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 Murphy’s passes the has gone through some difficult times of late and its members have been working incredibly hard to keep the club afloat, so I want to thank them. I also want to acknowledge people like Lloyd and Imelda pub test Mandurah’s only Irish pub has racked up a couple of Andrew Hastie

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

Left: The fresh new look for Murphys. Above: Painting was done by employees during the lockdown

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

Organisations such as “Adopt A Greyhound” seek to rehome Greyhounds and other dogs

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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 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.” In more dog related news it seems that retired Australian Greyhounds being sent to David Templeman 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.

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 Teach. “Mine are from Tipperary (Cashel and Bansha - Grogan) Antrim (Graffin) and Dublin (AbecassisJewish line of family) while Ireland’s Honorary Consul in WA Marty Kavanagh and the Irish Ambassador Mr Breandan O Caollai in Canberra for making the arrangements for the visit to meet with President Higgins and also with the Speaker of the Dail, Mr Bill’s mother’s Sean O’ Fearghail and the family (Kelly) President of the Seanad, hail from Clare Senator Denis O’Donovan and Tipperary. (pictured below). My first visit to Ireland was in 1973 for a couple of months staying with cousins in Cashel Above: Kate Higgins and Bill Johnston with President Higgins 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.” While they were in the capital See all our Monthly Specials at tyrepowerperthcity.com.au the touring pollies went on a bit of a busman’s holiday. “Bill and I were really pleased and excited to During these Covid-19 uncertain times, Call us today 9322 2214 have the opportunity to meet with we would like President Higgins at his residence during the final days of our holiday,” she said. “We discussed his visit to Australia and Perth and some current issues around the economy, mining sector, as well as the bushfires in Eastern Australia. I also gave the President a copy of the Bob Hawke biography by Blanche d’Alpuget. In addition to a to mention to our Customers that we are taking all precautionary measures with sanitising, seat covers and workshop protective wear. pit stop at the National Art Gallery Call Fiona or Adrian for a great tyre deal! You won’t be sorry and the EPIC Museum - “both 35 Troode St (next to Licensing Centre) West Perth. Email perthcity@tyrepower.com.au