but it mattered not.

Anyone who was there on the day will know what a memorable and proud day October 9, 2017 was in

Michael D spoke powerfully, his voice resonating across the waterfront, and to a large audience; a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Nearly 13,000 women, and 2,000 children, arrived in Hobart from Ireland between 1803 and 1853, torn from their families, after a bleak 25,000km journey, in the dark holds of ships, not knowing the future; hopeful for a new life. Some had small children. There was almost no hope of ever seeing their families again.

Michael D didn’t hold back on the history front, saying: “One hundred and seventy years ago, famine raged through the fields of Ireland. ‘Black ‘47’ [1847] was the nadir of the Great Hunger, An Gorta Mór, when the peasant population of Ireland was literally dying in the ditches.

Today I recall that terrible time in our nation’s history because not all who suffered died. Over a million people died of hunger and disease, but over two million were forced to leave their native land. The majority did so out of necessity, fleeing poverty, seeking a new life and a new hope in a new land.”

The sculptures were created by renowned Irish artist Rowan Gillespie, who has completed companion works

Subiaco. Irish President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina unveiled An Gorta Mór, which he dedicated with a world class speech worthy of the "captivating" Famine memorial. “[The sculptors] have accomplished a most beautiful and moving depiction of the desolation that unfolded during and following those apocalyptic famine years in the 1840s,” Mr Higgins said. “A mother, bent low by the crushing loss of her children. A people, hollowed out by starvation and forced exile. Caoineadh - keening, from the Irish word for weeping, so clearly and sensitively presented is a metaphor perhaps for the collective trauma that the Famine undoubtedly was for the Irish people, and the long shadow that it cast on successive generations scattered throughout the globe. For me, the work also brings to mind the perhaps unresolved feelings of loss, grief, anger and even guilt, of the survivors in Ireland, of those who fled, and indeed of all of their descendants, including those of us gathered here today.

“We have struggled to come to terms with this seismic event in our shared story.”

The president was presented with a bronze miniature An Gorta Mór modelled by the sculptors, a gift which now sits in Áras an Uachtaráin. Much more recently, the possibility of a similar monument being installed at a community in Ireland has become distinctly possible and we may be able to report more in the next edition of Irish Scene.

in Dublin and Toronto. On the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine, his Dublin sculptures gave a face to the suffering of the many starving people who fled from Ireland.

On the 160th anniversary, his Toronto sculptures depicted those who arrived there full of hope for a new life in a new country.

On the 170th anniversary, in Hobart, President Michael D said: “Rowan [Gillespie] did not need to imagine the women who were forced to make the perilous voyage.

For he could meet them. I was particularly moved to learn that the models for Rowan’s sculptures are the descendants of some of these banished women, some of whom are with us here today”, and “These women and young girls, and the choices they made, shaped the world in which they lived. They were the founding mothers of Modern Australia. And so, it is fitting that we should remember them; and that we should celebrate them”, and “The women themselves had to survive their own incarceration and beatings, long hours of labour and harsh conditions in which they were housed. And they had to endure assignments to masters as bonded labour.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 19

Irish women

raising the Bar

BY LLOYD GORMAN Justice Mary Irvine was appointed as President of the High Court on June 12 by President of Ireland Michael D Higgins. She is the first woman to hold the position - or even be nominated for it - and her designation comes almost 100 years after women were first allowed to enter the Irish bar.

“She will bring the qualities of independence, deep legal knowledge and insight that have characterised her distinguished career as a judge,” said Law Society President Michele O’Boyle.

“I welcome in the warmest of terms this nomination of Ms Justice Mary Irvine both as an outstandingly able judge and as the first woman in history to hold this absolutely key role in the Irish judiciary.”

Her appointment as a High Court judge was made in 2007, the Court of Appeal in 2018 and the Supreme Court last year.

The Dublin born legal eagle entered the Bar in 1978 and became a Senior Counsel in 1996.

She was the secretary of the Bar Council of Ireland in 1992 and was elected a Bencher of the King’s Inns in 2004. Before her legal life she was also a promising golf player, having won the Irish Girls Close Championship in 1975.

She may be the first female to smash the barriers that have traditionally blocked women from reaching the top of the Irish legal system, but she will not be the last. Justice Irvine is the apex of a wave of female lawyers and judges coming through the ranks.

Figures from the Irish Court Service show that in 1996 just 13% of all judges in the legal system were women.

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Top: Seal the deal; President Michael D. Higgins and right former Taoiseach Leo Vadakar - appointed Justice Mary Irvine as President of the High Court of Ireland. Above: Justice Mary Irvine Today they make up 38%.

Four of nine Supreme Court judges are women, as are eleven of 40 at the High Court, seven of 15 at the Court of Appeal and 16 of 38 in the Circuit Court and 23 of 63 in the District Court.

Of Ireland’s 167 judges, 63 are women, each of whom is carving out their own legacy in a legal system which owes some credit to the original female trailblazers.

According to the Irish Law Library Averil Deverell and Frances Kyle were the first women to be called to the Irish Bar in November 1921.

Ciara’s legal legacy Ciara Eilish Glennon was not born in Ireland, but she was Irish. She was delivered in a bush hospital in Zambia to parents Micheal from Westport, Co. Mayo and Una, from Monaghan who had moved to Africa to teach.

The family relocated to Perth when she was around five and it was here that she grew up, went to school and university, spent her formative years and looked set to have a good life and promising career at the Bar. She was a bright, free spirited and fun loving person.

Having obtained a law degree and a masters in Japanese from the University of Western Australia, and a job with Ashurst - a respected local law firm, at the age of 26 she did what hundreds of thousands of other young Australian’s did, she took a year out to travel and see the world.

She visited Israel, Greece and Turkey before finishing her adventures with a six week stint with relatives in Ireland.

Ciara returned to Perth in February 1997 for her sister Denise’s wedding in March.

She returned to her old job and wearing a Claddagh brooch she went out in Claremont on Friday March 14 with co-workers for after-works drinks and an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration. She left her friends in the pub around midnight to get home to Mosman Park. The last time she was seen alive, she was trying to hail a taxi to get home. Her family became immediately concerned for her safety and it was three weeks later that her body was discovered in bushland in Perth’s far north.

Justice for Ciara, Sarah and Jane

Top: Ciara Glennon. Above: L-R Denise Glennon, Denis Glennon, Tayu Wilker (2019 scholarship winner) and Una Glennon

Ciara’s family, law firm and alma mater were quick to honour her with a lasting tribute. The Ciara Glennon Memorial Law Scholarship was set up in 1998 to help full time UWA law students financially. Scholarship winners get $10,000 and a clerkship at Ashurst and every year since then it has helped many young bright and earnest people to get a good footing in a profession they believe can help to make the world a better place for those seeking justice.

Last years winner, Tayu Wilker, said she was humbled to receive the award from the family personally.

“I think that is a huge compliment and honour to say that ‘we see how these aspects of her are positive in you as well," she said. “What they are doing is so extraordinary, to have suffered a great tragedy and want to bring so much good in the world is something else.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 21

The trial of the man accused of allegedly killing Ciara, Sarah Spiers and Jane Rimmer concluded on June 25, exactly seven months to the day since it started. At almost every one of the 95 sitting days in the Supreme Court, the families of these young women watched, listened and endured their own private pain in the public and uncompromising setting of a courtroom and the media in the hope that at the end they will get justice for their daughters. DNA evidence from Ciara’s final act of fighting back could prove to be critical clue, but that is now for Justice Stephen Hall to consider in his verdict, due to be handed down at the latest

by September 24. It will be 24 years since the killer ripped their lives apart.

BY LLOYD GORMAN

ISTEACH SA TEACH Irish community celebrated With plans and events for St. Patrick’s Day this year derailed by the Coronavirus pandemic Dublin born Stephen Dawson, Minister for Environment made this statement in parliament (Legislative Council) on June 10 in recognition of some of the many individuals and groups in the local Irish community.

“I want to take the opportunity tonight to acknowledge the great work that is happening in the Irish community in Western Australia at the moment,” Mr Dawson, also the member for the Mining and Pastoral WA Environment Minister, Stephen Dawson meets the dinosaurs at Perth Zoo. Photo: Perth Zoo region said. “Members in this place will know that every year Gorman, who run the Irish Scene magazine in Western around St Patrick’s Day, we have a celebration in Australia. That is the Bible for those of us in Western the courtyard at which we acknowledge the great Australia from Ireland. It lists the various Irish work that is happening and thank those leaders in community groups and Irish activities that happen the Irish community in Western Australia for the around the state. I thank them all. I thank the Keady dedication and support they provide to the Irish Upton School of Irish Dancing. Whatever people do in community. Obviously this year, because the COVID-19 the Irish community, Irish families in Perth appreciate restrictions mean that we cannot have any visitors what they do to help keep Irish culture alive in to Parliament, we had to delay our celebration. But I Western Australia. I acknowledge Hon Alanna Clohesy think it is important to acknowledge people like Marty and those others who host the event with me. We will Kavanagh, Ireland’s Honorary Consul in Western hopefully get to host an event either later this year or Australia, who has worked incredibly hard over the early next year. In the meantime, I thank those people past few months, particularly during the COVID-19 very much for what they do, particularly during pandemic, to help younger and older Irish people who this COVID-19 time. I know have been stranded in Western Australia to get back to people’s work has increased, their families in Ireland. and I want to acknowledge “I also want to acknowledge others in the community that.” groups throughout the Irish community, particularly those who are running the Irish Club of Western Australia in Subiaco at the moment. The Irish Club has gone through some difficult times of late and its members have been working incredibly hard to Mandurah’s only Irish pub keep the club afloat, so I want to thank them. I also has racked up a couple of want to acknowledge people like Lloyd and Imelda Andrew Hastie

Murphy’s passes the pub test

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Left: The fresh new look for Murphys. Above: Painting was done by employees during the lockdown mentions in state parliament in the last 12 months for the quality of its food, drink and service. But the popular waterfront watering hole was mentioned in dispatches at federal parliament in Canberra.

Andrew Hastie, the member for Canning, talked about the impact of the Morrison government’s Jobkeeper program in his electorate. Amongst the local companies he talked about Murphy’s Irish pub came in for meritorious mention from the former SAS soldier turned politician.

“Edward Janiec is the owner of Murphy’s Irish Pub in Mandurah, which won the Irish International Hospitality Award last year,” Mr Hastie said in the House of Representatives on June 17. “When COVID-19 hit, Edward could only retain 16 core members of his staff of 50. When JobKeeper was introduced, he was able to keep those 16 staff members employed part-time for nine weeks over the course of the pandemic. Because pubs were closed under COVID-19 restrictions, Edward used his staff to do some renovating and other projects in the pub. Employees who used to work as chefs and managers enjoyed repainting, sanding back and restoring old furniture, and general maintenance to improve the presentation in readiness for reopening. In renovating and improving the pub, Edward told me he spent $25,000 at local hardware stores and services.

Edward was able to open his pub last week as restrictions eased in WA, and is doing two sittings of 100 at both lunch and dinner.

Even with 400 patrons a day, he has to

Mike Nahan

turn away customers and has employed another eight casuals due to the workload. He’s looking forward to restrictions being lifted and returning to full capacity.

Politics can be a ‘ruff’ business A new piece of legislation passing through the WA parliament produced a couple of interesting revelations and exchanges last month.

During a debate in the Legislative Assembly on June 23 about the The Dog Amendment (Stop Puppy Farming) Bill 2020, Dr Mike Nahan, who hails from America, was able to offer a unique insight into the issue.

“I grew up on a puppy farm,” the Liberal Member for Riverton revealed. “I was not a puppy, but I raised dogs. At one time, I had 15 dogs. They were Irish wolfhounds. They are tremendous dogs. We had to be careful, because they are rather big, and they tend to chase. We shipped them around the world. Irish Wolfhounds had been inbred and their breeding stock had declined, so in order to save the breed, they were bred with Bull-mastiffs, so they had some problems.

“Bull-mastiffs are really thick. They are running dogs.

Every time they would see a German Shepherd or an Alsatian, they would go for it. They had an imprint on

Jessica Shaw

Continued on page 24

THE IRISH SCENE | 23

Organisations such as “Adopt A Greyhound” seek to rehome Greyhounds and other dogs Irish wolfhounds were seized on

by David Templeman, Minister for Local Government.

“Owning a dog is a big investment,” Mr Templeman said. “In some case, people pay thousands of dollars.

I do not know why the member for Riverton went into politics. He should have continued to breed Irish Wolfhounds. He spoke about the substantial amount of money paid for each dog. That is remarkable. Goodness! He could get his backbencher’s salary in three sales, which is amazing.”

Continued from page 23

the brain about wolves, hence the name Wolfhound.”

He raised them in their home. “Did we farm them?

We had quite a few of them,” he added. “Did we take care of them? Like our brothers and sisters. Indeed, to this day—this is 50 years ago—I still get letters from people to whom we sold dogs. By the way, I calculated that in today’s dollars, we were selling those puppies for $50,000 each. That was a lot of money. I can tell members that on the farm, my father lost more money in other ventures, like Angora goats, than he made on the dogs. It is good that he was a lawyer. No-one has a monopoly on compassion for dogs. Dogs are very popular in my electorate. My last dog was called Mango. He was actually my daughter’s dog but kids leave home and what stays is the dog.”

Jessica Shaw, Labor’s member for Swan Hills, said the debate about the puppy farming bill had proved to be very interesting, particularly Mr Nahan’s “history with Irish Wolfhounds”. She had a similar background herself.

“My grandparents had Irish Wolfhounds,” she admitted. “My aunt bred Rough Collies. My parents bred Newfoundlands. At one stage, we had well over 10 Newfoundlands and they lived in the house.

It was crazy and very often a lot of the food we ate had dog hair in it! My mum was the secretary of the Newfoundland Club of NSW. “I grew up in New South Wales completely within the organisations that represent the very same sorts of people who are involved in dog showing and dog breeding—the Dogs West membership base. We are dog people.”

Debate about puppy farms continued in the chamber a couple of days later and Mr Nahan’s remarks about

David Templeman

In more dog related news it seems that retired Australian Greyhounds being sent to Ireland are actually destined for China and cruelty.

In 2017 there was a reported case of a major export racket that saw 70 of the racing dogs used to race cheetahs in a Shanghai zoo. Stephen Price, Member for Forrestfield, raised the issue in WA’s state parliament on the same day as the second Puppy Farming debate.

“Greyhounds Australasia, the racing industry’s governing body in Australia, banned exports to Macau in 2013, no longer issuing passports for Greyhounds to be exported to China,” he said. “However, the Australian government refused to make it illegal to send Greyhounds to Macau without a passport, so the ban was ineffectual and it still is. I strongly urge the Australian government to ban the export of Australian Greyhounds. We still find that Greyhounds end up in China although they are exported to Ireland, the United Kingdom or somewhere like that. They go through the back door to China, so we really need to ban the export of Greyhounds from Australia.”

There are at least two groups or sources of information and support for these kind of dogs in distress. Irish Wolfhounds in Need of Rescue Australia is not a rescue group but is a share page for Irish Wolfhounds and Wolfhound X’s who are in pounds/rescue and are seeking permanent homes. Greyhound Adoptions WA is a non profit organisation run entirely by volunteers.

It supports a ‘no kill’ policy, placing no restrictions on the temperament of the dogs that are brought onto our care.

THE IRISH SCENE | 24

Kate and Bill make “Trip to Tipp” and the Áras Kate Doust and Bill Johnston are members of the West fabulous experiences” - the duo ducked into Dáil Australian parliament and husband and wife. The Éireann (Ireland’s parliament). “We appreciated a tour couple visited Ireland in January and shoe horned a of the Dáil, a truly beautiful parliamentary building good deal of personal and ‘work’ related activity in and the opportunity to meet the presiding officers. their few short days in the country.

It was a great opportunity to discuss our different “Both Bill and I have family origins from different political systems and the forthcoming election at the parts of Ireland,” time”. On behalf of the Kate explained two of them she thanked to Isteach sa Ireland’s Honorary Consul Teach. “Mine are in WA Marty Kavanagh from Tipperary and the Irish Ambassador (Cashel and Mr Breandan O Caollai in Bansha - Grogan) Canberra for making the Antrim (Graffin) arrangements for the visit and Dublin to meet with President (AbecassisHiggins and also with the Jewish line of Speaker of the Dail, Mr family) while Sean O’ Fearghail and the Bill’s mother’s President of the Seanad, family (Kelly) Senator Denis O’Donovan hail from Clare (pictured below). and Tipperary.

My first visit to Ireland was in 1973 for a couple of months Above: Kate Higgins and Bill Johnston with staying with President Higgins cousins in Cashel and touring around with my grandfather and mother. Short stint of school in Cashel and time with cousins in New Inn are fond memories. I have since been back on another three occasions both for work and family holidays.

Always pleased that we still maintain some contact with family based in Cashel. We spent our couple of days wandering around Dublin listening to music and visiting museums, great city for walking . our final day before returning home was to visit Cashel, Bansha and a number of other towns in Tipperary and a lovely slow drive back to Dublin.”

See all our Monthly Specials at tyrepowerperthcity.com.au While they were in the capital During these the touring pollies went on a bit Covid-19 of a busman’s holiday. “Bill and I uncertain times, were really pleased and excited to we would like have the opportunity to meet with to mention to President Higgins at his residence our Customers during the final days of our that we are holiday,” she said. “We discussed taking all his visit to Australia and Perth and precautionary some current issues around the measures with economy, mining sector, as well as sanitising, the bushfires in Eastern Australia. seat covers I also gave the President a copy and workshop of the Bob Hawke biography by protective wear.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 25

How (and why) Ireland

unceremoniously dethroned a Queen

BY LLOYD GORMAN It has been incredible to watch the backlash from African-American George Floyd’s brutal killing and the Black Lives Matter movement gain fresh momentum around the world in ways that similar deaths and movements have not been able to achieve in the past.

Images of statues of historically significant figures with links to the slave trade being toppled on the news is a sign of how much momentum and pent up anger exists in those affected communities. Tearing down a piece of public sculpture that is designed and made to last indefinitely requires a collective will and energy and is something that happens at time of significant change.

Ireland’s assertion of its own sovereignty is not without its own examples of this phenomenon.

In 1922 - after the War of Independence had been fought and before the Irish Civil War began - Ireland became a Free State, a Dominion of the British Commonwealth, still with some links to the Crown but granted a large degree of autonomy and its own parliament. The moment that became a reality, statues started coming down.

Across what is now the Republic of Ireland, British army and Royal Irish Constabulary forces withdrew from barracks and stations across the country. No sooner had British soldiers evacuated Renmore Barracks in Galway, a statue of a hated figure was targeted by locals. A local newspaper described the scene.

“A crowd numbering several thousands assembled inside the Square [Eyre Square], and two men set to work sawing at the base of the life-size bronze monument of Lord Dunkellin,

a brother of the late Lord Clanricarde,” the Galway Advertiser reported on May 27, 1922. “A rope was afterwards procured and fastened around the neck, and with a strong pull, over it went amidst great applause.

This monument was erected in 1873, and subscribed for by the Clanricarde tenantry, Main: Queen Vic in Storage in a good deal of which it was stated, was Kilmainham Castle Dublin. obtained from the people by threats. When Above: All that is left of Victoria’s the monument disappeared in the rere, the statue in Ireland pedestal was mounted by Mr. W.J. Larkin, Mr. S.J. Cremin, Secretary of the Transport Workers Union, and Mr. P. Kiely, Secretary Galway Tenants Association. It was a symbol of landlord tyranny, and they intended to pull down every monument of its kind in Ireland, and put a monument of some good Irishman in its place. “[With the rope] round the neck of the statue it was drawn by thousands through the main streets with band playing Irish reels and hornpipes and taken out to the pier head where it was thrown into the water. The scene at the pier head was of the most extraordinary kind. The thousands who followed (and dragged the ‘corpse’) cheering wildly. As the ‘body’ was being hurried into the sea opposite Devil’s Head on the Claddagh side, Mr. Larkin stated that neither Gettysburg, Bodenstown or Greece had sufficient eloquence to panagerize such a ‘corpse’ - “Let it go boys” said Mr. Larkin, “and may the devil and all rotten landlordism go with it”. As the body was hurried into the sea, the band amidst a roar of joyous laughter, played ‘I’m for ever blowing bubbles’. The next morning, the statue had disappeared from the Quay Stream, removed by some enterprising person. It has never been seen since. The base was removed to Castlegar, reworked, and today, ironically, it is a base for a memorial to the Old IRA.” Lord Dunkellin was one Ulick Canning de Burgh, an Anglo-Irish THE IRISH SCENE | 26

solider and member of parliament for Galway. The statue was erected in the heart of Galway town in honour of his military and political career in 1873, six years after he died. Thousands thronged the square for its unveiling. The statue was created by the respected Irish artist John Henry Foley, the same man who designed and created the imposing statue of one of Ireland’s greatest freedom leaders - and lawyers - of all time, Daniel O’Connell ‘The Liberator’ in O’Connell Street in Dublin.

The statue was built on a foundation of simmering resentment. Tenants on the family’s estate were forced to help pay for the cost of its erection. Added to that, the younger brother of Lord Dunkellin had been responsible for a number of forced evictions of tenants during the Land War. The local community would expressed its long held grudge on that day in late May 1922.

Nor was it an isolated incident. About a week earlier, another statue to a prominent local Anglo-Irish figure literally lost its head around the same time.

A life size bronze statue of the 3rd Earl of Clancarty was erected in a railed enclosure on Station Street, Ballinasloe, in his honour in 1874, two years after his death. Under the cover of night the statue was decapitated and the head was thrown through the window of a local shop.

While these were examples of a localised nationalistic reaction, the fledgling government of the new nation found itself very much face to face with a similar problem, one that would eventually find a solution in Australia.

Queen Victoria visited Ireland (not for the first time) in April 1900, during which time it was proposed that a national monument should be commissioned and erected to the British monarch. Nine months later the Royal matriarch died, giving backers of the project renewed motivation for it to be carried out. Dublin artist John Hughes (1865-1941) was given the task of creating a memorial for the Crown figure. Hughes had created other statues - such as a life-size statue of Fenian writer Charles Kickham in Tipperary town and for this commission he relocated to Paris.

His creation was unveiled at a gala ceremony in 1908.

More than a thousand British soldiers and a large number of guests and VIPs swelled the manicured enclosed courtyard of Leinster House where it was installed. Leinster House was the home of the Royal Dublin Society, who had bought it from the Duke of Leinster in 1815.

Victoria’s successor King Edward VII opted not to unveil the memorial - perhaps its first rejection (of many) - and the job of dedicating it was handed to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The statue attracted some criticism and even Hughes came to realise that the statue was out of scale to its surroundings at Leinster House (he believed it would be placed at the much larger and open Phoenix Park). The ornate style of its pedestal also clashed badly with the Georgian facade of Leinster House and classical look of the neighbouring museum and library buildings.

But a negative artistic review would soon enough be the least of the statue’s concerns. There would be further indignities.

Leinster House was chosen by the incoming Irish administration of 1922 to be the seat of the Irish legislature - where it remains to this day. Having just fought a war to gain Ireland’s independence from British shackles, the parliament

Continued on page 28

Main: Queen Victoria’s statue now resides in Sydney, NSW. Above left: The removal process. Inset: the 3rd Earl of Clancarty THE IRISH SCENE | 27

Continued from page 27

(Dail) of Ireland could not decades earlier, crowds turned out to watch allow the embarrassing her removal. A cartoon effigy of the monarch published at the time known in Ireland as the also captured the mood Famine Queen for her of change. blind indifference to the plight of the Irish at that The queen’s bronze time under her reign - to effigy was first taken remain in place. James to Kilmainham Royal Joyce castigated her as Hospital - which was ‘The old Bitch’ in Ulysses, then police headquarters which also happened to - where she sat in the be published in February open air for decades.

1922, on Joyce’s 40th In early 1980 she was birthday. moved again, this time to a field at the back of a While there was an disused children’s home appetite to get rid of her, at Daingean, Co. Offaly the cost of doing so and where for three decades the myriad of social, she grew a grimy coat. economic and political Her fall from Grace was problems facing the complete. state meant it would Top: The statue in her former glory at Leinster House. Above: Queen Vic and be 25 years before it other statues ‘in storage’ It would have been was actually moved. inconceivable to those Interestingly both Britain and Canada had knocked who celebrated her unveiling at the gala ceremony back any suggestion or invitation to take the metal in 1908 to forsee her demise to this pitiful state. But monarch. equally unlikely were the course of events that would ultimately restore her to something resembling her In 1933 Republican - and later Fine Gael - TD Grattan former glory.

Esmonde placed a large and elaborate bouquet of The massive - and impressive - Queen Victoria rotten vegetables at her feet by way of protests about Building (QVB) in Sydney was built between 1833 and the Irish government’s policies at the time about 1898 when the city was in a deep recession, providing farming. Interestingly Esmonde - who campaigned for Sinn Fein in 1918 had sailed to Australia in 1920 as a representative of the Irish government and had tried to land in Sydney but was denied permission to leave his ship.

She was finally removed in 1948 when a newly elected government - which had a FLY NOW , policy of pushing for Ireland to become PAY a full Republic - came into power. A LATER! crane hoisted the statue onto the back of a flatbed lorry and the spot became a carpark.

The Irish Times carried this eye-witness account of her final removal: “As I watched, another workman appeared, clambering over her head, gripping her British Travel now offer 2 forms of payment plans to sometimes by the nose and occasionally suit everyone. You can pay off over 2 to 12 months. sticking a finger into her disdainful Lay by is available to anyone over the age of 18 years, including 457 or similar visa holders eye. Perhaps it was just the effect of the glistening rain on the bright, green res@britishtravel.com.au copper, but it seemed to me that the old lady - never exactly pleasant-looking at the best of times - was glaring about with www.britishtravel.com.au loathing and disgust.” Just as she was Australian Federation of Travel Agents Member: (AFTA) • ATAS - Member ABN 65 08 124 5098 unveiled to throngs of people just a few

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work and employment to thousands of labourers and craftspeople. Over the years it had many uses (concert hall, warehouse, city library, city offices) and was even at risk of demolition in the late 1950’s.

The architecturally outstanding structure - then a shopping mall - underwent a massive renovation in the 1980’s and the owners wanted to install a statute of Queen Victoria at the entrance of the revamped centre. Neil Glasser, then director of promotions for the QVB, was given the task of finding her. For three years he scoured the globe following up leads in more than 20 countries, looking everywhere the British Empire had touched. In his quest he did find examples of her sculptures which had also fallen out of favour, but getting permission to remove them proved insurmountable. Just as the search seemed to be mission impossible, Glasser got word of the Victoria stuck in a field in the Irish midlands. Five days later on a May day in 1986 he was standing beside her.

“I looked upon the most magnificent, majestic, imposing and regal statue of Queen Victoria I had ever seen,” he later told the Irish Times.

In September of that year the statue was shipped

Victoria’s talking dog - it must be Blarney

A talking dog provides another, lesser known Irish connection to the relocated royal. Very close to Victoria's statute on Bicentennial Plaza is another smaller monument. It contains a 60 centimetre bronze statuette of a Cairn terrier called Islay, a favourite pet of the Queens. A recorded voice speaks to onlookers urging them to make a donation and make a wish, with the money going towards a charity for deaf and blind children. If you look closely you will see what looks like a stone fastened to the memorial.

The stone is in fact a small chunk taken from the battlements of Blarney Castle, and was probably added to the Islay statue in around 1987. A plaque states: Blarney Castle Stone A stone from the Battlements of Blarney Castle.

A gift to the people of Sydney, from Alderman D. Wallace, T.D. Lord Mayor, and the people of Cork, through the courtesy of Sir Richard Colthurst, B.T.

- “transported” as the Irish papers took delight in reporting - to Australia. She was unveiled outside the QVB on December 20 1988 and almost exactly three years to the day since the abandoned bronze was plucked out of obscurity, Queen Elizabeth II visited the site in May 1988. Glasser was given an honour in the Royal Victorian Order for his efforts.

Then-Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald happily authorised the “loan” of Victoria to Sydney as a “reminder of the permanent bond and friendship between our two countries”. But not everyone was in favour of letting go of the royal relic. The head of National Museum of Ireland and then minister for finance John Bruton (and later Taoiseach) argued it was created by an Irish artist and was part of Ireland’s history and should stay in the country.

Iconoclasm is an Irish institution

The purposeful application of explosives to ‘English’ statues has been a hobby of the Irish - particularly Dubliners - for some time as Brian Corr explains.

One statue that was never going to survive Irish independence was the statue of William of Orange in College Green, close to the centre of Dublin. William defeated James II at the battle of the Boyne in 1690 and this has been celebrated by Unionists for many many years. To nationalists, William of Orange is the ultimate symbol of repression. In 1929, the statue was blown up.

The year before Guinness was founded (1758) the first statue in St Stephen’s Green was erected - King George II, in full triumphant Roman posture. Its tall pedestal made it highly visible. Targeted by vandals from the start, by 1818 several attempts had been made to amputate body parts. On 13th May 1937 it was blown up – to coincide with the coronation of George VI. When Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria asked that St Stephen’s Green be renamed ‘Albert Green’ with a statue of Albert in its centre. This was rejected by the people of Dublin. Victoria wasn’t happy.

For over 150 years, the statue of Lord Nelson stood on top of a massive column, and dominated the centre of Dublin; a symbol of British Imperialism. Nelson was a vigorous defender of slavery, and a good friend of slave owners in the West Indies’ sugar plantations.

At 2:00 am, 8th March 1966, an IRA bomb completely destroyed the upper section of the monument - their way of commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. The Irish army had to finish the job and destroyed the base soon after.

In an insult to many great Irish heroes, the ‘Spire of Dublin’, a shiny bland 120 metres high stainless-steel monument, now stands where Nelson’s Pillar had been for so long. Wouldn’t it be great if you could climb to the top (as I did as a child on school tours) and find a statue honouring Ireland’s greatest hero, Michael Collins!.

THE IRISH SCENE | 29

Poetic Justice?

June 16 is well known - amongst literary circles in any case - as Bloomsday, for James Joyce’s Ulysses. But did you know June 13 is Yeats Day? The occasion celebrates the birthday of Ireland’s national poet W B Yeats.

Pictured right is community Garda Charlie Jordan at the Yeats statue in Sligo Town (Sligo was his spiritual homeland) where he read one of the poet’s pieces for by-standers and by-passers and anyone who wanted to listen as part of a ‘We’re all in this together’ initiative.

There was another incident indirectly involving Garda that did not bode so well for the piece of public art that was installed in the town’s high street in May 1990. In August 2005 gardai flagged down a car which instead of stopping sped up and drove past them. The driver and vehicle didn’t get too far. The car hit the Yeats sculpture while travelling at speed. There was one casualty from the collision, the £20,000 work - commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the writers death - smashed into three large pieces which were later repaired by the Dublin based sculptor Rowan Gillespie and has survived since without suffering another calamity.

Gillespie is a profile artist who has multiple works - many of them famine related - around the world. Having unveiled An Gorta Mór Famine memorial in Subiaco - created by Perth based Irish sculptors Charlie and Joan Smith Walsh - at the start of his 2017 tour of Australia and New Zealand Irish president Michael D Higgins just a few days later unveiled another memorial - this time of four female convicts - in Hobart, Tasmania, created by Gillespie.

His father was a medical doctor and his mother Moira was the daughter of a fascinating character, James Creed Meredith. Meredith was a scholar (who in 1911 translated the definitive English version Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgement). He was also a volunteer solider with the Irish Volunteers and used a yacht to run guns for the rebels but later turned to pacifism after becoming a Quaker. He went on to study law and became a barrister and James Creed Meredith then a judge of the Supreme Court from 1937 until 1942 as well as a Judge of the High Court from 1924 until his death in 1937 and was known to uphold Brehon Law. He also served as president of the Supreme Court of the Irish Republic and Chief Judicial Commissioner of Ireland.

Gillespie is very cognisant of his grandfathers legacy. Standing directly opposite the main entrance to Dublin’s historic THE IRISH SCENE | 30

Right: “Proclaimation” by artist Rowan Gillespie Kilmainham Gaol are 14 haunting bronze and blindfolded statues standing in a circle. The 2007 work called ‘Proclamation’ honours those leaders and men executed by a British army firing squad at the jail for their part in the Easter Rising of 1916. The slender bodies of the blindfolded figures are riddled with bullet holes to remember the way they were killed.

Gillespie dedicated the work as a “personal tribute” to Meredith.

Embracing the long arm of the law Police forces in many parts of the world are under pressure from protestors against police brutality and injustice as well as reform campaigners. In another case heavy handed law enforcement was used illegitimately as private security and political muscle for a presidential campaign.

Left: Gardai knocked on the doors of elderly and vulnerable people and delivered care packages.

These things create division and can pit the public against the police who are meant to protect them.

Ireland and the Irish Defence Forces also commemorated their uniformed colleague.

No police force anywhere is perfect or totally free of some bad eggs and each services has its own challenges.

But as the shooting death of Detective Garda Colm Horkan in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon in June demonstrates, this does not mean police cannot rely on the support and respect of communities and the society they serve.

The national Irish police force is Garda Síochána na hÉireann - which poetically means guardians of the peace in Irish.

It was one of the first functions of state established by the the Irish government and is a largely unarmed force. By and large its members come from communities where they are actively involved in the locality. Many of them come from a sporting background (GAA/ soccer/rugby) and all undergo the same training. While upholding and enforcing the law of the land, manning COVID checkpoints and chasing bad guys they also provide valuable community services.

That is clear from the outpouring of grief by the whole country for the 44-year-old officer who was killed in the line of duty.

The whole country responded. Just before the funeral started, the peace bell at Áras an Uachtaráin (the Irish president’s residence) was rung by Sergeant Sinead Riley, Sergeant-in-Charge to mark the start of a minutes silence for the fallen officer. At that time around Ireland thousands of people gathered outside local Garda stations with local gardai to pay their respects for that moment of reflect. Hundreds of gardai formed a guard of honour for him, but so too did dozens of GAA players and thousands more in his hometown of Charlestown, Co. Mayo at his state funeral. Because of Coronavirus social distancing restrictions, the numbers able to attend the funeral mass in St. James’ Church were limited, but hundreds assembled in the playing field of the local GAA club where Colm had played for much of his life.

The national broadcaster broadcast the funeral live on TV while Radio Mid West also transmitted it, while every major media outlet in Ireland also covered it in detail. The Police Service of Northern

During the pandemic in Ireland, people who needed help with grocery shopping or getting a prescription filled for vital medicines were encouraged by the force itself to ring their local Garda station.

And gardai didn’t wait around for the phone to ring either. Each division predominately in country areas - went out and knocked on the doors of elderly and vulnerable people and delivered care packages. In Ballyshannon, Donegal local gardai took an active part in a food and social support programme that saw 16,000 dinners delivered over several months to people in need. In Mallow, Cork garda there help out and deliver ‘Meals on Wheels’ in police vehicles.

In Allingham Park, Co. Donegal Gda Niamh Brennan was asked to plant a tree in memory of the lives lost during the COVID-19 crisis. These and other initiatives can help build a consensus of mutual respect between police and community.

Left: A policeman trying to rescue a cat. Bottom eft to right: Shopping for residents. Mass in Cyprus for Colm Horkan.

It fell out of the back of a truck, honest!

THE IRISH SCENE | 31

Paddy Kavanagh is

the benchmark of our story

BY LLOYD AND IMELDA GORMAN “What are we going to call ourselves?”. That was one of the questions we had to think about when we took over Irish Scene magazine exactly one year ago. The name Irish Scene was never in doubt. The magazine had that moniker for twenty years and everyone in the Irish community knows it by that name. We’d have been fools to change it, and six editions - and one global pandemic - later, we know we did the right thing from the feedback we have had from the community. But we did have to come up with a name for the company through which we would publish it.

Our predecessors and friends Fred and Lily printed under Gael Force. We wanted to pick a name that would somehow represent our story. After some brainstorming we came up with a working title: Canal Bank Walk Media. The authorities knocked that one back because you need a special permission to register a company with the word bank in it perhaps to prevent dodgy operators from setting up businesses pretending to be banks. So in the end we went with the shortened Canal Walk Media.

The canal in question is the Grand Canal in Dublin, and the walk bit specifically the section of it between Portobello bridge and Baggot Street bridge. It was along that tree lined stretch of Swan populated canal water that we first walked together when we first met back in the early 1990’s. We stopped and sat at

the sculpture and seat of Patrick Kavanagh where we talked about his poetry and other things. The seeds of love were sown on that day, but would take another fourteen years to harvest. At that stage I had a job with IDA Ireland, located in a nearby outdated office block - that was also the previous base for the Australian embassy - from where you could look out the window and see the outline of Paddy Kavanagh pondering away on his seat bench. It was from those offices (which are slated for demolition) that Imelda would walk with our first baby in a pram and pick me up from work and we would walk back to our place in Rathmines. Today we have three fabulous children and a home in Perth and are lucky enough to have started a new life in a great country, including now as the publishers of Irish Scene on behalf of Fred and Lily and all those who have over the years helped make and keep the magazine what it is today, our advertisers and readers.

That statue of Kavanagh and the leafy waterside spot it occupies is sacred to us as a couple, a special place that gets visited every time we are ‘home’ in Ireland.

As it happens, Kavanagh’s seat sculpture only appeared a short time before our romance began. It was erected in 1991 as part of the Dublin: European City of Culture and unveiled by then President Mary Robinson in front of a large crowd. A student at UCD

THE IRISH SCENE | 32

living not too far away at the time I would have loved to have been there from the very start.

The Kavanagh sculpture and bench was created figurative sculptor John Coll who had only started his professional artistic career six years earlier in 1985 in Galway, where his work reflected the nature and wildlife of the West, to Dublin where he embraced the capitals literary and political personalities. As well as Kavanagh, he was commissioned to portray Brendan Behan in another similar style canal bank location near Binn’s Bridge on the Royal Canal.

In a link to what Michael D Higgins said about the Famine memorial An Gorta Mór in Subiaco, the sculpture is engraved with the titles of Behan’s works, including the poem in Irish “Uaigneas”. He has also created the one of the rarest breed of all statues - a monument to a woman, Irish revolutionary and nationalist (to described just two of her many qualities) Countess Markievicz in Rathcormac, Co Sligo.

It is worth pointing out that Coll’s sculpture bench for the Irish writer is one of two dedicated to the Cavan man who probably felt connected with nature and his creative side there. Just a short hop from this piece of functional public art and across the lock gates will take you to the ‘original’ Kavanagh bench. Kavanagh was in his early sixties when he died in 1967. It was known to his circle of literary friends that he wanted a seat by the canal and in 1968 they put one in place and it still stands there today, less obvious maybe than its cousin but maybe a little more authentic in some ways.

If you are in that part of Dublin you could do worse than meander the canal banks and stop a while on one or either of the benches and enjoy the barge and bustle of life in front of you. I should also probably mention that there is another bench in that immediate area dedicated to another great Irish genius, the songwriter composer and artist Percy French, who also lived very close to the canal. Kavanagh was responsible for the incredible song “On Raglan

Above: The Percy French memorial bench and the new memorial art (inset) Road” but French has dozens of ‘hits’ to his name and enduring classics such as “Are Ye Right there Michael?” and “The Mountains of Mourne”*.

The granite seat for French was installed in 1988 (the same year as Dublin’s Millennium) and was sponsored by the Oriel Gallery. The seat bears an inscription, a quip from the man himself: “Remember me is all I ask, And if that memory proves a task, forget.”

A sentiment not far removed from Kavanagh’s own musings: Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin O commemorate me where there is water, Canal water, preferably, so stilly Greeny at the heart of summer. Brother Commemorate me thus beautifully Where by a lock niagarously roars The falls for those who sit in the tremendous silence Of mid-July. No one will speak in prose Who finds his way to these Parnassian islands.

A swan goes by head low with many apologies, Fantastic light looks through the eyes of bridges – And look! a barge comes bringing from Athy And other far-flung towns mythologies.

O commemorate me with no hero-courageous Tomb – just a canal-bank seat for the passer-by. *Just before COVID-19 forced Ireland into lockdown, a new monument to French - what you might call a mega upgrade to his bench in Dublin - to was unveiled on March 7 in the shadow of the mountains of Mourne where they sweep down to the sea. Percy French devotee Pulitzer prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon unveiled the €230,000 installation at the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle, Co. Down [which reopened at the start of July].

It is complex piece of public art. The lyrics from The Mountains of Mourne are carved out onto three metal panels that encircle each other. Around the sculpture are four seats made from local Mourne granite. Each one is dedicated to his second wife and daughters and granite slabs with the names of places important to his life and story, such as Roscommon, Ballyjamesduff, Drumcolligher, Co Limerick and Formby, London where he died.

Commissioned by Hastings Hotels, Slieve Donard Hotel owners, the piece is designed by Andrew Todd of Tandem Design, who has worked on Titanic Belfast and King John’s Castle in Limerick and was produced by local craftspeople.

Continued on page 34

THE IRISH SCENE | 33

Continued from page 33

Bronze Kavanagh worth its weight in gold Sculptors will traditionally make a preliminary model or sketch of a statue or sculpture before they create the full size thing. The 24.5cm (9¾”) high bronze maquette for the Patrick Kavanagh sculpture came up for grabs about five years ago in a Dublin auction house (Adam’s in St. Stephen’s Green) which came from The Kenny Gallery in Galway, where it was bought. The auctioneers put an estimated value of €1,500.00 - €2,500.00 on the minature which in the end went under the hammer for €6,500.00.

Dedicate your own bench You don’t have to be a famous Irish writer or singer to have your get your own bench, but you might have to be dead first. Depending on the location and what you have in mind - such as naming a garden bed or some other feature are other options - there are some options where some local authorities in Perth will consider allowing a bench with a plaque to be installed upon request (and payment). The Rottnest Island Authority, for example, says it currently has openings for the community to purchase benches with plaques along the Wadjemup Bidi (Rottnest Walk Trail). The cost of a bench is based on cost recovery and includes purchase of a ‘post-consumer Australian recycled plastic’ bench, purchase and routing of plaque, concrete pad, and installation. Bench plaques can fit 400 characters (including spaces). Contact the RIA for more info or your local council if this is something that interests you for a loved one.

A bench at Bickley Bay in Rottnest. Image: www.rottnestfoundation.org.au/

Tony and Veronica McKee PO Box 994 Hillarys WA 6923

Tel (08) 9401 1900 • Fax: 9401 1911 Mob: 0413 337 785 THE IRISH SCENE | 34

info@mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au www.mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au

Much of what we know today about ancient Ireland stems from the country’s tradition of Brehon Law. Brehon Law was the body of Irish laws which scholars have traced back to Bronze Age (circa 2000BC to 500BC) times and took its name from the Brehon (Brithem in Irish), a class of ‘wandering lawyer’, highly educated mediators who rose to fill some of the vacuum created by the demise of the mysterious Druids. These laws were passed down the generations by oral tradition - Brehon’s spent many years learning these laws off by rote - and it was not until the 7th Century before they were first committed to parchment. Gaelic society - which was Irish speaking was guided by these principals from the earliest times until about the 17th Century, and later in some remote parts of Ireland.

Many observers have said that Celtic Irish law was the most equal rights law system of the European law systems. Men and women could be Brehons and equity between the two sexes was enshrined in the law. They enjoyed the same property rights and women could easily end a marriage as a man.

Binchy - an uncle of Irish author Maeve Binchy - said they gave us: “details that describe ancient life in the days when the Irish still lived in mud huts and small ringed settlements and paid their bills in cows and bacon.”

Brehons were expected to uphold and practice the judicial standards they had responsibility for in their own lives. Brehons who did not speak the truth or act with justice would get large blotches on their cheeks, it was said.

Another academic wrote that the cow was the measure of everything in Irish life, and law. “It was the unit of value; the ultimate in poverty was the man with only one cow; the wealth of the richest consisted of vast herds of them.”

The torque was the traditional badge of office for Brehon and it was said that if they lied or were deceitful the brooch would tighten, and loosen when the truth was said.

One famous Brehon lawyer was Brig Brethach (Brigit of the Judgements) also known as Brig Ambue the ‘cowless’ or ‘propertyless’, who served along with her father Sencha MacAilella under King Conchobar MacNessa, and is credited with several rulings that advanced women’s rights, including a correction of one of her father’s previous judgements.

Trees were highly regarded by the ancient Irish for food, shelter, tools and mystic qualities Irish scholars Eugene and as such enjoyed O’Curry and John specific protection O’Donovan undertook depending on their the mammoth task of ranking - in Brehon translating Brehon Law. Species such Laws into English in as Oak, Willow and the early 1850s.

Hazel were considered Brehon Law is

BY LLOYD GORMAN to be ‘Chieftain trees’ understood to be the and destroying one longest practiced legal of these carried system in Europe and the same weight as the second oldest killing a tribal leader. recorded legal system in the world, after Sanskrit.

Interestingly capital punishment was seen to be of little value to society as a punishment and was not Irish linguistic and early Irish law academic Daniel encouraged as a penalty, but could be used extreme Binchy (1899-1989) said the legal texts told us a lot cases. about the forgotten secrets of Ireland’s past.

Ireland’s

DEEP ROOTED LEGAL SYSTEM

Contracts and agreements were formalised by the exchange of cattle and related terminology was also common. In what may be one of the earliest if not first known ‘copyright’ disputes, High King of Ireland Diarmaid MacCerbhiall settled an acrimonious dispute between two monks arguing over a copied manuscript.

King MacCerbhiall judged in favour of the plaintiff with the ruling ‘to every cow belongs its calf’.

But Brehon Law was so much more than a bovine based collection of edicts and decrees - it put people, life and nature before property.

Brehon Law was irrevocably damaged by the ‘flight of the earls’ when following their defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, the old order Gaelic chieftains and families fled Ireland for exile in mainland Europe.

Cromwell’s invasion and bloody ‘conquest’ of the country nearly 50 years later effectively wiped out any vestiges of this great legal tradition.

The indigenous legal system was considered by the British to be ‘lewd’ and ‘unreasonable’ and they were outlawed, declared barbarous and ruthlessly suppressed. A black veil of suppression would fall over all aspect of Irish culture and civilisation that

THE IRISH SCENE | 35

Continued on page 36

Continued from page 35

would last for hundreds more years. Common law, the law of England and the English throne, were introduced to Ireland.

The ‘new’ legal history of Ireland was written in blood and a people were subjducated and forced to endure generations of injustice and persecution. It was not until 1922 that a fledgling Irish nation was able to set and determine its own legal standards. Many of the basic concepts of Brehon Law were readopted back into the laws of the independent Irish nation which has Irish and English as official languages of the state.

Above: The Broighter Collar torque dates from the 1st Century BC. Photo: National Museum of Ireland

Irish law finds a voice in Europe If the Irish language and law share a long and rich history, then they also have a bright and promising future.

In the last two years or so more than two dozen lawyers qualified to practice law in the Irish language and the tap has been turned on now for a future supply.

On June 16, Galway’s National University of Ireland School of Law announced a new postgraduate two year Bachelor of Arts (LLB) starting in September that will allow students to fast track a career in law and the appointment of four Adjunct Professors for the programme. At the same time, the university on the west coast of Ireland - which held onto its Gaelic speaking culture in ways that other parts of the country didn’t - also introduced a new Irish language stream for undergraduate law students.

“The LLB is an excellent conversion course for those who want to enhance their existing career, transfer to a career in law or develop their knowledge of the law for personal reasons,” Dr Rónán Kennedy, Programme Director of the LLB. “It provides a rapid route towards training for the legal professions in Ireland, offering all the subjects currently required for the solicitor and barrister entrance examinations in Ireland.”

The new Irish language stream has been developed in response to the demand for Irish lawyer linguists

and is an optional stream available on the school’s undergraduate courses.

The stream will allow students to develop their Irishlanguage skills throughout their four year full law degree with legal Irish modules. In year three students will spend one semester studying at NUI Galway’s Gaeltacht campus in An Cheathrú Rua and one semester of professional work placement in an Irishspeaking legal environment.​ Dr Charles O’Mahony, Head of the School of Law, said: “It is the ideal qualification for students who want to build a career in law and open up a range of exciting job opportunities working through the Irish language.

There are fantastic job opportunities for Irish Lawyer Linguists in the Institutions of the European Union.”

Australian academic Professor Brendan Edgeworth at the University of New South Wales Law School is one of the four Adjunct Professors appointed to oversee the programme.

The others include Justice Peter Charleton, Supreme Court judge, Prof. Dr Guénaël Mettraux, Judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Member of the European Union’s Human Rights Review Panel and Emily Logan, first Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

NUI Galway’s law school was established in 1849, just four years after the institution opened.

Blackhall Culture Society on a recent trip to Newgrange and the Hill of Tara. Photo: Law Society of Ireland

THE IRISH SCENE | 36

Ice age art is

chip off the old block

BY LLOYD GORMAN Readers will have probably picked up on the “statues and statutes” theme running through this edition of Irish Scene, its hard to miss and was done for good reasons.

Just as we were putting the finishing touches to it to get it ready for the printers, these two totally separate worlds came face to face briefly in an unpredictable confluence of events.

Well known Perth criminal lawyer John Rando was putting on a Friday evening alfresco gig with some

Above: Quentin and Jenna-Lee from Ice Sculptures Perth with their polar bear carved from ice.

Bottom: The finished sculpture, with “Arrive to Paradise” featuring behind museo mates - collectively the Zucchini Brothers - on Rokeby Road, Subiaco so I headed down with a camera to check it out. You could hear the music and see a bit of a crowd gathered around the source of the melody, a good sign. The players were in fine fettle. I joked with John - who was strapped to an accordion - if he was still ‘practising’ at being a lawyer. Two lawyers enter a court room and your chances of winning are 50/50 he replied. “It’s terrible, you wouldn’t sleep in your bed if there was a 50/50 chance your house was going to burn down,” he said. His amp was weighted down to the trolly with two tomes of Gatley on Libel and Slander (7th edition) and Criminal Procedure, published by Butterworths.

But right in front of them another form of entertainment and art was literally taking shape. The shape of a polar bear was emerging from a 140kg solid block of ice, the type you normally only see in movies. Quintin (looking like a fisherman from a deep sea trawler) and Jenna-Lee Smith from Ice Sculptures Perth were carving the distinctive sculpture, which when finished was put on display until it melted away into the night. All the while the directly Continued on page 38

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Continued from page 37

neighbouring bronze sculpture (which also incorporates a seat) “Arrive to Paradise”

by Iraqi artist Ayad Alquaragholli made a magnificent backdrop.

Most passerbys stopped for a look at the curious artwork being created in front of their eyes. A fair few also hung around for the vibe of the event.

Tony Costa, former child migrant from Ireland and ex-mayor of Subiaco - and friends and others watched and listened to everything that was going on.

Organised by See Subiaco, further free and live performances with a range of artists and ice sculptures are planned at the same spot - Forrest Walk and Rokeby Road - starting from about 3pm every Friday in July until the 31st.

Above: John Rando (centre) and the Zucchini Brothers on Rokeby Road, Subiaco

Stuffy sculpture? no way!

Six (nearly seven) year old Ewan Gorman discovered sculpture on a recent day out in Fremantle.

The bright colours and size of the imposing Coast Guard - created by local Perth sculptor Greg James - outside Cicerello’s attracted his attention first and then a closer inspection of the got a good giggle as well. James created the steel Coast Guard for Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi Beach in 2010 and Cottesloe the following year as part of the Pawn Project, to challenge the way people think about the chess pawn piece. The steel statue was given a brand new lick of paint (current colours) in 2015.

“Originally, it was a temporary arrangement to have the statue outside the restaurant but to make it permanent, it needed protection from the elements,” Cicerello’s owner Henry Liascos said.

Left: Ewan was pretty excited to meet “the Coast Guard” THE IRISH SCENE | 38

Fab Freo Staying in Fremantle, as well as being in a beautiful beachside location, Kidogo Arthouse is also a thing of beauty itself. The 1884 built heritage listed Old Kerosene Store - under the creative management of Irish Australian Joanna Robertson - makes an ideal place for drama productions, readings, concerts and the like and has one of the best watering holes in town - the Kelp Bar. It is also a fabulous gallery space and was used to house and as a backdrop to a number of pieces earlier this year (Feb 15-March 2) for the Sculpture At Bathers exhibition. Because it’s held on a biennial basis, the next exhibition won’t be staged there until 2022, but there’s nothing stopping you from getting down there any time before then and enjoying Kidogo and the lovely locality.

“It brightens up the area and people coming into Cicerello’s often take photos with it, finding it to be a talking point.

Above and right: Featured pieces at Kidogo Arthouse in Fremantle

The statue gives both Cicerello’s and the surrounding Fishing Boat Harbour area a real vibrancy and energy.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 39

Two

Irish Scene’s for one!

Chances are high a lot of people didn't see the most recent (before this one) edition of Irish Scene or even know it exists.

We had just printed and distributed the March edition when the pandemic hit Australia and we all retreated into our houses. By the time it came around for the May edition there wasn’t a hope in hell we could get it printed and circulated throughout the community so we did the next best thing, we produced it online as an electronic edition. That issue attempted to take a close look at and document the experience of the Irish community living through the crisis and pay tribute to our doctors, nurses and everyone involved in the fight to tackle Coronavirus.

We - as a community - had been in similar situations before and the magazine featured inspiring stories about Irish people and groups in the past here in WA and beyond who had made it their mission - often at great personal cost - to fight the pandemics of their times.

A small circle of people did however get their hands on a printed copy thanks to some people we would like to acknowledge and thank for going above and beyond to support the magazine when they didn't have too.

The Claddagh Association contacted us with a fantastic idea. They wanted to check if it would be okay to run off copies in booklet format on their office printer and post them out to their older members who normally enjoy the magazine but may not have access to computers or the internet. I know from feedback I received that they got out there and the gesture was appreciated.

Staff, volunteers and committee members manned the one day stocktake sale in the Irish Club while the doors were closed. Paul McLoughlin from McLoughlins Some of the fantastic volunteers at Claddagh Butchers was on sausage sizzle duty who helped print and distribute copies and we got chatting about things,

THE IRISH SCENE | 40

The magazine is available to view online at issuu.com/irishsceneperth or a PDF copy can be requested by email from irishsceneperth.com including the magazine. I told him what the Claddagh were doing and without a second thought he made a similar offer to put the printer in his office at our disposal. Another batch of books were printed and stapled together, which were then picked up by the one and only Tony Synnott - he of Minute with Synnott fame - who took them around to a lot of older people who he knows who had been stuck at home in isolation and would have been missing the normal things in life they enjoyed.

To everyone at the Claddagh, McLoughlins and Tony, from Irish Scene, thank you!

If you would like to read the May/June edition of Irish Scene contact us at irishsceneperth@gmail.com and we will email you out a copy.

Martin Kavanagh Hon Consul of Ireland My best wishes and thanks to Imelda and Lloyd for continuing to bring us the Irish Scene in what are difficult times for most businesses. May I encourage the community and businesses to keep supporting this very important magazine.

Covid-19 In what has been a very distressing time for everyone in Western Australia it is great to see that as of 27 June 2020 we are emerging from lockdown and most things are back to normal. That is in no small part due to the sacrifice and discipline shown by the people of Western Australia and decisive action taken by our state and federal leaders. The fear and anxiety that many of us felt at the start of the lockdown was palpable and it is great that we can all now take pride in a very good outcome. Who knows what the future will bring but let’ s hope that with continued vigilance and safe practices WA will continue to be an example nationally and to the world.

I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to Ambassador Breandan, the Embassy team, Richard, Lynda and Yvonne at the Honorary Consulate and everyone at Claddagh for their enormous hard work, commitment and concern for the community during the lockdown. The number of Irish citizens helped and comforted was way beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

Ambassador Gary Gray On behalf of the Irish community in Perth I am delighted to congratulate The Honourable Gary Gray AO as Australia’s next Ambassador to Ireland. Gary has had a long and distinguished career in politics, government and business. The fact that Gary, a Labor politician has been appointed by a LNP federal government speaks volumes for the esteem in which he is held throughout politics, business and society. At a recent farewell for Gary, Premier Mark McGowan joked that in being appointed Ambassador to Ireland, Gary had won Lotto. In all seriousness though it means a lot to us all that Australia has chosen someone of such high standing and talent to be the next Ambassador. I’m sure you will join Richard and I in wishing Gary and Pippa all the very best for their time in Ireland.

New Coalition Government Ireland faces many challenges, particularly Covid-19, the economy and Brexit. A historic coalition of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens now takes on the responsibility to addresses these and many other important challenges.

Returning to Ireland Australia’s international borders remain in lockdown. If you are a dual citizen or a permanent resident you must receive permission to leave regardless of whether you intend to return. Also, any other Irish person on whatever visa who wishes to return to Australia, must also get permission to leave. The relevant links are on the Claddagh, Embassy and Honorary Consulate websites. Please take this issue seriously as many Irish citizens have been denied permission to leave.

A few things: • Do not assume you can arrive at the airport departure desk and seek permission. It’s too late then.

• Apply for permission as early as possible. The process can take up to 6 weeks at times.

Obviously in emergencies you will want to leave ASAP. Documentation increases your chances of a quicker and better outcome. For example, it’s not enough to say your father has died and you want to fly to Ireland. Border Force will require an email from the local hospital or GP confirming the death, proof of your connection to the deceased (birth certificates) etc.

Let BF know the date of your flight as they often prioritise by the date of departure. However, that’s no reason to delay seeking permission. Please apply as early as you can.

We are happy to provide a letter of support from the Honorary Consulate if desired. However, BF are being very strict so you should plan ahead and act quickly. You should not assume you will be given permission first time round.

165/580 Hay Street, East Perth WA 6004 By appointment only Tel: (08) 6557 5802 Fax: (08) 9218 8433 Email: info@consulateofirelandwa.com.au Website: www.consulateofirelandwa.com.au Office Hours: Mon-Fri 10.30 - 2.00pm THE IRISH SCENE | 41

In Judgement

of Joyce

BY LLOYD GORMAN Acclaimed as one of the greatest works of literature James Joyce’s Ulysses also has a lot to offer those with an interest in the law and things legal. In fact the mammoth novel (based on the activities of its protagonists on June 16 1904) references 32 different court cases, 18 of which were criminal cases, many of which were tried in Dublin between 1899 and 1926. The shadow of political trials can also be felt, including for Nationalist Irish leader Robert Emmet in 1803 and the trial of the Invincibles in 1882 for the murder of the Chief Secretary of Ireland in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

Finnegans Wake - his successor to Ulysses - in particular, as well as other stories by the Dublin born author are not unlike legal documents in their own way.

Legions of academics and literature lovers have forensically analysed Ulysses since its publication in Paris on Joyce’s 40th birthday, February 2 1922.

His work has also found a certain following in the legal fraternity.

The late Supreme Court judge in Ireland Adrian Hardiman was a devotee of Joyce. A keen writer, historian and fluent Irish speaker Hardiman also served on the Supreme Court from 2000 until his death in 2016, aged 64. His career was marked by his steadfast defence of civil liberties and individual rights and his constant preparedness to curtail any potential abuse of power by an Garda Síochána.

His first book ‘Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of his Ideas’ was published in 2003. His second book ‘Joyce in Court’ was brought into print in the 12 months after his death.

Joyce was fascinated by and felt passionately about miscarriages of justice, and his view of the law was coloured by the potential for grave injustice when policemen and judges are given too much power.

Hardiman recreated the colourful, dangerous world of the Edwardian courtrooms of Dublin and London, where the death penalty loomed over many trials. He also brought to life the eccentric barristers, corrupt THE IRISH SCENE | 42

police and omnipotent judges who made the law so entertaining and so horrifying.

American lawyer Joseph Hassett has shared his love of law with his

The bigger they are, the harder they fall Many readers who went to secondary school in Ireland will recognise the following poem from their ‘Leaving Cert’ days.

I know in my case it is thirty years since I studied it in fifth or sixth year and by that stage it was already a classic chestnut that generations of Irish students had to try and crack. Incredibly it is still on the syllabus, popping up again for the 2021 academic year.

Anyhow, in light of recent events around the world it is worth sharing its ancient perspective on the vanity of statues.

Percy Shelley wrote this little literary nugget in 1818, about the arrogance and self importance of great leaders, not long after the fall of the great Napolean Bonaparte in Europe.

The figure of Ozymandias in the poem is Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt (and an empire) for 66 years more than a thousand years before Christ was born. The statue in Shelley’s poem - rather than ruined remains - once stood 57 feet tall.

Top: The remains of the Ozymandias statue. Left: The book ‘Joyce and the Law” by Jonathan Goldman. Far left: Joseph Hassett

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

passion for Irish culture. Apart from the fact the University College Dublin and Harvard law graduate is counsel to the Irish embassy in Washington he is also an enthusiast of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce. In his tome The Ulysses Trials: Beauty and Truth Meet the Law Hassett looked at the banning of Joyce’s masterpiece in America and the feeble attempt to defend it in court.

‘Joyce and the Law’, edited by Jonathan Goldman and published by Florida Press, draws together brilliant legal and academic minds to deconstruct the works of the Irish writer from a diverse myriad of legal perspectives.

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 43

Left: The Sculpture Dublin initiative aims to raise awareness of Dublin’s sculptural heritage and to ommission new works in parks and public spaces city-wide.

€600,000 for

Sculpture city Sculpture Dublin, an ambitious project designed to put sculpture at the heart of communities around Dublin City was launched by the newly elected Lord Mayor of Dublin City, Hazel Chu in early July.

It aims to raise awareness of Dublin’s sculptural heritage and to commission new works in parks and public spaces city-wide.

“Sculpture is a reflection of people and place, of who we are, where we come from and where we are going,” the Lord Mayor said. “We’ve witnessed communities all over the world engage in sculpture in a renewed way in the last month. As well as rejecting symbols of past oppression, many have also celebrated sculpture that best reflects their traditions, culture and art. I want to congratulate Dublin City Council for initiating this ambitious programme of sculpture and I encourage the people of Dublin to embrace it. The new sculptures, and our existing sculptures city-wide, belong to you and are there for generations to come to enjoy and have pride in.”

Programme Director of Sculpture Dublin, Karen Downey, said, “Artistic excellence and public engagement is the duel focus of the Sculpture Dublin programme. In the commissioning of six new sculptures over the next 18 months, and our work raising public awareness of the existing sculpture in the city, we want to explore a wide range of ideas and perspectives that reflect the historic, contemporary and diverse city of Dublin through a legacy of sculpture. ”

The idea originated with a survey of sculpture in Dublin City Council’s parks, Art in Parks which depicts a wealth of public art in the city’s parks, including a series of ten sculptures that were commissioned as part of the 1988 millennium celebrations.

Sculpture Dublin will spearhead the investment of €600,000 in the commissioning of six new sculptures for parks and public spaces across Dublin in the next 18 months. Following initial consultation and a survey of sites conducted in the last year, locations for the new commissions have been identified in each of the five Dublin City Council Local Administrative Areas; the new Ballyfermot People’s Park, Ballyfermot; Bushy Park, Terenure; Kildonan Park, Finglas; Smithfield Square Lower and St Anne’s Park, Raheny.

A temporary sculpture will also be commissioned for the O’Connell Plinth, an empty plinth outside City Hall on Dame Street, which once supported John Hogan’s statue of Daniel O’Connell, now on display in the Rotunda of City Hall.

The commissions will be awarded before the end of 2020 and realised in 2021. Five of the six commissions are open competitions and artists will be asked to create a sculptural work in response to the specific context of the selected site. Two of the commissions are participative and will require local involvement in the creation of the work. For the site overlooking North Bull Island in St Anne’s Park, a major permanent land art work is planned. It will be an invited competition given the specialist nature of the art form.

THE IRISH SCENE | 44

Celebrating sculpture All of the commissions will have local engagement programmes designed to raise awareness, provoke conversations about sculpture and involve people in discussing how sculpture and public art enhance their neighbourhood.

Sculpture Dublin will work with the city’s cultural institutions to draw attention to the sculpture in their collections and temporary exhibition programmes.

Through public talks, tours and workshops, online presentations and publications, and a number of exciting new initiatives, including a Sculpture Day and a Developmental Sculpture Award, Sculpture Dublin aims to make sculpture “part of everyday conversation”, building connectivity and solidarity and contributing to overall public confidence and pride of place.

Ray Yeates, City Arts Officer, Dublin City Council said the scheme was for artists and for the wider public. “It represents a step change in public consultation and engagement in the creation of public sculpture in Dublin and we want the public to come on this journey with us. Get involved in the new commission where you can, take part in the initiatives that will be organised to celebrate public sculpture. Public sculpture by its definition is for the people, and we want it to be of the people. Dublin City Council want a strong sense of ownership and pride in public sculpture to be a lasting legacy of this initiative.”

Reclaiming Yeats Around the same time the Sculpture Dublin idea for six brand new pieces of public art was announced a ‘hidden gem’ in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin was fully restored to its original splendour.

The Office of Public Works spent €300,000 and the best part of a year clearing and revamping a badly overgrown amphitheatre - known as the ‘Mount’ - in the city centre public park built around a memorial to poet William Butler Yeats known as ‘Knife Edge’ by renowned sculpture Henry Moore (1898-1986).

The tribute to Ireland’s national poet was donated by the W.B. Yeats Memorial Committee and funded by Irish American Philanthropist Mr. J. Kelly and Córas Tráchtála Teoranta. It was official launched by the then Taoiseach, Mr. Jack Lynch on 26 October 1967.

The location of the sculpture was specifically chosen for the attractive views of the lake and waterfall from the spot, which was terraced and paved by the Office of Public Works at the time. It has been cited as one of the finest settings for Henry Moore’s ‘Knife Edge’ by such eminent bodies as the Henry Moore Foundation.

Above: Yeat’s Memorial in St Stephen’s Green THE IRISH SCENE | 45

Perth judge has

Irish roots Alan Troy is a good judge of character, starting with his own. The Perth district court judge grew up in Plymouth in the UK but from a young age he knew he was Irish. Both his parents are originally from Co. Waterford - Ardmore for his mum and Cappoquin for his dad - who moved to Clonmel, Co. Tipperary as children. His dad moved to England at the age of 15 and they spent their working lives in England, returning to Clonmel, where they still live, in 1997.

“I lived in Plymouth,” he said. “I started to identify as Irish from about the age of nine or 10. Probably because I have no brothers and sisters and so my extended family, in particular my cousins all of whom lived in Ireland, assumed a great significance in my life. I also went to a Christian Brothers school.”

Even as a young teenager Alan had a good indication what he wanted to do in life. “I was always reasonably good at debating and public speaking and gravitated fairly naturally towards a career in the law by the age of 15 or 16,” he said. Alan completed his legal education at the University of Wales in the UK in 1988 and completed a Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law, City University London in 1990. From 1991 to 2002, he practised at the independent bar in the UK, specialising in criminal law.

“I went to Australia initially in 2000 and because I was admitted in Queensland I did not have to undergo any further examinations, although that situation has now changed,” he explained. “I returned to the UK, but then successfully emigrated to Western Australia in 2002, where I obtained employment with the Commonwealth

Director of Public Prosecutions. I was quickly immersed into one very large tax fraud case and so I did not have the immediate pressure of multiple court appearances while getting used to a new jurisdiction.

All in all, I found the transition from working as a lawyer in the UK to one in Australia fairly manageable. There were more similarities than differences in terms of the rules of evidence and procedure, although having to start again with a whole new landscape of opponents and judges was obviously challenging.”

From 2005 to 2010 he worked he worked with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), first as a Senior State Prosecutor and then as an acting Consultant State Prosecutor. After leaving the DPP, he worked as a barrister with Francis Burt Chambers, specialising in criminal law. The retirement of Judge Richard Keen created a vacancy in the courts service he was to fill.

“I was appointed a District Court Judge in 2016,” he added. “I spend a lot of my time presiding over trials involving a jury as well as sentencing offenders for a wide range of serious crimes. I also spend about eight weeks a year dealing with civil litigation including, for example, cases of medical negligence. Although the District Court is based in Perth, I travel to the regional courts across Western Australia for two weeks at a time, about three or four times a year.”

He has some advice for anyone considering pursuing a legal career abroad. “Definitely go for a salaried position as opposed to working in a self-employed capacity as I erroneously did in 2000,” he said.

“Be prepared to take one step backwards to go to step forwards. If you can find a position that is not completely alien to your current experience, that will keep you busy and which has an engaging group of colleagues, in my experience you will succeed in making the transition. It is a big step obviously. Try to give yourself 12 months at least before deciding that it is not for you. When I moved from the UK to Australia I was single and so it was much more challenging than if one was moving with a family. It rather helped that I met my wife two years after I arrived.”

Today the couple have two children - Isabella (14) and Patrick (12, pictured above with Alan) and live happily in Perth. “My children consider themselves Australian, but are very aware of their Irish THE IRISH SCENE | 46

heritage. My late father in law was Greek, so that side of their background is important as well.”

Most years the Troy family travel back to Ireland for a holiday, most recently last summer. “We spent a wonderful time in Dublin, Dingle and Kinsale,” he explained. “The highlight for my son was catching a pollock, about half his length, off the coast of Kinsale.”

Alan - a keen rugby fan - has been a member of the Irish Club in Subiaco and was also involved with the committee that organised the St. Patrick’s Day parade when it was held in Fremantle and still takes an interest in the Irish community in his adopted home. “I know the current organiser of the St Patrick’s Day committee through my son’s brief stint with a rugby club that he is involved in. and after a gap of a few years the St Patrick’s Day festivities in Perth are better than ever. Also, some years ago my junior counsel in a murder trial I prosecuted was a very good woman’s Gaelic footballer from Dublin. My wife’s background is Greek and I recently attended a function hosted by the Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association. I think there is definitely merit in an Irish Australian Lawyers Association and I would be keen to become involved in such a project.”

This article is based on a 'Working Abroad Q&A' feature with Judge Alan Troy published by the Irish Times on February 17, 2020 and with his approval.

WA’s Chief Justice claims Irish convict connection Almost two years ago Peter Quinlan became the 14th Chief Justice of Western Australia. The appointment of the Supreme Court judge as the head of WA’s justice system was witnessed by the great and the good of the legal fraternity at a special ceremony in the Court on August 20, 2018.

Justice Rene Lucien Le Miere was the master of ceremonies for the event and alluded to the newly minted CJ’s Irish heritage in his introduction. “He’s a fifth generation West Australian, and at the risk of creating controversy, comes with a somewhat colourful past, albeit four generations ago,” Justice Le Miere said.

“It seems that our new Chief Justice is the great, great grandson of a convict. There’s certain irony in the fact that this State’s most senior judicial officer is related to a sheep stealer who was transported to Western Australia in 1853. From a convict ancestor to a chief justice, I’m sure Daniel Connor, your great, great grandfather would be very proud of you. And on the other side of your family Michael Quinlan, a much more respectable citizen of the colony and a blacksmith, arrived some 10 years later in 1863.”

Daniel Connor’s story has appeared in Irish Scene before, and how the transported Kerryman with nothing to his name went on to become one of the biggest landholders in Western Australia and one of Australia’s richest men. He owned a swag of hotels - including the Subiaco Hotel - and holdings in the then-colony. Michael Quinlan has not graced these pages before, but his son Timothy Francis Quinlan has. Timothy, who was born in Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary in 1861 and two years later arrived

in Western Australia with his parents when they emigrated. A publican by trade, he leased the Shamrock Hotel in Perth from Daniel Connors for a time. In 1883 Timothy married Teresa Connor, Daniel’s daughter and they had eight children.

Timothy went on to serve as a councillor on the City of Perth from 1890 until 1902 and even had a run at the Lord mayors office in 1900. He was also elected to the Legislative Assembly on a number of occasions.

Justice Quinlan finished his speech for the occasion with reference to his Irish ancestor. “Justice Le Miere commenced his remarks with a reference to my convict ancestor Daniel Connor, who arrived here eight years before the appointment of the first Chief Justice,” he said. “Connor died in 1898, and by that time, he had become a successful business owner in the colony.

His funeral was officiated by Bishop Matthew Gibney, who concluded with the following words, which I ask you all to keep in mind in the coming years: Be to his virtues ever kind, and to his faults a trifle blind.”

Justice Quinlan may be the most ‘Irish’ Chief Justice WA has known yet, but one other claimed some Irish heritage. John Dwyer was born in June 1879, the oldest son of Thomas Dwyer, who was born in Tipperary and a mother from a Scottish background. Dwyer practiced with a law firm in Albany before becoming a junior partner with a Fremantle firm in 1911. He enlisted with the AIF during World War I and returned to the Bar after the war. He became a judge of the Supreme Court in 1929 and on January 1 1946 was appointed Chief Justice of Western Australia. He retired from the Court in February 1959.

THE IRISH SCENE | 47

Eternally grateful

to SAT

BY DAVID COHEN

Marion Gorman* had to fight tooth and nail for her dream of running a daycare centre to pamper Perth pooches and puppies.

The 37-year-old mining engineer from Ireland took an old disused scout hall in West Perth that was being used as a squat and transformed it into Madame Ma’s Doggy Daycare - a modern, bright boutique business that identified a gap in the market.

city wanted to impose could also be waived by the Tribunal staff added.

In June 2019 Commissioners again refused, citing noise as an outstanding issue.

But not everyone was impressed or shared her vision.

Having already spent tens of thousands fitting out the premises and on an acoustics report, Marion turned to the tribunal which held a two day hearing into the matter - which saw expert witnesses brought in to support the Commissioners refusal - in October 2019.

Residents in nearby flats and office workers were worried about smells and noise from the doggie daycare and that its proximity would affect property prices.

Twelve months after she first applied to the council for planning approval for the business, Marion got permission to go ahead, from SAT member Delaney Quinlan, in December 2019.

There were 14 objectors and a deputation from the strata company for the office block fronted a Perth City Council meeting to make the case for why they didn’t want the pooch palace near their building.

“Reasons for the Tribunal to refuse approval, in particular the amenity concerns of noise and odour, have either already been satisfactorily addressed by the applicant in consultation with the city’s officers prior to the hearing or will be sufficiently ameliorated by the imposition of the conditions,” Mrs Quinlan said in her ruling.

Despite an assessment by the city’s own planning staff that the canine company’s plans ticked all the boxes and could be approved, Commissioners - installed to run the council on a professional basis after the council had been suspended in March 2018 - refused her plans in April last year.

Marion appealed their decision to the State Administrative Tribunal, which ordered the council to review its decision. City planners again recommended the application should be approved. A second refusal would likely not stand up in the tribunal and expose the council to legal costs, planners warned, citing a legal precedent for a similar situation in Belmont where the dog centre won. Strict conditions the

“Secondly, the Tribunal also finds that the proposed use of the subject site is appropriate and compatible with other uses in the commercial use area of the West Perth Precinct. Therefore, in the exercise of the Tribunal’s discretion to make the correct and preferable decision upon review, the Tribunals finds and concludes that it should set aside the refusal and approve the proposed development subject to conditions.”

With the approval in place she gave up her resources job to focus on the new business. “We’ve put in new

THE IRISH SCENE | 48

just as COVID-19 struck. Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic she kept going as best she could and found that as some customers dried up, others came along.

She said it has been quite a battle to get the doors open and she was determined to make a success of the enterprise. “I’m eternally grateful to the Tribunal, otherwise I’d be a very sad girl,” she told Irish Scene.

Marion came to Perth in 2006 as a mining engineer but she has travelled around Ireland and the world quite a bit before getting here.

air-conditioning and have been complying with all the SAT conditions: there were a lot,” she admitted.

“We’ve had a lot of support from friends and family.”

The daycare centre has four playrooms and a grooming room, and opened for business in March,

She was born in Dublin but her mother is from Tyrone and her father is a Donegal man - where the family settled for a while. When she was about nine or ten they all moved to Zimbabwe, for about three years, followed by another three year stint in New Zealand.

After those overseas expeditions, the Gorman’s moved back to Ireland where they lived in Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford while Marion went to Kilkenny College.

Story and photos courtesy of David Cohen and Billie Fairclough from POST Newspapers. *Marion Gorman is not related to Irish Scene publishers Lloyd and Imelda Gorman

Tony in fine fettle

Tony Synnott celebrated his 86th birthday in typical style at the Dianella Tavern with friends in early July.

Mick Murray and friends threw a party - organised

by Sid - for the man of the moment and played a few tunes and Tony in sunglasses jumped right in with a few Tom Jones hits.

Many happy returns Tony, and keep those Minute with Synnott's coming!

THE IRISH SCENE | 49

Tipperary’s

Devil AdvocAtes

BY LLOYD GORMAN Pennefather is a name that is perhaps more recognisable to Australians than Irish people who actually share a familiarity with the moniker.

There is the Pennefeather River on the western Cape York peninsula in far north Queensland but that geographical is unconnected to the name holder of this article. A Pennefather Street in Canberra and much closer to home again, a Pennefather Lane in Cottesloe, are connected with the story of a senior figure in the legal history of the Swan River colony and West Australian state.

Richard William Pennefather (16 July 1851 - 16 January 1914) was the Attorney General of Western Australia, an acting Justice of the WA Supreme Court and triple term member of the Legislative Council.

Pennefather was born in Tipperary, Ireland but his family moved to Melbourne, Victoria when he was a child. Following a private education at St. Patrick’s College and then Melbourne University he gained his BA and LLB degrees in 1878. He went not o work in the Crown Solicitors office for ten years. He was admitted to the NSW Bar in 1880 where he worked for two years before returning to Melbourne. (He was also admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1880 but never practiced there) In March 1896 he came to Western Australia and was admitted to the Bar here at the end of 1896. A year later he convincingly won the Legislative Assembly seat for Greenough. He was then appointed Attorney General in the Cabinet by Premier John Forrest and served for two terms until March 1901 when he resigned his parliamentary position to be appointed KC and Acting-Justice of the WA Supreme Court during a leave of absence by the Chief Justice. In 1902 he spent another three years in private practice before eventually returning to politics, winning a place in the Legislative Council.

The Cottesloe Civic Centre was originally his family home (he had a wife and daughter) that he had built in 1898. He died there in January 1914 and is buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

Incredibly there was another Richard Pennefather from Tipperary who carved out a reputation at the Bar before this Richard Pennefather and who had a parliamentary career. It is not clear if or what connection there might be between the two men but this writer could not find a link, and there is evidence to suggest they were not of the same family. Richard Pennefather who came to Australia was a Catholic - who we know for example was married in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Perth - while the other Richard Pennefather came from a Protestant family.

Our second Richard Pennefather was a judge who lived from 1773 until 1859. He was the eldest son of one William Pennefather of Knockeevan, a member of the Irish House of Commons for Cashel. Amongst his siblings Richard had a slightly younger brother Edward who was also a distinguished barrister and judge and would hold the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

Richard went to primary school in Portarlington, Co. Laois and then in Clonmel, graduated from University College Dublin and the Middle Temple (one of four Inns of Court in London) and was called to the Irish THE IRISH SCENE | 50

From top to bottom: Richard William Pennefather; Charles Gavan Duffy; Sir Walter Dwyer.

Bar in 1795. He and his brother Edward were amongst the leading practitioners in the Irish Court of Chancery (established in the year 1232 as a court to exercise ‘equitable jurisdiction’ in Ireland).

English Prime Minister Robert Peel made Pennefather solicitorgeneral of Ireland during his

Above: Print [published 1844, Dublin by Robert Flanagan] shows head-and-shoulder portraits of Daniel O’Connell, John O’Connell, Thomas M. Ray, Rev. Peter J. Tyrrell, Richard Barrett, Charles G. Duffy, Rev. Thomas Tierney, John Gray, and a full-length portrait of Thomas Steele as he stands before “Judge Burton, Chief Justice Pennefather, Judge Crampton, [and] Judge Perrin”. Portraits are framed by vines with shamrocks. Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. USA. brief administration of 1835 and again in 1841. A short time later he was appointed chief justice of the queen’s bench and was sworn of the Privy Council.

According to the Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB)Pennefeather presided at the 1844 state trial of Daniel O’Connell - the brilliant lawyer heroically hailed ‘The Liberator’ or ‘Emancipator’ for his role in fighting for Irish independence from England and justice in the courts - and Charles Gavan Duffy, another famous nationalist leader. The two men, and their associates were tried on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Act of Union (1801) which had abolished ‘Grattans Parliament’ in Dublin and transferred power back to London.

“At the trial [Pennefather] maintained that, while O’Connell and his associates had not behaved in a secret or treacherous manner, their behaviour still fell within the legal definition of conspiracy,” the DIB states. “Later criticised for having given the prosecution counsel too much instruction, he found the defendants guilty, but the decision was later overturned in the house of lords.”

O’Connell and Pennefeather were well acquainted and encountered each other previously at the Bar and even held the other in high regard despite THE IRISH SCENE | 51

radically different views. There is a great story about about the famous Doneraile trial in 1829 in Cork in which O’Connell who had ridden all night to get to the court room and arrived as the trial was starting was allowed by Pennefather to eat his breakfast in the court, much to the chagrin of the Prosecution. “That a major miscarriage of justice was averted owes a good deal to the eloquence of Daniel O’Connell but also to the integrity of the judges, especially Pennefather,” a Wikipeida entry about the trail states.

Gavan Duffy, O’Connell’s coaccused in the 1844 trial, was another giant of the Irish cause and but would also go on to have a significant impact on Australian public life.

Born in Monaghan in 1816 he went to Dublin at the age of 16 to become a journalist but would later be admitted to the Kings’s Inn in 1839, after which he went to Belfast to edit a weekly Catholic newspaper. He returned to Dublin in 1842 - a married man -and with the help of two promising young barristers Thomas Davis and John Dillon founded his own weekly paper the Nation, a voice for the Young Ireland movement. He hoped his appear would “change the mind of his generation and so to change their institutions”.

Daniel O’Connell, who had resurrected the fight for Catholic Emancipation, and supported his kindred spirit and the Nation, which Duffy developed into a widely read and influential publication. Peter Lalor of Eureka Stockade fame was another associate of Duffys in Ireland.

For a host of reasons Duffy walked away from the political situation in Ireland in 1855 and took his family to Australia where he was fêted in Sydney and Melbourne. He set up as a barrister in Melbourne but after some encouragement entered parliament where he would have a long and active role in various Continued on page 52

Continued from page 51

administrations and different ways. As he did with Ireland Duffy left Victoria and retired to Nice, France where he could live comfortably of his parliamentary pension. When his wife died in 1881 Duffy brought his daughters from Victoria to France to look after his household. He died in February 1903 and was buried at the Glasnevin Cemetery, alongside other Young Ireland notables, as part of the impressive round tower complex built to commemorate Daniel O’Connell.

freed him up to concentrate on his legal career, which proved to be a colourful one.

“In his profession Dwyer specialized as counsel in civil and appeal cases before the Full Court of Western Australia and the High Court of Australia,” his profile in the Australian Dictionary of Biography adds.”In 1915 he took into partnership J. P. Durack and, in 1917, W. H. Dunphy, forming the firm of Dwyer, Durack & Dunphy. Dwyer was defence counsel for several of the defendants in the Perth Industrial Workers of the Duffy was married three times in his life and had World trials of 1916. In 1919 as a leading member of several children who became accomplished figures. the Celtic Club, and supporter of Irish nationalism, His oldest son from his second wife Sir Frank Gavan he led a prohibited march through the city on St (1852-1936) became Chief Justice of Australia while Patrick’s day. He was prosecuted, convicted and fined; another son George Gavan Duffy from his third wife having refused to meet the fine, he only escaped would become President of the Irish High Court from imprisonment because a supporter paid for him. To 1946 to 1951, having entered the court just ten years mark the occasion, the Celtic Club presented him with earlier. George too would serve in parliament - the an illuminated address. On the establishment of the Irish parliament - and was minister for foreign affairs new State Court of Arbitration in 1926, Dwyer agreed briefly in the new Irish government of 1922. ‘at a monetary sacrifice’, to become its first presiding Another county man of Duffy who followed a legal life judge. He strongly opposed ‘sweetheart’ deals between to Australia was one Walter Dwyer. Dwyer was born unions and employers, in which both parties would at Carrick-on-Suir, combine over the Tipperary and question of overwas schooled at award payments. the local Christian He scrutinised Brothers seminary. such agreements In 1919 as a leading member of the Celtic Club, At the age of 16 closely and, if he migrated to and supporter of Irish nationalism, he [Dwyer] suspicious, would Victoria where call the parties he even at such led a prohibited march through the city on together to discuss a young age he the real meaning St Patrick’s day.” taught at the of the documents.

Christian Brother Thus he controlled College, East Melbourne where he was the junior of the economic situation and eliminated dealings not many of his students. The young Dwyer came West strictly in accordance with the public interest or during the gold boom and worked as a government the Arbitration Act. He fully understood industrial clerk in the education department for nine years. problems and gave all his judgements fairly and During this time he also studied law part time and thoroughly. On his retirement in 1945 he left a record was articulated to C.Lyhane at Kalgoorlie and Boulder which his successors found hard to equal, and it was in 1904 but returned to Perth the next year where he widely felt that the State’s freedom from industrial completed his articles with Villeneuve Smith & Lavan! trouble was largely due to the confidence in the court Dwyer finished his legal studies remotely through the that he had created. in 1946 he advised and supported University of London in 1906 and was admitted to his successor in settling a major transport strike.” the West Australian Bar in 1907. He then practiced in A talented orator, philanthropist and arts enthusiast Boulder and Kalgoorlie and Perth.

Dwyer was one of the first trustees of Perth’s Public “Dwyer was over six feet (183 cm) tall; handsome, Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia. with a resonant voice he had a slight Irish brogue He also remained faithful to Irish and Christian which he used most effectively in public speaking,” traditions according to the biography. Knighted in E.A. Dunphy writes in the Australian Dictionary of 1949 for his services to the law and community Sir Biography. He was elected to the Perth seat in the Walter Dwyer died in March 1950, aged 75, in Subiaco Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party and he from kidney failure. helped to draft the 1912 Industrial Arbitration Act,

“

get the Money Lenders Act (1912) - which protected borrowers through - parliament and the Landlord and Tenant Act (1912). He lost his seat in 1914 but this

Like Pennefeather, he was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery but unlike his counterpart Dyers grave is included on a historic walking trail of the graveyard.

THE IRISH SCENE | 52

Matters of

PUB-LICinterest!

BY LLOYD GORMAN

WELCOME BACK! After being left with no choice but to close in March Perth’s pubs - including all its Irish pubs - and hotels were able to allow punters back in through the doors in early June, a welcome reunion of customer and service across the state.

Restrictions had eased a bit before that but to get into a pub you had to book a slot and sit down with a meal to get a drink.

Customers had to sign in and leave their details for contact tracing and staff had to get to grips with now cleaning and Covid conditions.

Many establishments - including the Irish Club, JB O’Reillys and Murphys in Manduarah - used the shutdown period to freshen up their interior decoration and toilets.

The Kelp Bar in Kidogo in Fremantle couldn’t operate but owner Joanna was able to get a restaurant licence which meant the contents of the Kelp Bar became the furniture for a series of "Soirées" happening in the main section of the art house. The Soirées series - which includes home cooked dinners and live entertainment and musicians - has proved to be popular and is set to continue throughout July.

No doubt regulars and new customers alike will be a welcome sight to publicans and staff who have done it tough over the last few months. See the next spread for happy snaps. Slainte!

THE IRISH SCENE | 53

The day it started to go back to normal for many establishments

The past, present and future walked into a bar. It was tense.

Comic Sans, Helvetica and Times New Roman walk into a bar.

The bartender yells ‘Get out! We don’t serve your type in here!’

Its been a welcome relief to many bars and pubs around Perth to see so many happy faces, both regulars and new punters, supporting their local watering holes!

THE IRISH SCENE | 54

THE IRISH SCENE | 55

Thursday 16 July 2020 Music by: JOE CARROLL

Guest Speaker: PRICELINE PHARMACY CHEMIST

Thursday 20 AUGUST 2020 Music by: FRED REA LIFFEY/LEE

Guest Speaker: MERCY CARE

THE IRISH SCENE | 56

THE IRISH CLUB IS Proudly sponsored by

SuSANN Keating Registered Psychologist

Child, Adolescent & Family Psychology Service

Your Irish Psychologist in Perth

0414 251 967

www.generalpsychologyservices.com.au

Join LUB C THE

61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco Western Australia 6008

The Irish Club is a members only club, and we welcome new members. Application forms can be downloaded from the website.

Phone: 9381 5213 • info@irishclubofwa.com.au • www.irishclubofwa.com.au

The Irish Club reopened on 19th June with a traditional music session, and a fresh new look upstairs, thanks to the hard work of a number of tradies and volunteers and a number of donations.

The committee would like to extend their huge thanks to all involved.

The Club is looking light and bright and ready to welcome the Irish Community back post Covid lockdown!

REGUlar EVENTS MONDAYS FROM 7pm

comhaltas & irish language classes TUESDAYS at 7pm

Quiz Night

FORTNIGHTLY FRIDAYS

11th July

Show Your Colours 25th & 26th July

Christmas in July

traditional SEISIUN 1st friday of the month

seniors lunch

Open Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday THE IRISH SCENE | 57

The 3rd Sunday of every month join the Wild Cork Fella Sean Roche bringing you the finest live Irish music from 3.30PM

PINTS OF GUINNESS $9.50 STEAK & GUINNESS PIE $16.50

98 High Street Fremantle. Tel: 9335 6688

nationalhotelfremantle.com.au

THE IRISH SCENE | 58

We had to suspend our 2020 programme of commemorations, lectures, movies, talks, stage shows, tea dance and awards due to Covid 19 restrictions.

Members continue to receive the quarterly Journal under editorship of Denis Bratton.

We are waiting for a public opportunity to present the prestigious Brendan Award which had been scheduled for St Patricks Day. It was hoped to reschedule for an open afternoon tea in the Irish Club on a Sunday afternoon as soon as possible allowing for adequate notice to the community.

We invite people to join our new committee. If you want to share the fun in organizing and promoting events and activities of relevance and interest, if you have treasury, IT, marketing or editorial skills we would love to hear from you. We have two tiers of volunteers – the elected committee and the supporting volunteers.

The AIHA mission is to promote awareness of Australia’s Irish heritage and to celebrate all that is good in the artistic, literary, historical and social strands of this ‘indomitable Irishry’.

Australian-Irish Heritage Association

President Heather Deighan, secretary Tony Bray and committee Carmel Ryan at our Garden Movies night To quote from the introduction in our Presidents annual report at the Annual General Meeting in the Irish Club on March 8: The Australian-Irish Heritage Association (AIHA) is an inclusive organisation which encourages and promotes an awareness of Australia’s Irish heritage. As noted in the Irish Government’s Global Ireland 2025, “Ireland has always sought to be a good citizen of the world, with the ideal of ‘becoming a shining light in a dark world’ held by many. We hold these ideals as we make our contribution in contemporary contexts. To this end, the AIHA create opportunities for all to learn about, participate in and enjoy this distinct heritage.

In presenting events • we seek to foster a connection • a sense of calling in the Irish diaspora • to identify and develop sources of Australia’s distinctive Irish Heritage In considering our purpose, strategic focus and planning of events for 2019 and 2020 we seek to be more inclusive in our reaching out. We strive to strengthen and maintain our position as a key Celtic Heritage Association in Australia and worldwide. With person power being our main challenge, we continue to consider partnerships and how we can protect our identity, harnessing our credibility, reputation and distinctiveness as we develop opportunities for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide.

It saddens us to record the passing of Joyce Parkes, sponsor of the Joyce Parkes Writers Prize, Marie Maloney who was a very active member of AIHA, and John Spurling of Irish Theatre players and former Board member of AIHA who facilitated our theatrical events at the Irish Club.

Check out events on www.irishscene.com.au/calendar-of-events.html Australian-Irish Heritage Association Non Political - Non Sectarian - Emphatically Australian

Be proud of your Irish heritage

PO Box 1583, Subiaco 6904. Tel: 08 9345 3530. Secretary: 08 9367 6026 Email: secretary@irishheritage.com.au or admin@irishheritage.com.au Web: www.irishheritage.com.au Find us on Facebook @australianirishheritage Membership due 1st January – Family $65, Concession $55, Distant (200kms from Perth) $45.

Membership fee includes tax deductible donation of $20 |

THE IRISH SCENE

59

CLADDAGH REPORT

Crisis Support: 0403 972 265

13/15 Bonner Drive Malaga 6090. Enquiries: 08 9249 9213

www.claddagh.org.au Covid-19 support Requests for support Since our last report Claddagh continues to be very busy responding to members of the Irish community affected by Covid-19. So far, we have received 158 requests for assistance.

On average, during the pandemic, Claddagh’s monthly workload has increased tenfold compared to last year. The chart right shows the range of issues for which we have provided support.

During June, the most requested assistance was for information and support about travel restrictions. Many members of the Irish community need to return to Ireland for various urgent reasons and those who are permanent residents or Australian citizens must get an exemption from the Department of Home Affairs before they can make the journey.

Government of Ireland COVID-19 Response Fund for Irish Communities Abroad Claddagh successfully sought funding from the Government of Ireland COVID-19 Response Fund for Irish Communities Abroad. This funding was provided so that Claddagh can work on two new projects with Irish Seniors, provide essential information and more engagement with the Irish Community and provide emergency relief for those in financial distress due to COVID-19 (see below for further details). Claddagh gratefully acknowledge the support of the Irish Government which enables us to fulfil our mission of supporting members of the Irish community in WA in difficult circumstances.

Above: A chart showing the range of issues for which Claddagh have provided support.

Claddagh’s COVID-19 Fund As you know the Claddagh Association receives funding from the Government of Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme to cover administration and projects. We cover the costs of the direct support we offer to members of the Irish community in difficult circumstances through fundraisers run by ourselves and held by other wonderful individuals and Irish community organisations.

COVID-19 restrictions have been preventing Claddagh from holding our fundraising events, but we anticipate that we will need to raise over $100 000 to support the Irish community in WA through the pandemic. The Claddagh committee have allocated $50,000 from our previous fundraising efforts to a COVID-19 fund. As detailed above, the Government of Ireland have contributed a grant of $20,000 to Claddagh for distribution to those in need in the Irish community in WA during COVID-19. Claddagh plans to hold a matching grant, digital fundraiser and an event later in the year for the remaining $30,000 that we believe will be necessary to support the Irish community during this time. We’ll publicise more details closer to the time so keep an eye on our Facebook page.

If you or anyone you know in the Irish community is in financial hardship due to COVID-19, please contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org.au/08 9249 9213 and she will forward details about applying for emergency assistance from Claddagh.

THE IRISH SCENE | 60

New Claddagh projects responding to COVID-19

The Government of Ireland COVID-19 Response Fund for Irish Communities Abroad has provided a grant to Claddagh to fund two new projects with Irish Seniors. Over the next five months we’ll be running: 1. a project to train our Seniors to be confident using apps which can keep them connected with loved ones. Trainers will teach our members how to use video conferencing programs like Zoom and Skype, messaging services like WhatsApp or Viber and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram 2. a project to record oral histories from our Seniors. These stories will be compiled into a book, as well as audio archives, to be housed by the State Library and featured on our website and social media. We are excited to spend time with our Seniors during COVID-19 and to highlight their history of emigration from Ireland.

Claddagh would love to hear from you if you are interested in participating in either of these projects. Numbers will be limited so please express interest early if you’re keen to be involved. You can register your interest by contacting Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org.au/08 9249 9213.

Alternatively you can email seniors@claddagh. org.au to put your name down for either of these projects.

Claddagh Seniors The Claddagh Seniors subcommittee are busy making plans for the time when the group can meet up in person again. Last month the Seniors subcommittee along with Claddagh volunteers met to print and post copies of the May/June Irish Scene magazine.

Many of Claddagh Seniors group were not able to access the digitalonly version of the last issue of the magazine and they had expressed their disappointment at missing out on their favourite reading! So, the Seniors subcommittee jumped into action and posted out over 100 copies of the Irish Scene.

We’ve had lots of thank you calls from delighted Seniors who were pleased to read the paper copy of the magazine.

Support the Claddagh Association To those who already support the Claddagh Association in a myriad of ways - thank you so much. If you are interested in becoming a new Claddagh supporter, we welcome you in whatever capacity you can support us. New members can join up at any time. Online signup is available here: and our membership subscription is just $10 per year.

We are always open to new volunteers and would love to hear from you if you have time to volunteer with us. contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org.au/08 9249 9213 for details. We also appreciate it when you like and share our social media posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This increases our visibility and helps us to reach those who most need to hear about Claddagh.

If you are in the position to contribute financially this would be gratefully received for our support work. Your taxdeductible donation will help Claddagh continue its work in support of Irish people in difficult circumstances here in WA. 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 Account name: The Claddagh Association BSB: 066153 Account no: 10771928 Ref: Your initial & surname +DON THE IRISH SCENE | 61

Irish Mams NOR Playgroups Each Monday & Wednesdays

Now that Covid 19 restrictions have been lifted our playgroups are back with a bang!

EIMEAR BEATTIE

Irish families in Perth is a voluntary non profit organisation with over 16,000 members on our social media group.

We provide Irish emigrants with advice on how to best assimilate into the Western Australian culture and lifestyle. We communicate with our subscribers through social media where topics such as long lost relatives, housing, jobs and social events are covered. It is a vibrant active forum that provides a wealth of knowledge to young families and singles emigrating to Western Australia.

Our playgroup meetup is a purpose-built playgroup centre which has undergone recent refurbishment.

It has a bright indoor area and a small kitchen complete with small fridge, microwave, tea and coffee making facilities. Outdoors, there is a covered playground attaching to the building and the outdoor area is fenced with a locked gate ensuring the safety of our little ones. It also has a large selection of indoor and outdoor toys ensuring that all parents and kids receive a warm reception.

We have a number of vacancies for our Wednesday meet-ups 9-11am and a few on Monday Playgroups for any families interested in joining.

IFIP contributes to a cohesive Irish Community by working together with many of the wonderful groups in Perth that support Irish culture and heritage.

We offer 2 free trials for you and your little ones to come and play prior to joining. We cater for children from 6wks to 5yrs. Please contact Sorcha McAndrew for Wednesday group queries and Lynsey Staunton for Mondays. Based at Padbury Playgroup on Caley Road.

IFIP aims to:

New members are always welcome.

• Coordinate Irish family events including twice weekly playgroup.

• Develop Irish Culture & heritage.

• Help Irish people with any problems that might arise and provide a link to Australian and Irish support services.

www.irishfamiliesinperth.com facebook.com/groups/irishfamiliesinperth THE IRISH SCENE | 62

Fionn Ó Dónaill Seanduine bagánta a bhí i Mánas an uair a rugadh mac a mhic, Fionn Ó Dónaill.

Bhí máithreacha móra Fhinn beo fosta, beirt de sheanmhná tanaí liatha, agus an saol sóúil a chaith siad le feiceáil go soiléir ina n-éadan leathan uasal. An lá a tháinig an leanbh chun an tsaoil bhí a bhunadh i riocht dul sa scornach ag a chéile fán ainm ba chóir a thabhairt air. Bhí Mánas ina shuí ag éisteacht leis an díospóireacht agus cuma imníoch air. Sa deireadh labhair sé: ‘Tugaigí Fionn air’, ar seisean. ‘Ba é Fionn mac Cumhaill an fear ab fhearr clú ar laochra na hÉireann agus is mithid do dhuine de na Dálaigh a ainm a iompar’. ‘Cé riamh a chuala iomrá ar naomh nó ar Chríostaí a raibh Fionn mar ainm air?’ arsa máthair na máthar. ‘Ní raibh Fionn ar cheachtar den dá theaghlach’, arsa máthair an athar, ‘agus níl fhios agamsa cad chuige nach dtugann sibh Mánas ar an leanbh, ainm a athar mhóir’.

I lár na teagmhála, cé sciord isteach ach an sagart.

D’inis na mná dó go raibh Mánas ag iarraidh ainm págánta a thabhairt ar an leanbh. ‘Char locht ar Fhionn a bheith ina phágánach’, arsa Mánas. ‘Murbh é teacht Phádraig go hÉirinn bheadh mórán ar aon nós leis go fóill. Éistigí le scéal beag ar a mhac Oisín go bhfeice sibh an mianach a bhí ina phór’.

‘Nuair a tháinig Oisín ar ais as Tír na hÓige bhí sé ag imeacht leis ar each bhán ag cuardach na bhFiann.

Chonaic sé slua fear ag tógáil leice, agus chuaigh an leac ina mullach agus níor éirigh leo a cur díobh gur iarr siad cuidiú ar Oisín. Chrom Oisín anuas agus rug ar an leac lena leathláimh agus chaith sé seacht bpéirse as a hionad í. Le teann an urchair bhris giorta na diallaite ar an each bhán agus tháinig Oisín anuas go dócúlach ar an talamh. Níor luaithe a lig sé a bhonnaí ar fhéar ghlas na hÉireann ná a chaill sé a lúth agus a radharc, a dhreach agus a scéimh, agus thit sé ina sheanóir chríon liath.

‘Chuaigh teachtaire chuig Naomh Pádraig leis an scéala agus tháinig sé a dh’amharc ar Oisín. Bhí trua aige don tseanóir bhocht agus thug sé leis ar a chúram é.

Chuaigh sé a mhíniú an chreidimh dó, ach ba mhó an tsuim a bhí ag Oisín sna Fianna agus fá dheireadh dúirt Pádraig leis nárbh iad ab fhearr éacht, gur láidre an fear Dia ná aon duine acu. Ní chreidfeadh Oisín gur láidre an fear Dia ná Goll, agus ansin thug Naomh Pádraig amharc dó ar ifreann. Chonaic sé na Fianna ag iarraidh imeacht ó leac na bpian agus Goll mac Móirne ar a gceann ag coscairt na ndiabhal le súiste. Ach i gcónaí

Seanfhocal -

Ar scáth a chéile

a mhaireann na nuair a bhí sé ar tí a daoine. Seanfhocal mbua a fháil bhris eile atá oiriúnach iall an tsúiste air. don lá atá inniu ann.

Ansin d’iarr Pádraig ar Oisín achainí a iarraidh agus go bhfaigheadh sé í, agus ba í an achainí a d’iarr Oisín iall a chur i súiste Ghoill nach mbrisfeadh go deo.

‘Thug Pádraig amharc eile dó ar na flaithis. Ní raibh léamh ná scríobh ná insint bhéil ar an tsuáilce a bhí ansin, agus ba mhian le hOisín a bheith ann. Dúirt Pádraig nach dtiocfadh leis dul chun na bhflaitheas mura nglacadh sé leis an bhaisteadh. Ansin d’iarr Oisín air é a bhaisteadh. Bhí cailín aimsire ag Pádraig nach raibh iarraidh ar bith ar Oisín aici fán áit agus ní raibh taitneamh ar bith ag Oisín uirthi. D’iarr Pádraig ar an chailín coinneal lasta a chur sa choinnleoir go mbaisteadh sé Oisín. Bhí gob caol ar chois an choinnleora lena sá sa talamh. Sháigh an cailín bior an choinnleora síos trí chois Oisín. Bhí an tuile fola ina rith ar an urlár nuair a bhí an baisteadh déanta ag Pádraig.

Tharraing sé an coinnleoir agus d’fhiafraigh de Oisín cad chuige nár labhair sé nuair a chuireadh ina chois é.

‘Shíl mé gur den bhaisteadh é’, arsa Oisín.

D’éist an sagart agus na mná le scéal Oisín go raibh sé inste ag Mánas. ‘Anois’, ar seisean, ‘tá sibh ag lochtú na bpágánach a bhí ann roimh aimsir Phádraig, ach cé agaibh féin atá chomh seasmhach don chreideamh is go bhfuilingeodh sibh coinnleoir in bhur gcois le linn a shílstin gur den bhaisteadh é?’ ‘Is fíor duit, a Mhánais’, arsa an sagart. ‘Agus is í comhairle an duine aosta is cóir a bheith déanta. Bhéarfaimid Fionn ar an leanbh’.

Agus thug. Sula bhfuair Mánas bás rinne sé tiomna agus d’fhág sé dúiche aige óna lá féin amach. Pósadh Fionn Ó Dónaill go hóg. Bhí teaghlach mór aige, agus bhí a chuid mac in arm Aodha Rua ag briseadh Chionn tSáile.

(Scéalta Johnny Shéamaisín, Eoin Ó Domhnaill, Comhaltas Uladh 2004) BRÍD HIGGINS

THE IRISH SCENE | 63

The Monument Man

BY PETER CONOLE In 1953 English writer L.P.Hartley, after what may have been awkward discussions with potential publishers, was pleased when his novel The Go-Between appeared in print. The book was a winner and its opening lines still resonate with us: “The past is another country.

They do things differently there”. That haunting statement, beyond its absolute truthfulness, has impressed many literary folk and appears in assorted anthologies of notable quotations.

Hartley was interested in social codes, manners and ideas of responsibility which change with time and with each successive generation.

Hartley will have understood that we think differently as children and then as adults and, furthermore, sometimes tend to criticise the ways of our ancestors. Our descendants will be in turn be judgemental about us. Such ways of thinking can be very unjust especially now, when ‘presentism’ has become a weapon. Presentism is the John Henry Foley tendency to interpret past events and people in terms of contemporary fashionable values and political obsessions.

The subject of this piece, one of the artistic giants of Irish history, would no doubt give some folk of our own era a severe dressing down about the elitist nature of presentism if he could be brought back to life. He was John Henry Foley, born at no 6, Montgomery Street, Dublin, in May 1818, the son of Jesse Foley the glass blower (an important job back then) and Eliza Byrne of Wicklow. Young Foley was a precocious, go-getting lad and attracted the attention of people in Dublin’s hugely respected intellectual and artistic elite of the time.

Despite his humble origins Foley the schoolboy was welcomed into the fold as a student of drawing and modelling at the Royal Dublin Society at the age of

thirteen (1831). He then went on his way to the Royal Academy (London) to further his studies in 1835.

Incredible - what obvious talent. By his 19th year no less a person than Prince Albert, husband of the young Queen Victoria, was quietly operating in the background as yet another admiring patron.

Foley began exhibiting his work in 1839 and won a design contest for two statues to be set up near the Westminster Parliament during the year 1844.

The rest of his life was one long but exhausting triumphal progress. He found the time to marry Mary Ann Gray in London during 1847. The couple raised two children.

Foley’s career trajectory continued on its upward path. He was made an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1849 and then a full member in 1858 at the rather young age of forty.

As the years rolled by his fame as the sculptor of huge and grandly expressive works in marble and metal spread around the world and further recognition followed. Foley was inducted as a member of the Royal Hibernian Society in 1861 and then the Belgian Academy of Arts in 1863. Within a few years after the American Civil War came to an end persons across the Atlantic also began to take an interest in the great Foley and opened their wallets for projects.

Foley worked at such a committed level - well over thirty grand scale sculpted works in all - that he may well have undermined his own health. His masterpieces can be found far afield in Ireland, England, Scotland, India, Sri Lanka and America.

Even Australia. Towards the end of his life he was still assured of royal patronage. However, whatever the nature of his labours were, Foley remained a firmly patriotic and proud Irishman. He returned many times to the Emerald Isle and much of his finest creations can still be seen and admired in Dublin and the

THE IRISH SCENE | 64

provinces. All the same, everything we know about the man indicates he gloried in both his Irish and British affiliations. Who are we to question that? Foley died in London on August 27, 1874 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Even in his own life time political issues began to imperil Foley’s artistic heritage. During June 1872 some folk - without success - tried to blow up his statue of Prince Albert outside of Leinster House, Dublin. After the forming of the Free State in 1923 efforts were made to move it - with effect, because the monument was consigned to a less obvious site. Requests for its total removal from 2003 onwards have so far failed but may well continue.

Also in June 1872, the statue of the reformist and popular George Howard, Earl of Carlisle - Chief Secretary for Ireland before the Famine and twice Viceroy afterwards - was attacked. Terminal damage came later, in 1958, when Foley’s masterpiece was blown off its plinth.

During the 1916 Easter Uprising, British riflemen shot at and damaged Foley’s 4.3-m monument honouring Daniel O’Connell the Liberator. Loyalists bombed it horribly - and fatally - in 1969. The inexcusable pattern continued when they destroyed Edward Delaney’s more recent statue of the patriot Wolfe Tone in 1971.

Again in 1916 Foley’s fine O’Connell Street statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson was damaged by the insurgents - and finally blown to pieces in 1966.

together and (thanks to a private charitable effort) transported and placed on a safe northern English site. Fine. But Gough gloried in being Irish and surely his statue belongs in Down.

As many as 37 statues of British administrators and generals (two or more crafted by Foley) once adorned the Indian city of Calcutta, now Kolkata. Local folk are proud of the fact that not one was destroyed after independence. They were all moved and placed in a barrack graveyard during 1967 and remain easily accessible to the public, art historians and students.

Foley’s work in particular is well respected.

One final issue. Foley accepted a commission to make a statue of the Confederate general ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’. He did his subject proud. The general, of course, fought to preserve an awful slave based system. And yet, even before Foley’s death in 1874, anti-slavery folk in the north of the USA were quite relaxed when it came to honouring Jackson’s memory.

Foley’s remarkable statue is now controversial and there is no easy solution if it remains a target.

Relegation of the Irish sculptor’s masterpiece to a museum would probably be the easiest way out.

CÉILÍ AND SET DANCING IN PERTH!

There was a gross event in 1922, when the ‘Galway Soviet’ decided to deal with the Foley memorial of a stalwart Irishman - Ulrick Burke, Marquis of Clanricarde and also styled Lord Dunkellin. Burke had: advocated massive state intervention to help folk in the famine; refused to allow mass clearances on his estates and refused to evict peasants in the name of ‘improvement’. The charming ‘soviets’ still tore down the man’s superb Foley statue and threw it into a river.

Foley’s College Green statue of William of Orange was subjected to a bomb attack and then discretely removed in 1929.

Foley’s Dublin statue of King George II was blown up during the coronation ceremony of his descendant, King George the Sixth, in 1937.

Foley’s Leinster House statue of Queen Victoria always in peril - was finally removed and accepted by Australia in 1987.

Foley’s statue of the heroic and assertive warrior, Field Marshall Gough of County Down, stood in Dublin’s Phoenix Park from 1878. Several attempts were made to destroy it. There was a beheading of the monument in 1944, soon repaired. A fatal bombing of 1957 ended the business. The Foley masterpiece was soldered

THURSDAYS AT THE IRISH CLUB, SUBIACO sean nos - 5.30pm set dancing & céilÍ - 6.00-7.00pm $10 pay as you go

THE IRISH SCENE | 65

Teachers: Caroline McCarthy & Sinéad Hussey

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The Gramophone This is a little story written by Annraoi O Liathain (Harry Lyons) 1917-1981, who was raised in the parish of Glendine in rural West Waterford. All his works were published in the medium of the Irish language, and the tragedy is that very few people have been able to read his literary output due to the decline of the Irish language. However, I have managed to translate it into English, and I hope you enjoy it. The story is about the excitement when the first Gramophone came to the parish of Glendine, possibly in the 1920’s.

A fairly rare event happened in our house on one occasion when I was growing up in Glendine, in the West Waterford Deise. A letter arrived from my mother’s aunt which contained a five pound note. We all gathered around our mother staring at this mysterious brown note. At that particular time it was unusual enough for the green pound notes to be coming into our house but it was hard to imagine that there were five green notes contained in this small brown one!

We were rich. There was nothing that we could not buy and we were short of money on many occasions. I needed a new trousers as a necessity, and not just to keep up with the latest fashions, and the nuns were not too happy with my sisters as their toes were beginning to show through their old footwear – and if a good pair of shoes were bought for each one of us, they would be the only good pair of shoes each one of us would have.

But it wasn’t from nowhere that I and the rest of us got the thrift and the ‘waste not want not’ attitude we all practiced. Our mother was a very practical woman. The Saturday after the windfall arrived, she dressed herself and dressed me, she deposited the windfall carefully into her purse and we walked the seven mile journey from Boola Hill to Youghal.

The journey seemed short for us as the sun was shining, the fall of ground was with us and the secret purpose for the five pound note was on our minds. It wasn’t long before we were heading back the same road again to Glendine. The darkness was approaching; the hill was in front of us as well as the five pounds worth of a heavy package that we were carrying between us.

The rest of the gang were waiting for us when were about a mile away from the house. They ran towards us and started asking us questions, but my mother had warned me not to answer any questions until we were inside in our kitchen. Then, the package was laid on the table very carefully, the wrapping paper was removed and we all stood around it staring in amazement at the practical fruits of the five pound note – a shiny yellow box with a small wheel on top, a large tin horn that would remind you of a top hat as well as ten shiny black discs in wrapping paper. “That’s a gramophone”, said my mother proudly. “Move yourself”, she said to me, “and get it working”.

I stooped down to put the equipment together as the shopkeeper had explained to me earlier. I attached the horn, wound the turntable, put a needle in the sound box and placed one of the records on the small THE IRISH SCENE | 66

Above: Annie Lyons, the owner of the Gramophone green wheel. I wound another piece of apparatus, the record started to turn very quickly and I placed the needle on the outside of it. Nothing happened for a few moments and then a fine, ferocious sound started to cascade all over the kitchen.

“That’s John Mc Cormack singing The Boys of Wexford”, my mother said.

It was written on the record that John Mc Cormack was a tenor, but according to the gramophone he was a fine soprano. Indeed, we found out from that gramophone that our opinions regarding music were all over the place, baritone was a bass, according to the gramophone, and tenor was a baritone and so on.

Not to mention the lady singers. On one occasion we played a record performed by ladies and we had to adjust the volume before the rafters of the house came in on top of us!

Well, that’s how the first gramophone came to our parish.

The story spread to the four corners of the parish and everyone had to come to see and listen to this new wonder. There was a large and happy gathering every night in the house – it was very lonely before this, as my mother was not a native of this locality and did not have much social contact before this – until the gramophone came to her assistance.

There was an odd person who came and were not to our liking and they were put to flight very fast.

The visitors were seated beside the gramophone, the horn pointed in their direction and the loudest record we had was put on the turntable.

There should have been a prize for the punishment they were suffering!

A transformation came over my mother. When she was ironing the clothes there was a little tilt of pride in her head as she sang along to the music. There was a smile in her eyes every Saturday morning as we got ourselves ready to make the trip to Youghal. And before she bought a grain of tea or a loaf of bread, in that town, she would make for the record shop and spend an hour going through the records, talking about the records with other people who also had gramophones, getting advice from the shopkeeper – and she never came out without a new record under her armpit. When money was in short supply, the shopping bags would be fairly light coming home, but she never failed to buy a new record.

Some of the neighbours began to talk. They said it was a bit of a step up in the world to get a gramophone in the first place and also a scandal the amount of money she was spending on new records.

Maybe they were right. And it wasn’t from any feeling of ill-will they said what they said. But this I know. Little money was spent compared with the happiness it brought to my mother as a result. From our point of view, we now have over two hundred songs that we wouldn’t have without that gramophone.

And when we look back and reflect on life, the gramophone was just great. It was bought, and the records as well – for a five pound note!

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.

IRISH MUSIC

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50 EAST STREET, GUILDFORD 9377 1199 THE IRISH SCENE | 67

ULSTER RAMBLES WITH DAVID Another story in this magazine tells about a friend of mine from the ‘South’ and his experience with the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar. I had told him about one of my experiences in the ‘North’. It was about Walker’s Pillar in Derry, or Londonderry, if you prefer it. For the sake of simplicity here, I will call it Derry and apologies to those who would prefer the longer version.

‘Why don’t you write about it in your Ulster Rambler’s Column,’ he said.

‘Good idea,’ I replied. ‘I will.’

Walker’s Pillar was built in 182628. It was 96 feet tall with the statue of the Rev. George Walker surmounted 20 feet tall at the top.

It had an internal spiral staircase of 105 steps (some people said there were 110 steps but who is counting?) allowing access to a viewing platform on top. It was built as a memorial and a tribute to Rev. George Walker who was born in 1645 and died at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. He was the rector of Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, who came to Derry prior to the Siege of 1688-89. He was quickly appointed co-governor, along with Major Baker, and inspired the blockaded citizens to endure much hardship during the Siege.

The foundation stone of the monument - which stood on the central western bastion known as Royal Bastion - was laid on

The news recently has been dominated by one topic. I made myself promise I would ignore it as it was going to be covered extensively everywhere else. I was going to describe how those folks in Ulster were ignoring the social distancing rules and numbers rule when they attended wakes and funerals. Thank goodness I found another item to talk about thanks to my editor.

December 18, 1826, by the city’s Mayor, Major Richard Young. The column itself was completed in August 1828 at a total cost of £4,200, including £100 for the statue.

The inscriptions, in marble tablets, on the four sides of the base, as well as including the names of the Siege heroes, also included the following inscription: “This monument was erected to perpetuate the memory of Rev. George Walker who, aided by the garrison and brave inhabitants of this city, most gallantly defended through a protracted siege, from the 7th December 1688 to the 1st August following, against an arbitrary and bigoted monarch, heading an army of upwards of 20,000 men, many of whom were foreign mercenaries, and by such valiant conduct in numerous sorties and by patiently enduring extreme privations and sufferings, successfully resisted the besiegers and preserved for their posterity the blessings of civil and religious liberty.”

The column was surmounted by a square platform with a railing, and there stood the statue. In its right hand a bible and with its left hand extended and pointing down river towards the Boom, the breaking of which heralded the end of the Siege in 1689.

Originally, the left hand held a sword, but during a night of storm in the early part of the 20th century the sword was blown down. Well, that’s what I was told anyway and I was not around then to know otherwise.

The pillar was liked by unionists but was regarded by the city’s Catholic majority as one of the tangible examples of unionist and Protestant ascendancy. More than a few events were recorded as ‘both sides’ used the monument to further their cause. (Nothing seems to have changed much in this regard over the last three hundred years!)

For example, in 1951, at Easter, as the sun rose, an Irish Tricolour was seen flying from the monument, directly beside Walker. There was consternation in Orange circles and police and members of the Apprentice Boys eventually got inside the pillar (the door lock had been broken and replaced with another) and hurriedly removed the “offending” flag. Nobody was ever charged with the “crime” but it was widely

THE IRISH SCENE | 68

believed to be the work of a leading Derry republican; no rocket science involved in deducing that one!

In 1973 the monument was blown up. The IRA unit which planted the bomb is believed to have done so under the noses of strict British Army security. Ten minutes before the blast, a warning was phoned to the police that there was a bomb in Magazine Street and it was probably during the panic caused by this diversionary tactic that the bombers completed their escapade. Most of the community had no regrets that the monument had gone but they did hope that other items of common heritage and Irish history (like the city walls) would not be attacked in the same destructive way. So, what happened?

The Walker Memorial Plinth Photo: © CAIN Project

The statue was devastated by a 100 pound bomb detonated just a few minutes after midnight on August 27, 1973. The explosion ripped the pillar from its base and left only a seven foot stump standing.

Cloaked in a dusty tarpaulin, the nine foot tall statue of Rev. George Walker, minus one arm, lay beside the shattered remains of the ninety-six foot high pillar from which it had looked down triumphantly on Derry’s largely nationalist and republican Bogside for 145 years.

When it became evident that the pillar had been felled, hundreds of people took to the streets to collect pieces of debris as souvenirs, or so I was told. I never really saw the point of this although I have to admit I bought a piece of the Berlin wall thirty years after it had been removed. Well, there was a lot of wall!

will be installed on the Plinth in September. The artist himself said he was delighted to have his work chosen as the Plinth Commissions project for 2020. Well why wouldn’t he? I am sure he is getting well paid for his services. “My idea is to work with the community to mark this strange time we have all experienced and harness the people power of socially distanced activity to make this public sculpture,” he said.

The project, a collaboration between Derry’s Void Gallery, the Apprentice Boys of Derry and Friends of Derry’s walls, is being financed (I am not sure why) by the Irish government’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

In support of this project Void Gallery curator Mary Cremin claims the following: • the project aims to reclaim the space for public use;

Today what is left is called The Walker Memorial Plinth; quite an unusual sight as you can see in the photograph above, compared to what is was like pre 1973, opposite.

• two histories of Derry, namely the Siege of 1689, and the modern era troubles, come together at the plinth;

It is actually a well preserved, fenced in, statue-less plinth which was totally refurbished in 2013.

• it is very much responding to the Covid-19 crisis;

Apparently and ironically, only Walker’s head survived the attack and is, I am led to believe, on display in the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall Museum.

The area of the walls where the plinth stands, the Royal Bastion, reopened to the public for the first time in 2019; 46 years after most of it was demolished. I suppose you could say nearly another generation later.

Amazingly, since I began this article, more developments have happened and more information has emerged concerning it. A sculpture to mark the Covid-19 pandemic (apologies here as I vowed not to mention this) is to be unveiled as part of an arts project aiming to depoliticise this contentious space.

Artist Alan Phelan’s sculpture of a hyacinth flower will be made with the help of the local community. It

• it will bring the plinth into the more contemporary; • it’s going to be a sign of hope symbolised by the hyacinth flower; • it’s a sign of renewal.

While I do not agree with all of these claims, they at least head towards a more settled future for the Province.

Typical of Ulster in giving us the news in small segments, I have just learned about a second commission; a piece by artist David Beattie, will take over the plinth in 2021. You are bound to sensibly ask what they mean by a ‘piece’ and what they mean by ‘take over’.

In true Ulster fashion I will end up by saying, ‘I wouldn’t have a clue!’

May we all look forward to happier times ahead.

THE IRISH SCENE | 69

EXTRA RAMBLES WITH DAVID Is the world as we know it changing? I would say possibly, or to be more accurate, definitely.

During this last year events have taken place which are most foreboding for a happy and successful future. Our present methods of speedy media transfer reaching the whole world is partially to blame for this.

And now for something completely different, I would like to comment here on the act of demolishing statues which is becoming a recent occurrence in our changing world. Many of these statues are really a “book” of history.

In 2013, a statue of Lenin in Kiev’s central plaza - once known as October Revolution Square and now known as Euromaidan - was smashed by protesters using sledgehammers.

After Stalin’s death in 1953, successor Nikita Khrushchev launched a period of “de-Stalinisation”.

As part of this, numerous cities and landmarks named after Stalin had their names changed, the most famous of which was the renaming of World War II battleground Stalingrad to Volgograd. Mention of Stalin was also purged from the Soviet National Anthem, and several statues of the dictator were pulled down.

The statue of Saddam Hussein was one of the symbols of his rule over Iraq and it came down in April 2003, as US Marines backed an armoured M88 tank recovery vehicle up to the monument and attached a chain to the statue.

Cecil Rhodes was one of the most committed imperialists of the 19th century. Protesters in South Africa’s Cape Town University demanded the removal of the 1930s statue of this British colonial minister, for whom the white settlement of Rhodesia was named and who many believed was an inveterate racist. After weeks of protests, the University pulled the statue down.

Ireland of course started this idea of demolishing statues over fifty years ago. I would like to remind you

here of two statues in Ireland which were ‘removed’ some time ago. The story begins about eight years ago.

Around this time, I was playing golf at a certain club and was listed to play with a member I had not heard of before. His name was Ricky Bxxxxxx but for the sake of simplicity here, I will call him Stan, similar to a certain television broadcasting company. We hit off at the first hole having found that our other two players had cried off. The rain was coming and it did... at the second hole! Stan and I took shelter under a rather twiggy looking tree and started to chat. Well what else can a golfer do sheltering under a tree with so few leaves on its branches? There was no Guinness in sight, never mind a pub.

We were both amazed at how similar our lives had been at an early age. He had attended a top school in Dublin and me in Belfast. We both played rugby and it appeared we may even have played against each other when my school played his before the International match at Lansdowne Road. We both liked and played music. He had played in a rock band in Dublin and I had played in a dance trio in Belfast.

“We were gigging in Cats, a small downstairs place in Middle Abbey St, off O’Connell St where Nelsons Pillar was,” he told me later in the conversation.

It was still raining.

“It was 1966,” he continued, “the year Mustang Sally was written and sung by Wilson Pickett, and we were doing a top job on that song. We were half way through the song, actually on the line...

One of these early mornings, oh, you gonna be wiping your weeping eyes I bought you a brand new mustang ‘bout nineteen sixty five

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It wasn’t our day. We both managed over thirty points however which was commendable in the rain.

In the bar, Stan asked me about the story I was telling.

“Ah yes,” I said thoughtfully. (It was not really a story I would tell over a Guinness; more of a story trying to ignore the rain.)

Left: The half demolished Nelsons Pillar in Dublin 1966. Above: Governor Walker’s Monument, Derry in 1828

(he actually sang this though not that tunefully; well he is and was a bass player) when we heard a very loud bang. It only lasted a second or two so we continued with the gig.

Later the owner came over to us and told us he had an announcement to make. He announced that a bomb had gone off around the corner in O’Connell St. He did not know what had been bombed but he suspected it might be the pillar…. That is Nelson’s Pillar.

“The gig was just about over anyway and what few people that remained had left to go and survey the damage. I joined them.” continued Stan.

“We did not realise at first that the whole pillar was demolished and as we tried to approach where it had been, the garda or cops as you would call them, stopped us saying that it was unsafe, as more could collapse. The street was hugely covered with tons and tons of a mass amount of rubbish, I decided to pick up some bits, but as they were very heavy I only took one piece home. The pillar was made from granite” he told me, “and was about 450 million years old. The granite that is,” he helpfully explained. (Stan is full of useful facts.)

“We have something similar in the North,” I volunteered, determined to get a word in. “It’s in Derry or Londonderry if you prefer.” (He didn’t mind either way!) “In around 1968 I was playing rugby for Queens University. We called ourselves ‘The Pirates’. We were all drinkers (well most people who played rugby in those days were) or at least we all enjoyed the odd pint or seven. That seemed to be our limit.”

The rain had finally stopped and I had lost the thread of my story. We continued with the golf but neither of us played particularly well. Golf is a fickle game and you never know when it is going to be your day.

“Our next game was in Letterkenny,” I continued trying to pick up where I had left off. “A few on the team were from England. They had never heard of Letterkenny and we confused them greatly by telling them it was in a different country. We set off from Belfast on a fine and cloudy day in October. I was driving a mini in those days and it was packed with five rugby players. They all played in the backs; four of the forwards would not have fitted into the mini never mind five. We headed up the M2 for a few miles before diverting to Antrim, Randalstown, Dungiven and then Derry; then into Donegal in the Republic of Ireland and Letterkenny.

“Now Stan,” I continued, “it should be noted here that in Northern Ireland in those days, one never travelled into areas that one did not know. Students rarely visited the Falls Road or the Shankill Road. We had heard stories about those places and we were not over anxious to confirm the stories or otherwise. Derry was similar. No one was keen to go exploring. However, we did stop (briefly) at a tall pillar. It looked impressive.

“It was about ninety feet tall (we both understood imperial measurement). Not as impressive as Nelson’s in Dublin but still pretty good. It was erected to commemorate a certain George Walker who was a clergy man or priest or whatever they were called in the 17th century. We could have climbed it but we did not have time. The referee was waiting in Letterkenny.”

“Hey,” commented Stan, “why don’t you write an article for the IRISH SCENE about the statues in Ireland that have been blown up.’”

“Good idea,” I replied. “I will write about the Walker Statue in my ULSTER RAMBLES COLUMN, although I do believe it may have been blown up since that time.

Much the same as Nelson’s Column,” I remarked.

We both marvelled at how similar the two stories were. Later on in the bar I asked Rick (sorry, Stan) if he would play with me on St. Patricks Day at the club. Although we had been talking about music, he assumed I was talking about golf. The conversation took a strange turn until we worked out that we were talking about different events. I am happy to report here that the gig was a success and we have played golf and music together many times since including one memorable one at the Irish Club in Geraldton; an experience that neither of us will ever forget!

Hopefully it will not be blown up although it may be knocked down!

THE IRISH SCENE | 71

IRISH FAMILY HISTORY

Mark Elliott, a long term member of the Irish Special Interest Group at Family History WA, shares stories of his grandfather, Robert Thomas Elliott (below).

This story is about my grandfather Robert Thomas Elliott and some of the problems I have had in finding anything much out about him.

I didn’t know him at all personally – he passed away a before I was born. My sister knew him, but only as a young girl. Thus I found that he had left very faint footprints! Finding out a few things about him has been a long process.

What I do know: His parents were James Elliott and Sarah Jane Elliott (nee Laughlin / Loughlin). His father, James Elliott, was a station master for the Donegal Railway Company and stationed in Londonderry at the time of his birth. He was one of nine surviving children out of eleven births.

Robert Thomas Elliott appears to have been born in Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland in 1881 at the residence of one of his relatives. He left Ireland early in 1914, not long before the start of the Great War. He seemed to mysteriously disappear from view for a while, before appearing in Australia in 1918.

In Western Australi, my grandfather was a member of the Busselton Centenary Committee – the Centenary was held in 1932. There is evidence that that he was a Freemason, although I can’t directly confirm this. He was a member of the local rifle club and presented trophies to members of club at various times. He also appears to have owned or had a share in a race horse. He was licensee of the Esplanade Hotel in Busselton, WA from about 1918 until about 1940.

After that, he moved to Perth and lived in a flat in Beaufort Street. He died in Royal Perth Hospital in 1946.

Are there any juicy bits? Well… there just might be! These are some of my tentative findings. He was married, but his wife remained in Ireland and died there. I know that my Dad and an aunt had come to Australia in 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression. I assumed that grandfather had come with them, but I found out recently that this was not the case! Oh those family secrets! It seems that he left Ireland in early 1914 and appeared in Australia in around 1916, but I did not know where he was between 1914 and 1918. It turns out he was in Perth the whole time! From about late October 1914, he was Front-ofHouse manager for the relatively newly built His Majesty’s Theatre & Hotel. I am still not sure when he moved to Busselton.

He left behind in Ireland a pregnant wife and three children. My father was born on the eve of the First World War. He was a Mason both in Ireland and Australia, and the Masonic connections may have taken care of my grandmother and the children after my grandfather left Ireland. Probably his Masonic connections enabled him to get the job at His Majesty’s in Perth, and becoming Licensee of the Esplanade Hotel in Busselton.

It appears that he had a girlfriend when he was in Australia. I don’t know whether she came with him from Ireland, or whether he met her here. It’s possible he left Ireland with the best of intentions, but then met the lady here. He also seems to have had a close relationship with a lady named Nina Ramsay who was from Capel.

He seemed to be permanently separated from his wife – effectively a divorce. He requested - or maybe demanded - that my father and my aunt be sent to join him in Australia, while his other two children remained in Ireland with their mother. My sister gave me the impression that the final separation from my grandmother was not pleasant.

THE IRISH SCENE | 72

Another aspect of this family is the brothers and sisters. Initially I thought that he had only one sister, but with the help of the staff at the Londonderry Public Library History Centre, I was able to find via the 1901 census that he actually had at least six brothers and sisters. With the release of 1911 census data I was able to determine that he actually had nine brothers and sisters still living, and two who had passed away by 1911, one as an infant. As I still know very little about the rest of the family, I wonder whether he may have been excommunicated from the family for some misdemeanour. It could also be that he just simply didn’t get along well with the rest of the family so didn’t remain in touch.

My brick walls: What did he do between 1914 and 1918? I have a photograph of a house which looks like it could be overlooking the Belfast Lough. My dad had said that his father told him he had stayed there before he left for Australia.

Perhaps he was working somewhere to earn his passage to Australia.

What is the race horse connection? We have a photograph of a horse named “Lady Violet”. I don’t know if he owned it himself, or if he were a part owner.

The horse was possibly a trotter or pacer rather than a racehorse. This is again guesswork, as trap racing (horse and buggy) was popular in Ireland, and there is a trotting track not far from the

Esplanade Hotel in Busselton where he worked.

What is the Nina Ramsay connection? I believe that Nina came from Capel. Given that he had a colourised photo of her, she may have been an important person in his life. There is also a small silver plated mug from her to him with an engraving: “Bobby is a Bonny Boy His Birthday in October Being brot up on the bottle This pot may keep him sober! Nina 1934” At this stage, I haven’t been able to work out what this is about. It is possible that the horse won some big event! The Ramsays had a transport business, which included horse transporting, so that may explain his connection with the Ramsay family.

My Dad said that grandfather died bankrupt - another mystery. I wasn’t able to find any official record of bankruptcy for him, so I assume that he was technically bankrupt - there were not enough assets to cover his debts. Why did he sell the Esplanade Hotel? It seems to have been sold in 1940, and has remained with the same family ever since. I can speculate that he had financial difficulties from running the hotel, as there was a double dip recession in Australia in the late 30’s after the Great Depression. I can also speculate that he might have been in financial trouble due to a gambling habit and maybe needed to pay off his debts.

If any reader knows any more about Robert Thomas Elliott’s life I would love to hear from them. You can reach me at galaxywa@yahoo.com.

Top: Esplanade Hotel Busselton. Above: His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth

Irish Special Interest Group – WITH JENNI IBRAHIM

Robyn O’Brien, Convenor Irish Special Interest Group E irish.sig@fhwa.org.au

Traditionally the Irish Special Interest Group (Irish SIG) of FamilyHistoryWA has met every three months on a Sunday at 2pm. The last meeting was held on 19 January 2020. For the rest of 2020 meetings will be on: 19 July and 18 October. The theme for 2020 is Researching Our Irish Ancestors with 2020 Vision. If we’d had 2020 vision we might have seen the global pandemic coming. But we didn’t.

Book a (free) place at the next Irish group meeting at TryBooking tinyurl.com/ISIG-TryBooking

Member Chris Timoney was scheduled to speak on 19 April about Ireland Reaching Out, a fantastic volunteer based non-profit organisation that she volunteers for whenever she visits Ireland. It is a global network helping people of Irish descent reconnect with their roots. The April meeting had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 restrictions. Chris will now speak about Ireland Reaching Out at the 19 July meeting. Have a look at the Ireland Reaching Out website and get inspired. The July meeting will be held online via Google Meet from 2-4pm.

Join FamilyHistoryWA Facebook group – researching family worldwide, open to all. Join in the chat or ask a question at the FamilyHistoryWA Discussion Facebook group.

This meeting is free but an online donation at the time of booking would be appreciated. You need to book a place using the online booking site TryBooking, details right. New members and visitors are welcome.

Another casualty of the Covid-19 restrictions was the annual Four Courts Luncheon, usually held around 30 June at an Irish pub in Perth to commemorate the loss of valuable genealogical records in the fire at the Public Records Office in the Four Courts building in 1922. Hopefully we will be able to resume again in 2021.

Because Family History WA face to face meetings cannot be held at the moment, there are lots of other online events taking place, some for beginners, and others for more experienced researchers. See right for more information.

Happy researching!

THE IRISH SCENE | 73

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 including Irish Newspaper Archive and Ancestry www.slwa.wa.gov.au/ explore-discover/eresources/gettingstarted-eresources FamilyHistoryWA (FHWA) membership.wags.org.au T 9271 4311 (although this phone is not staffed at the present time.)

FHWA Events at try Booking www. trybooking.com/eventlist/ genealogy?embed=1 FHWA response to COVID membership.wags.org.au/ component/content/article/40update/1088-covid19response

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 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

AIDA WA is excited to announce that since the recent phase of restrictions has been scheduled, we will hold a Feis on the weekend of the 29th and 30th of August.

Whilst we have had to overcome many obstacles making all new arrangements for both feisanna and classes, AIDA WA members have worked very hard to accommodate our dancers and families. We will continue to work together to provide venues, syllabus and timetables for upcoming feisanna in due course.

Our State Solo and Ceili Championships will be held between Friday 25th and Monday 28th September.

AIDA WA is asking for your support!! We are looking for our local businesses and community leaders to offer their help through sponsorship for this upcoming State Championship Feis. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated. Please email Tony Ward for further details: sponsorship@aidawa.com.au We are all delighted to be back at class and our teachers have worked hard to prepare their studios to abide by the new social distancing guidelines. Some pictures on the opposite page of our Aida WA dancer’s following the new social distancing rule.

Scoil Rince na hEireann Rockingham irishdance@iinet.net.au Megan Cousins TCRG 0411 452 370

Unfortunately due to COVID-19, the 2020 Australian Irish Dancing Championships were cancelled. However, Aida WA are delighted to announce we will now be hosting the 2021 Australian Irish Dancing Championships at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, beginning Tuesday 28th September to Saturday 2nd October 2021.

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)

THE IRISH SCENE | 74

THE IRISH SCENE | 75

Meet...

Kevin Rogers

Who tells us his story of the fly-in, fly-out hard working men and women who want to get on quick and live longer.

WITH TONY SYNNOTT

Q, It’s so hard to interview FIFO workers as they are busy even when they come down to Perth, why is that?

A. Probably because we are just off for one week and a lot of people tend to travel overseas, so it can be hard to catch up.

Q. What do you get up to when you are on leave?

A. I catch up on lost sleep and I do a good bit of socialising and relaxing for the rest of the time.

Q. I know you come from County Monaghan, tell us about your home town ?

A. I come from a small village called Inniskeen, it’s famous for ‘wash diesel’, and the poet Patrick Kavanagh, who wrote the song “On Raglan Road� one of your favourites Tony!

Q. Was Perth always on your radar to settle down and to work up North, yes or no ?

A. No, I first worked 3 hours north of Melbourne driving combines for 4 months back in 2010, then myself and a few friends ended up going to Perth and got working in mines. I liked Perth because its not too busy and handy to get around.

Q. Why do you think suicide is prevalent with FIFO workers, it is loneliness for family?

A. I think people get trapped into a FIFO lifestyle when they are buying big houses, it puts a lot of strain on families. They have to stay working away 3 and 4 weeks at a time. On the other side though, every site has lots of mental health facilities and people to talk to if needed. I find that FIFO is more suited to a single person’s lifestyle.

Q. Have you got a hobby to pass your time in the donga, or just your phone ?

A. Yeah we have a gym, swimming pools, entertainment rooms. I like to play pool in the evenings and have a few beers with the crew. We also have got TV’s and movie channels to pass the time.

Q. What sport do you follow or are you interested in any?

A. I follow most sports, GAA, AFL and rugby, anything other than soccer and cricket.

Q. Do you go back to visit your family often, or just to rest?

A. I normally go home once a year and catch up with family. I have a sister and nieces living in Perth so I spend quite a bit of time with them.

Q. I find some FIFO workers stick together when they come down, others stay indoors and save, why?

A. Yes that’s probably because we are off during the week days and its easier to catch up with each other than it is to catch up with mates who work full time in the city.

Q. Do you read the Irish Scene to keep up with what’s going on in the world ?

A. Yeah I like to read the Irish Scene to see where the good bands are playing and any events that are going on while I am on break.

Q. Do you think women are slowly taking over the world on tv ?

đ&#x;˜‰

A. That is a raw enough question Tony I haven’t really noticed on TV but there seems to be a lot more women working in the mining and construction sectors at the minute, which is a good thing, a lot easier on the eye.

Q. Is pub life dying or are prices far too high for drinks and food ?

A. I think pubs are still going strong even though the price of drink has increased.

Q. It’s great to speak to you and listen to your side work-wise. What do you see happening to things in the near future ?

A. I reckon in another 2 to 3 years the mining and construction work in Western Australia will be quiet again.

THE IRISH SCENE | 76

Dervla’s A

thriller killer

BY LLOYD GORMAN Perhaps the most famous lawyer in Perth today is no longer at the Bar, but the world of crime still looms large for this individual.

Crime Queen Dervla McTiernan Image: Twitter @abbeysbookshop

Dervla McTiernan studied corporate law in University College Galway and went on to become a solicitor, training in Dublin. She returned to Oranmore, Galway to start her own practice which she built up over 12 years. Her practice, and her husband’s engineering work, were devastated by the economic crash in Ireland, and the couple came to Perth in 2011 where she got a job with the Mental Health Commission. The move changed everything for her. “I don’t think I would be a writer today, and I wouldn’t have a book deal if I had stayed in Ireland,” she admits. “I studied law at university, and though I knew from day one that it wasn’t right for me I stuck it out through two degrees, law school, my apprenticeship and almost twelve years in practice. It wasn’t all bad, and I worked with some great people, but law is a very challenging environment. It’s adversarial by its nature, the hours are long and you have to really love the highs to stick it out. I enjoyed the challenge of it in the early years, but I always felt like a fish out of water.

Having said that I would still be doing it today if the Global Financial Crisis hadn’t hit and decimated my legal practice.

“I saw Tana French speak about her book, Broken Harbour, which is set in one of the ghost housing estates that was left in Ireland after the property crash.

She spoke about the rule-followers who were badly hurt by the crash in Ireland. Tana said she was not a rule follower, but I certainly was. When the GFC hit and we lost everything, it was devastating but it

was also freeing. We got to start again and this time we threw out the rulebook. Our little boy was born five weeks after we arrived in Australia, so I didn’t work straight away. When I did go back to work I was determined that I wouldn’t practice law again. I found part-time job and started writing at night, when the work was done and the kids were in bed.”

While she had always dabbled with writing, in 2015 on her first public attempt at writing for the Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto short story competition she was shortlisted. This gave her the confidence to finish a manuscript, find an agent and become a Number 1 best selling crime fiction writer within a very short period of time.

“In late 2016 my agent sent my manuscript out on submission in Australia and, incredibly, I got six offers of publication!,” she said. “The Ruin was a bestseller in Australia and Ireland, and named an Amazon book of the year in the USA, which was incredible. My second book, The Scholar, came out in Feb 2019 to similar success, and my third, The Good Turn, will be publishing in 2020.”

As well as a busy touring schedule (before Covid) and demanding publishing schedule, the former lawyer has been watching recent events in America and elsewhere closely. Her twitter feed is full of posts expressing concern about police brutality, suppression and targeting of the media by authorities and promoting anti-racism causes and similar causes.

THE IRISH SCENE | 77

PAULA XIBERRAS

FROM TASMANIA

No Brakes on Big Dreams It was eight years ago that the Wolfe brothers came to prominence when they were runners up on television program ‘ Australia’s Got Talent’. Nick says it was a unique experience because going against tradition the guys were allowed to sing their own original songs.

Their success on the show quickly changed their lives.

From tradies, (Nick had been a postman in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley and worked on a fish farm in Margate, Tom was a carpenter, Casey fixed fridge’s and Brodie was a dental prosthetics) to trading Tassie for the US on a regular basis. It also teamed them up with good friend Lee Kernighan, as they became and remain a mainstay in his band with Tom and Lee often hanging out on skype doing some song writing.

While the boys were happy in their jobs their dream from their school days, when they composed music on the school bus and performed in different cover bands was in Nick’s words ‘the bigger goal’ to take their music to the world.

It was inevitable that this would happen with music part of the Wolfe family genetics. The brother’s greatgrandfather played the fiddle, their grandfather a multi-instrumentalist and their father a drummer.

The brothers were encouraged in their music by their parents.

While these times of isolation have meant no live performing there has been cause for celebration.

Rather than a restriction there has been an expansion in their music with a recording deal inked with global BMG, seeing them continue their profile in the US. Nick says it’s a continuation of ‘good things happening’ as they have been working for some time to ‘step up’.

‘No Brakes’ recorded on their last trip to Nashville is the first track of their forthcoming fifth album and the title is itself a metaphor for the seemingly no stops on their career as they soared to number one single on the country music charts.

It’s not the first number one for the guys. Over the past seven years they have had thirteen consecutive number one singles in Australia, as well, The Wolfe Brothers studio albums have debuted at number two on the ARIA charts. The Wolfe Brothers also have sixteen CMAAS nominations behind them, including in 2019 winning Golden Guitars for album of the year and song of the year.

As for the guys regular sojourn in the US it is not always about the music. From previous interviews I have garnered the boys are always on the lookout in the US for some good Aussie food and maybe they have found it. Nick tells me the bands favourite restaurant is ‘Cracker Musical Entertainer / Teacher Barrel’, in fact, they are obsessed with it, particularly because at heart the boys are very much grounded and the restaurant serves ‘normal’ food like the good old fashioned Sunday roast, a meal they will often replicate themselves, including the green beans!

The boys remain committed to their Tassie farm and as Nick tells me that for all of their success they are as happy as 0413 259 547 they were when they scored that first gig at Irish Murphy’s all those years ago and 0doublexx7@gmail.com realised they had made it!

David MacConnell

www.maccdouble.com

THE IRISH SCENE | 78

THE WOLFE BROTHERS NEW SINGLE ‘NO BRAKES’ IS OUT NOW

Years ago Irish Australian author Chris Flynn and a friend pushbike cycled through parts of Tasmania and agreed it was tough going, but not as tough going as the journey of the protagonist of Chris’s novel ‘Mammoth’, a mastodon whose ‘spirit’ has endured through epochs of exhibitionism.

‘Mammoth’ is a novel narrated by the said mastodon’s ‘spirit’. Extinct for 10,500 years, the mastodon inhabited North and South America, it differed from the mammoth in size, being slightly smaller and in its eating habits, also an herbivore the mastodon ‘crushed instead of cutting its food’.

I talked to Chris about the inspiration behind his novel and he told me that the catalyst was a Manhattan celebrity natural history auction in 2007. The items on offer included an Egyptian mummy’s severed hand, a penguin from prehistory, a pterodactyl, a tyrannosaurus bataar skull and the eponymous mammoth. Chris has always been interested in the ‘internal life of animals’ and this novel allows him to explore that interest.

Our mammoth travels in time from the Pleistocene epoch to America in the nineteenth century. Chris says the mammoth ‘communicates over his lifespan’.

In doing so the mammoth becomes our social conscience as he adapts to changes through time and demonstrates to us the human impact through the ages, ranging from racism to environmental erosion.

Chris says that the mastodon’s story is to be brought to life (pardon the pun) as an audio book and there is talk of a live action realisation. The novel in its uniqueness also brings an important message. If the mammoth was alive today it might present part of the solution to climate change.

The explanation why takes us to the snows of Siberia where there are preserved mammoths. To teams of scientists in different countries the presence of these mastodons are an exciting proposition of potentially returning the mammoth to earth by way of the modern elephant, which shares 99 per cent of the mastodon DNA. So by sourcing these frozen mammoths in

Siberia and putting their DNA into their modern manifestation the elephant, the mastodon could live again. Scientist George Church says not only would this process help save the endangered Asian elephant but also provide an opportunity to fight climate change, because the mammoth prevents tundra from melting and releasing damaging greenhouse gas by mammoth by stomping through the snow of Siberia pushing in cold air to stop the melting of the snow.. In the summer months this versatile creature was equally useful by toppling trees to allow grass regrowth.

‘Mammoth’ reminds us that in this modern age of technology we too, are constantly on exhibit but, like the mammoth have a private internal life that should be protected and respected from exploitation.

‘MAMMOTH’ IS OUT NOW, PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS References: reviverestore.org/projects/woolly-mammoth/

The Yellow Bird Sings ‘The Yellow Bird Sings’ by Jennifer Rosner is set in the Poland of 1941.

The Jewish Roza and her daughter Shira are seeking sanctuary in a barn in a very perilious situation where to make even the smallest sound puts them at risk. This is especially difficult for Shira, a child with a musical gift that strives to be heard. Shira projects her desire to sing on to a little yellow bird.

After a time it becomes clear Roza for all her good intentions cannot keep her daughter safe or stifle her desire to sing any longer. An escape for Shira comes in the environment of a convent school where she has an opportunity to hone her musical skills. Things are not completely safe at the convent either and Shira must disguise her true identity with a change of name and a change to her exotic looks in the form of peroxided hair and when this product becomes scarce, to hide her head under a head covering paralleling the look of her teaching sisters.

Continued on page 80

For advertising in The Irish Scene

Contact Imelda Gorman 0450 884 247 THE IRISH SCENE | 79

IRISH THE

SCENE

Masterful Mastodon masterpiece

www.irishscene.com.au

Continued on page 79

Eventually Roza’s fierce love for her daughter can’t be denied as she attempts to locate Shira at her own risk. A phrase spoken in the novel by Roza is that ‘only beauty can save’. Whether that be the healing beauty of music or the beauty of those who risk everything to protect in times of need.

The novel demonstrates that love can thrive even in the most difficult circumstances. Sometimes enduring being denied expression like Shira of our true selves.

That moment of expression, when it comes truly makes the yellow bird sing.

‘THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS’ BY JENNIFER ROSNER IS OUT NOW, PUBLISHED BY PAN MACMILLAN.

trip she was going to take with her ex and in a bit of unconscious retribution she manages to ditch his car along the way!

Deira is intent on seeing in every man she encounters through the journey a new partner and father of her future children, while for Grace it is still being in the control of her husband, albeit by pre made messages and videos.

What the two women learn on the journey through Hemmingway and Cervantes Spain, as scheduled by literature professor Ken, is that for women in Cervantes time there was the choice between marriage or the nunnery, but not life as a single woman. The women learn to enjoy literally and metaphorically navigating their own course and in doing so getting their life’s desire.

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For Grace it is the loss of her university professor husband Ken due to a cruel disease.

In an act of serendipity the women meet up and realise it is time for them to literally and metaphorically take control of the wheel themselves and drive their own course, as they take a road journey together through France and Spain.

Grace has taken the trip before with her husband and he is again accompanying her with a serious of riddles to solve on the journey. Deira is taking the

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W: www.easivisa.com THE IRISH SCENE | 80

Moules & Frites A Taste of Belgium

COOKING

with lee behan

During this time of lockdown, its important to remember the days when international travel was the norm for everyone. Roll back 3 years ago, on a trip around Europe we ended up in Belgium. Sipping on a delicious Belgian Ale in a large chalice glass, in a riverside bar, the sun was shining, we somehow managed to order Moules and Frites from a waiter that didn’t speak much English. Needless to say they were delicious and simple and a memory I will savour for a long time.

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

1.5kg of Mussels (washed and debearded)

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2 shallots 1 bulb garlic 1 bunch parsley 1 bottle of white wine 4 medium sized potatoes 100gm butter chopped in squares 100gm whole egg mayonnaise 1 tub of crème fraiche 2 lemons Olive oil Salt & pepper

2. Peel potatoes and place in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, pat dry potatoes and slice into frites 1cm x 1cm. Toss them in 100ml of olive oil, salt and paper then place onto a baking tray that is covered in baking paper. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, turning every 10 minutes to ensure golden on all sides.

3. Break garlic in half and place one half of the bulb in tin foil and place in the oven on the bottom shelf for 25 minutes.

4. Finely dice shallots and 3 cloves of garlic. Roughly chop parsley and discard the stalks.

5. Remove garlic from oven, while hot remove the pulp from the cloves and mix through the mayonnaise to make your dipping sauce for your frites.

6. In a large pot, gently heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add shallots and garlic and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Turn the heat up to a medium/high heat and add the mussels. Toss the mussels and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Add one cup of white wine and cook for 2 minutes before placing the lid on so the mussels steam for a further 2 minutes. Remove lid and add ½ tub of crème fraiche, juice of one lemon, a handful of parsley and salt and pepper to taste, cook sauce for 2 minutes and stir mussels around. Finally add butter to mussels and stir until melted. Turn off the heat and allow to sit for 1 minute before serving in a bowl.

7. Remove frites from the oven and serve alongside your moules with a cheek of lemon.

For more recipes, check out Lee on Instagram @lee.behan | THE IRISH SCENE

81

BOOK REVIEWS

BY JOHN HAGAN

TO THE LIONS

HOLLY WATT RAVEN BOOKS $19.99 Previously published in the UK, Holly Watt received rave reviews for this, her first, novel.

Accolades for ‘To The Lions’, included that of ‘Winner of the 2019 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award’, in addition to being acknowledged as one of the thrillers of the year (2019) by the Sunday Times, Times and the Guardian. These have all come Watt’s way – and rightly so. This is a stunning debut novel - superbly plotted, fast-paced, heart-stopping and totally entertaining.

While on an undercover assignment, Casey Benedict, an investigative reporter with London’s Post newspaper, overhears a whispered conversation in her favourite nightspot leading her to believe that a coterie of rich and powerful businessmen are committing murder - just for kicks. With Post colleague, Miranda, and former Royal Marine veteran Ed, Casey sets off in search of the truth. It is a journey which takes her from the glitz of St. Tropez to the barren Algerian mountains, and in to war-torn, lawless, deserts of post-conflict Libya, where she is forced to confront the darker recesses of the human mind - including her own.

The twists and turns of Casey’s investigation are fascinating and certainly ring true. Watt has undoubtly drawn on her own experiences as a former investigative journalist with the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, sharing with us some of the tricks of the trade of the professional reporter in search of a scoop. Nothing must stop the press in its quest to document the next big front-page story, no matter the cost. Watt’s punchy prose and graphic narrative helps build genuine tension, perfectly capturing the horror of the deadly situation in which Casey and her companions find themselves.

At the heart of this powerful novel, peopled by a cast of convincing characters, is the scope and nature of human evil in the modern world and the gulf between the rich and those almost without hope. This sizzling, richly inventive, page-turning thriller whets my appetite for Watt’s follow up, ‘The Dead Line’, to be published later this year.

THE WILD LAUGHTER CAOILINN HUGHES ONEWORLD $29.99

It’s an old shibboleth in the publishing business that an author is only as good as their second book. I know of many writers who have shot to prominence with a best-selling first novel only to bomb out with their second, sending a promising career into a terminal tail spin.

This is Caoilinn Hughes’ second novel. Her first, ‘Orchid and the Wasp’ received rave reviews, as well as winning the prestigious Collyer Bristow Prize (2019), and being named as the ‘Best Book of the Year’ by Cosmopolitan, Sunday Independent, RTE and the Sunday Business Post.

Set in Roscommon in 2008, the book follows the loves, indignities and betrayals of the Black family. Head of the clan is ‘The Chief’, a taciturn, hardworking farmer (‘dandruff flakes from his auburn-grey hair fell around him in his own weather system’) coping with his lot on the land following the devastation wreaked by the Celtic Tiger. He is aided on his smallholding by wife Nora, a chilly former nun, (’smooth as a Hunky Dory crisp in her small talk’) and his son Hart. ‘The Chief’s’ elder son Cormac (‘close-eyed, limb-chinned’,

THE IRISH SCENE | 82

‘part t-rex, part pelican’) is an arrogant, bullying, university graduate, eking out a nefarious living as a horse trader in Galway City. Hart, the handsome narrator, who stayed at home to help his father, poignantly documents how ‘The Chief’ is swindled out of his savings, bringing the old man to his knees, and throwing the family into chaos as it, and he, face the ultimate ethical dilemma.

Hughes, with her beautiful imagery and breathtaking language, propels the reader on a vividly heady journey, exploring weakness and sacrifice, faith rewarded and loyalty abandoned. She displays a keen perceptiveness, often leavened with corrosive humour, and always fully captures the lilt, cadence and ambiance of rural Ireland. ‘The Wild Laughter’ is a novel exemplified by its deliciously crafted prose; melt-in-the-mouth prose to be savoured on the palate like a fine, full-bodied, Shiraz.

This is inventive, ebullient, award winning fiction by an Irish author at the top of her game. No tail spin in evidence here. Blue skies await the accomplished Caoilinn Hughes.

PEDANTIC

ROSS & KATHRYN PETRAS ALLEN & UNWIN $19.99 The little red tractor, featured on the cover of the March/April edition of Irish Scene, was of interest to me, particularly for the word emblazoned on the tractor’s radiator – ‘Feckit’. This was also the favourite pejorative of the irascible Father Jack in the wonderful ‘Father Ted’ TV series. But what does it actually mean? According to ‘Pedantic’ it’s ‘a gentler and more acceptable, actually familyfriendly, unsexed, quasi-variation of the basic f-bomb’.

Language gurus, Petras and Petras however, go on to explain how the ‘feck’ in ‘feckless has another meaning entirely.

This slim publication traces the origins and evolution of the 100 words and phrases all pernickety word nerds, or should I say ‘pedantics’, need to know and know how to use. Included are popular Latin expressions (prima facie, quid pro quo, sine qua non), Greek derivatives (hubris, epistemology), words and phrases imported from other languages (zeitgeist, doppelganger), plus an array of words we commonly hear, and use, from the worlds of science, the arts, physics and philosophy. Differences between often misunderstood and misused words, like ‘metaphor’

and ‘simile’, ‘solecism’ and solipsism’, are addressed in this useful, well researched and beautifully written etymological compendium.

ON SEAMUS HEANEY R F FOSTER PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS $28.99

I must admit I’m somewhat apprehensive when I see an historian, even such and eminent don as Oxford University’s R F Foster, author a biographical novel, especially when the subject is such a revered and beloved Irish poet as Seamus Heaney. Perhaps it’s a throwback to my days at school when the thrust of history was seemingly on facts and dates.

Heaney bestrides Irish literature like a colossus; a poet and educator, admired for creativity and intellect, but also loved for being down to earth and approachable.

He never forgot his Castledawson (Co. Derry) roots, and it was this homeland in rural Ulster which provided the inspiration for many of his poems.

Foster’s approach to his subject is chronologically based, leading the reader through various stages of Heaney’s life, focusing, and analyzing, the poetry and literature he produced over 74 prolific years.

While Heaney received many plaudits, he also came in for criticism, as Foster divulges, from other Irish colleagues such as Edna Longley who dubbed some of Heaney’s offerings as mere ‘landscape-sex-Ireland poems’. Given that Heaney lived through the Northern Ireland ‘troubles’, Foster also tackles the issue as to how Heaney struggled to address the ethical dilemma of writing about the unrest without becoming a spokesperson for either faction. His wife, Marie, confirms that Heaney was ‘really a nationalist by birth and by inclination, but that nationalism was being hijacked in a way he detested’.

Heaney was in Pylos (Greece) in 1995 when he received the news that he was the recipient of a Nobel Prize for Literature, for poetry of ‘lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past’. The accolade triggered, in Heaney’s words, ‘a mostly benign avalanche’, engulfing him in copious publicity and celebrations ranging from Harvard University to his local GAA club.

Foster has undoubtly been very assiduous in his research and in his examination of Heaney’s poetry.

He backgrounds poetic influences together with

THE IRISH SCENE | 83

Continued on page 84

Continued from page 83

critical reactions emanating from colleagues, media, critics and friends. I concluded the biography thinking that a more apt title might be ‘On the POETRY of Seamus Heaney’. Foster, I believe, over emphasizes his analysis Heaney’s literary contribution, perhaps to the detriment of focusing rather more on the poet as husband, father, lecturer, Irishman and cultural icon.

BURNED

SAM MCBRIDE MERRION PRESS $30.74 A warning from the author: ‘Some of the facts in this book will seem so lavishly far-fetched that I feel it necessary to assure the reader that none of this is fictitious’.

In ‘Burned’, political editor of the Belfast ‘News Letter’, Sam McBride, exposes the depths of greed, mistrust, dysfunction, mendacity, graft, abuse and menace which swirled around the Northern Ireland power sharing government over a disastrous, and expensive, four year period.

It all started out as a well-intentioned scheme to reduce carbon emissions by switching from fossil fuels to renewable sources of heat. Northern Ireland’s renewable heat initiative (RHI), introduced in 2012 by the then NI Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster, was in essence, a copy of a scheme already operative in England, with the exception of 107 crucial words which were deleted. Those words focused on cost

control. This vital omission meant that the financial support available to users far outstripped the cost of heating. In effect, for every £1 spent on purchasing fuel, users could claim back a government subsidy of £1.60. Exploitation was rampant, with many chicken farmers running their boilers 24/7. Numerous agriculturists made money by abandoning stock and arable crops in favour of merely cranking up boilers to heat empty sheds. One farmer anticipated making, at least, £1 million over the 20 year life of the scheme.

The joke around the traps was that those farmers with appropriate boilers needed oven gloves to open their sheds. Boilers meant profits; the more you burned the more you made; boiler manufacturers openly advertised products as ‘cash for ash’ enhancers.

Incentivised waste was pandemic.

Foster was notified about the scheme’s abuses in 2013 and again in 2014. In response, RHI was continued and extended. The gravy train rolled on, and by March 2016, an estimated £490 million had been wasted. Matters were brought to a head thanks to in-depth investigations and on-air revelations by BBC NI, with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) minister, Jonathon Bell, blowing the whistle in a sensational, and emotional, TV interview. But what if the real reason for stripping out RHI cost controls was not to divert a few hundred thousand pounds to NI farmers, but to channel hundreds of millions of pounds into the coffers of a multinational agribusiness?

Brazilian owned, Moy Park, a NI industrial behemoth, slaughters about six million chickens weekly to supply the ten largest UK supermarkets, in addition to McDonalds and KFC. Following the introduction of RHI, Moy Park expanded rapidly resulting in an almost doubling of its valuation by 2015.

Sam McBride deftly and forensically teases out the links between politicians, their advisors, public servants, NI farmers and Moy Park by fastidiously following the money (and email) trail.

He raises profound questions about governance and accountability. Who was really running NI? Certainly it was not the elected politicians (Foster never even read her own department’s RHI legislation). Disturbingly real authority was seemingly in the hands of two DUP special advisors and a shadowy ex-IRA ‘hit man’.

Arguably what kept the Stormont power sharing government going was the shared desire of both the DUP and Sinn Fein for supremacy and influence in their own communities. By 2017, when the RHI scandal was at its zenith, Sinn Fein demanded that Foster, now First Minister, should resign. Foster declined; Sinn Fein withdrew from Stormont, and power sharing government collapsed.

This must surely be one of the most disturbing and revelatory books in the history of Northern Ireland. McBride has produced a pacy, balanced and exemplary insight into how not to run major projects

THE IRISH SCENE | 84

and how not to govern a society. He has produced a compelling expose of a system gone rotten and an unedifying examination of those responsible. For NI, the real consequences of the RHI debacle are yet to be fully realized.

BURIED

LYNDA LA PLANTE ALLEN & UNWIN $32.99 La Plante is a prolific author of thrillers with 33 crime novels to her name. Beginning with ‘The Legacy’ in 1987, she followed this with the Prime Suspect series, which featured Helen Mirren as the brittle, dogged and alcoholic, DCI Jane Tennison. Other TV blockbusters such as ‘Trial and Retribution’ and ‘The Commander’ followed securing La Plante a hallowed place in the Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame.

In ‘Buried’, La Plante introduces a new ‘hero’, DC Jack Warr, a west-country copper who has transferred to the Serious Crime Squad in London to be near his surgeon girlfriend, Maggie. Unfortunately, Jack initially seems to lack the ambition and drive needed to progress through the ranks of the SCQ, until he gets the opportunity to prove himself when an unrecognisable burned body is discovered in a rural cottage. Lying in the fireplace of the room where the body was found are the charred remains of almost £2 million, which the police link to a decade old unsolved case involving a gigantic haul from a mail train robbery. In tandem with his crime investigation, Jack, having been adopted, is also seeking to discover who is his biological father. Incidents uncovered by Jack during his inquiries, convinces him that ‘his father’ may have had some connection to the train robbery, arson and murder. Is his father a crook, and is he still alive? During his crime investigations, Jack encounters four redoubtable female ex-prisoners, now all going straight, but who had links to the robbery. What part, if any, did these women play in the train heist, and where is the rest of the money from the operation, and who has benefitted?

Sadly, this is not La Plante at her finest; in fact, it’s a bit of a pot boiler with all the traits of a procedural soap opera. Missing are the grittiness, tension, pace and characterisation of the Tennison trilogy. Alas, most of the principal individuals in ‘Buried’, including Jack Warr, lack depth and, at times, the narrative appears somewhat convoluted and far-fetched. Little in this sub-par outing, to suggest that Jack Warr will have a bright literary future.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 85

EMPRESS OF

PARAGUAY

BY JOHN HAGAN

How Irishwoman ELIZA LYNCH became the world’s largest female landowner, helped destroy Latin America’s wealthiest country, and later became its national heroine.

It was an overcast May night in 1961, when Teofilo Chammas scaled the walls of Paris’ Pere Lachaise cemetery and made for the Martin family tomb. Chammas, new to the grave robbing business, had already bribed some of the cemetery staff to ensure that the crypt would be open. The tomb contained five coffins, one of which belonged to Dona Eliza Alicia Lynch-Lopez. Carefully, Chammas removed her skeletal remains and hastily made his escape. Eliza Lynch was going ‘home’ to Paraguay. Despite previously bankrupting the nation and being responsible for the slaughter of half of the male population, Eliza was about to be acclaimed its national heroine.

Eliza Alicia Lynch was born in Charleville, County Cork, to affluent parents. On the death of her father (June 1835), Eliza was sent to live with her maternal uncle, the venerable Archbishop of Dublin. During her childhood years, Ireland was in the grip of the devastating potato famine, and in order to flee its ravages, the Lynch family decamped to Paris, where Eliza’s older sister, Corinne, was already living.

But Paris too harboured its own dangers, including high unemployment, expensive food and violent street demonstrations. For Eliza, there arose a way out. On 3 June 1850, her fifteenth birthday, she married forty year old, Xavier Quatrefages, a French army vet. It was a union which saved Eliza from the grinding poverty into which the rest of her family had been plunged. Soon, Quatrefages was posted to Algiers, but despite the charm and delight of the Arabian nights, Eliza tired of it, and her husband, whom she referred to as ‘a minor pest’. After three years of marriage, she left him to elope with an aristocratic young Russian cavalry officer.

Later, both returned to Paris where they set up home in the fashionable Saint Germain district. Unfortunately, the relationship was fleeting and the teenage Eliza soon found herself alone and without support. She resorted to the only lucrative career open to her – prostitution. Blessed with a Junoesque figure, flowing blonde hair and ready smile, she soon made a reputation for herself as a noted courtesan, attracting many rich and generous lovers. Eventually, Eliza found herself in the salon of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, and, it was here in 1854, she met the man whom she described as ‘the love of my life’.

Francisco Solano Lopez, son of the President of Paraguay, was in Paris on a diplomatic mission recruiting engineers to construct South America’s first railroad.

Francisco, who scandalized the French with his garish wardrobe and bad breath, is overwhelmed by Eliza’s beauty and charm, while she is attracted to him because of his wealth, status, and the security he seemed to offer. Despite Eliza becoming pregnant, Lopez returned home, but left his mistress enough money to to join THE IRISH SCENE | 86

Left: A scene from the autobiographical film “Eliza Lynch: Queen Of Paraguay”.

Image source: presspack.rte.ie/2015/01/08/eliza-lynch-queen-of-paraguay/

him in Paraguay.

Eliza arrived in the country’s capital, Asuncion, in October 1855, and two months later gave birth to a son, Juan Francisco, the first of seven children she would have with Lopez.

After some initial culture shock, Eliza settled down, establishing herself as a social trendsetter who seemingly delighted in confronting and appalling the local society ladies, who dubbed her ‘La Concibuna Irelandesa’. She refused to ride sidesaddle, introduced French cultural practices and customs (including the construction of a ‘French style’ theatre), mixed with visiting dignitaries and local diplomats, and seemingly exerted undue influence on her husband. In 1862, on the death of his father, Francisco was anointed President. Although he and Eliza never married, she was considered the nation’s ‘First Lady’ - the most powerful woman in Paraguay. By 1865, Eliza, assisted by Francisco, owned several large ranches and 26 urban properties, and, over the next few years, through largely questionable means, acquired nearly 22 million acres of territory to become the world’s largest female landowner.

Nine years after her arrival in Paraguay, Eliza was involved in a war which radically altered her life and the status of her nation. Over a border dispute, Brazil and Argentina invaded Uruguay in 1864, causing Paraguay to believe it would lose contact with the Atlantic Ocean and become landlocked.

Fearing an attack by Paraguay, Uruguay joined Brazil and Argentina to confront Paraguay in what became known as ‘The War of the Triple Alliance’.

Although he had little military training, Francisco Lopez fancied himself to be a general of Napoleonic acumen and stature. The war began well for him, with the Paraguayan Army invading Brazil in 1864 to defeat its army in the Battle of Mato Grosso. The next year, an Argentine newspaper published a less than flattering biography of Eliza, and, urged on by her, on 14 April 1865 (the day John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln), Francisco invaded Argentina to capture the city of Corrientes. It was an action which united Argentina and Brazil in a common cause – to defeat Paraguay.

In order to raise funds for the war, Lopez resorted to kleptocracy. Horses and cattle were taken from local farmers, houses were ransacked and banks raided to fund the war. For her part, Eliza proposed that the ladies of Asuncion might like to donate their jewelry to aid the war effort. However, it is reported that most of these ornaments ended up, ‘in, if not on, Madame’s chest’.

Ever loyal, Eliza followed Francisco, through the entire war, frequently leading a group of militant women (‘Las Residentas’), comprising of soldiers wives, mistresses, daughters and others, in support of the army on the battlefield. Often pregnant and usually wearing the uniform of a Paraguayan colonel, Eliza appeared quite fearless. When not playing her grand piano during battles, she openly strode about urging on the half-starved, poorly equipped, and ill led Paraguayan troops, while Francisco cowered in shelter. On 1 March 1870, at the Battle of Cerro Cora, Francisco and his son, Panchito, were killed and Eliza captured, reputedly fleeing through the jungle in a ball-gown. She was brought back to the battlefield where, while a prisoner of the Brazilians, she dug the graves of her son and husband with her bare hands.

Now completely defeated, Paraguay sued for peace by paying the price of ceding 50,000 square miles of territory to Argentina and Brazil and continuing to pay Brazil reparations until well in to the 1930s.

But the real cost of the war, was the death and destruction wreaked on Paraguay. Of a population of some 1,200,000 at the beginning of the conflict, only 200,000 women and 28,000 males survived. Most of those who died did so, not from gunshot wounds sustained on the battlefield, but from disease, ill health, starvation and persecution by the increasingly demented, Francisco.

The women of Asuncion demanded that Eliza be returned to face the music. She had robbed them of their jewelry, seen them flogged, imprisoned and starved, and was responsible for the deaths of their husbands, sons and brothers. They pleaded that Madame Lynch ‘should not be allowed to leave with the property of those she had robbed to spend in another country’. Following this entreaty, the provisional government of Paraguay passed a law confiscating all of Eliza’s land and riches. Eventually, the Brazilians sent Eliza into exile with her remaining four sons aboard the City of Limerick, which was bound for Europe.

While she might have lost an empire, Eliza was not exactly penniless, as, during her years in power, she

THE IRISH SCENE | 87

Continued on page 88

Continued from page 87

had stashed substantial amounts of jewelry, gold and money abroad; a horde which enabled her to purchase a fine house near London’s Hyde Park and live in some style. In 1874, Eliza again settled in Paris, and a year later, at the invitation of the new President of Paraguay, she returned ‘to answer the charges made against me and to confront my enemies at the very seat of their power’. According to Eliza, she received a rapturous welcome in Asuncion, but in reality the greeting was vitriolic, and she was again forced back to Paris. Eventually, her funds ran out, and by the time she died of stomach cancer (25 July, 1886), she was almost penniless. Initially, Eliza was buried in a very small plot in Montmartre cemetery before being dug up, in May 1900, and moved to the Martin family tomb to be reinterred with her sister, Estelle.

From the early 1930s Paraguay has been ruled by various Fascist dictators, including Alfredo Stroessner who, like his predecessor, turned to the country’s ‘national hero’ Francisco Lopez in order to legitimize his own dictatorial power. The battle of Cerro Cora was considered to have been a national victory, and a cult surrounding Eliza slowly evolved. In schools, pupils were taught that Madame Lynch was a heroine who had led children into battle against the enemies of the state. By 1970, a century after the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance, Eliza’s reputation was completely

restored, with Paraguay now able to laud her exploits and celebrate her memory.

Thanks to the nocturnal efforts of Teofilo Chammas, Eliza’s remains arrived to great national acclaim at the dockside in Asuncion, on 25 July 1961, the seventy fifth anniversary of her death. Paraguay’s President, General Stroesser, proclaimed to the rapturous crowd and assembled government members, that the occasion would be honoured as a ‘Day of National Heritage’. On a huge mausoleum in the national cemetery, a plaque was unveiled as ‘a tribute by the people, government and armed forces of the nation to Eliza Alicia Lynch, who selflessly accompanied the greatest hero of the nation, Marshal Francisco Solano Lopez, until his sacrificial death at Cerro Cora’. Atop the shrine was erected a huge life-sized statue of Eliza; a fitting resting place for an Empress officially declared to be Paraguay’s ‘Joan of Arc’.

Eliza’s remarkable life and deeds are recounted in numerous books, plays and a ballet. Even Eva Peron (Evita), while an aspiring Argentinean actor, once played Eliza on South American radio. In 2014, an autobiographical film, ‘Eliza Lynch: Queen of Paraguay’, starring Irish actor, Maria Doyle Kennedy, was premiered at the Jameson International Film Festival in Dublin.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 88

The Brendan Bowyer Story

BY OLIVER MCINERNEY The legendary Irish showband singer Brendan Bowyer passed away on May 28th 2020 at his home in Las Vegas, USA, aged 81.

Brendan was born in Waterford on October 12, 1938.

After leaving college he became a union clerk with a local firm. A work colleague, Tom Dunphy, invited him to join the Harry Boland Band as a trombonist in September 1957. The band was relaunched as The Royal Showband.

In 1962 the group recorded the very first showband record “Come Down the Mountains Katie Daly”, at Abbey Road Studios, London with the late Tom Dunphy, who died tragically in a car crash in 1975.

Ireland’s first home based pop idol hit the No.1 spot

in Ireland’s Top 10 charts with his debut single “Kiss Me Quick”. Brendan achieved a life time ambition on March 26 1966, when he met his idol Elvis Presley on the film set of ‘Spinout’ in Los Angeles, USA. Brendan and The Royal topped the Irish charts with five No.1 hits: “Kiss Me Quick” (1963); “No More”; (1963), “Bless You” (1964); “The Hucklebuck” (1964) and “Don’t Loose Your Hucklebuck Shoes” (1965).

In 1971, Bowyer decided to leave The Royal Showband to form his own band called The Big 8, and relocated to Las Vegas. His daughter Aisling is also a successful singer in Vegas.

Aussie citizen Oliver - who hails originally from Longford - celebrated a two year milestone in July for his weekly radio show “Anything Goes” on the volunteer run community station VCA 885fm. Lately he has had to present from home thanks to Coronavirus, but still he pushes on. Congratulations on the good work Oliver.

If you would like to request your favourite Irish song contact him at 9297 1088 or SMS 0481 988 505.

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BIG BIRTHDAYS!

above: Happy 50th birthday to the amazing Jackie Mangan!

above: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY! Products include: McLoughlin’s Irish Pork Sausages Black and White Pudding Irish Bacon and Gammon Joints Potato Bread and Soda Bread Barry’s Tea and Club Orange Odlums Brown and White Bread Mix Chef Brown and Red sauce

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Opening hours: Mon - Wed 8:00am to 6:00pm Thursday 8:00am to 7:30pm Friday 8:00am to 6:00pm Saturday 8:00am to 5:00pm Sunday 11:00am to 5:00pm

CARRAMAR

SHAMROCK ROVERS FC SPONSORED AND SUPPORTED BY INTEGRITY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

Well at long last we are back playing football. The lads have been training hard over the weeks since the Covid-19 restrictions have been eased.

We had a number of friendly games over this period to get the cobwebs out, playing two NPL sides – Gwelup Croatia and Floreat Athena. Although we were beaten in both games, the team more than held their own and are looking forward to the start of the season.

In our first game on Saturday 4th July we will be hosting Dianella White Eagles at Grandis Park in Banksia Grove.

So we will be looking out for all of our northern suburbs supporters, and hopefully some from south of the river.

Please come along and make it a great day.

We will be having a minute’s applause before our first team game in honour of Michael Harben (right) who

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passed away in April. We were very sad not to be able to attend his funeral because of the restrictions.

Our second game is away to Wanneroo City on Saturday 11th July. For the past couple of years Shamrock Rovers has hosted the “Go Pink for Linda” day in aid of the Breast Cancer Foundation. This year the Wanneroo club is hosting this event. A gold coin donation will be requested on entry to the game. Shamrock Rovers and Wanneroo City in conjunction with the Launders family have raised over $17,000 for this cause so far. Come along and celebrate Linda’s memory and make it a successful day.

In our first major step forward as Carramar Shamrock Rovers we are HUGELY excited to announce a brand new partnership with Football Evolution Training. This collaboration will help support the philosophy and vision of our Club, providing us with a structure to develop our youth platform into the future. For more information see our facebook page.

Once again a big thank you to our sponsors:

Pipeline Technics • Integrity Property Solutions Killarney Autos • McLoughlin Butchers Bendigo Bank • Express Bins Also to Nicky Edwards for his continued support.

Contacts:

service@ipsmaintenance.com.au www.perthpropertymaintenance.net.au

Marty Burke 0410 081 386 Paul Doyle 0430 080 019 Carramar Shamrock Rovers

President Secretary

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JULY/AUGUST REPORT 2020 Return of GAA in Western Australia Gaelic games in Western Australia like all other sports in the State, has been in hibernation since our original start date in March 2020. Thanks to the success of health restrictions introduced 4 months ago, the State Government has authorised the return of full contact sport from June 6th which is a great result for all of us. The authorisation of full contact sport now means that all arms of GAAWA – Junior Academy, Minor Board, Hurling and Gaelic Football can now resume. On behalf of the Executive I would like to thank all of our Clubs, Sub-committees and supporters for their hard work in adapting to State Government guidelines since March and putting us in a position to return to playing the games we love, Go Raibh mile a Maith Agat.

2020 Season The 2020 GAAWA season will start on Saturday July 4th with 2 Hurling and Football games. At RA Cooke Reserve in Morley, Sarsfields will face Western Swans at 1:50pm with Perth Shamrocks facing St Gabriels at 2:50pm. At 4pm in Tom Bateman Reserve Canning Vale, Western Shamrocks will take on Morley Gaels with St Finbarrs facing Southern Districts at 5:30pm. Both the Ladies Football and Camogie will start later in July.

Broadcasting of GAA Games Western Australia is the only place in the world where GAA competitions are taking place. The Executive are delighted to announce that both football games on July 4th will be broadcast from Tom Bateman Reserve via Australasia GAA’s Youtube page. Please go to the following link www.youtube.com/channel/ UCMvpbIjSTFAwGJS3qtXUbtA or search ‘Australasia GAA’ on Youtube to access live coverage of the matches from 4pm AWST.

Gaelic Games Junior Academy Our fantastic GGJA started their season on June 21st last at their regular training pitch in HBF Stadium, Joondalup.

The Academy have safety measures in place and welcome new members who would like to learn Hurling and Gaelic Football in a fun and safe atmosphere. Check out the Academy’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/ GaelicGamesJuniorAcademyOfWa/ for further information.

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Remembering The Irish & GAA communities in Western Australia have been visited by a lot of sadness over the last number of months, with the loss of much-loved members. Tony Kelly, Roseanna Neff, Frank McMahon & Jimmy Gorman have left a huge void in all of us but most especially those closest to them. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Kelly, Neff, McMahon & Gorman families & Tony’s, Roseanna’s, Frank’s and Jimmy’s wide circle of friends.

Richard ‘Richie’ Callaghan was a valued member of the Minor Board of GAAWA. Before arriving in Perth, he had a deep involvement with his club St Marys GFC Saggart. He represented St Marys both as a player and administrator serving on the Club Executive and as Chairman from 2005 to 2007. Under his watch, a hugely successful refurbishment of the clubhouse took place which saw the installation of the carpark, floodlights, downstairs bar and kitchen facilities, scoreboard and pitch fencing. Richard’s tenure as Chairman would see him develop an ambitious plan for the expansion and relocation of club facilities which reflected his own high standards of professionalism and vision for St Marys GFC. His fellow club man Diarmuid O’Loing brought Richie onto the GAAWA Minor Board in 2017.

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GAAWA CLUB DETAILS

Little did we know then how lucky we were to have him.

Richie was always available to coach, encourage and provide advice to any of us who sought it out. He served as a Minor selector from 2017 to 2019 being part of the backroom team that saw Western Australia return from Melbourne with the Australasian Minor Shield in 2018. He provided lifts for some of our players who would not have been in a position to train otherwise. In 2019 he was part of the coaching group who prepared a U14 team from Western Australia to travel to Feile in Ireland, the first such time a team from Australia or New Zealand had done so. February 2020 saw him submit an application on behalf of GAAWA to be a part of the new Subiaco East Development Project, an application that showed Richie’s vision for Gaelic Games in Western Australia. Richie’s passing on April 29th 2020 caused shock, disbelief and sadness for many of us who knew him both in Australia, Ireland and around the world.

We will always be grateful for his involvement in GAAWA and he will never be forgotten. To his wife Fiona, sons Cathal, Enda, Antoinn, his mum Pat, sister Tish, brothers Jimmy, Johnny, Michael, Barry, Brian & Paul, in-laws, other relatives and his many friends we extend our deepest sympathies. Ar dheis De go Raibh an anam.

Football Clubs GREENWOOD Mens Senior Football greenwoodgfc@hotmail.com MORLEY GAELS Mens & Ladies Senior Football morleygaelsgfc@hotmail.com SOUTHERN DISTRICTS Mens & Ladies Senior Football southerndistrictsgaa@gmail.com ST. FINBARR’S Mens & Ladies Senior Football stfinbarrsgfc@outlook.com WESTERN SHAMROCKS Mens & Ladies Senior Football westernshamrocks@hotmail.com

Hurling Clubs ST. GABRIEL’S Mens & Ladies Senior Hurling & Camogie stgabrielsperth@gmail.com WESTERN SWANS Mens & Ladies Senior Hurling & Camogie westernswansgaa@gmail.com PERTH SHAMROCKS Mens Senior Hurling perthshamrocks@gmail.com

A Message from the Callaghan Family:

SARSFIELDS Mens Senior Hurling sarshurlingperth@gmail.com

Football: BGC Grounds, Tom Bateman Reserve Cnr Bannister & Nicholson Rds, Canning Vale Hurling: RA Cook Reserve, Coode St. Morley HIG

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It is with sadness that due to the COVID restrictions in place during May that Richard’s many friends in Perth were unable to attend his memorial service before he was repatriated to Dublin. Richard’s wife Fiona, and 3 sons Cathal, Enda and Antoinn would like to thank everyone whose thoughts were with them at the time, either viewing the service via livestream or simply remembering him for his contribution to our community here in Perth. Richard is now laid to rest where he wanted to be, in The Heath, outside Portlaoise, alongside his father and sister, but his legacy will live on here in Perth, especially through the GAA in WA.

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TOM MURPHY, SECRETARY GAELIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

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Tom Bateman Reserve Cnr Bannister & Nicholson Rds, Canning Vale (entrance off Wilfred Rd)

JUNIORS UPDATE After the world going to the wall we were delighted and relieved to finally be able to kick start the 9th (!) season of the Gaelic Games Junior Academy of WA. A couple of months late, but we had the best start numbers-wise than we’ve ever had! The registration is free this year as we know many are doing it tough, plus our season will be shortened in 2020 - like every other sport!

Our position in WA makes us very lucky to be the most isolated city in the world and as long as we try to keep up our social distancing then our lives are returning to the new normal. We encourage parents to continue to maintain their space, thankfully we operate outside and have heaps of room for everyone to spread out. With the easing of restrictions we can operate at our full capacity so no one gets left out, we are very happy not to have to turn anyone away! We were worried with the such a fantastic turnout that we might!

The equipment had all been thoroughly cleaned and now tagged with the registered children’s names on them so whilst we do provide equipment we are endeavoring not to share equipment this year. So each helmet and hurley has a label and this remains there for that child to use. Of course if they have their own personal equipment, all the better! As although the risks are small we are trying to eliminate cross contamination as much as reasonably possible. Lucky for us one of our coaches is a doctor who is up to date with all the best practices and this helps us operate in the safest manner all round. Saying that, we do need to be pedantic with the sign in as per City of Joondalup guidelines, so on the remote chance we need to engage in contact tracing, then we will know who we have had at each session.

Speaking of coaches; we are delighted to welcome Janette Mc Donald this year who brings a wealth of talent, experience and knowledge so she’ll fit in well with our regular top shelf coaches!

Contact us

Email: ggjunioracademy@gmail.com Facebook: The Gaelic Games Junior Academy of WA THE IRISH SCENE | 95

We are very lucky to have you! So come along and say hello to Tony and Glenn, Gerry, Derek and Eric, Brendan and Ciarán, Ollie, and Dr. David!

As always huge thanks to the committee for plugging away in the background, to the Irish Scene for always showing your support, and to the parents for getting the kids ready and ferrying them to and fro and most of all the great little hurlers and footballers coming along and training hard and trying your best with a lovely smile on your face to make it all so worthwhile!

See ya Sunday!

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