The Irish Scene Issue 5 2020

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2020 • vol 22 ISSUE 5

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

83 AI Express............................................................9243 0808 87 Exportair............................................Geoff/Tim 9477 1080

beauty:

89 Sharon Nolan Brows & Beauty...............0498 980 987

Butchers

96 McLoughlin’s Meats...........................................9249 8039 51 Meat Connoisseur..............................................9309 9992

Entertainment & RADIO:

64 Frank Murphy Celtic Rambles.................................107.9fm 88 Fiddlestick...........................................David 0413 259 547 55 Torc Ceili Club

Fresh food & cafes:

17 Avoka Cafe Belridge..........................................6406 2105 19 Fresh Frontier Co..................................................6162 9958

Funerals:

25 McKee Funerals....................................................9401 1900

Immigration advice:

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

IRISH community groups:

43 Aust Irish Heritage Assoc................................9345 3530 90 The Gathering................................................0431 018 388 66 Irish Families in Perth 62 The Claddagh Assoc...........................................9249 9213 57 IACC...................................................................1300 513 633

Mechanics:

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

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT:

80 Stephen Dawson..................................................9172 2648

All Souls Night in Cork 1957........................... 54 A Kindly Priest................................................... 68 A Place Apart.....................................................72 Around the Irish Scene....................................88 Australian Irish Heritage Assoc.......................61 Australian Irish Dancing Assoc......................80 Award a Reward.................................................28 Claddagh Report................................................62 Cooking with Lee............................................... 85 Cover Competition..............................................65 Do You Have a Congo Connection?............... 83 Discovering and Reassessing Louis MacNeice.................................................50 ‘Embassy’ A Beacon of Hope for Irish Monks................................................... 86 Fáilte and Fond Farewell from Fremantle........4 Family History WA............................................78 GAA Junior Academy.......................................95 GAAWA...............................................................92 Gathering Place.................................................60 G’Day from Melbourne.................................... 48 Geraldton Irish Bride Ship Girls Commemoration.................................................27 Honorary Consulate of Ireland....................... 56 Irish Choir Perth...................................................71 Irish Seniors Lunch........................................... 58 Isteach sa Teach.................................................32 Meeja WAtch......................................................22 Minute with Synnott..........................................77 Monumental Shift Looming for Joondalup......................................................42 Mo Scéal Féin.....................................................67 Mr O’Farrell & The Prince................................69 Mum’s the Word.................................................82 Opening Up to Oscar........................................55 Parallel Walking in Perth & Dublin................40 Paula from Tasmania........................................ 84 Rebel Revel...........................................................14 Scrub Up Folks...................................................30 Shamrock Rovers................................................91 St Patrick’s Day Committee............................. 38 The Gathering Christmas Lunch.....................53 The Plucky Country vs the Lucky Country....10 Ulster Rambles.................................................. 44

Property maintenance:

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

Psychology:

47 General Psychology Services......................0414 251 967

Pubs, Clubs & restaurants:

21 Durty Nelly’s, Perth.............................................9226 0233 21 Galway Hooker, Scarborough 47 Irish Club of WA, Subiaco..................................9381 5213 41 JB O’Reillys...........................................................9382 4555 2 Paddy Malone’s, Joondalup............................9300 9966 37 The National Hotel.............................................9335 6688 46 Woodbridge Hotel, Guildford............................9377 1199

Solicitors & Legal:

15 Kavanagh Lawyers..............................................9218 8422 36 Vibe Legal............................................................... 6111 4890 31 Your Legal HQ.....................................................9445 9220

Sport & SportING Clubs:

7 Perth Racing 92 GAA................................................................0458 954 052 91 Shamrock Rovers..........................................0410 081 386

Travel & Tourism:

23 British Travel.........................................................9433 3288

tyres, batteries, brakes etc: 26 Tyrepower Perth City...............................Fiona 9322 2214

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Editor:

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Email: irishsceneperth@gmail.com Lloyd Gorman 0479 047 250 Email: irishsceneperth@gmail.com Canal Walk Media @carisgrant.design

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

BY LLOYD GORMAN Western Australia’s Irish community and friends farewelled Australia’s new ambassador to Ireland in customary style at Kidogo Arthouse, Fremantle, on July 10. The fantastic Bathers Beach venue very much felt like a traditional parlour in the 1919 sing-along classic ‘If you’re Irish come into the parlour’.

There was plenty of ‘craic agus culture’.

Certainly ambassador Gary Gray (pictured top right), and others, looked the part in their flat caps and the food (traditional Irish dishes including hot soup with homemade bread, melt in your mouth beef & Guinness pie and apple strudel), free flowing Guinness and whiskey and Irish musicians and entertainment helped make it a very special occasion. It isn’t every day – or even every other decade – that you get an envoy from your backyard for your former native land. And of course there were speeches.

“It is very appropriate we are here tonight in Fremantle which is the place where many Irish first set foot in Australia,” said Marty Kavanagh, Honorary Consul of Ireland, Western Australia (pictured bottom right). “For over two centuries now we’ve been sending you some of the best and the brightest that Ireland had to offer, most THE IRISH SCENE | 4

of us came here of our own free will, a few of us had a bit of encouragement from the Crown. And we sometimes forgave the Crown’s hospitality and headed for Rockingham for the nearest ship as soon as we could,” he joked. “Over the years, to Australia we sent our engineers, our labourers, our doctors, our nurses, our trade unionists, our poets and our Brownlow medalist Jimmy Stynes. Finally, Australia has returned the favour. In appointing Gary Gray as Australia’s ambassador to Ireland Australia is sending us one of its finest and its best. How good do you have to be for a Liberal National Party (Coalition) federal government to appoint a former general secretary of the Labor Party, a Labor federal minister to become ambassador to Ireland? You only have to look around Fremantle to realise how important the contribution of the Irish to WA is and how much opportunity WA has given to the Irish.

Fremantle is a city and a harbour designed by CY

O’Connor, not very far from here there’s a wonderful statue to Prime Minister John Curtin. You may not know this but Curtin’s success was attributed to the fact that both of his parents were born in Cork,” Marty – a native of Cork – quipped. “Tonight in this room we have minister Stephen Dawson, born in Dublin and now WA’s minister for the environment.

CY O’Connor, Curtin and Dawson in exchange for Gary – not a bad deal.”

After several years and a high profile career in politics – and one of the most turbulent times in national politics during the Rudd-Gillard era of regime change – Gray went into the resources sector, a career choice he has traded for another form of public service. “You’ve had a very successful life after politics and now you are moving on to another exciting part of your life,” Marty added.

“Premier Mark McGowan a couple of weeks ago Continued on page 6

Above left: Gary in his new office. Above right: Former Ambassador Richard Andrews and Dublin Embassy Team, including Simon Mamouney (third from right, and inset), who passed away suddenly in Canberra

Man on a mission After two weeks in quarantine upon his arrival to Ireland – much of which he said was spent working and introducing himself around over the internet – Gary Gray stepped into the St. Stephen’s offices of the Australian embassy in the week starting Monday 17 August. His predecessor Richard Andrews (2016 to 2020) signed off from the Irish mission and ambassadorship on February 17, after an earlier farewell visit to Áras an Uachtaráin for an appointment with President Michael D Higgins. Less than a week later the Dublin embassy was devastated and plunged into mourning for the sudden death in Canberra of their colleague Simon Mamouney. Mr Mamouney had been deputy ambassador to the Dublin embassy and had only left the role in September last year. A book of condolences was opened and the Dublin embassy was closed for a day so they could gather and pay their respects. Simon was remembered fondly by those in the diplomatic, Australian and Irish circles who knew and met him and there were many tributes to him. He is survived by his wife Bindi and children Mia and Charlie, mother Pam and siblings Michael, Sue, Gary and Kim. Next year will be a big one for Irish Australian relations. 2021 will mark the 75th anniversary of the start of official diplomatic ties between the two nations, who of course have been inextricably linked from the first day European’s set foot on Australian soil. No doubt it will be a busy year and we hope to hear from Ambassador Gray on a regular basis into the future as he settles into his new mission.

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Continued from page 5

said in a very gracious speech that being appointed to Ireland was like winning the lotto and I’m sure the Irish amongst us here tonight won’t object to that! We are a young nation distilled from a very old and proud people today we are a modern open society amongst one of the best in the European Union. Our history and our heritage are very elegantly set out in the preamble to Bunreacht na hÉireann – the constitution of Ireland – which says as follows: “We the people of Eire gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation, And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations, Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution… I always liked that phrase that we give ourselves this constitution. Gary and Pip its a very proud and successful and old country you have been posted to. We wish you a happy, successful and joyful tour of Ireland.”

Marty said ambassador Breandán Ó Caollaí and his wife Carmen had wanted to attend the event but were unable due to the pandemic situation. He thanked the musicians adding, “We wanted to create a sense of Irishness, a sense of family and we couldn’t have picked a better venue for that.”

Stephen Dawson passed on the regards of the Premier, who was on holidays after a very busy few months. Stephen said it was an honour to have somebody from Western Australia as the next Ambassador to Ireland, and it was always a privilige to serve others. “We are a very proud Irish community in WA. We are solid and strong and work together collaboratively, fundraise and help people in need at every opportunity. So to have somebody from here going to our birthplace to represent us as citizens of Australia now is fantastic. We wish you very well. Its broad shoulders you must have and being a diplomat is very difficult as you know you’ve had many years of leadership in business and politics.” This included seven years as national secretary to Labor party and then as Continued on page 8

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Continued from page 6

minister for a number of times from the Kevin O7 campaign to being a big supporter of Julia Gillard.

Adding to the sense of occasion, the location had personal significance to the newly minted diplomat, who admitted to getting emotional about the subject. Kidogo was a wonderful venue, hosted by its fantastic owner Joanna Robertson he added. But there was more.

“I was thinking about Fremantle in 1966 when I arrived here [from Yorkshire] with my mum my dad as ten pound Pommes,” he said.

“As kids we were free, which was fortunate because our parents couldn’t have afforded to pay. Life brings with it the opportunity... from that day in 1966 when from our ship we observed Fremantle and all I had in my heart is ‘its not like Yorkshire’ and I couldn’t begin to imagine the life I have had, it was the life my parents had wanted, it was a life of ambition, a life of opportunity, the capacity to make something of yourself and the capacity to have fun. I find now fifty years later I’m an ambassador. This country is a great country, it’s built by people who care, it’s fostered by people who care, it generates people like Marty (Kavanagh) and Richard (his husband).”

Gary shared the story of his most recent trip to Ireland last year and his journey to becoming ambassador. He travelled to Ireland for a live intimate concert at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace theatre in Bellaghy, Derry.

“Van Morrison played before a guest list of 200 people and afterwards I sent Scott Morrison the photo of me and Van Morrison, and some eight weeks later (at Telethon) Scott Morrision said he’d like to meet Pippa. He said to her, I hope you like Guinness because I know Gary does, and with that asked us if we’d go to Ireland. As enticing, attractive and wonderful as the idea of being the ambassador is, if Pip didn’t want to come, I wouldn’t be coming, so from the bottom of my heart I thank you Pip. I’m not just doing it out of love for Pip as noble as that cause is. I’m doing it because it’s just such a great thing to do. So to Scott Morrison, to the government, to the people of Australia who have asked me to do this job and for me who desperately wanted to do it, I thank you. Marty, whatever I can do to be helpful and supportive of this community I will do. I represent our country as well as I can, and to my sons Darcy, Riley and Toby! I thank this country for the confidence, the optimism and the opportunity.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 8

VAN’s MANY FANS On August 31 1945 George Ivan Morrison was born into a working class Belfast home and on August 31 2020 the world famous figure Van the Man marked his 75th birthday.

The occasion was marked by Ireland’s leading music magazine Hot Press which organised the ‘Rave On, Van Morrison’ YouTube tribute by many of Ireland’s best known artists and singers.

Andrea Corr kicked off the onlined and global series with a renditions of ‘Moondance’, followed by Una Healy of The Saturdays (‘Reminds Me of You’), Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol (‘Into The Mystic’) and Imelda May (‘Wild Night’). Also among those taking part in this unique event are the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, who will perform ‘Rave On, John Donne’; Hozier; Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey.

“So many of these performances are brilliant that it doesn’t seem right to single people out,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said. “It really has been a joy, seeing the videos arrive in, and to sense the extraordinary inspiration which Van Morrison has provided to so many Irish artists. In hugely diverse ways, he has shown Irish singers, songwriters and performers that the only creative limits are to do with your imagination. He has forged a musical language all of his own and he has written songs that are immortal and will still be sung and played in a hundred years time. At Hot Press, we wanted to honour that and invited 75 brilliant Irish artists to

join us. The result is what promises to be a thrilling series that I think will really capture the imagination of people all over the world, and hopefully turn them on afresh to the genius of Van Morrison – but also, as a result of the extraordinary reach of YouTube, to the fantastic talent that exists in Ireland. I have always believed that music is at the heart of Irish culture – there is such a richness to ‘Rave On, Van Morrison’ that people need look no further for confirmation of that.”

President Michael D. Higgins said: “Van Morrison is one of the outstanding songwriters and performers of the past 60 years and has been a powerful inspiration to successive generations of musicians and artists all over the island of Ireland, and abroad. It is a great privilege to be part of this extraordinary celebration of Van’s work, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Long may he continue. Rave on, Van Morrison.”

Morrison voices concerns about COVID response With just ten days to go to his milestone birthday the Brown Eyed Girl singer songwriter made global headlines with his “Save Live Music” campaign, denouncing the staging of live music events with restricted audiences.

At a time when it is almost considered heresy to question the authorities and official line on how best to deal with the virus, Morrison posted this statement on his official website vanmorrison.com on August 21 challenging the measures suffocating the live music industry.

“As you know, we are doing socially distanced gigs at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Gosforth Park, Electric Ballroom and The London Palladium. This is not a sign of compliance or acceptance of the current state of affairs, this is to get my band up and running

and out of the doldrums. This is also not the answer going forward. We need to be playing to full capacity audiences going forward.

I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up.

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and myself appear to be the only people in the music business trying to get it back up and running again. Come forward.

It’s not economically viable to do socially distanced gigs. Come forward now, the future is now. We would like to publish a list of names of all those who are supporting the industry. If you would like your name included contact us at webadmin@exileproductions. net”

THE IRISH SCENE | 9

The plucky country versus

the lucky country

BY LLOYD GORMAN

"No man has a right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation” – Charles Stuart Parnell; the uncrowned King of Ireland Three months before Premier Mark McGowan ordered a hard border around Western Australia, the Hutt River Principality, a tiny self-declared land-locked nation on a 75 square kilometre property just 100km north-east of Geraldton went into a self-imposed lockdown.

“It is with a heavy heart and after much thought and consultation with my Cabinet and ADC that I have to inform all that the Government of the Principality of Hutt River is about to go on hiatus,” Royal Highness Prince Graeme Casley declared.

“Our borders will be closed to all (including tourists) and all government external services will cease at close of business Friday 31st January 2020 until further notice.

This means the PHR Government will cease issuing entry/exit VISA’s to visit the PHR from that same date.

Nor will the Government accept applications for any Government services such as non-resident Subject applications, Passports, all licencing etc.”

His late parents, Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley, with just a pen and a typewriter set out fifty years ago to right a wrong. “The wrong of a Government stealing a person’s Human Rights,” Prince Graeme said. “A government that should be there to protect and encourage the development and growth of individuals

which then when added together becomes a mighty nation. Something I liken to what good parenting should be. He saw the unjust position governments were placing people in and he fought against that.

Certainly out of necessity to save his family’s farm, but it was bigger than the Casley family, it was a Human Right that needed to be saved. Surely natural justice is what keeps us all at peace? With his skills and determination he took on the West Australian State, Australian Commonwealth and British Governments. He outlived many Australian

THE IRISH SCENE | 10

Left: Prince Leonard at the 40th Anniversary filming of Investiture 005. Above and right: The location of the Hutt River Principality in Western Australia politicians in his full 93 years.

Prince Leonard and therefore the Principality lived with the strong sense of natural justice and the principle of Right and Fair. However, over the past few years the economic standing of the Principality has been challenging. We have and are experiencing declining revenue from our agricultural pursuits, our largest source of revenue; this finds us in difficult and challenging circumstances. This, along with a steady decline in the number of tourists passing by and dropping in for a chat over more recent times, as well of course the increase in costs of running even such a small country as the PHR, has led me to the difficult current announcement that the Principality of Hutt River is to go on hiatus, closing its borders.”

The Hutt River Principality was a unique solution to what was at face value an agricultural dispute. Leonard Casley, originally of Kalgoorlie, seceded from the Australian Commonwealth in a fight with the Federal government over wheat production quotas Continued on page 12

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– one which offered no option for appeal or compensation.

“My father was basically put out of the wheat industry,” Prince Graeme told ABC News on April 21 this year, on the fiftieth anniversary of the rogue nation’s formation.

“He was only allowed to deliver a miniscule [amount], only 1,600 bushels, which was nothing. It was the equivalent of 100 acres of wheat.

He had 5,000 acres worth of wheat ready for harvest.

“So he complained, protested, and they just said “this is your lot” — and he did not feel that was quite fair. So he found ways to bring about the survival of the Casley farm. He declared the 21st of April, 1970, as the secession date where he was outside the laws and jurisdiction, and formed his own country for survival — to keep us going.”

In more recent times Prince Leonard fought a long legal battle through the Supreme Court with the Australian Tax Office – which slapped him with a $3 million income tax bill for the financial years between 2006 and 2013.

Prince Leonard, 93, passed away in 2019, after a long battle with lung cancer. Prince Graeme – who had become sovereign of the landlocked state – and his siblings were executors of the family estate and ‘royal’ holding.

“It would be devastating if all is lost after almost 50 years of being here,” Prince Leonard told ABC news on March 6, 2019. “Might should not be right, but unfortunately in many cases might does prove right. The might of the Australian Government and the ATO is almost endless with their resources, so we will see what happens.”

Sadly, on August 3, 2020 the principality – Australia’s oldest micro-nation – formally dissolved. On that date, WA Today reported ‘Royal Hutt River Legion’ Major Richard Ananda Barton said the Principality of Hutt River would rejoin the rest of Australia.

In an email the Major said: “[it is] with much sorrow that I inform you that this will be the last ‘Significant Days’ list I circulate”. His Highness, Prince Graeme, has informed me that the Government of the Principality of Hutt River has decided to dissolve the Principality, which will, once again, become part of the Commonwealth of Australia. While this period as an independent nation has come to an end, all those of us who have served the Principality, over the last 50 years, look back on this history with pride. Being part of the unique experiment that was the Principality of Hutt River has been a great privilege, I have met wonderful people and helped good causes. While PHR is gone it will not be forgotten.”

Top: Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley.

Above: Prince Graeme.

Below: The Hutt River Principality flag

THE IRISH SCENE | 12

A (micro) Nation Once Again In the opinion of Irish Scene, Australia is a richer and better country for having had the benefit of the River Hutt Principality and in honour of the Principality and its remarkable history and achievements we would like to reproduce the lyrics to a well known Irish anthem, with a playful twist on the title of the song for this occasion:

Born lucky or dumb luck?

Many Australians wear the moniker of ‘The Lucky Country’ as a badge of honour, but it is actually something that has been misconstrued and misunderstood over the years.

The original phrase is derived from the line “Australia is a lucky country, run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck” from the 1964 book of the same name, by Donald Horne.

Penguin – which published the book – explains the background to the book in which Horne took Australian society to task for its ‘philistinism, provincialism and dependence’.

“The phrase 'the lucky country' has become part of our lexicon; it's forever being invoked in debates about the Australian way of life, but is all too often misused by those blind to Horne's irony,” Penguin states. “When it was first published in 1964 The Lucky Country caused a sensation.

Horne took Australian society to task for its philistinism, provincialism and dependence. The book was a wake-up call to an unimaginative nation, an indictment of a country mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past. Although it's a study of the confident Australia of the 1960s, the book still remains illuminating and insightful decades later. The Lucky Country is valuable not only as a source of continuing truths and revealing snapshots of the past, but above all as a key to understanding the anxieties and discontents of Australian society today.”

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IRISH THE

SCENE

When boyhood's fire was in my blood I read of ancient freemen For Greece and Rome who bravely stood Three hundred men and three men And then I prayed I yet might see Our fetters rent in twain And Ireland. long a province, be A Nation Once Again!

A Nation Once Again A Nation Once Again And Ireland, long a province, be A Nation Once Again!

And from that time, through wildest woe That hope has shown a far light Nor could love's brightest summer glow Outshine that solemn starlight It seemed to watch above my head In forum, field and fame Its angel voice sang round my bed A Nation Once Again It whisper'd too, that freedom's ark And service high and holy Would be profaned by feeling dark And passions vain or lowly For, Freedom comes from God's right hand And needs a godly train And righteous men must make our land A Nation Once Again!

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Rebel revel

BY LLOYD GORMAN Irish history and folklore is populated with rebels, mavericks and nonconformists. Indeed, it is defined by them. There is something about these renegades and cast-outs that appeals to something deep in our psyche. The Casley family who founded the Hutt River Principality inspired that affection in many, including some Irish people lucky enough to have known them and who even became decorated constituents of one the greatest little realms in the world. Irish Scene spoke with some Irish people who found the tiny territory had a fun and frivolous side but also a deep and meaningful one that could teach Ireland a lesson as a nation.

Julia Galvin, who comes from seven miles outside Ballybunion, Co. Kerry has proudly represented the Hutt River in the arena of novelty sports. Her journey and eventual connection with the principality started in 1997 when she was 27 years old and involved in a serious car crash that left her hospitalised and unlikely to ever walk again.

“I was in hospital on 16 tablets a day and needed a zimmer frame,” she said. “I

Above: Julia Galvin, at the 2009 Bog Snorkeling Championships was reading the Guinness Book of Records in bed one day and I saw this guy bog snorkelling and I said to myself if I ever learn to walk again I’m going to do that.

I love unusual things and bits of ‘craic’. It was a strange idea and remember I couldn’t walk at this stage, but I gave it a shot anyhow and a year later I learned to swim, learned to walk and came off all the tablets and I represented Ireland at the bog snorkelling competition.”

She came second, only beaten by a life guard. A very respectable performance.

“I was delighted with myself and the bug bit me then. I was a big girl so sports were never that available to me and I found novelty sports me better.” Julia dived into the world of bog snorkling in a big way over the next three years and then discovered another ‘sport’ that tickled her fancy. “I saw a wife carrying competition in Finland in a newspaper, so I said I’ll have a go at that because you’ll win the woman’s weight in beer. It was usually the women who were about seven stone who won. I was 20 stone, that was the plan and the funny thing was I don’t drink.”

Julia looked around for a partner and eventually teamed up with Ireland’s then strongest man Paul Robert.”He doesn’t drink either so the two of us were competing for beer we wouldn’t drink,” she laughed. They broke the mould and a new category - strongest carrier - was introduced to the sport because of their entry.

THE IRISH SCENE | 14

Left: Princess Shirley made Julia a Dame of the Hutt River Principality “Susan put me in touch with a lady who was an ABC journalist in the wheatbelt and she drove me up to the Principality and I finally got to meet Prince Leonard.”

Hutt River’s Bog Warrior

Meanwhile, her bog snorkelling prowess Julia found herself in Julia Creek, Queensland. She was flown to Australia by festival founder Margie Ryder who created the ‘Dirt n Dust Festival’ in 1994. It was on that trip to Australia - one of six she has made to date - she met Sue Chiera - whose father was Irish - from Geraldton.

Even at that stage (2009) Prince Leonard and the Principality were on Julia’s ‘to do list’ for a long time.

An old college friend from Limerick had discovered the royal region years earlier and highly recommended it to her because he knew it would appeal to Julia’s sense of adventure and quirkiness. George Richard and his girlfriend Lori - who he married in Asia just before they arrived into Western Australia - were on a trip around the world in 2003. Lori had a good friend from North Cork working in Perth as a nurse, who they spent Christmas with. They initially found about the Hutt River Principality from their Lonely Planet guidebook and had marked it out as somewhere they wanted to visit. George, who had worked in bars in Limerick, found a job working in the hotel with the Benedictine Monks of New Norcia. They travelled up to Kalbarri and Exmouth and their car - which they nicknamed “The Frightener” broke down in a small regional community where they got stranded for a Continued on page 16

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week. There they saw photos of Prince Leonard - royal garb and all, leading a local parade - and knew they had to go there. “We met Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley and we had a walk around the property and got our passports stamped and all that stuff,” said George. “He was very quirky and I thought it was fairly cool he did what he did. The fact he’s recognised goes to show he must have been an original thinker and a bit of fun as well, he was a very interesting guy and was quite liked and maybe there’s scope over there for more people who are a little bit different. I remember coming back to Ireland and telling Julia all about it and she loved the madness and the whole idea of it.”

Julia’s homework into the Principality had shown it had nobody to represent them in the world of novelty sports - including stone throwing (not to be confused with stone skimming). She offered her services to Prince Leonard. She met the wheatbelt monarchs and Steve Bakey, the principalities administrator, who passed away earlier this year. “He was a lovely man,” she said about him. “Prince Leonard was a very intelligent man and he was great fun as well.

Everything was so strange for to come from the bog to there where everything was so dry. I’d like to go back in the spring to see the wildflowers bloom there, I believe they are awesome. You could drive for hours and hours and hours and not see the sea, I thought that was strange, the sea is everything to me. But it was nice to be up in Geraldton and to see the sea and feel the wind.

“Prince Leonard made me a Dame of the Hutt River Principality for my contribution to novelty sports and a couple of years later he elevated me again to Dame Commander, so my title is Dame Commander Julia Galvin of the Serene Order of Leonard. Julia is also a citizen of the Principality, and has the passport to go with it. She has visited the micro-nation twice but represented it many times in the bogs of the world. “I’ve been bog snorkelling since 1998 which was the first time I jumped in a bog, which is funny because I live in a

THE IRISH SCENE | 16

Above: Margie Ryder and Sue Chiera, who were instrumental in helping Julia to meet Prince Leonard. Bottom: The huge stone carving of Prince Leonard, as well as other local artworks found at Hutt River.

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Top: George Richard introduced Julia to the Hutt River Principality.

Bottom: Julia’s wife throwing partner, Paul Roberts – Ireland’s strongest man 2013. bog,” she joked. “We were always told as children that it was the quickest way to Australia and to stay out of it.”

While she does it for the craic and laugh Julia also hopes it will somehow help others. “I know the guy who came out of the bog in the Guinness Book of Records was an inspiration to me when I was in hospital, so I’ve always tried to do the same thing for other people you know, being a big woman in a wetsuit. There are people with things going on with their lives but if they say someone of that size can do it, then maybe I can as well. There are so many things, unusual things - that we don’t do because we are too afraid.”

Julia wishes the Principality well against their setbacks and hopes to see it and the family again.

“Until then I’ll keep waiving my flag for them and if I win the Lotto I’ll sort it all out.”

She also put out a shout to her many friends across Australia, including Kiera Oldham, Joanne Mannering, Karen and Rob Hennessy and Jo-Ann Hartnett and John Hoyne and his wife Natasha near Fremantle.

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Above: Peas in a pod - Prince Graeme and Ivan Sheppard (right) Continued from page 17

Fertile ground for kindred spirits!

Ivan Sheppard from Kinnity, Co. Offaly instantly felt an affinity with the Principalities vision and the feeling was mutual. Ivan visited the Hutt River with his son Ian about five years ago while he was in Australia visiting his sister in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria and then in West Australia to babysit for his son and wife so they could go to a wedding in Margaret River. He was gripped by the story as soon as his daughter told him about it and he did as much research about it as he could before making a road trip to the pocket state from Perth.

“It grabbed my attention,” he told Irish Scene.”It was a David and Goliath story. If he hadn’t made a stand none of the actions he had to take to try and preserve his livelihood and repay his debt and commitments it wouldn’t have been heard about outside that.

But when he engaged in the threat of war and then invoked the constitution that was established in 1949 after WWII that stated a big power could not overtake a smaller power he worked it well. He was a very learned man to do that, he wasn’t just a simple farmer, he was a genius in his own right. I was absolutely delighted to go there. We applauded Prince Leonard for what he had done. He had taken on the giant establishment which ordinary folk are trying to do each and every day in every country in the world. He had taken on the Australian Commonwealth and he

had won through at the time but they faced the might of a system that grinds people down. I hope they will be able to preserve their independence, that would be my feeling on it.

“It was very important when we did meet Prince Graeme that we had read all about it and we knew a fair bit about the fight they had over the years to establish his principality. What the government were going to do was going to bankrupt the man if he could only plant a thousand hectares in wheat of his 13,000 hectare holding the time.”

There were parallels with Ireland’s centuries long fight for independence Ivan said.

“The Irish have had a chequered history down he years and to a large extent we are still fighting it.

One of the things that has happened in our time was in 1973 when we joined the European Economic Community, now the European Union. We have sold out our rights on fishing and gravel and bogs and the productivity of sugar beet,” he added. “We have sold out a lot of what we held to be dear to life in Ireland, it was a way of life, we have lost our independence and we have taken the Kings shilling from Europe so to speak and we have sold our independence.”

Ivan can see some similarities between the governments imposition on the Casley farm and Continued on page 20

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another EU agricultural policy.

“We probably saw something similar to that with Europe again more recently about eight or ten years ago when they had this thing called ‘set-aside’,” he added. “You could set-aside so much of your land but at least you actually got a payment for doing that but Prince Leonard was going to have to set-aside his land with no payment at all and of course when he got the grant of the land originally the money had to be repaid over a number of years. So he had the land but he had no means of funding the repayment his loan. It was the might of a dictatorship.”

Ivan came from a small family farm outside Kinnity.

It had a couple of cows, a couple of acres that could grow corn and the rest being made up of second and third grade wet hillside land not suitable for cultivation or agriculture. His parents had five children and had to make a pound or two wherever else they could.

He joined the Irish Farmers Association and spent the 1990’s fighting for better rights and conditions for Irish farmers, tackling EU policies such as CAP and REPS along the way.

It was in no small part for this work that Ivan was decorated a Commander in the Illustrious Order of Merit (CIOM) by in Prince Leonard’s 90th birthday honours list.

“Armed with little formal education but buckets of knowledge of what’s right, Ivan confronted national and international politicians in a bid to secure better payment and allowances for farmers struggling to make a living from nearly-unworkable land,” the citation for Ivan, of Lismoney Kinnity, Birr, Co. Offaly

Ivan and his son Ian at Hutt River reads. “And he succeeded. Our father prevented hundreds of farmers from giving up up on their family farms and leaving the country in search of employment. Ivan steered the path of farming in Ireland from despair to hope. Some might argue that given that role that was his job but there is much more to this man than motivation for financial gain. A vivid example of this is the charity work Ivan has done over the years. At the age of 55, Ivan decided to sign up to a 100km trek in Malawi to raise funds for the local farmers in the area. He has been involved in local developments promoting tourism to the Slieve Bloom Mountains in the midlands in Ireland. He has been involved in the reconstruction of the old school house in Kinnity, which is now open as a Community Centre and stands as a valuable asset to the community.

Ivan has passed on his passion of charity work to his children and has helped my youngest sister to fundraise for a house building trip to Haiti. A highlight of Ivan’s trip to Australia earlier this year was his special visit to the Principality.”

Hutt River’s ‘Irish’ Matriach Prince Leonard was accompanied and supported on every step of his remarkable accession to royalty by his loyal and faithful wife Shirley.

She was born Shirely Joy Butler in Fremantle, WA, in July 1928. The couple married in April 1947 and in their life together (Shirley passed away in July 2013 at the age of 84) they produced their own dynasty of seven children, 22 grand children and at least 30 great grandchildren.

Interestingly even before her lifelong association with Prince Leonard, Princess Shirley already had noble blood in her veins.

She could trace her Butler ancestry back to Kilkenny Castle and is a descendant of the Earls of Ormonde, going back as far as James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormonde who died in Kilkenny in 1338.

As well as bringing up a big family, Princess Shirley was an active monarch who would handle much of its administration needs and host the many dignatories, diplomatic representatives, media, tourists and other visitors.

Princess Shirley

“One day she must be recognised for her achievements and role in the foundation and advancement of this small nation,” the Hutt River Principality website states.

THE IRISH SCENE | 20

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Meeja WA WAtch tch

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Western Australia, and the rest of the country, are never far from the hearts and minds of many in Ireland, particularly those who have lived and worked here or amongst those still with family still here. Interest in WA in particular is high if this sample of news and feature articles amongst some of Ireland’s traditional print media are anything to go by....

STUCK AND OUT OF LUCK! RTE News reported on August 27 that some 200 Aussies in Ireland are trying to get back home but can’t because of the restrictions on numbers able to return at any one time imposed by the Morrison government.

Their predicament is made worse by the fact that international flights to Australia are hard to come by and are non-existent into Victoria because of the outbreak there.

The Australian embassy in Dublin had in the previous week fielded about 100 calls from its own citizens in the country, desperate to return.

Australian nationals are encouraged to register with the embassy but the situation is bleak. “Your registration does not guarantee we can facilitate your return to Australia,” the DFAT registration site states. “We will provide updates on developments via the social media and websites of your nearest Australian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate-General. In some countries, where no commercial flights are currently available, your registration will be used to alert you if or when flights become available to return to Australia.”

www.rte.ie/news/2020/0827/1161648-irish-australia-seek-to-return-home/ Similarly there are thousands of Irish nationals across Australia in a parallel situation. Cork woman Aoife McGreal, and her husband, who have called Western Australia home for eight years, shared some of her families experience of lock down and being stranded with readers of the Irish Examiner in a personal insight piece on July 7.

“In my world, it meant that if my Mother had become ill - and she did coincidentally become sick with pneumonia but not Covid… we think - during all of this, I could not board a flight to go home and be with her. It also means I have a five month old baby she has never met and I have no idea when she is ever likely to meet her last grandchild,” she said.

THE IRISH SCENE | 22

“I also have never appreciated more my little country of Ireland. When you don’t live there I think you become that bit extra patriotic. I’m hopeful that we will see Irish shores again someday soon; that I will stand at the top of Dunquin Pier and take some deep, meaningful breaths or walk down Oliver Plunkett Street on a busy Saturday just soaking in the melodic Cork accents all around me.

“Those are the little things that make my heart sing when I am home from Australia for a few weeks (that and my Mother’s soda bread).”

www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-31009859.html The Belfast Telegraph carried a similar touching story on July 25. Barbara Scully, a writer for the paper, shared her initial experience of lockdown with readers and then the ongoing impact the pandemic was having on her personally. Despite the panic caused by coronavirus she thought things would return to ‘real normal’ by June.

“June was a beacon of hope and light, most especially because that was the month when our second grandchild was due to be born on the other side of the world - in Perth, Western Australia,” Scully wrote. “I spoke to my daughter (mother of the expected grandchild) every few days… She was fascinated at our total lockdown with everything shut and our not being allowed further than 2km from home and then only once a day for exercise. Western Australia was originally behind us in the coronavirus sweepstakes and so our tales of this weird new world were of great interest to her.”

But as the weeks and months went by it slowly dawned on her that the flight to Perth on June 19 would be going without her.

“Western Australia had granted me special permission to enter the country but only if I undertook their 14-day enforced quarantine in a hotel room,” she added. ”Even if I thought I could do that, I would obviously have to do a further 14-day isolation on my return to Dublin, which made the trip no longer a viable proposition. And so instead of packing the gifts I had bought for the new baby and my almost three-year-old granddaughter, I cried as I packaged them up and sent them on their way without me. I don’t know, now, when I’ll ever get to meet my new grandson.” The journalist knows she is just one of thousands of grandmothers whose grandchildren are born and live abroad but in her way she is able to speak for them all. Her story is worth reading.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/ features/i-cant-visit-grandchildrenin-australia-my-heart-is-bruised-andbattered-39391716.html

Continued on page 24

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Would the real Fr. Ted please stand up?

The feature about the Hutt River Principality reminded me of another colourful story I worked on as a journalist in Dublin for the Irish News of the World.

Reporting for a hard-core British tabloid wasn’t always easy and the paper was shut down in no small part due to the excesses it went to to get the story. But there were times too when it was great fun. Two of my favourites involved Father Ted. On one occasion I was sent out on the road with a crazy and cool photographer (How about ya’? Mr (Niall) Marshall) from Northern Ireland to track down the farm house that was used as the Parochial house and interview the family - who were lovely and a joy to talk too.

By happy coincidence I also happened to be on Inis Mór, the biggest of the Aran Islands, at the same time as the first Father Ted Festival (Tedfest) was held in February 2007, to mark the anniversary of the death of Irish comedian and Fr. Ted character Dermot Morgan. People dressed as priests, bishops, nuns and any other number of easily recognisable characters from the hit comedy were everywhere and everyone was in good spirits. I had brought Imelda there to propose to her on the ancient cliff top hill fort of Dún Aonghasa (which I like to tell our kids would have given me the option to push her over the edge if she said no!!!!) Anyhow, I had the idea of of trying to track down the island’s real Catholic priest and see what he thought about all this using the subterfuge of wanting to get married on the island as a cover story. The crafty cleric could not be found but we did get engaged!

We should all go Loony at least once!

But in terms of sheer eccentricity, my favourite yarn was the time I dappled with the idea of introducing the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMLRP) into Irish politics - the first time it had ever been done - and writing about it. As the ‘political editor’ of the Irish edition of the News of the World, I had a bit of leeway to come up

THE IRISH SCENE | 24

with ideas for stories and thankfully my superiors let this one through (I also did a feature where I interviewed a handful of fortune tellers in Dublin and asked them to predict the winners of an upcoming general election). Their slogan “Vote for insanity, you know it makes sense” was an irresistible starting point for a story.

Certainly the Loonys liked the idea. They responded quickly and soon afterwards a delegation of wonderfully quirky but clever people was in Dublin. Melodie Staniforth, a feisty and fun lady who went by the moniker Boney Maroney and who was the deputy leader of the bizarre British party, and a chap named Dr Wild Willie Becket - a terminal cancer patient who was their spokesperson on health issues and the party’s ‘spin doctor’ - were as you’d expect colourful characters. They spent a weekend in the Irish capital and talked to some likely candidates before returning home to the UK. Their visit also happened to coincide with the News of the World’s Irish office Christmas party, for which several of our colleagues - sub editors and the like - who we normally only dealt with over the phone or by email, flew in for

the function. I invited the Monsters to join us and they gladly rocked up, including Dr Wild Willie Becket in a doctors smock, with a massive novelty medical syringe and a pair of extendable hands which he would use to grab people with.

They were a sensational craic, a big hit with our gathering of drunken hacks and everyone else they met in the hotel that night. It was an eclectic and eccentric experience all round and I hope they enjoyed their brief time in Ireland with us as much as we did.

Sadly Dr Wild Willie Becket died not long afterwards (2007) aged just 59 and in researching for this story I also learned that Boney Maroney too has lost her life to cancer about two years ago. A true Loony to the end, her final send off was about “putting the fun back into the funeral… more a celebration of her life than a miserable affair mourning her death”.

I went looking for evidence of this eclectic episode in my professional career but so far have found just one documented report about it, in the Belfast Telegraph.

The most bonkers thing about the whole wild thing was that my story in the newspaper that they were considering contesting the Irish election got me my one and only death threat as a working journalist. Some people obviously have no sense of humour or adventure!

Say what you want, but watch your language!

By sheer fluke, Meeja Watch is aware of another Irish West Australian who is appreciative of the Belfast Telegraph. UWA professor Tom O’Donoghue and Gaeilgeoir (Irish speaker) penned a letter to the editor of the Telegraph (see below) about a Democratic Unionist Party MP’s Professor Tom O’Donoghue attitude towards the indigenous language of Ireland.

Prof O’Donoghue specifically wrote to the Northern Ireland newspaper because he said it was generally a fair journal but one that was essentially Unionist in outlook. “I wanted to see if they would publish it and they did [on July 30, 2020],” he said.

Continued on page 26

IN far away Perth in Western Australia I read once again of Mr Gregory Campbell’s strange mocking of the Irish language.

What perplexes me is that if he has such a revulsion of the tongue of his forefathers why does he not adopt the English translation of his name. Gregory Crooked Mouth even has a nice ring to it.

Perhaps this is what all should henceforth call him, and no doubt he will be pleased.

PROF TOM O’DONOGHUE Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia

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info@mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au www.mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au THE IRISH SCENE | 25

Continued from page 25

WA a ‘Banana Republic’?

Premier Mark McGowan is taking a leaf out of the book of the Hutt River Principality in his government’s response to the pandemic it was claimed on one of Australia’s top current affairs programmes.

The issue of tensions between the Federal government and state administrations over border closures and restrictions was discussed by the panel of journalists, particularly Annabel Crabb (right), on ABC’s Insiders Sunday morning programme on August 30.

“There is something so fascinating going on here with these border restrictions and social shut down provisions being practiced by Victoria,” Ms Crabb said.

“It explains why the Feds and the Coalition party room this week went berserk about all these complains about Victoria and you’ve got a lot of right wing Libertarian columnists going berserk and calling the Victorian government an extreme totalitarian state and so on.”

There were two reasons for this the ABC’s chief political online writer said.

Money was ‘one of the things driving this sense of anger and tension’ she suggested. State governments had the authority and ability to shut down borders and impose restrictions on trade and activity, but it was the Commonwealth government in Canberra that footed the bill for the economic hit caused by these measures in terms of Jobkeeper and Jobseerker payments.

“The other factor is politics for the last 20 years we’ve associated tough border policies in this country with the Coalition dating back to 2001 what we are seeing now is really interesting which is Labor state governments enforcing tough border controls and lockdowns and finding that they are a plus, that they are politically popular, have a look at Mark McGowan, its like he’s running the Hutt River Province over there, they never want to open up.”

While it is not exactly clear if this comparison was meant as a compliment or not another well known - unfortunately unavoidable political commentator with an axe to grind - has come out and bluntly called it as he sees it. Clive Palmer called Western Australia a ‘banana republic’ after its parliament blindly rushed through unprecedented emergency laws (Iron Ore Processing (Mineralogy Pty Ltd) Agreement Amendment Act 2020) during a late night sitting in an ongoing stoush between the state and the Queensland mining magnate.

Certainly one local politician agreed with this assessment of Kangaroo court justice. "A government passing retrospective laws to remove the rights of

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“... have a look at Mark McGowan, its like he’s running the Hutt River Province over there, they never want to open up.” individuals and paper over the flawed decision-making of a former government sounds like something that would only happen in a banana republic,” Colin Tincknell, leader of the One Nation Party in WA told ABC News on August 15.

The McGowan government openly admits the legislation is unprecedented but is necessary and justified to shield West Australian’s from a damages bill of up to $45 billion, or $12,000 for every man, woman and child in the state now.

The laws would only affect Palmer and not other investors the government claims.

“Clive Palmer has likened WA draft laws aimed at thwarting his claim to legislation at the centre of Australian cult classic The Castle,” John Quigley, Attorney-General of Western Australia said.

“Notwithstanding the critics’ cries of “banana republic”, “17th-century star chamber” and “charade for democracy”, the Act is far from illthought-out. Dealing with Mr Palmer sometimes feels like being in a rodeo, but this legislation is not some ‘Wild West’ idea.

“Palmer’s damages claim for almost $30 billion posed a credible threat to the financial wellbeing of West Australian taxpayers.

“If the proposal had been submitted pursuant to development legislation, rather than pursuant to a fast-track contractual state agreement, there would be no question about damages.”

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https://www.abc.net.au/ insiders/sunday-30-august-fullprogram/12610442

In the 1850’s the Travencore and Palestine ships arrived in Western Australia with Irish girls aged 18 to 25 who came from Workhouses in Ireland. These pioneer girls married and settled throughout Western Australia... This day we remember

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Award a reward

for life of commitment and contribution Paul Tanham - the recipient of the 2020 Brendan Award - said the Irish saint who the prestigious Australia Irish Heritage Association (AIHA) prize is named after, had special personal significance for him but also for the wider Irish community.

“I had a brother Brendan who has gone to God and I have a son Brendan, so the name is special to me,” the Dublin man said.

“The reason Brendan is so significant to the Irish is that he was a navigator. It is not proven but it is likely he discovered America about 900 to a thousand years before Columbus, he was ‘Brendan the Navigator’. There were so many Irish who navigated their way to Australia, particularly Perth, be they teachers, nurses, nuns, they all contributed so much. Thank you for the opportunity I had in winning this,” he added. “I enjoyed whatever I did, I enjoyed being involved in the Irish Club, I enjoyed being a member of the AIHA. So I’m proud of my heritage and I’m also very happy that I made the selection to come from Sandymount in Dublin and I’ve enjoyed it very much. I only wish Sonia was here to share it with me.”

Paul’s family took him to the Irish Club on Saturday August 29 on the pretence of a family dinner.

Denis Bratton from the AIHA said St. Brendan was born in Tralee, Co. Kerry circa 484, and is believed to be the first European to have reached North America in a leather clad boat after a voyage from Ireland that lasted seven years. “So we associate Brendan with Irish emigrants who have brought honour and affection to their Irish heritage in this Australian community,” Tony Bray said.

Denis introduced the new Brendan award sculpture - created by Charlie Totten, originally from Belfast - and a history of the ancient illustrations on it as Ogham script, the first alphabet devised by the Irish, around the time St. Brendan would have lived.

AIHA committee member Gayle Lannon read the citation for the award. “Paul migrated to Perth as a teenager in 1954 from Sandymount in Dublin. He married Dubliner Sonia Daly that same year. Paul and Sonia soon became involved with the Irish community

THE IRISH SCENE | 28

Main: All the past and present winners of the Brendan award.

Above: Paul Tanham, winner of the 2020 award in Perth, attending monthly dances at Highgate Parish Hall on Thursday nights.

That interest developed into a commitment organising social activities like trips to Yanchep for family picnics with the Irish Club. After stints in Albany and Bunbury as manager of Burroughs Business machines Paul returned to Perth and served on the Irish Club committee for 15 years including 8 years as treasurer. He was President of the club from 1969 to 1971 and 1988 to 1990. He was very involved in the decision to purchase the premises at 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco in 1978. Paul was made an honorary member of the Irish Club in 1990 and has been a long serving official patron of the club. He

was also chairman of the Fleadh in 1986. In the wider Irish Community Paul was coordinator and committee member of the Rose of Tralee for over ten years during which tenure Perth had two international winners. He also coordinated the annual St Patricks Day Mass when it relocated from St Josephs in Subiaco to St Mary’s Cathedral in the city centre. This year Paul handed over the organisation of the mass to Eimear Beattie of Irish Families in Perth group. Paul is also a member of the Australian Irish Heritage Association. An avid sportsperson, educated at Blackrock College, Paul played A1 grade hockey in Ireland and in Perth, Albany and Bunbury and Captained the Western Australian Country team to play the visiting world champions Pakistan. He has been a long time member of the Irish Golf Club in Perth where he served on committee and as captain, and Lake Karrinyup Country Club, and has taken groups of golfers to play in Ireland with another such trip planned for this year.”

Marty Kavanagh, Honorary Consul of Ireland for Western Australia said the honour was well deserved. “Paul meets the criteria for the Brendan award through his leadership in the Irish community, for performance covering 65 years involvement in local Irish communities and he is still contributing. For persistence, Paul has never lost his vision of an organised Irish Australian community that offers support at many levels and he always goes the extra mile. “Paul has delivered above and beyond from his arrival in Perth, through the years of a busy career and raising six children, 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. In listing

Paul’s commitments over the years, it would be remiss not to mention Sonia Tanham who was tireless in her commitment to others. In thinking about how I could sum up your achievements I thought of your core values and beliefs. You are a man of faith, family, service and a man who appreciates the fragility of life and the wonder of the world. You are also a Dubliner, all of which is embodied in Patrick Kavanagh’s Canal Bank Walk.”

Paul and Sonia’s daughter Catherine Kavanagh said growing up they as children had many experiences and occasion when they were involved in the Irish Club and community. “We remember going to picnics at Yanchep, golf days, hockey days, coming to the Irish Club, Irish dancing, lots of nuns and priests at our house, letting their hair down, dancing and having a good time and lots of things like that. We probably didn’t know how lucky we were to be involved in the Irish culture like that, it was all we knew, it was what we did, but now we know how lucky were were to be so involved. One of the many things dad thought us was involvement and commitment in the things you are interested in. I’m sure mum was involved in a great number of things, helping dad in the things he was involved in, if not she was at home, holding down the fort and looking after the six of us, cooking, cleaning, washing and all the rest. I’m sure he couldn’t done it without mum.”

The Brendan Award was started in 1997 and it was first awarded to then President of Ireland Mary Robinson on a state visit to Australia. Many of the winners since then were present - amongst friends and family - for the award ceremony.

THE IRISH SCENE | 29

SCRUB UP FOLKS!

BY ALEIGHSHA “AJ” GLEW West Australians are becoming complacent when it comes to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, an Irish academic heading up an Australian research project has warned.

Monash BehaviourWorks Australia, lead researcher, Dr Peter Slattery said respondents in states where COVID-19 numbers are low were most relaxed, particularly in the west.

“We are seeing people in Western Australia not concerned about Dr Peter Slattery the infection when they talk about the barriers to why they are social distancing,” Dr Slattery told 6PR Drive listeners on August 13.

“A lot of them are saying it is because nobody else is doing it, so I think a lot of people are failing to realise we’ve eliminated the virus, but the threat is still there, and it can very easy come back.

"They had that period of time where they were doing everything and they were very devoted and now they're tired of doing that and they want to return to their daily lives.”

This is shown in Western Australia, where 53 per-cent of people were social distancing in April but by the end of July, only 43 per-cent were still social distancing.

In the same time period, individuals who said they always washed their hands has

dropped from 45 per cent to 37 per cent. Both these results show that West Australia is lower than the Australian average for social distancing.

"They had that period of time where they were doing everything and they were very devoted and now they're tired of doing that and they want to return to their daily lives," the researcher added.

These results are from the approximately 1,700 people across Western Australia who have been surveyed in intervals since the start of the pandemic in Australia at the end of March.

BehaviourWorks Australia research unit is running projects to help current and future policy makers understand how people are responding to the virus known as the Survey of COVID-19 Responses to Understand Behaviour (SCRUB).

Dr Slattery has a PhD in Information Systems from the University of New South Wales but he completed his Masters of Information Systems for Business Performance at the University College Cork, before which he got his Bachelor of Science in Applied Psychology from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

Dr Slattery has a range of research in the understanding of people’s experience of technology and has particular interest in developing and providing tools that allow for practitioners to understand and optimise people behaviour.

He is particularly interested in highly impactful research questions and their importance for addressing issues within society and improving the world.

Survey results also showed that only one third of individuals with cold and flu symptoms were getting tested for COVID-19. This was a key finding from the research project. Just under half of individuals who were unwell, were still going into work.

“There are one or more factors as to why people are going to work,” the academic added. “They are not aware of the need to stay home, they don’t have the ability to go to a testing station, they are too busy, or they are not motivated to go”.

THE IRISH SCENE | 30

“

...people in Western Australia not concerned about the infection when they talk about the barriers to why they are social distancing” Six waves of data have been collected in Australia and the seventh wave is about to start. Internationally - there are 120 international collaborators - four waves of data have been collected and over 12,000 surveys have been completed.

In wave three, it showed that through the peak of the COVID-19 breakout in March, most Australians were adhering to the behaviours recommended by the federal Department of Health to reduce the spread of the virus. This dropped in May with fewer infected individuals and loosened restrictions.

The questions used in each wave of the survey are updated based on feedback from policy makers and changes in COVID-19 nationally and overseas.

When he is not crunching data sets and the like, Peter, who is originally from Tramore, Co. Waterford, enjoys walks on the beach and the bush and surfing (badly) as he says himself. “I have never been over to WA, but I have plans to visit sometime,” he admitted.

“It strikes me as being a very beautiful and calm place and I appreciate that more as I get older! I might need to spend a few more years back in Ireland before I do!”

Aleighsha (AJ) is a journalism student at Curtin University and first time contributor to Irish Scene.

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BY LLOYD GORMAN

ISTEACH SA TEACH Dare to share A major report into child safety by the West Australian parliament was handed down in August.

The report ‘From Words to Action – Fulfilling the obligations to be child safe’ had no small amount of input from Ireland’s experience in this area.

Jessica Stojkovski (née O’Gorman) MLA, who was one of the politicans who sat on the ‘Inquiry into the Monitoring and Enforcing of Child Safe Standards’, said she was proud of the report.

“A key learning for me from our overseas investigation was the importance of information sharing,” Ms Stojkovski, the member for Kingsley and mum, told the Legislative Assembly on August 13. “The Jessica Stojkovski Irish witnesses explained to us their dareto-share policy, which puts the welfare and safety of children at the forefront of decision-making around data sharing. While acknowledging the difficulties and sensitivities around privacy and data sharing, we need to be brave to keep our children safe.”

The report itself went into much greater detail about Ireland’s Dare to Share policy.

It is also a criminal offence there to withhold information relating to a serious offence against a person under 18 years or a vulnerable person.

The Thirty-first amendment to the Constitution (Children) Act 2015 (Article 42A) was added to the Constitution and signed into Irish law on 28 August 2015.

This amendment provides a specific affirmation of rights and protections to be enjoyed by children as children.

The wording and intent of the 2015 law is designed to focus responsibility for child safety on everybody.

“The [Irish] Department of Children and Youth Affairs stated that there had been a shift in the “Irish conscience” – child protection is seen as everyone’s responsibility and there is no longer tolerance for an organisation not sharing information if sharing will protect a child or young person from harm,” the ‘From words to action’ report added.

“The Committee was very impressed with the system in place in Ireland where there is clear evidence that there is no longer tolerance for institutions that do not regard the safety of children as their highest priority,” the 170 page report stated.

“In Ireland, several pieces of legislation relate to the welfare of children and young people.

“To simplify the legislative complexity, the Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (the National Guidance) was developed. It sets out, in plain language, steps for protecting children and young people. Of particular relevance to this chapter are the sections relating to information sharing; essentially, the legislation in Ireland has created a ‘dare to share’ culture.”

It is designed to be of practical help to everyone who encounters children – from friends and families to volunteers and professionals – to recognise and report child abuse (including neglect, and emotional, physical and sexual abuse). People who report suspected child abuse or neglect in good faith (not maliciously) in Ireland are protected by legislation.

THE IRISH SCENE | 32

4 0 T H PA R L I A M E N T

Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for Children and Young People

Report 5 FROM WORDS TO ACTION Fulfilling the obligation to be child safe Presented by Hon Dr S.E. Talbot, MLC and Mr K. O’Donnell, MLA August 2020

Committee Name Committee Name

“The [Irish] Ombudsman for Children confirmed this shift in culture when he explained that an individual would be ‘more protected by sharing information on a child protection issue than if [they] don’t’.

“What is clear from the Irish example is that a cultural shift in understanding about the effectiveness of information sharing is an integral part of a system that works.”

On the 30th of September 2019 in Dublin the report team held briefings with several Irish representatives.

These included Éimear Fisher, Assistant Secretary General, Department of Children and Youth Affairs and her colleagues Kate Gillen Assistant Principal, Social Work Specialist; Michele Clarke Principal Officer and Grainne Morrissey Principal Officer.

From the Irish Ombudsman for Children they also met Dr Niall Muldoon (Ombudsman), Nuala Ward (Director of Investigations) and Karen McAuley (Head of Policy).

Niall Muldoon

The inquiry was also briefed

by Brian Lee, director of Quality Assurance, the child and family agency Tulsa.

Witnesses in Ireland indicated this approach replaced the need for child impact statements the report adds.

“As representatives of the Irish Department of Children and Youth Affairs explained to the Committee, children in Ireland are consulted on the potential impacts any policy and legislation may have on them, much like any other relevant group. These consultations effectively take the form of child impact statements. Ireland has a well embedded system for hearing the views of children. The experience in Ireland shows the impact of measures embedding a system for hearing the views of children was a revelation to organisations and government of just how useful consulting with children can be, creating opportunities for children to be listened to which in turn empowered caregivers and children to speak more openly about the quality of the services children were receiving.”

The report found that unlike Ireland, Western Australia currently has no administrative or statutory requirements on government and non-government agencies to include children in decision making or even seek their views, which reduced their motivation to use the resources of the Children’s Commissioner.

One of the findings made by the Committee was that: “The implementation of the National Child Safe Principles presents an ideal opportunity for the active inclusion of children’s views in the policy-making process.”

There was a lot to be learned from the Irish system the report concluded. “‘Dare to Share’ approach in Ireland, which with its robust statutory protections supported by education programs empowering adults to use their professional or common sense judgment about what is appropriate to share, provides a useful model,” it stated.

“The Committee makes the final observation that the National Child Safe Principles have the potential to make a difference to the life of every single child living in Western Australia. If this potential is to be realised, however, wholesale reform of the attitudes and beliefs of the community and organisations is needed. Increased government regulation and reforms of organisational governance alone will not suffice.”

That’s the name of the game!

As it happens, another inquiry being held by the WA Parliament has been corresponding with the National Ireland Assembly in Belfast and the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dublin.

Around the same time that Ms Stojkovski and that child safety inquiry were in Dublin, the dryly named Inquiry Into The Functions, Processes And Procedures Of The Standing Committee On Environment And Public Affairs was being set up. Its role was essentially to look into the role and way petitions work in a modern parliament.

To that end, inquiry wrote to several Australian and international parliaments in January – including the two Irish bodies – with questions about how they deal with petitions. Within a week of each other in early June both government’s replied to the WA Parliament and both responses offer an insight into recent and current conditions in their domestic political situations.

The Northern Ireland Assembly broke up in January 2017 over the ‘Cash for Ash’ affair and did not reform until January of this year.

Lesly Hogg

The WA inquiry wanted to know if any petitions have been tabled with the current Assembly and if any steps had been taken to reform the petitions process.

Lesly Hogg, Clerk to the Assembly/Chief Executive replied that no petitions have been tabled with the institution in its current mandate.

A new Committee of Procedures had been set up in January she added and this body looked at previous work carried out by its predecessor about petitions

THE IRISH SCENE | 33

Continued on page 34

Continued from page 33

Leo Bollins and had: “agreed to make public petitions a priority”.

But because of the COVID-19 outbreak the Committee had not scheduled any meetings but the review of public petitions would restart as soon as possible.

“The [Committee] is fully committed to implementing an e-petitions process in the current Assembly mandate,” her response added. “The Committee sees public engagement as a cornerstone of the Assembly’s work and wishes to enhance this process through petitioning.”

Mr Leo Bollins, Principle Clerk with the Committee’s Secretariat (Príomhchléireach Rúnaíocht na gCoistí) in the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann) landed the job of replying to the WA inquiry.

“I hope this finds you well in Perth in Western Australia,” he wrote. The civil servant included various documents and links in his response.

“You were inquiring about the proposed amendment to the Constitution regarding parliamentary inquiries – I have also attached a briefing prepared by our Library and Research Service which discussed the case law and policy in 2011 in the context of the referendum,” he wrote. “The amendment was rejected by the people in a referendum in 2011 so the law did not change.

While parliamentary petitions is an ancient procedure, [it] is now an active area of research in Europe since the Scottish Parliament set up their Public Petitions committee in 1999, and a number of interesting papers on petitions were published by various parliaments.

The Internet has also enabled ePetitions in recent years.”

Like the Assembly, the Irish parliament has experienced its own delays Mr Bollins explained in his June 6 reply: “It is taking quite a while to form a new government following our general election but hopefully the new committees will be set up in the not too distant future”. [Just over two weeks later – and four months after the general election in February the next Irish administration – consisting of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens].

Just one name or signature is needed to constitute and submit a petition to the Irish Parliament. Ten petitions were received by the Oireachtas in 2016, 42 in 2017 and 49 in 2018 jumping to 61 last year but none so far in 2020.

“The purpose of the petitions system in the Houses of the Oireachtas is to enhance engagement between parliament and citizens on matters of general public concern or interest,” the 40 page Irish response to the WA Parliament said. “Members of the public can submit petitions to the Houses of the Oireachtas on matters of general public concern or interest in relation to their legislative powers or on an issue of public policy, Petitions can be submitted online or by completing the relevant forms which can be requested from the secretariat to the Committee and these can be returned once completed, by post or via email.”

Northern Ireland Assembly

THE IRISH SCENE | 34

A tidy sum and a neat idea

In the run up to Keep Australia Beautiful Week (August 17-23) WA’s Environment minister Stephen Dawson announced nearly $60,000 for community groups to tackle litter.

No doubt there will be a lot of takers for the cash. Councils and shires, community groups, small to medium sized enterprises and schools are eligible to apply for the grants.

Keep Australia Beautiful Week raises awareness about the simple things we can all do in our daily lives to reduce our impact on the environment and encourage action.

“These Keep Australia Beautiful Council grants support community projects to reduce litter and change littering behaviour in our beautiful state,” the Dublin born Dawson said.

“This year’s successful projects are a diverse collection of ideas and projects to involve people at a community level to adopt anti-litter strategies. Encouraging communities to come up with their own ideas to prevent and clean up litter will result in cleaner and healthier local environments.”

At the same time the state government also set a new target of 30 per cent reduction in litter levels within the next five years.

Western Australia’s Tidy Towns competition – which has an Irish link – are also coming up.

At a community clean up and sausage sizzle in KalgoorlieBoulder in early March, Mr Dawson had put out the call for the 2020 Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities Award.

Registrations closed on May 1 with finished projects due to be finished by June 12. But only a week after he launched the annual competition, COVID-19 struck and the whole thing was put on ice as the state was plunged into crisis mode.

Thanks in no small part to the way the pandemic was dealt with here, Mr Dawson – a former member of the Irish Theatre Players – was able to relaunch the competition on June 12.

Judging visits will now take place in October and November, with submissions assessed during September. Judges will be awarding (or deducting) marks for general appearance; community action and wellbeing; environmental sustainability and education, heritage and culture; young legends and of course litter prevention and waste management.

“Regional communities have faced considerable challenges in 2020 and it’s time to celebrate some of the fantastic sustainable achievements that have taken place despite those difficulties,” Mr Dawson, who is also the Labor member for the Mining & Pastoral seat said.

“I encourage all regional and remote towns to enter and reward the good work being done by their communities.

Having an opportunity to share community initiatives has always been a big part of Tidy Towns and we look forward to hearing those stories during the awards this year.”

Now in its 51st year the tidy towns event is considered Keep Australia Beautiful’s “flagship” programme.

THE IRISH SCENE | 35

Top: Volunteers pick up litter at Bathers Beach.

Above: Stephen Dawson (right) Interestingly, West Australia’s – and every Australian – tidy town competitions were inspired by and can be traced back to Ireland.

In fact, one gave birth to the other, starting here in Western Australia but we need to go back a bit to the origins of the competition.

Life in post war (WWII) Ireland was a largely bleak affair with little economic opportunity or development. Money was tight for everyone, including government, so a solution would have to be found that was affordable and sustainable but also effective.

Against this backdrop the national Tidy Towns scheme was launched in 1958 by Bord Failte (now Fáilte Ireland). The official Tidytowns website offers a history of the competitions origins and growth.

“It was originally part of ‘Tostal’, a nationwide festival celebrating all things Irish,” Tidytowns.ie states. The national spring clean festival “An Tostal”, translated means “Ireland at Home”. “A step-up from the original National Spring Clean Campaign, which ran between 1953 and 1957, TidyTowns rapidly developed its own identity and has gone on to become Ireland’s most well known and popular local environmental initiative.”

Just 52 towns entered in its first year but TidyTowns rapidly increased in popularity and before long was getting hundreds of entries.

Continued on page 36

Continued from page 35

Just ten years after it started in Ireland, Western WATDA was contacted by an agent from the Irish Tourist Board, based in Sydney. The agent stated they Australia was the first state in Australia (or anywhere ‘had problems much the same as your own in bringing in the world) to start a new Tidy Towns programme. about the development of transport, accommodation, KAB tells us that it was “based on an Irish community amenities, and of tourist attractions, on the scale pride model” and that the first Tidy Towns awards required by the traveller of today’ and offered to share event was held at the Palace Hotel (it does not state if information on their own it was the one in Perth or initiative and its well Kalgoorlie) on a date with received success.” some Irish significance March 17, 1969.

The Tidy Towns competition was launched The Keep Australia in 1968 by the WATDA Beautiful WA Council with the judging taking expands on that beginning place from November 1968 in more detail. through to February 1969.

“The idea for the first Four judging categories Australian Tidy Towns were set according to town competition was touted size and prize money by the Western Australian The litter that was collected at the Bathers Beach event ranging from $400; $600; Tourist Development $1000; and $1500 (smallest Authority (WATDA) in 1968 to promote tidy and to highest population size). Competition winners were presentable towns the Tidy Towns Award program announced by David Brand MLA who was Premier and received instant success with 59 entries in its first Minister for Tourists at the time, at a buffet luncheon year and the first awards in 1969,” the Keep Australia at the Palace Hotel, on 17 March 1969. Corrigin, Beautiful WA Council explains.

Merredin, Medina/Calista, and Bunbury were all amongst the winners, with Bunbury also named the “Tidy Towns in WA emanated from an Irish overall state winner. project, ‘Tidy Towns & National Roadside Gardens Western Australia hasn’t looked back since.

Competition’ after R.H. Hiller, the Director of the

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ST. PATRICK’S DAY COMMITEE Chairman: Olan Healy

Halloween originated in Ireland as the Celtic festival of Samhain around a thousand years ago, which is why so many of Halloween traditions – regardless of where you are in the world – are Irish!

Together with The Rose of Tralee committee, St Patrick’s Day Festival WA are excited and delighted to bring you the Halloween Masquerade Ball!

Our Halloween is less about dead spirits and more about having fun, dressing up and being entertained.

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The Saint Patrick’s Day committee would like to thank all who attended the Christmas in July Race Night Event in the Old Pickle Factory.

Thank you to Greg Erskine for the use of this wonderful venue! This has greatly helped us get our fundraising back on track in these uncertain times and we are very lucky here in WA to be able to get together and help each other out.

The race night was great fun with loads of races, spot prizes, music, drinks and pizza.

We also had a putt- putt and chipping comp on the night for our golf enthusiasts. A huge thankyou to all that helped out and our generous Sponsors. We would especially like to wish Kieran Kennelly bon voyage in his travels back to Ireland. Kieran has been a generous supporter of the St Patrick’s Day Festival over the years and we wish him all the best in the future.

St Pats Festival WA has teamed up with the Rose of Tralee Committee to host our next event, our October 30th Halloween Ball.

Go raibh mile maith agat mo chara

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Parallel walking

in Perth and Dublin

This article is reproduced from the website of the Perth based Harry Perkins Institute.

In so many ways COVID-19 has joined necessity as the mother of invention.

best chance and are passionate supporters of further research.

For Irish grandmother, Anne Winslow, the pandemic cancelled a trip to Perth and a chance to be a part of one of WA’s biggest charity walks to raise funds for cancer research – a disease she knew too well.

“I’m grateful for every year, for every day for that matter, and now having a grandson (in Perth), well its happy days.”

“I’d registered with my daughter Clare, who lives in Perth, to do the Hawaiian Walk for Women’s Cancer in May but with world-wide shutdowns my trip was cancelled.

“Clare and I were in training to walk 35 kilometres to raise funds for cancer research at Perth’s Harry Perkin’s Institute of Medical Research, but now, in COVID-19 times the walk will definitely be in accordance with social distancing requirements as I will be walking in Ireland and Clare will walk in Perth!

“That distance should be acceptable! We will be nearly 15,000 kms apart.”

Anne passionately believes in the importance of supporting cancer research. Her son-in-law works with the Perth team at the Harry Perkins Institute developing a probe for breast cancer surgeons to ensure every cancer cell is removed during surgery.

“I’m a 12 survivor of breast cancer, a high-risk category, and my brother has survived cancer of the oesophagus. We know that research has given us the

When COVID-19 struck people were limited in Ireland to 2km zones so for a time Anne’s training involved some innovative loops to get in some distance.

But that did suit her walking companion, 17 year old Mr Bojangles, a Cairn terrier mix.

The former CEO of Multiple Sclerosis Ireland and President of European MS, Anne can now stride out along the green hills and North County Dublin coast for longer training walks.

As a result of the pandemic, the Hawaiian Walk for Women’s Cancer has been reformatted to a personal challenge that can be completed in one walk or in a series of walks.

“I’ll probably do two 17km walks in Ireland during the Hawaiian Cancer Challenge week in September but keep fundraising for Perth cancer research. It’s such a good cause”, she said.

To support Anne fundraise for cancer research in Perth go to

www.walkforwomenscancer.org.au/fundraisers/ annewinslow/walk-for-womens-cancer

THE IRISH SCENE | 40

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Monumental shift looming for Joondalup

Many moons and a lot of talk later about a marina for Ocean Reef actual work on the project got underway in August when ground was broken for the first stage of works. The plan is for a massive 12,000sqm retail and commercial space with five hectares of community space and facilities including a coastal pool that within a protected beach area. Hundreds of people will be employed there while hundreds more will call it home. Premier Mark McGowan said it will be a modern Hillarys. Certainly it will give the existing marina at Hillarys – a popular tourist attraction in the northern suburbs – a major run for its money.

location within the central open space at the Ocean Reef Marina development and in close proximity to the new ORSSC site,” an August 16 2020 press release from the state Above and inset: The ANZAC memorial created by Smith Sculptors government said. “The location and design will accommodate large gatherings such as Anzac Day memorial services.”

The $100,000 plus memorial in question is one of the many across Western Australia (and elsewhere) created by Smith Sculptors Charlie Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith. Based in Gidgegannup the husband and wife team are originally from Waterford, Ireland.

“It commemorates the centenary of ANZAC,” Charlie and Joan said about the concept. “The memorial is comprised of an arch 12m wide and 6m high with text on the steel frame and images from wars of the past 100 years in printed glass.

“The layout is based on the passage of light being drawn through a portal entrance a long a ceremonial east – west passage into a circle towards the settings sun which framed by this portal arch at the centre of which is the sacred heart of the memorial – the altar.”

Above: The new Ocean Reef Marina site, where the ANZAC memorial is currently located The souped up waterfront precinct means some existing facilities such as the Marine Rescue Whitfords and Ocean Reef Sea Sports Club (ORSSC) will be be moved to a new home in the area by 2023.

“The Joondalup City RSL memorial [which currently sits in grounds of the ORSSC] will also be relocated to a suitable

The memorial occupies a picture perfect site in the club’s gardens with stunning sea views perfect for sun rises and sun sets and hopefully the new location will be just good and even more accessible to the wider public. The Smith’s are also responsible for another war memorial in Joondalup on Grand Boulevard, Central Park.

Other ANZAC related memorials designed by the couple across WA include: HMAS Sydney II Memorial in Geraldton and another memorial to the Sydney II in Denham, WA, Onslow War Memorial, Onslow, Swansea RSL Rising Sun Memorial, Hugo Throssell VC Memorial in Northam and the National Memorial to the Australian Army in ANZAC Parade Canberra, to name a few.

THE IRISH SCENE | 42

UPDATE ON 2020 PROGRAMME

Australian-Irish Heritage Association

Our committee met on 11 August for the first time since 19 March.

We welcomed Gayle Lannon to the committee. New treasurer Deirdre McGorry had to step back due to Covid 19 concerns and Patricia Bratton returned to maintain continuity. We thank Patricia for her commitment to the association. Denis Bratton continued publishing our quarterly Journal in March and June.

ANNUAL SHORT STORY COMPETITIONS

We had a great varied programme of events organised for 2020 and are reluctant to commit to resuming these until there is greater assurance from health authorities on safety of close community gatherings.

Winner of Joyce Parkes Writers Prize for 2019 was Lynne Geary, Victoria, for her entry ‘My Mother’s Garden’. Winner of The Joe O’Sullivan Writers Prize of $1,000 was awarded to Kylie Worth, Victoria, for her entry ‘Edelweiss’. Winning entries are published in The Journal and on AIHA website.

The Joe O’Sullivan Writers’ Prize honouring the memory of the Organisation’s late founder, worth $1,000, limit of 2,000 to 4,000 words - prose, fact or fiction. Topic: “Closed Doors” or “Dorais Dunta” (Gaelic) Joyce Parkes Women’s Writers’ Prize honours the late poet Joyce Parkes who died this year. Joyce was patron of the prize, which aims at promoting and encouraging women writers in Australia. Limit of 1,000 to 2,000 words – Prose, fact or fiction.

Prize Money: $500. Topic: “Welcome” or “Failte” (Gaelic)

Entrance Fee: $10 for all competitions Deadline: 30 November, 2020. Enquiries to Denis Bratton 9345 3530

THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB

Meets fourth Tuesday of the month, with exception of December. At 7.30pm.

We will host a planning and ideas Plans to resume October 27. Members will be notified of book title in September session possibly in October and Venue: Irish Club Committee Room, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco welcome your participation or Admission: Free. All welcome. Light refreshments provided. Tea and coffee from the Bar $2 submissions for that.

Contact: Convener Mary Purcell, m.purcell@telstra.com You can also help if you have IT skills to manage our website which is wordpress or if you know of someone who can. We want to Celtic Rambles, Radio Fremantle 107.9fm Saturdays 8 to 10 am. Host Frank Murphy, optimise the interactive potential producer Gerry Grogan. Irish radio at its best | Former AIHA President Brian Corr broadcasts an Irish Radio Programme every Sunday morning on Hobart FM, ozirish. for members and the public.

AIHA SUPPORTS

IRISH CLUB membership

The Irish Club is promoting Affiliated Membership to AIHA members at $25 pa (normal full membership is $75). Check out irishclubofwa.com.au/ membership We encourage you to support the Club where AIHA host most of our events. The club has been refurbished and decorated during Covid shutdown and is now open.

com | Irish Club of WA, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco – new committee have redecorated the premises, members avail of free hire of rooms. Events coming up: Winner Takes All fundraising raffle – 1000 tickets at $100 each to win $15,000 or Two Business Class tickets to Europe, drawn 4 October; 70th Anniversary of the Irish Club in Perth Commemoration, second weekend in September, facebook.com/irishclubofwa/ | Claddagh Association is a voluntary, non-profit organisation with the aim to provide crisis support to people in the Irish community in Western Australia in times of hardship and trauma, claddagh.org.au/ | Irish Theatre Players auditions for Christmas Panto, “A Christmas Wish”, written and directed by Noel O’Neill, Tuesday August 25 at 7pm, Irish Club Theatre, facebook.com/IrishTheatrePlayers/ | Rose’s Children biography authored

by AIHA member Deirdre McGorry published by Austin Macauley Publishers, is a compelling read about her husband’s family in 1940’s Clones, County Monaghan.

Contact Deirdre direct on 9255 1375. | Royal WA Historical Society have an active programme of events www.histwest.org.au | WA Irish Famine Commemoration Group and The Geraldton Historical Society are holding a special commemoration on for the Irish Bride Ship girls, St Francis Xavier Cathedral Geraldton, Saturday 19 September, 12.30 to 2.30pm facebook.com/GeroMidwestIrishClub waifc.org

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

43

ULSTER RAMBLES WITH DAVID In the late sixties and early seventies, I was attending Queens University, Belfast as an undergraduate studying chemistry. At school I was told to study science.

‘That’s where the jobs are me boy so don’t you mind what else you want to do. You are going to study science. Do you hear me?’

John Hume and David Trimble were presented with doves of peace sculptures.

Image: Pacemaker, www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-44753271

Well in those days not many of us were brave enough to defy logic like that. I studied science. As I was less than good at physics, I hated biology, so, I was left with chemistry.

I envied all those who were taking English or social studies or geography or even politics as a major. They were always discussing interesting things like novels, battles, politics or civil right marches over endless coffees. I was stuck in a lab for over twenty hours a week, looking through microscopes at various plant and animal cells, admiring Infra-Red absorption spectroscopy and testing Faraday’s Law of something or other; mainly other.

To widen my sphere of knowledge, I vaguely became interested in the political scene in Queens much as you might become interested in Astronomy and looking at the stars. I assumed (correctly) that my interest would wain rapidly. It did. By that time however I was persuaded to run for the SRC; the Students’ Representative Council. Now when I say I am going to do something, I tend to put in a bit of energy into the exercise. This I did by trying to persuade students to vote for me. I simple introduced myself and asked them to vote in my favour. Some of them did and to my utter amazement, I was elected.

I was to discover that students tended to vote on a 2-way ticket. Yes, you guessed it I am sure. Some other element was involved; namely religion. Well, all the students I met there were anything but religious. Why would we vote on those grounds? The council then voted for the president. When I entered this arena, the president (of the Students Union) was a Terence O’Neill supporter. The latter was a moderate unionist, who sought to reconcile the sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland society without much success all of which of course I was told and some of which might have been true.

The next year they asked me (no one else was unwise enough I suppose) to run for the Executive Council.

They asked my best friend as well. Max, the friend in question was clever. He ran for the Sports Secretary position. I was told to run for the House Secretary position which involved looking after the Students Union building and every aspect of it. Surprisingly we were both elected due to that element I mentioned above. Max enjoyed himself. Never once was he asked a question about sport at the University. The members who attended the meetings were mostly nerds who had zero interest in the sporting side of things. On the other hand, I was asked numerous questions which I did not always deal with that well. I had never been to a debate in my life never mind taken part or spoken in one. Well I am sure you can get the picture here.

Bernadette Devlin was an elected member but soon realised I was not in her league so she left me to my own devices which were usually enough to get me into trouble. Other members of the executive committee were either ‘English’ or from the ‘other side’. I observed many of them when they took part in the Civil Rights marches though Belfast and later on in Derry.

One of the marchers (though I did not know him at the time) was John Hume, who was a leading figure in the civil rights movement at this time along with people such as Hugh Logue. I mention it here as unfortunately, John passed away just before I began writing this article. He was a man admired by friend and foe alike. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the SDLP and served as Leader from 1979 to 2001.

Hume was born in Derry with an Irish Catholic background, although his great-grandfather was a

THE IRISH SCENE | 44

Presbyterian immigrant who arrived in County Donegal from Scotland. He was a student at St. Columb’s College and at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the leading Catholic seminary in Ireland and a recognised college of the National University of Ireland, where he intended to study for the priesthood. He did not complete his clerical studies but did obtain an M.A degree from the college, and then returned home to his native city and became a teacher. He was a founding member of the Credit Union movement in the city and was chair of the University for Derry Committee in 1965. He was regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland and one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process. He was also a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award, the only recipient of the three major peace awards. In 2010 he was named “Ireland’s Greatest” in a public poll by Irish national broadcaster RTÉ to find the greatest person in Ireland’s history. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI made Hume a Knight Commander of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great. He served as a Member of the European Parliament and a Member of the UK Parliament, as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He served as one of Northern Ireland’s three Members of the European Parliament and served on the faculty of Boston College, from which he received an honorary degree in 1995.

Hume was directly involved in ‘secret talks’ with the British government and Sinn Féin, in an effort to bring Sinn Féin openly to the discussion table.

The talks are speculated to have led directly to the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985. However, the vast majority of unionists rejected the agreement and staged a massive and peaceful public rally in Belfast City Centre to demonstrate their distaste.

Many Republicans and Nationalists rejected it also, as they had seen it as not going far enough.

Hume, however, continued dialogue with both governments and Sinn Féin. The “Hume-Adams process” eventually delivered the 1994 IRA ceasefire which ultimately provided the relatively peaceful backdrop against which the Good Friday agreement was brokered.

Hume was credited with being the thinker behind many of the recent political developments in the Province, from the power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement to the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the Belfast Agreement. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 alongside the then-leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble. On his retirement from the leadership of the SDLP in 2001, Hume

was praised across the political divide, even by his long-time opponent, fellow MP and MEP, the Rev. Ian Paisley.

Now at that time, I was trying to understand how anyone could follow this padre if I may call him by that description. I wisely asked a fellow student to accompany me to one of his ‘talks’ at the Ulster Hall.

The only things I remember about the occasion were his excellent oratory voice (he shouted a lot) and his mention of our president in the students union who he obviously did not like (or know?). A plate was passed around as a collection and his commanding voice reminded us that he did not want to hear the jingle of coins when we gave up our hard earned cash. I refused to donate but my friend made a show of dropping a 10 Shilling note onto the plate. (If you remember these red notes were withdrawn from circulation shortly after that time). When I asked him later why he acted in this way he informed me that I would be noted down as a member for ‘the other side’. In those days you were either on one side or the other. There was no place for anyone who sat on the fence. You would be ‘shot at’ from both sides. He told me to have one name if I was stopped in the Shankill Road and another name if I was stopped in the Falls Road. It would be three years before I ventured a visit to both roads, however I did take his advice, wisely, I might add.

There is no way you could overestimate John Hume’s contribution in the political development of Northern Ireland. He was definitely, during those years, the brains behind the approach to the peace process.

He worked on differing relationships, trying to solve problems which seemed for so many years to be completely unsolvable. He helped create the political space in which the different parties could manoeuvre their way towards what became the Good Friday Agreement. John Hume battled on at very hard times during this era - when any kind of dialogue came under attack from opponents as being a sign of weakness. Thankfully, he persevered and his efforts eventually brought about a solution.

He resigned as leader of the SDLP in September 2001, having been at the helm for 22 years. He said at the time that he had suffered serious health problems and would be cutting down on his workload. In recent years, he struggled with dementia and had to step away from the public stage. Speaking in 2018, on the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, his wife, Pat, sadly said that he had little recollection of the role he had played in Northern Ireland’s political life. I am certain, however, that whatever the subsequent developments in the fractious politics of Northern Ireland, Hume’s reputation will remain intact.

THE IRISH SCENE | 45

Continued on page 46

Continued from page 45

John Hume with his wife Pat after his election to the European Parliament in 1979, and right, with Ian Paisley. Image: Pacemaker, www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-44753271 “Politics,” he once said, “is the alternative to war.” I couldn’t agree more.

I left Ireland when I finally obtained a BSc. It was good to know that as well as not being a scientist, I was not going to enter Politics either!

I wrote a song at the time to try to describe my feelings. It would have been at the time of the hunger strikes there and I was only getting the information from friends. I was living in Spain at the time and I never watched the Spanish news. By the way, I never ever sang this song (written below) but to my surprise I found it in an old book. In the song, Sean of course is a fictional character. His name is pronounced Mac A Lee. O Sean McAlee I feel so lonely My speech is gone by bones are dry What have I done what have I died for?

Will you sing this song for me will you tell me why?

I had just reached four years and twenty Before I knew that I would die I did it in the name of glory I did it then …. Now I’m not sure why O Sean McAlee will you tell my children Will you say to them that I was brave Will you sing to them this simple story Will you tell that Ireland I tried to save.

O Sean McAlee I can see the young fightin’ Will you tell them that it’s all in vain For now I see we’re all together All of those from both sides who were killed or slain And now I have to go and leave you I hope you’ll soon all live so free I’ll ask you now and for old time’s sake Will you sing this song for me …Sean McAlee?

Ah the wisdom of youth. It is getting to be more difficult every day to be positive. I hope you are all well and coping and as Dave always said ‘May your God go with you.’

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FROM MELBOURNE

BY MIKE BOWEN

G’Day from Melbourne, the State of Disaster BACK IN LOCK DOWN I do hope there’s a sense of optimism among all, as we progress through this pandemic nightmare. In my last article some time ago, I gave a glowing account of how well Australia was managing the spread of the virus.

It just goes to show how things can turn around very quick when dealing with a sinister foe like this. The virus has now outfoxed us and is rapidly escalating in numbers, just as it has outfoxed the rest of the world.

I’m sure you’ve all heard and read enough information on the Covid-19 virus and are up to your eyeballs with it, as if it’s the only thing that is happening in this locked down world we find ourselves in.

so far? I’m checking to see if you’re still with me. Ok. Assuming you haven’t stopped to have a sneaky taste test on the way home, once at home grab yourself a large glass and pour a decent drop of the bottle into it. Now go and sit yourself down in your favorite armchair. Take your time, hold the glass to your nose and have a good sniff of it, if you can smell the aroma dew from it your half way there so far. Don’t rush yourself by galloping it down in one slug, enjoy the experience. Once you’ve finished the glass and there’s that wonderful flavor of the Irish dew lingering in your mouth, you have now passed the smell and taste test. So you can have another six or seven glasses and I’m going to change tact here and try to sprinkle a you’ll find that you are virus free every time. You can little light hearted humor test yourself as many times as into your day. The medical you like, as long as you pass experts here tell us that if you On a minor plus, I have noticed the smell and taste test. Be have a problem with your careful the next morning as a that I’ve saved a considerable taste and smell, you might headache could be a telltale of have the virus. I should state sum on razor blades, as I don’t the virus? Ooops. that I am not a doctor and

have to shave as often as I used

A lawyer friend of mine told have no medical experience, to when I travelled the world to me he’s flat out with another whatsoever. This bit of advice plan to help Australia fight the show what a good looker I am. could be treated as a wise virus. He is working on social old tale to relief some of your distancing by trying to get as stress. Grab yourself a bottle many divorce cases through the courts as possible at of Irish whiskey if there’s one around the house, if not the moment. This he says is an antidote to the lock just run down the nearest takeaway bottle shop and down laws that we find ourselves in. He also said the pick up one from the shelf. Don’t just stand around lock down law has showed that a lot of his clients had gawking at the shelves for a half hour making up your murder on their mind until he came up with the social mind, wondering which brand is best. They’re all distance idea. good, so just grab the nearest one to your hand. Don’t forget to pay for it on the way out and don’t rush home The only problem with the social distancing is, that it’s in case you drop it. If you do drop it, I suggest you virtually impossible for any damsel to meet up with don’t embarrass yourself my trying to lick the contents a potential knight in shining armor, or for any male from the footpath. I hope I’m not going too fast for you hunk to die for, to meet with a Mary Poppins to take THE IRISH SCENE | 48

Above: An empty Flinders Street station as the lockdown hits Melbourne. Picture: Getty home to show his mom. Of course there are the many websites with all the promises on earth of happiness and fulfillment from the Alexis’s in Russia to the Stephanie’s from god only knows where. How can any poor soul know if any of those enticements are for real? Who would know as those seductions could very well be from a group of hairy bikers in the Baltics?

I’ve noticed lately as I go to pick up the mail from my mail box at the end of the garden, that there’s a large decline in the pathway. This is caused by the many locals who parade past my mail box doing their daily exercise, as they are not allowed to leave lock down areas. Sometimes they remind me of prisoners that I’ve seen walking around in circles in TV documentaries. I must admit I was tempted on a few occasions (just to break a bit of the boredom of lock down) to dig a hole and cover it over for some of the morning walkers who would still be half asleep, as they pass by. Of course I could put out a divert sign, pointing to the section of road beyond where the service delivery vans and garbage trucks use, but on second thought I figured that might get me into a bit of strife. Yes I know this kind of thinking is childlike but this is what happens to a grown man when he is isolated for months. One returns to ones childish pranks just to remain compos mentis.

On a minor plus, I have noticed that I’ve saved a considerable sum on razor blades, as I don’t have to shave as often as I used to when I traveled the world to show what a good looker I am. On a minus side, the price of petrol dropped from $1.75 to 74 cents when the State introduced the lock down laws when the first wave of the virus hit Victoria. So we get cheap petrol but, not allowed to drive anywhere. We are in

lock down again with the second wave of the virus and it is having a devastating affect on all. I wonder if any of you remember a song called ‘The Pub With No Beer’ from many years’ ago, sung by Slim Dusty. Little did the Australians ever think that such a thing could happen again here? Well guess what - the pubs are all closed here until the lock down is lifted. If I were back home in Ireland now, I could hitch up the old donkey and trap and head to the pub for a pint or two, and if I had a few too many, the donkey knows the way home anyway, so no problem!

Due to the isolation lock down I have now found myself reacquainting a lot more with some of my other neighbors, notably, the many pelicans, swans, shags and ducks in the lake who come to visit me outside my kitchen door. I’d like to think that they think I’m a nice person because they put on a display and ruffle their feathers for me. While that’s a lovely sight in so many ways there is a slight down side to it also. Part of my feathered friends kindness comes in the form of what they leave me with when they leave, and that’s the piles of poo they think I will be grateful for on their departure. My feathered friends can sometimes cause a disturbance when they are mating, thank god they don’t drink alcohol. If they did, that could get me into all sorts of strife with the wildlife officers.

I hope this bit of ranting took your mind off the current situation for a while from the sad position we find ourselves in today. Stay safe, and be good to those who love you. Until the next time.

Slainte from Melbourne and Victoria where as I write we are still in a state of disaster...

THE IRISH SCENE | 49

Discovering and Reassessing

Louis MacNeice

BY CAROLINE SMITH Last year, while visiting Ireland for the first time in years, I found myself driving through the countryside of Sligo looking for the Yeats’ grave; and found it, finally, in an unobtrusive churchyard. Earlier, in Dublin, I had happened upon an exhibition dedicated to Seamus Heaney sponsored by the Bank of Ireland, where examples of his work were displayed in the bank’s cultural and heritage centre. And as we moved north towards Belfast, I began to think about another poet whose work I first encountered in adolescence, and whose career has been undergoing a series of reassessments in recent years.

This is Louis MacNeice, who although being born in Belfast to parents originally from Connemara, was for many years analysed through the prism of British literary developments – particularly the ‘Auden group’ (W.H Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis) to which he belonged.

In the 1990s, when I first discovered poetry, it was the heyday of Heaney, who had recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and whose work I studied in school – in Australia, no less. But as a Northern Irish immigrant in the latter, it was the more complex and uncertain identity offered by MacNeice which appealed, particularly through works like ‘Carrickfergus’ – written in 1937. Here, he evoked a series of dualities within the province: contrasting Belfast’s urban setting ‘between the mountain and the gantries’ with the rural town

Above: Louis MacNeice.

Photo by Kurt Hutton/ © 2006 Getty Images

Right: Blue commemorative plaques showing MacNeice’s birthplace and childhood home in Northern Ireland of the title, going on to highlight spacial divides between the two faith communities in the latter. He concentrated particularly on his disconnection from parts of this society, being – as the son of a Protestant minister – ‘banned forever from the candles of the Irish poor’, while also expressing uncertainty about his future at an English prep school, described as ‘the world of parents contracted into a puppet world of sons’.

Sherbourne Preparatory School – to which he was sent in 1917, following the death of his mother – was the first of many institutions of the British establishment with which he achieved success, going on to read Classics at Oxford in 1926, and working with the BBC from 1941 until his death twenty two years later. At Oxford, he fell in with Auden – already considered the university’s foremost poet – who encouraged him to take up literature seriously. In the following years, he would become closely associated with Auden’s circle, and considered one of the ‘poets of the 1930s’, based in London and approaching the sociopolitical challenges of the era from a left-wing perspective.

But while contemporary critics easily placed him in this group, more recent assessments have focused on MacNeice’s individual vision as a writer, his mixed political convictions, and his placement between the cultures of Ireland and England. Richard Danson Brown – writing in 2009 – emphasised his tendency to write as an ‘everyman’; not accepting that poets should be outsiders in the Romantic mould like THE IRISH SCENE | 50

Shelley, nor Modernist prophets speaking in thick allusions like T.S Eliot. Instead, MacNeice conceived of himself as ‘a specialist in something which everyone practises’, connecting to his audience through autobiographical details and reflections on the everyday. Some of his life experiences may have encouraged this connection with the wider world: immediately after Oxford, MacNeice took a job lecturing in Classics at the University of Birmingham, where he would encounter students from social backgrounds quite unlike his own and that of his literary associates.

While others in the Auden circle may have written about the importance of social consciousness, MacNeice was forced to challenge his own snobbishness through encounters with members of the working and lower-middle classes, becoming more aware of different types of social experience generally. This in turn, allowed him to adopt the role of empathetic observer in his poetic depictions of others: in the famed long poem ‘Autumn Journal’ (1939), he writes of those returning from an August bank holiday, zooming in on mundane details ‘tanned… With blistered thumbs and a wallet of snaps and a little Joie de vivre which is contraband’, and does not judge or assume his subjects’ political convictions or capabilities with too much certainty. Some may be happy to return to the ‘till and typewriter’ while others are posed as challenging society - ‘refusing harness and more who are refused it would pray that another and a better Kingdom come’.

“

World is crazier and more of it than we think, incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion a tangerine and spit the pips and feel the drunkenness of things being various.

‘Autumn Journal’ also broached the subject of Ireland, allowing MacNeice to translate the jumble of his own memories and impressions into an appreciation of, but also frustration towards both sides of sectarian conflict in the north: ‘And one read black where the other read white, his hope the other man’s damnation: Up the Rebels, To Hell with the Pope, and God Save — as you prefer — the King or Ireland.’

Although the following lines contain a caustic wit which sometimes veers into insult - ‘the land of scholars and saints: scholars and saints my eye, the land of ambush, purblind manifestoes, never-ending complaints’ - there is also a searing despair which reveals the poet’s connection to the country and its fate. Acknowledging that his education in England allowed him the opportunity to be ‘well out of it’, MacNeice reflects bitterly on political realities of the island and the commercial preoccupations of Belfast where ‘the minority (is) always guilty’, ending with the suggestion: ‘Put up what flag you like, it is too late to save your soul with bunting.’ The poet’s alienation is the central focus here, but the final lines may also resonate with those today who remain frustrated with streets and districts of the north demarcated by flags.

Continued on page 52

–“Snow”, by MacNeice

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Continued from page 51

Above left: The gravesite of another famous poet, W.B. Yeats, in Sligo. Above right: Caroline on her trip to Ireland However, returning to the suggestion of MacNeice as an ‘everyman’, it is hard to deny that some of his most endearing moments as a poet are those without specific political or social context, in which he expresses the wondrousness of the natural world, and human reactions to it. The best example is perhaps ‘Snow’ - a simple three-stanza piece written in 1935 which combines detailed observation with almost dazed metaphysical questioning: ‘World is crazier and more of it than we think, incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion a tangerine and spit the pips and feel the drunkenness of things being various.’ It is hard to imagine a more evocative rendering of a winter scene.

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All Souls Night

In Cork 1957

BY NOEL O’NEILL

I look at the world now through tired eyes but years ago I looked at the world through the eyes of a child when I belonged to another time and place where my imagination would take flight and would often get the better of me where the better of me was there to be taken. Where on All Souls Night in Cork, our streets and alleys were patrolled by lop-eared flea-ridden one-eyed alley cats who chased the rats and snarled at the occasional bats who flew around the street lights and where stray dogs howled out of tune at the moon that hid behind the clouds, where inside we hid behind curtains afraid and uncertain as old toothless, snuff stained gypsy women covered in black shawls knocked on our doors with baskets of heather in all kinds of weather to ward off bad luck from our helter- skelter- give- me- shelter little house on Crowley’s Lane. Black, green- eyed crows darted over the slated elongated rooftops and cawed through the wind at each other as they gathered around the warm smoky chimneys from the chill of November.

Bells would ring from church steeples where we joined other people who would gather broken hearted to pray for the faithful departed for those lost souls who resided in Purgatory, chanting Novena’s under the shadows of plastered statues who’s souls resided in heaven. Candles were lit to light the way out of the darkness into the light for the dead who may forever wander in the shadows. Hands were clasped around rosary beads where the crucified Christ could be seen swaying from swollen fingers.

Silent prayers were whispered in pews like good news to those souls who perhaps were listening from the dark corners of cemeteries where I imagined souls rising through the earth, through the flowers, past the headstones past the clouds, and up into the cold November sky to the Lord’s kingdom beyond the stars.

Sins from the living for those who left us were forgiven. Hymns were sung and more bells were rung and I could almost see a communion of saints come down from above in the name of God’s love and welcome each soul into paradise. If I listened closely I was sure I could hear a choir of angels singing out Hallelujah’s from the rafters of the old church. We were confessed then blessed with holy water from the solemn looking priest draped in purple who

shared the body and blood of Jesus. Jesus Christ who forgave the living and the dead and tried make us understand, who tried to hold us all together with holes in His hands.

The mass was over and everyone slowly scattered like mice from the candle lit church where I could see old men and younger chaps turn up their collars and put on their caps, light up cigarettes and sigh with unemployed regrets then through the park in the dark while we ran ahead of the others and of our mothers to avoid the sight of the cemetery, for what we might see would surely alarm and might harm us.

Once we were past the cemetery wall we could afford to be brave, we knew we were safe but as soon as my Dad caught up to us I held onto his hand for dear life while my sisters held onto my mother’s coat all the way home. Into the haven of the house, the kitchen where the coal fire was lit and the tea was brewed where we all watched the sparks fly up the chimney as the wood burst into flames and the coal burned and turned from cold black into warm blues and reds.

Dad took the last pull on his cigarette and tossed it into the flames while Mam lit a woodbine and before we went to bed brought out the ghost stories like they were bringing out the dead. The horses Dad witnessed pulling a coffin along the street but he never heard the horse’s hooves on the cobblestones or the wheels of the carriage. The poker game where one man dropped an ace on the floor and when he bent to pick it up it was the devils hoof he saw. There was the cry of the banshee Mam heard when her Dad passed away, and it went on and on until all hope of sleep was gone. Then we were all ushered up to bed when enough about ghosts were said. We held onto each other in the little stairway and kept talking to one another all the way up to the bedroom and as much as we nervously laughed till we cried about being terrified, but if the truth were told - we lied.

THE IRISH SCENE | 54

Opening up to

Oscar

Northbridge Piazza image: City of Perth

The 2019 film ‘The Importance of Being Oscar’ was shown on the Northbridge Piazza Superscreen in early August.

It is a a star studded account of Oscar Wilde's glittering and controversial career before his trial for homosexual crimes and tragic fall from grace.

CÉILÍ AND SET DANCING IN PERTH!

Highlights from Oscar's brilliant comedies such as The Importance of Being Earnest and stories such as The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost are adapted and performed by a cast including Freddie Fox, Claire Skinner, Anna Chancellor and James Fleet.

Wilde enthusiasts and experts including Stephen Fry, Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland, and his latest biographers provide revelatory accounts of how his own life informed his work.

His Irish roots, his early career, his marriage and the importance of women as well as men in his life all combine in a complex and compelling characterisation and celebration that adds flesh to the bones of a man who is too often caricatured.

THURSDAYS AT THE IRISH CLUB, SUBIACO

The outdoors screen is located at the corner of Lake Street and James Street, Northbridge and its aim is to celebrate artistic and creative spirit and expression in the entertainment precinct and provide entertainment, arts, cultural, community, sporting and educational based programming.

sean nos - 5.30pm set dancing & céilÍ - 6.00-7.00pm $10 pay as you go

The City of Perth also uses it to commission, exhibit, promote and support artists' work and innovation in the fields of film, video and new media.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 55

Teachers: Caroline McCarthy & Sinéad Hussey

Martin Kavanagh Hon Consul of Ireland

Covid-19 As Western Australia continues to keep Covid-19 at bay, it is a very difficult time for many Irish citizens who need to travel in and out of Australia, particularly in family emergencies.

A few key points: • Approximately 80% of the applications to leave Australia are rejected.

• Permission is only given in exceptional circumstances such as family emergencies and funerals.

• Permission is required if you intend to return, or you are a dual citizen or permanent resident.

• Provide as much documentation as possible, as early as possible, to prove your reasons for travelling. Documents such as birth and marriage certificates and medical documents are helpful.

We are very happy to provide letters of support to help your application. However, there must be a valid reason to travel. Please don’t hesitate to contact the Honorary Consulate if we can help.

Returning to Ireland Significant numbers of Irish have returned to Ireland.

However, the statistics don’t necessarily reflect a very large exodus. For example, the number of Irish temporary visa holders in Australia at the start of Covid-19 in March was 20,188. By June 2020 the number had dropped to 16,436 – a decrease of 18%.

Whilst this is a significant drop it also reminds us of the need to support the work of the Claddagh in providing as much assistance to the Irish in need. My thanks to the Claddagh for all their great work. It’s also good to see ongoing increased finding for the Claddagh and other welfare agencies from the Government of Ireland.

Ambassador Gary Gray

My sincere thanks to Joanna Robertson and all the staff, volunteers and musicians of Kidogo who gave such a wonderful send off to Australia’s new Ambassador to Ireland Gary Gray and Pippa. It was the best of Irish nights.

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 | 56

K O BO

!

W NO

WA SEPTEMBER SUNDOWNER Join us in Perth as we get back to business!

17TH SEPTEMBER, 5:30PM

With Covid-19 restrictions having eased in Perth, join us for our September Sundowner Networking Event - "Back to Business" at the offices of Nexia, 3/88 William Street in Perth CBD. Book now via our website. @IrishChamber Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce @IrishChamber www.irishchamber.com.au

Your wellbeing is our first priority. Please note that numbers will be strictly limited at our events and social distancing measures will be in effect to support compliance with the prevailing health advice and government guidelines.

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WOMEN IN S ORT

A Day at the Races - this October!

21ST OCTOBER, 12PM

Save the date for this Premium event to celebrate women in sport.

Join us in October at the Director's Lounge, Ascot Racecourse for an afternoon of racing, networking and special guest speakers line-up.

More details to come! @IrishChamber Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce @IrishChamber www.irishchamber.com.au

Your wellbeing is our first priority. Please note that numbers will be strictly limited at our events and social distancing measures will be in effect to support compliance with the prevailing health advice and government guidelines.

THE IRISH SCENE | 57

Welcome back to

Irish Seniors Lunch THE IRISH CLUB, AUGUST 7 After a long hiatus caused by the pandemic the monthly Irish Seniors Lunch made a welcome return to the Irish Club on August 7. It was good to see so many familiar faces and old friends getting back together after many were forced into isolation because of Coronavirus.

Everyone enjoyed the company, food and drink and music and entertainment – including a raffle - laid on by Fred Rea and a troupe of performers.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 59

Gathering pLace THE IRISH CLUB, AUGUST 14 The Gathering in the Irish Club saw a fantastic sold out night of great Celtic (traditional and folk Irish and Scottish) music and song performed brilliantly

by Bachrum, special guests and friends on August 14. The Gathering is fast becoming a major entertainment event for the Irish community and Bachrum are well worth checking out at any of the venues they play, including Wednesday nights at the Galway Hooker in Scarborough. Slรกinte!

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CLADDAGH REPORT

Crisis Support: 0403 972 265

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

www.claddagh.org.au

support work COVID-19 continues to have a big impact on the Irish community in WA. Although the situation here has not been so acute, since the last Claddagh Report we are still receiving calls for support at four times the rate we experienced at this time last year. In the last month, half of those we supported needed assistance with travel exemptions to return home to Ireland or to WA for funerals, health emergencies or relocations.

We are also supporting families and individuals with issues including relationship breakdown, bereavement, employment issues, health problems and migration difficulties - all of which are exacerbated by the stress and uncertainty during these pandemic times.

Claddagh’s COVID-19 fund covers the costs of the direct support we are offering to members of the Irish community in difficult circumstances during this time. 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 or 08 9249 9213 and she will forward details about applying for emergency assistance from Claddagh.

Claddagh acknowledges the important support of the Irish Government through funding from the Emigrant Support Programme. If you are in the position to contribute financially to Claddagh this would be gratefully received. Your tax-deductible donation will help Claddagh continue its work in support of Irish people in difficult circumstances here in WA.

Claddagh Seniors We are pleased to tell you that the Claddagh Seniors group were reunited in person again in August. The group met for a lunch and cinema viewing of The Personal History of David Copperfield in early August.

The event was superbly organised by the Seniors subcommittee, with very careful attention to COVID-19 health guidelines. They even booked out the whole cinema to aid social distancing.

Places were booked out for the Seniors group meal and bingo at the Greenwood Tavern on the 25th August. As a result, we organised a second sitting on Tuesday the 1st September. At each event, the Seniors will again be exclusively occupying the dining room so that COVID-19 guidelines can be followed.

If you are interested in attending Claddagh’s Senior events in September and October, keep an eye on our Facebook page for details and contact Claddagh early for bookings.

The May/June Irish Scene mailout by the Seniors subcommittee was so well received that they repeated the exercise with the print edition of the July/August issue. Many members of Claddagh Seniors group are still not getting out to all the usual venues where they can pick up the magazine and are not able to access the digital version of the Irish Scene. So, our volunteers gathered again to post out the Senior’s favourite reading! We plan to keep doing this until our Seniors can return to more normal routines.

Donations can be made at our GiveNow page: www.givenow.com.au/thecladdaghassociation or via bank transfer to Claddagh’s account: Bank: Commonwealth Bank Account name: The Claddagh Association BSB: 066153 Account no: 10771928 Ref: Your initial & surname +DON THE IRISH SCENE | 62

Oral history project The Claddagh Association’s Oral History project has progressed very well since we received funding from the Government of Ireland’s COVID-19 Response Fund for Irish Communities Abroad. Many generous volunteers offered their time to record interviews and at the end of July they participated in an oral history training facilitated by Claddagh Coordinator, Anne Wayne and freelance journalist and Claddagh consultant, Michelle Crowther. We also had a great response from Claddagh Seniors keen to share their story of emigration.

Volunteers and Seniors have been paired up and interviews are well under way.

We’re looking forward to hearing the results and sharing them with you.

Online training for Seniors The Government of Ireland COVID-19 Response Fund for Irish Communities Abroad has also provided a grant to Claddagh for a project to train our Seniors to be confident using apps which can

Saturday 5th September 11am - 1pm

Learn to video call friends and family in Perth or Ireland using your laptop, mobile phone or tablet

Saturday 19th September 11am - 1pm

In this session we will cover the basics of email. You will take home some top tips that will have you sending emails like a pro.

Continued on page 64

Saturday 3rd October 11am - 1pm

Below: Claddagh volunteers busy preparing Irish Scene mailout to seniors.

Learn about the most popular apps that are currently being used - Whatsapp and Instagram

Saturday 17th October 11am - 1pm Learn how to set up and connect with people on Facebook and Snapchat

This is a hands on workshop so bring your laptop, mobile phone or tablet with you on the day. Should you not have a device, please let us know and we may be able to provide you with a loan device.

Places are limited so call 08 9249 9213 to reserve your spot.

THE IRISH SCENE | 63

Continued from page 63

keep them connected with loved ones. See our ad on page 63for more information. You can register your interest by contacting Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org.au or 08 9249 9213.

Support Claddagh by becoming a member The Claddagh Association is a membership organisation led by a volunteer committee who are made up of Claddagh members.

The Coordinator based in our Malaga office is our only paid staff person. Claddagh could not accomplish the work we do without our members.

By joining Claddagh, you are supporting our threefold mission of working with members of the Irish community in difficult circumstances, connecting a network of seniors and celebrating Irish community and heritage in WA. Now, more than ever, a strong membership is important to us, because it allows us to attract government and non-government funding for more projects that support our community.

Our annual membership fee is only $10. Membership entitles you to volunteer with Claddagh, attend our events, receive discounts on Seniors outings and vote at our AGM and any Special General Meetings.

Claddagh’s annual membership renewal drive is underway. If you have not yet renewed your membership or would like to become a new Claddagh member please apply online here: claddagh.org. au/become-a-member/ or by contacting Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org.au or 08 9249 9213.

Upcoming Events GAA IN WA COMMUNITY DAY SATURDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER We’re looking forward to the chance to catch up with everyone at the GAA Community Day. Claddagh volunteers will be staffing a stall so come along to say hello, join up or take some of our useful information.

AGM FRIDAY 23RD OCTOBER All Claddagh members are welcome to our AGM on Friday the 23rd October.

We will be sending out the agenda and annual reports to all members in September.

REMEMBRANCE SERVICE SUNDAY 1ST NOVEMBER Claddagh have begun planning for our annual Remembrance Service. We will gather on Sunday 1st November at 3pm at St Joseph’s Church, Subiaco to remember our loved ones who have died here in Australia, in Ireland or elsewhere in the past year. All are welcome.

FRANK MURPHY PRESENTS

CELTIC RAMBLES 107.9FM RADIO FREMANTLE SATURDAY 8AM - 10AM PRODUCER: GERRY GROGAN

Music. Conversation. Special Tributes. Interviews.

Celebrating the Ireland of today and past times.

RADIO

FREMANTLE 107.9fm

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COMPETITION

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THE IRISH SCENE | 65

Crisis support:

0403 972 265

Crisis support

:

0403 972 265

PY NEW YEAR!

Irish Mams NOR Playgroups Monday, Wednesday & Fridays

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 | 66

Mo Scéal Féin This is Seosamh MacGrianna’s autobiography.

He is in an eating-house in Liverpool, looking at the other people and thinking about the difference between Irish and English people as regards willingness to chat, physical height and strength. He ends up in conversation with a woman who is Irish and he begins to feel that he is not in Liverpool at all but could be back in Ireland.

XXX Obair Chosanta na Gaeilge Ansin, an deichiú lá den tarna mí den bhliain míle ocht gcéad cheithre fichid a haon déag, chuir an tEaspag litir chugamsa á rá liom dul im shagart paróiste go paróiste Chaisleáin Ó Liatháin.

Táim anso ó shin.

Is dóigh liom go rabhas dhá bhliain anso nuair a thosnaigh obair na Gaeilge, dáiríre, i mBaile Átha Chliath. Thuigeas ón gcaint a bhí ar siúl, agus as na fógraí a thagadh amach, go raibh socair ar an nGaeilge bheo a bhí i mbéala na ndaoine a shaothrú. Bhí fhios agam go dian-mhaith gur mar sin ba cheart an obair a dhéanamh má bhí sí le déanamh in aon chor. Bhí leabhair Eoghain Uí Chamhraí agam agus an graiméar Gaeilge a scríobh Ó Donabháin, agus bhí fhios agam ná raibh aon bhreith ag leabhair den tsórt san ar oiread agus aon lá amháin sa mbreis a cur le saol na Gaeilge. Bhí fhios agam gur admhaigh na fir sin féin ná raibh uathu ach oiread agus d’fhéadfaidís den Ghaeilge a bheith socair daingean i leabhair acu, i dtreo go mbeadh an méid sin di le fáil sna leabhair sin nuair a stadfadh muintir na hÉireann d’í a labhairt. Chonaic Ó Donabháin agus Ó Chamhraí go raibh sí ag imeacht, ag imeacht go réidh, ach ag imeacht go deimhnitheach, agus thuigeadar go maith ná raibh aon bhreith ag an obair a bhí acu féin á dhéanamh ar aon chosc a chur leis an imeacht san.

Tá sé daingean im aigne, áfach, nár thuigeadar an díobháil a bhí san imeacht san. Is dóigh liom gur thuigeadar, agus gur thuig a lán nárbh iad an uair sin, agus i bhfad ina dhiaidh sin, gur thairbhe mhór a dhéanfadh an t-imeacht. Bhí cúiseanna troma acu féin agus ag daoine eile lena thuiscint go mbeadh tairbhe san imeacht. Na daoine a bhí beo in Éirinn an uair sin agus gan acu ach an Ghaeilge, is amhlaidh a bhí ceangal na gcúig gcaol ar a n-aigne chomh fada agus chuaigh gnóthaí saolta. In aon tsaghas gnóthaí dlí, cuir i gcás, bhí fear an Bhéarla ábalta ar an ndubh a chur ina gheal orthu agus ar an ngeal a chur ina dhubh orthu, agus ní raibh aon chaoi acu ar iad féin a chosaint. Dá n-insidís a scéal féin as Gaeilge ní thuigfeadh aon duine iad, ach THE IRISH SCENE | 67

amháin, b’fhéidir, an fear a bheadh ceaptha ar an éagóir a dhéanamh orthu. Bhíodh an fear teangan acu, ach dá mbeadh breabh glactha ag an bhfear teangan san, conas a bheadh an scéal acu? Pé taobh óna bhféachtaí isteach an uair sin sa chuma ar a raibh an duine ná raibh aon Bhéarla aige, chití go raibh sé i gcruachás go tubaisteach.

Sin é fé ndear do Dhomhnall Ó Chonaill a rá gurbh fhearr leis go mbeadh an Ghaeilge seacht míle síos fé uisce na farraige thiar.

Chonaic sé os chomhair a shúl an éagóir uafásach á dhéanamh ag fear Shasana, coitianta, ar an Éireannach, agus gan ar chumas an Éireannaigh aon fhocal a labhairt chun é féin a chosaint ach focal ná tuigfí. Dhein Domhnall Ó Conaill féin obair mhór ag cosaint na nGael ar an éagóir a bhí á dhéanamh orthu. Thuig sé go hálainn ná bheadh aon bhreith aige ar an obair sin a dhéanamh mura mbeadh an Béarla bheith chomh mhaith aige, agus é bheith ábalta ar lucht an Bhéarla a throid as a gcaint féin, as Béarla.

Níor chuimhnigh éinne ar an dá theangain a chur ar siúl in éineacht. Mheas gach éinne nár bhaol ná go mbeadh tuilleadh agus a dhóthain Gaeilge ag gach Éireannach pé Cuma ina ngeobhadh an saol i dtaobh Béarla. Ní raibh ach lucht machnaimh, mar Ó Camhraí agus Ó Donabháin, a thug fé ndeara go raibh an Ghaeilge ag imeacht.

Níor thugas-sa féin fé ndeara go raibh aon Continued on page 70

A Kindly Priest 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, in this and previous generations.

However, I have managed to translate it into English, and I hope you enjoy it.

The story is a tribute to Fr. Patrick Lonergan who administered in the parish in the early part of the 20th century.

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.

Inside the Church gate in a particular parish in the Munster Deise of County Waterford there is a monument that is so unusual that it hardly has a counterpart across all of Ireland. It is only a cross made of black marble with a biretta, chalice and other priestly symbols engraved on it. Thirty years ago (1931) the body of Father Patrick Lonergan was put into the ground under this cross in the parish of Knockanore in West Waterford.

Now, Irish people are given to have knowledge of saintly people who live in far off countries. We are forever reading about priests and nuns that spend their lives in Italy, Spain, France, every country on the world map, except our small little one. It is hard to believe but there hasn’t been a saint in Ireland for the past eight hundred years!

Well, it is not for me to have opinions in relation to the parish and the people in authority, but I am certain sure of this: there isn’t a parish in Ireland where there was a priest who approached the esteem of the saints through piety, charity and humility in this way. A person of this calibre was Father Patrick Lonergan who was Parish Priest of Knockanore in the Western Deise from 1912 until he went to his eternal reward on the 12th of May 1931.

In this short article I would not be able to describe the life of Father Lonergan in great detail. He was a scholarly man but he lived a simple life. He was a man of the people. He didn’t like to give the impression to his parishioners that he was too well off, especially if they were struggling a bit themselves. He would never spend much money on his clothes. He was always around the place, working ceaselessly, in a pair of worn out shoes and a suit that was faded green with age.

And, as regards what he would eat, well, Bishop Bernard Hackett had a little story about the first time he had a meal in Father Lonergan’s house. The Bishop came to Knockanore to perform confirmation on the children of the parish. When the ceremony was over the Parish Priest asked the Bishop to come up to his house for a bit of dinner, which was the usual procedure for such an occasion.

They went into the house. The kitchen was bare looking and there was no sign of a housekeeper. The priest pointed his finger to a bag that was in the corner of the kitchen. ‘You’ll find potatoes in that bag’, he said.

‘Start washing the whole lot of them and I’ll head out to the garden for a head of cabbage’ And there they were the Bishop and the Parish Priest making dinner for themselves. I would think that there wasn’t a house in the parish that day where a poorer dinner was served, but the Bishop would often declare afterwards that it was the nicest meal he ever had in his life!

There were many people at the time who lived in a very miserly way, but when Father Lonergan died he left very little money after him.

People were surprised at that, as the people of the parish were very generous to him every year, at Christmas, at Easter and also at the Stations. A short while after he died, however, it was discovered where the money went – a pound to a poor woman here, five pounds to a hungry house there, that was it – and all of that without a word to anybody.

THE IRISH SCENE | 68

Father Lonergan also believed that the Irish language was the best protection for religion in Ireland. Of course, some people thought him foolish for this, according to the clever writers of the time, but he lived according to his faith. The family rosary ­was recited in the church before mass and he often preached the sermon in Irish, especially on St. Patrick’s Day. He would go into the houses to converse in Irish with the elderly people, and also to learn from them, as he would say himself.

Indeed, he wasn’t to blame for the fact that the Irish language would eventually die out in Knockanore – as it did in the vast majority of other areas in the Country.

It is often said that we are a hardy people in the Western Deise, and not many people would have the ability to rain gentleness on us and soften our hearts. But when Father Lonergan died the people of Knockanore, Kilwatermoy and Glendine came together, lined the grave of the priest with moss, ferns, primroses and wild bluebells, until it was like a little sunken forest and then the body was laid into it gently.

It was the same people who erected the cross over the grave also, and it was said that the likes of it for beauty hadn’t an equal in the rest of Ireland. In reverence to Father Lonergan’s love of the Irish language, it was in the Irish language that every letter was engraved into the black marble.

Wouldn’t it gladden the heart that this wonderful priest was held in such high regard and affection by his own parishioners.

Annraoi O Liathain (1961) Translation into English by Bill Daly c 2016

Mr O’Farrell and the Prince

‘Fenian Fear’ by Peter Murphy, Gaelforce Promotions, Western Australia, 2018 BOOK REVIEW BY PETER CONOLE This interesting and often innovative work reveals some of the highways and byways of ‘Irishness’ in colonial Australia during difficult political times. Mr Murphy is to be congratulated for his fine research and skill in bringing that era back to life. Praise is also due to Fred Rae, to whom I will always be personally indebted for kindnesses and support over the years. It is great to know Gaelforce Promotions Publications continues the good work, as is Mr Rae whilst exploring the highways and byways of the Irish experience in Western Australia.

Mr Murphy is a Dublin man who moved to Western Australia in 1970. He has worked for TAFE’s college in Bunbury and for the National Trust. He has also been active in and conservation work. His much appreciated poetry and articles for Irish Scene deserved and got respect.

THE IRISH SCENE | 69

Continued on page 70

Continued from page 69

In his introduction Mr Murphy highlights allowed to explain to us in the book - is for much of the antipathy between Irish and him to take a shot at the prince.

English folk in the early development He did in April, 1868 and yelled ‘God of our country. There was violence save Ireland’ before firing. The prince (note the bloody business of Vinegar suffered a back wound and O’Farrell Hill in 1804) and community was charged with attempted rivalry of a religious nature which murder. Mr Murphy’s description sometimes caused problems for of the confusing incident - from the Catholic Church, which simply the gunman’s point of view - is could not openly support armed vivid. The victim recovered quickly activity and rebellion. As Mr Murphy but O’Farrell, with his mental and points out, in various parts of the physical health issues as an extra world (including Ireland) such burden, was in a world of trouble. problems evolved into a ‘dirty war’ Things ended in ugly investigations until Ireland obtained Home Rule. In and court activity. Opportunistic passing it is worth noting that large politicians tried to use the incident Mr O’Farrell scale potential or actual Fenian for partisan purposes. Others were military activity (especially two largely motivated by anti-Catholic attempts to invade Canada) caused headaches in high sentiments and tried to drag some clergy through the places in various British colonies. mud.

As the author explains Fenian Fear “is a potent mix of conspiracy, madness, terrorism, politics and religion…” He has researched Dublin speech talk of the 1880s and uses this to present the possible viewpoints of his leading character, Henry James O’Farrell, on the problems and dramas that led to his death. Queen Victoria’s second son - Albert, Duke of Edinburgh - visited the Australian colonies during late 1867 and early 1868. He spent a few days in Perth before heading for the more populous and wealthy colonies in the east. By then a Fenian named Francis Mitchell had finished working on the vulnerable O’Farrell and got him to take the oath. What he and a couple of offsiders wanted - as the troubled O’Farrell is

It would be giving too much away to outline the end game. Some fascinating pen portraits of politicians and other dignitaries are bestowed on the readers.

They are also in for a treat when they read how the would-be assassin provided a critical statement about his actions. That caused some public figures of the day to rue how they used the incident to try and enhance antagonistic and harsh feelings in the broader community. Fenian Fear is a good read and a rather original work.

(Correction: in the last issue of Irish Scene I mentioned that a statue of Queen Victoria by John Henry Foley was moved to Australia. The work was actually by another sculptor.)

Continued from page 67

bhaol uirthi go dtí gur chuas isteach sa choláiste, agus go bhfacas buachaillí éirithe suas agus gan aon fhocal Gaeilge acu.

Thuig lucht machnaimh, agus lucht faire aimsire, go raibh an Ghaeilge ag imeacht. Thuig lucht gnótha poiblí, agus lucht cosanta na nGael ar an bhfeall a bhí á dhéanamh orthu ag muintir an Bhéarla, thuigeadar dá luathacht a bheadh an Ghaeilge imithe agus an Béarla i mbéala na nÉireannach go léir gurbh ea ab fhearr é. Níor thuig éinne an uair sin an díobháil bhunaigh a dhéanfadh sé do chine Gael an Ghaeilge d’imeacht uathu; gur mhar a chéile dhóibh é agus a nádúr féin d’imeacht astu amach. Níor thuig éinne an léirscrios marfach a bheadh déanta ar an aigne Ghaelach nuair a bheadh an Ghaeilge imithe, agus

gan i gcroí ná i mbéal an Éireannaigh, ó Dhomhnach Diagh go Tigh Mháire, ach Béarla briste.

Sliocht as an leabhar ‘Mo Scéal Féin’ le Peadar Ó Laoghaire (1839-1920), Brún agus Ó Nualláin.

Ba ball den Conradh na Gaeilge é. Tá muid ag ceiliúradh Athbheochan na Gaeilge le 125 bliain anuas i mbliana agus mar sin tá sé oiriúnach a shaothar a chuimhniú.

BRÍD HIGGINS

Seanfhocal -

Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste.

THE IRISH SCENE | 70

The Irish Choir Perth returned to rehearsals in September. We appreciate how lucky we are to be meeting at all, and set a singular goal for this new term - to enjoy the simple pleasure of singing together as a group.

There was lots of chatter and discussion on seeing familiar faces once again, and sharing experiences of lockdown. There is no doubt that this unusual time bred both challenging and positive experiences, and perhaps it was this that made us more keenly aware and tuned into the lyrics of some new songs we started working on.

Irish music is full of melancholy and hope, lyrics and poetry that speak of our travels and travails, our troubles and progress, our love and our longing.

While circumstance changes over time, our human responses remain largely the same. There is no revelation in the idea that a song written many years ago can be relevant today in ‘these uncertain times’.

How often have we sung familiar lines without appreciating their meaning and then suddenly their relevancy is glaring?

The first song, an Irish Blessing, was familiar to us as a poem or a song in various formats. The final line resonated with those divided from family involuntarily for the first time, the distance between place never feeling further.

– until we meet again, my friend, until we meet again.

But the blessing was also full of kindness and good wishes for our neighbours and friends. It’s in our nature to juxtapose the sad with the happy, the dark and the light. What gets us through the dark is often our community, so while it may be some time before we can travel to see family in other states or countries, we can take solace and have fun being together with the people around us.

Irish Choir Perth Another beautiful song, Summer Blessing, felt like it could have been written for 2020.

May these long summer days be peaceful/May the hurts of the year fade away/May our love and our labour be fruitful/May the people become less afraid/May respect be stronger than judgement/ May forgiveness be stronger than pain/May the rain fall again in due season / May the passion to sing never wane.

The message of hope that threads its way through this song summarises the overall mood of the choir. We find the light, the fun, the craic!

The brightest spot for this new term of the Irish Choir Perth has to be the hiring of a fantastic new conductor, Hilary Price. Originally from Ireland, Hilary is an experienced and talented singer, musician and teacher. She has brought a lovely lightness and humour to our sessions, and her draw is evident by the number of new members coming through the doors.

The Irish Choir Perth is a community choir, open to all and with no auditions. Anyone who wants to give it go is welcome to join a session, Wednesday nights, 7pm at the Irish Club of WA. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

THE IRISH SCENE | 71

This article is reproduced from the May/June edition of Irish Scene, which was produced and published online but not printed during lock-down in Perth earlier this year. That edition was themed around the events created by COVID-19, but also stories of how previous generations of Irish Australian’s responded to pandemics and emergencies in their time. Because it seems we will be living with the consequences of the virus for some time those stories deserve to be shared and this will be the first of a number of stories from that electronic edition to be shared with readers in printed form. Good luck to us all and may God bless those who need it! - Editor

A place apart

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Woodman Point in Coogee, about five miles south of Fremantle, has a long history of dealing with pandemics and contagions.

It was built as a quarantine station at the waterside Munster location in 1886 to isolate people with or at risk of diseases such as leprosy, bubonic plaque smallpox. It was used to help contain the spread of the Spanish Flu towards the end of World War I, and for some time afterwards.

From about mid 1918, returning servicemen and women from the war were held at the centre for a full seven days before they were able to go back into the wider community.

Top: Woodman Point in Coogee.

Right: Martin O’Meara

An isolated incident?

Western Australia’s only Irish-born holder of a Victoria Cross medal, Martin O’Meara [who single-handedly and at great personal risk brought some twenty five wounded Australian soldiers and officers from no-man’s land on the Western Front to the safety of their own trenches] was one of the many diggers quarantined at Woodman Point. As it happens, O’Meara’s time there coincided with an historic moment in world history and one that also proved to be a tragic turning point in his life.

Thanks to the book about O’Meara “The Most Fearless And Gallant Soldier I Have Ever Seen”, by Perth man Ian Loftus, we know that O’Meara left for Australia from Liverpool onboard the troopship Arawa in September 1918. It also shows that while on board the Irishman filled out a registration form with the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, in which he indicated he wanted to return to his job as a railway cutter, or as a farmer, after his discharge from the Australian Imperial Force.

“Importantly, the form did not indicate that O’Meara had any health problem,” Loftus writes. On its journey to Australia, the Aruwa sailed off the coast of Africa and reached Cape Town in October. While fresh supplies were taken onboard, the ship’s passengers were not allowed to disembark because of a ‘pneumonic influenza’ outbreak in the city. Their next port of call was Fremantle, where they arrived on the morning of November 6, 1918 - which just happened to be O’Meara’s THE IRISH SCENE | 72

November 8

BACK IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA AN INTERVIEW BY ‘PHONE

Acting-Sergeant Martin O’Meara, one of Western Australia’s Victoria Cross winners, has returned home after an absence of over two years on service.

He is at present in isolation at Woodman Point where he is spending seven days as a precautionary measure to keep Spanish influenza out of the State.

Yesterday through the courtesy of Mr. T. Bucknell, officer in charge of the quarantine station, a representative of the ‘West Australian’ was permitted to interview Sergeant O’Meara over the telephone, the result being the following interesting story of the hero’s war experiences.

“I was born in Tipperary 34 years ago this month,” he said, “and I came out here in 1911 like a lot of other young Irishmen had done before me, to try my luck in Australia. I spent a couple of years in South Australia, but in 1914 came to the West and settled in the bush about 34 miles out from

Collie. Yes, I was sleeper cutting.

In August 1915, I got into khaki and in December of the same year I left with the 12th reinforcements of the 16th Battalion, and in the following August went into action at Mouquet Farm. That was my first experience of war, and it was pretty hot, too, I can tell you. We were carrying up ammunition under heavy shell fire—a sort of fatigue party—and of course a lot of fellows were wounded. I went out to do what I could for the poor chaps that were lying all around waiting for the stretcher bearers and helped a lot of them to get in out of danger. I went down to the cookers and got some hot tea and went out again with a stretcher and brought in more. Then I got a slight stomach wound, and they told me I was recommended for the Victoria Cross for something that had happened during the time from the 8th of August until the 12th. I suppose it was for fetching in those wounded officers and ‘diggers.’ You see, after the first

birthday, he had just turned 33.

There had been cases of flu on the voyage but these were quickly stamped.

“The men were quarantined despite the AIF medical officers onboard the Aruwa advising that there were no longer any cases of influenza aboard,” Loftus writes.

“Five men were admitted to the quarantine station’s hospital - one suspect case of influenza and four ‘other complaints’ - on November 7, but two days later at least some of them had been discharged.”

On November 8, the West Australian published an article based on an interview with O’Meara, probably conducted the previous day by telephone. As a Victoria Cross recipient - and certainly the only one who was on the Aruwa - O’Meara would have a certain status in Australian society, and his arrival would

day’s fighting and while I was out on my own, the battalion was relieved, so I just stayed there by myself doing this little job.

“After I got hit I walked back to the dressing station and, to cut things short, soon got over to Blighty. I had about four months in hospital and then went out to France again and had put in about seven months when I was sent to London on special duty, and then the King gave me the Cross. That was on July 21, 1917. Then after I had a look round the place I went back to France and was only there a couple of days when in the fight at Messines I ‘went out’ to a wound on the hip and was sent back to England to be patched up and here I am in quarantine. “Where is my home? Why, I haven’t one. Under any old gum tree I suppose is the best way to describe it. No, I’m not married, and this place’ll do me ‘for the duration.’ We are quite comfortable and happy, and I don’t care when the doctor sees me.”

have been newsworthy. [Two local civic receptions were organised for the Victoria Cross holder - attention O’Meara would not have been uncomfortable with.] The article - published here in full, above - is significant for another reason. It offers a precious and rare glimpse into his state of mind at what was a critical time for him.

While we cannot know the mood or spirit O’Meara was in at the time of the interview, his answers to the journalist do not at least on the face of it suggest this was a man with a tortured soul or a wounded mind. “Martin O’Meara had some sort of serious mental breakdown, at Woodman Point between 8-13 November 1918,” Loftus writes. “A lack of surviving records and a broad media ‘silence’ on mental health issues at the time made it difficult to accurately

THE IRISH SCENE | 73

Continued on page 74

Continued from page 73

determine what actually happened. The Calland WA Sportsman reported that, without being specific about the nature of his illness: “After being released from quarantine at Woodman Point, Martin O’Meara V.C. was so unwell that he was detained for treatment at another hospital. We understand his case will require careful consideration from specialists for some considerable time.”

O’Meara never recovered. He spent the rest of his life between various local mental institutions and hospitals until he died in 1935. When it became known this decorated war hero had spent 17 years in a strait-jacket, a parliamentary

inquiry was launched, but was of no help or benefit to O’Meara. He died just before Christmas in Claremont Mental Hospital and was buried in a Catholic plot at Karrakatta Cemetery with full military honours. His coffin was carried by three other VC’s and his funeral was given by a Fr. John Fahey, another native of Tipperary.

The fact that O’Meara’s sudden mental decline occurred almost simultaneously with the official end of World War I, on November 11, Armistice Day (now called Remembrance Day) makes an already distressing story even more poignant.

Crisis point at Woodman Point Just weeks after O’Meara was discharged from Woodman Point, the quarantine station was thrust into the heart of a remarkable row that has echoes of today’s controversary around unwanted cruise liners in Fremantle and Sydney.

Martin’s VC will linger longer in Ireland In what was a first for any Australian Victoria Cross - new legislation had to be put in place to facilitate it Martin O’Meara’s medal was allowed to leave the country on loan to the National Museum of Ireland. The loan was originally meant to last for 12 months, after which his VC was to return to its permanent home at the Army Museum of Western Australia, in Fremantle around the end of July.

But the museum has confirmed the loan to Martin’s native country will have to be extended as a result of the panemdic. With the Collins Barracks museum closed for the foreseeable future however, the medal will be displayed in the isolation of silence.

The Boonah, the last Australian troop ship, left Fremantle in October 1918. She carried about 1,200 soldiers destined for the conflict in the Middle East. Expecting to stock up with supplies, the Boonah arrived into Durban, South Africa but found that just three days earlier the war had ended with the signing of the Armistice. The ship turned around almost immediately to return home to Australia, stopping only to take on fresh supplies. The problem however, was that the local dockers who loaded the Boonah also brought the Spanish Flu onto the ship with them.

When it reached Fremantle on December 12, more than 300 cases of flu had been reported.

Perhaps fearing the station would be overwhelmed by such numbers, authorities refused permission for the soldiers to disembark. After a stand-off, the ship was allowed to anchor in Gage Roads - an area in the outer harbour area of Fremantle Harbour - where the 300 sickest men were then taken to Woodman Point. Three of them died on the first day.

Extra help with the large numbers of sick soldiers and sailors came from another Australian troop ship that had just returned just ahead of them.

“The troopship Boonah was two days behind us and we picked up her wireless messages nightly, detailing the daily increasing number of men suffering from pneumonia influenza,” commanding officer, P.M. McFarlane of the Wyreema wrote. “The Western Australian Commandant asked me to land twenty THE IRISH SCENE | 74

nursing sisters at the cramped and close Quarantine Station. living conditions were Volunteers were called a perfect breeding for and there was not ground for disease, only a ready response and infections but so many offered continued, leaving that it was necessary the men trapped in to place the names a never ending hell. in a hat and draw As more men became the twenty required. sick the situation They knew perfectly The troubled troopship Boonah worsened, there was well the enormous public outrage but risk they were taking. the state and federal authorities bickered for nine Yet they were eager to undertake the work and those days about what to do. Tensions increased to the whose names were not drawn were disappointed.” point where the Returned Service League threatend In all, 27 servicemen from the Boonah and four of the to storm the ship and release the men by force if twenty nurses who were infected - army staff nurses necessary. Eventually the Boonah was allowed to carry Rosa O’Kane, Doris Ridgway and Ada Thompson, and on to another facility, similar to Woodman Point, the civilian nurse Hilda Williams - from the Wyreema died as a result of influenza at Woodman Point during the Torrens Island Quarantine Station, north of Adelaide, crisis. with 17 more cases Another fascinating aspect of this crisis was the confirmed fact that the rest of the passengers and crew were left languishing onboard the Boonah. To prevent on the way, the spread of further cases the ship was put into but no new lockdown, which would not be lifted until seven days deaths. had passed with no new infections. But of course the

Citizen O’Kane Most of the facilities and buildings at the Quarantine Station were built after World War I, but the place still has at least one reminder of that episode. The address of the station is 74 O’Kane Court, Munster. It is named after Sister Rosa O’Kane, one of the four nurses who lost their lives at that time and who is buried on the grounds, where a monument was also erected in her honour. Not long after she volunteered to look after the sick Second Lieutenant, Sister Rosa O’Kane died. She was just 28 when she passed away on December 21.

She had set out on her war service just eight weeks earlier.

Most of the dead - including the nurses - were buried in a bush grave site at Woodman Point at the time, but in 1958 most of the service personnel were exhumed and re-interred at the Perth War Cemetery in Nedlands. Only the remains of O’Kane and Williams remain at Woodman Point. Rosa’s mother Jeanie O’Kane in Charters Towers did not want her daughter’s remains disturbed and refused to give consent for her to be moved.

Her mother described her daughter as “a fine type of Australian girl, of marked ability and a girl of great possibilities had God spared her life.” We know from Jeanie’s obituary in the local newspaper (The Northern Miner) in Charters Towers, Queensland, in July 7, 1936, aged 77, that: “Mrs. O’Kane was a native of Balleymoney, Antrim, Ireland, where she was born in 1859. Together with a THE IRISH SCENE | 75

Sister Rosa O’Kane sister and a brother, she made the voyage to Australia to join another brother, who, years before, had successfully settled at Maryborough.

Educational qualifications she had acquired in Ireland earned her an early appointment to the Queensland Educational Department staff, and it was as a schoolteacher that she came from Maryborough to Charters Towers Continued on page 76

Continued from page 75

in the course of 1879, when the goldfleld was in a very early stage of development. In less than two years she had met and married her namesake, Mr. J. G. O’Kane, and together they found happiness and prosperity in the pursuit of journalism.

For many years afterwards, nurses and others would meet at the bush grave in Woodman Point on Anzac Day to remember Rosa. The monument there was commissioned and paid for by the people of Charter Towers.

“She gave two of her three only children, Mr. Frank and the late Sister Rosa O’Kane, to Australia in the last war, on the return from which her daughter sacrificed her own life in humanitarian nursing service at Woodman Point, West Australia. The death of Rosa was, perhaps, the greatest swordthrust of sorrow that the old lady ever bore. From that moment in 1919 until the day of her death, Mrs. O’Kane idolised the memory of the fine daughter who gave her life for her country.

Mrs. O’Kane was in every respect a “war mother,” and no cause was ever so dear to her as that of the digger or the nursing sister. As each year passed she was an outstanding personality among those who organise the annual dinner in honor of soldiers on Anzac Day, and the aim or unanimity in public commemoration of Anzac Day was an objectlve for which she was an unceasing champion.”

Sister O’Kane also had Irish heritage on her father’s side as well. Her grandfather was Thadeus O’Kane, a fascinating firebrand newspaper man with a colourful past and career, which merits a story of its own in another Irish Scene, or certainly worth a quick Google.

Thadeus was born Timothy Joseph O’Kane in January 1820 in Dingle, Co. Kerry. He had two daughters and a son, who followed in his father’s footsteps and ran the Daily Northern Miner newspaper. Rosa was born the same year her grandfather died, but considering what a strong character this proud Irish man and Republican was that it is unlikely his legacy was not passed down through his son, Rosa’s dad, and onto her.

Splendid isolation Woodman Point ceased to be a quarantine station in 1979, when it became a holiday camp for groups, which is still run today by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. Tours and other activities are organised by the Friends of Woodman Point - a not for profit group of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about promoting the heritage facility’s unique history. They also work to preserve it. Last August the group helped coordinate repairs to Army Nurse Rosa O’Kane’s grave and headstone.

Families with a connection to Woodman Point sometimes call in. In October 2019 Stephen O’Kane, a great nephew of Sister O’Kane, and his wife paid their respect at her graveside. The great-nephew of Sister Ada Thompson, who died there during the Boonah crisis, also visited in December. In January a Dr Glenn Davies, from Queensland, and his wife, who is considering writing a biography about Rosa O’Kane, visited and around that time too a headstone for Nurse Hilda Williams - who also died during the Boonah crisis - was erected at her grave, 101 years after her death.

A recently installed model replica of the Boonah, a busy bee to spruce the place up and newly acquired artefacts from that era had all been completed when COVID-19 hit.

On March 14, Friends of Woodman Point Recreation Camp announced heritage tours at the site would

A tribute to the nurses of Woodman Point be suspended until further notice. “This is due to the current situation in relation to the Coronavirus problem,” the group said on its Facebook page. “This suspension is in line with the Heritage Council who have done the same, to protect the public and also their volunteers. We will advise when tours will start up.

Thank you.”

Stephen O’Kane shared his thoughts on the issue on the Facebook site of the Friends of Woodman Point. “Then as now, our doctors, nurses and emergency services protected Australia,” he said. “A big shout out to all essential services workers, especially Coles and Woolies workers, continuing the legacy of the past.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 76

Q. Nursing is very responsible at normal times, now with longer hours, more and more deaths, do you find it disturbing?

A. It was a bit frightening when the number of deaths were rising and the country was going into lockdown. I’ve never been in a pandemic before.

We are extremely lucky to be in Western Australia though. You just have to stay as safe as you can, listen to the guidance of our government and continue washing hands!

WITH TONY SYNNOTT

Q. I write for the “The Irish Scene” but with the virus, we are now online for the old people and everybody to read with no ads. Your thoughts.

Meet...

A. Considering the current climate, I think having it online is great as everyone is spending a lot more time at home. A lot of my elderly patients have commented on how much they are utilising the internet right now too. I think it’s helping to keep us all connected.

SARAH MURPHY

A Registered Nurse at the St Luke Medical Centre

Q. Will we ever get back to normality, if so when?

Q. How long have you been nursing, and what’s the attraction?

A. I have been nursing 5 and a half years. I trained in Trinity College Dublin and worked in Tallaght University Hospital. When I was a child I used to visit my Nana at the Tallaght University Hospital.

I was fascinated with the nurses who looked after her. I was also a very accident-prone kid, I remember how kind the nurses were to me.

Q. Have you got any regrets on your first choice of profession?

A. Originally nursing wasn’t my first choice, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But when the opportunity arose to study nursing, I am so glad I took it! I have absolutely no regrets, I love my profession!

Q. What a big change in our lives this COVID-19 has had, how has it affected you and your colleagues?

A. I work in a GP practice. It affected how we carried out patient care. Some of our patient care was completed via phone. We thoroughly screened patients who needed to come into the practice.

Also minimised those physically in the practice by asking them to wait in their car before the appointment. It was a strange time and everything took a bit longer. But everyone has been very understanding!

It also affected my social life as I was meant to be in Ireland right now to visit family and for my friend’s wedding! But unfortunately, no travelling at the minute.

A. I don’t think we’ll ever get back to how we used to be. But I don’t think that is a bad thing either. I think that people will be a lot more aware about the spread of germs and more mindful when they themselves are sick to try reduce the spread. It will be our “new normal”.

Q. What hospital are you working at present? do you worry about your safety and why?

A. I am currently working at St Luke Medical Centre which is a GP practice. No, I’m not worried. I am very lucky my practice manager took it very seriously at the start and put in measures to protect everyone at the practice.

Q. I have been in lockdown a month and I don’t feel happy but it’s what I’ve got to do. Your advice to me? I’m 86 years old.

A. I understand it must be hard changing your routine and having to stay inside for so long. I totally get it, I’d feel the same! But I guess my advice would be to try and keep yourself busy with things you like to do. Or take the opportunity to do something you’ve been meaning to start or try. My grandad in Ireland has started keeping a journal and doing lots of exercise. We have also written letters to each other which is so lovely!

Q. I spent 8 weeks in care in 2019 after a fall, the nurses were first class, no stopping, no lazy people. Your response?

A. That’s great to hear! So glad to hear that you had such a good experience. We do try our best! I think a lot of people go into nursing as they are dedicated and committed to helping people. It’s what they enjoy doing!

THE IRISH SCENE | 77

FHWA’s Irish Special Interest Group

Ireland Reaching Out In July, member Chris Timoney introduced people to 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. It is reaching out to the Irish diaspora.

Traditionally the Irish Special Interest Group (Irish SIG) of FamilyHistoryWA meets face to face every three months at 2pm on a Sunday. The last face to face meeting was held on 19 January 2020. Due to Covid restrictions the April meeting was cancelled.

However, the July meeting was held online via Google Meet. The last of 2020 meetings will be on 18 October and will also be online.

Ireland Reaching Out (IrelandXO) started in Galway as a pilot program in 2009. Their international website began in 2013. There is no central office; it operates with a skeleton staff in Ireland. It functions both through the website and via a volunteer network in civil parishes scattered throughout all 32 counties of the island of Ireland. There are also volunteers across the world in places such as Australia and USA where descendants of Irish emigrants are researching their Irish ancestry.

IrelandXO is NOT a search engine or a place to build an online tree. IrelandXO IS a network of volunteers dedicated to helping those of us with Irish ancestors reconnect with the local area, specifically the civil parish, from which our A heritage walk organised by the Bournea group ancestors emigrated. When we can finally travel to Ireland again, we can meet up with the Ireland local groups also go on excursions to Reaching Out community whose special focus is on helping us in our places of interest in the parish. genealogical travels in Ireland.

Since the pandemic restrictions curtailed IrelandXO is a community of local groups of volunteers spread across many of these local community activities Ireland, as well as some in other parts of the world. Volunteers engage IrelandXO has been running a series directly with the Irish diaspora by monitoring queries on the website of Creating Connections webinars and responding to them. They meet and greet visitors who come to that anyone anywhere in the world their parish looking for their Irish ancestors’ home places and hoping can take part in. The webinars have to discover living relatives. The volunteers also undertake local covered getting round the website, projects to capture and preserve local history knowledge. adding ancestor stories to the website (Chronicles), and Irish family history Chris Timoney herself is an IrelandXO volunteer living in Perth, but topics. on her many trips to Ireland she volunteers for the IrelandXO group at Bournea parish, Co. Tipperary. She told us about some of the As you know, the Irish are passionate fantastic local history projects and the heritage walks organised by about their history and there are the Bournea group. Each group develops their local own projects organisations all over Ireland dedicated though, based on the interests and commitment of the local to seeking out and preserving what volunteers as well as the local historical features. At Bournea they’ve remains. Irish history is under the developed interpretive map boards to guide walkers on the heritage spotlight in this “decade of centenaries” walk at other times of the year. They have also been transcribing 2013-2022. The Irish also love gravestone inscriptions and helping preserve the ruined Boulabane entertaining visitors from places like Castle and the 1812 Couraguneen church facade. See Chris herself Australia, New Zealand, Canada and in the blue jacket in the graveyard picture. The Bournea groups has USA. Genealogy tourism is great for the produced books about the parish and copies of these are now in the Irish economy, especially the rural Irish FamilyHistoryWA library. They train genealogical volunteers and the economy.

THE IRISH SCENE | 78

How can I interact with the IrelandXO website to further my family history research and to help others?

1. Ask for advice or information, via the message boards based around counties and (civil) parishes 2. Browse information already posted by others on message boards or under ancestor chronicles, buildings or timelines 3. Contribute what you already know about your Irish ancestors and make contact with people in your ancestor’s parish or even your own cousins somewhere in the world.

I have personally experienced great responses from my interactions with the Ireland XO website. I wanting to find out about the burial of my 4th great uncle, Edward Kirby (1795-1859), a Church of Ireland minister in Drummaul, near Randalstown, Co. Antrim. I posted an enquiry on the Co. Antrim message board. The very next day, there was a reply from a kind IrelandXO volunteer who said they lived in Randalstown and would go out the next day and take some photos of his grave. It turned out Edward was buried beside the larger church at Randalstown, along with his wife and her two sisters.

I also posted a message on the Co. Offaly message board about my very elusive great great grandmother Ann Nestor, and over a year later received a response from a woman living in New South Wales who turned out to be my 3rd cousin once removed, descended from Ann’s sister Ellen, who had migrated to Australia five years after Ann. I knew something about Ellen but knew none of her living descendants. The Nestor stories passed down to Ellen’s descendants have helped tremendously in pinning down this family in Irish records. And recently this connection has been confirmed through DNA matching.

Even if you don’t know where in a county your ancestor’s parish was, you can post an enquiry to the county message board, rather than the specific parish

Above: The group have been transcribing gravestone inscriptions and helping preserve the ruined Boulabane Castle and the 1812 Couraguneen church facade.

See Chris herself in the blue jacket. message board. The responses I received show that this can still produce good results. Others have not always been so lucky. It all depends on the strength of the local IrelandXO group, I suppose. But it’s a free website, so who not give it a go? You never know what you are going to find.

The next meeting on Sunday 18 October, will be a problem solving one aimed at helping people break down Irish “brick walls”. It’s 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 below. Those who have booked will be sent a link to the Google Meet shortly before the meeting at 2pm. New members and visitors are welcome.

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. Non-members and new members are welcome to join in from home.

Happy researching!

JENNI IBRAHIM, ON BEHALF OF THE IRISH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

MORE INFO

Robyn O’Brien, Convenor Irish Special Interest Group E irish.sig@fhwa.org.au Book a (free) place at the next Irish group meeting at TryBooking tinyurl.com/ISIG-TryBooking Go digging for resources at the Irish SIG webpage at FamilyHistoryWA tinyurl.com/irishsig Ireland Reaching Out www.irelandxo.com Chris Timoney’s presentation can be viewed at membership.wags.org.au/images/stories/documents/sigs/irish/Intro_to_IrelandXO.pdf Join FamilyHistoryWA Facebook group – researching family worldwide, open to all Join in the chat or ask a question at the FamilyHistoryWA Discussion Facebook group FamilyHistoryWA (FHWA) membership.wags.org.au T 9271 4311 . The FHWA Resource Centre is now open, although (free) bookings are essential FHWA Events at Try Booking tinyurl.com/FHWA-at-TryBookling

THE IRISH SCENE | 79

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

AIDA WA is excited to announce that we held our first Feis on the weekend of the 29th and 30th August. Our State Solo and Ceili Championships will be held between Friday 25th and Monday 28th September. Look out for more information in upcoming issues!

For our August Feis we presented each dancer with a certificate to add an extra special touch and to mark the occasion of AIDA WA reuniting for the Feis. These certificates were designed by one of our Western Australian dancers as we have decided to hold a design competition. The winning design was printed and displayed on each certificate.

O’Brien Academy Butler, Mindarie/Quinn’s Rock, Ocean Reef, Connolly, Duncraig www.obrienacademy.com Rose O’Brien ADCRG 0437 002 355 Martina O’Brien TCRG 0423 932 866 O’Hare School of Irish Dancing Doubleview, Wembley Downs & Craigie Jenny O’Hare TCRG 0422 273 596 Scoil Rince na hEireann Rockingham irishdance@iinet.net.au Megan Cousins TCRG 0411 452 370 Scoil Rince Ni Bhaird Fremantle & Lynwood Tony Ward TCRG 0427 273 596 Three Crowns School of Irish Dance Wangara & Padbury www.threecrownsirishdancing.com Eleanor Rooney TCRG 0449 961 669 Trinity Studio of Irish Dancing Morley, Midland, Bayswater & Singleton trinitystudiowa@gmail.com Eileen Ashley ADCRG 0413 511 595 Katherine Travers TCRG Nell Taylor TCRG WA Academy of Irish Dancing, Malaga Glenalee Bromilow ADCRG 0410 584 051 Sue Hayes TMRF 0412 040 719

Over the last few months we have been busy working through all the details and ensuring we are working to all current COVID-19 guidelines. Whilst we have had to overcome many obstacles making all arrangements, we thank you all for your support, patience and understanding.

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 | 80

Right: A throw back to our planning at the start of the year, before Covid hit.

Above: The first of our winning tunes - The Leinster Lady by Cormac O’Shea with guitar accompaniment by Brian Millar. This is the tune for the senior category.

View on our facebook page!

Further Irish Dancing news around the world!

The CLRG International Workgroup and Rince Agus Ceol (Music and Dance Committee) invited all teachers and dancers worldwide to participate in Cornphíopa le Chéile - Hornpipe Together!

The purpose of this challenge is to promote our dance, our culture, our music and our heritage while allowing dancers all around the World to engage with their teachers and learn a new piece of dance that they might never have the chance to learn again. This is a combined challenge between our wonderful musicians, teachers & dancers from across the Globe.

THE MUSICIANS!

Many new pieces of music have been created exclusively for this challenge and submitted by our wonderful musicians across the globe and the chosen tunes have now been uploaded to the CLRG website from the 20th of July. Check out the CLRG website for further details of these.

THE DANCERS!!

The dancers will create their own 32 bar choreography in a traditional manner including e.g. rocks, cross keys, boxes, drums. They must not include toe walks, double clicks and most importantly it must be danced in a Traditional Style. There will be 3 different age categories Under 13, 13-16, 16-20 & Adult. The music speed will be 140. The chosen piece from each region & each category will be showcased at their Regional Oireachtas to gain local recognition. The regional winners will then advance to the Worldwide competition and the overall winner will be invited to perform their piece at Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne 2021, Dublin. Competition closes on the 17th of September.

THE IRISH SCENE | 81

Mum’s the word

for these local writers

Two Irish born authors in Perth give us food for thought in books that might be very different but which deal with many of the same issues in their own way.

Dánta Póca is a book of poems, the first for Julie Breathnach-Banwait who wrote them, a collection that deals with many themes that she describes are those that effect us as human beings, such as depression, trauma, displacement and identity, loss and grief, anxiety, personal growth and development, the complexity of relationships, self esteem, hope, beauty, love, joy and acceptance.

“Poetry is self care,” said Julie. “It is a mindful activity that calms the mind and feeds the soul. It is a connection with that which is deep within us, that makes us who we are, that makes us whole and connects us with ourselves, the people around us and the surroundings in which we live.”

Her poem Cóta Gorm - which describes how those who we have loved and lost never leave us won first prize at the Cathal Buí Poetry Festival in 2018.

Dr Caitlin Nic Iomhair, Maynooth University praised her poetry: “particularly the work that she has done with poetry that handles material that is difficult to speak about. It is brave confessional poetry. The poems moved me, they can be both evocative and bare simultaneously.”

Julie is a mother, a poet and a psychologist and uses these and other experiences as inspiration in her writing. She was born and raised in Ceantar na n-Oileán in the Connemara Gaeltacht of West Galway. “Ceantar na n-Oileán is an archipelago of stunning natural beauty, stone bridges, sandy white beaches, large granite boulders, surrounded by the deep blue wild Atlantic,” she said. “The lilt of the melodic Irish Gaeilge is heard amongst the community making it an abundant source of inspiration for writers, poets and musicians.”

Julie trained as an education, developmental and child psychologist at Cardiff University and spent time in the UK working as a chartered psychologist before emigrating to Perth. She has lived and worked here in Western Australia for more than a decade. She is very keen to learn about life experiences and similarities between people and cultures from across the world. She explains that writing in the Irish language connects her with a part of herself that had been dormant for some time but is now ready to be awakened and explored.

Julie will be a guest speaker at the Ó bhéal Cork Poetry Festival on the 14th of September 2020 which will be broadcast live on Facebook. You can also follow her on Facebook: Filíocht Julie and Twitter @siobhannaspag

THE IRISH SCENE | 82

Lorraine Sindel came to Australia as a child. Her parents, Joe and June Fallon, left their native Dublin - where all six of their children were born at Holles Street Maternity Hospital - in the eighties in search of better weather and a change in lifestyle. “They were declined by both Canada and New Zealand and they originally thought we were headed to Sydney (because that was all everyone knew of Australia!), but we were thankfully allocated to Perth and have been here ever since.”

Lorraine launched Brave Books last November. “It was a little vision of mine that gained momentum because of both my own and family member health battle,” she explained. “About four years ago I struggled with one of my auto-immune diseases; Colitis (I have Arthritis, Endometriosis and Colitis). I had a severe flare-up that lasted about two years. I was on steroids for a long time and the usual medications to treat the condition weren’t working. It was a very difficult time for me, but thankfully almost two years ago I found a fantastic specialist that put me on infusions that have helped me immensely. My experience of being scared, feeling alone and facing so much uncertainty

planted the seed for Brave Books, and then, just as I was getting better, my sister was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She too had a scary and difficult time for about two years, but she has survived her diagnosis and is as fit and fabulous as ever (currently training for a half-marathon). The Brave Books range touches on a number of Cancer types because I have also lost loved ones to Bowel and Ovarian Cancer, so that is why raising funds for charity is so important to me; so that we can prevent and/or cure a cancer diagnoses.”

Currently, $2 from any of her health condition related books go to a relevant charity such as The Kids’ Cancer Project; National Breast Cancer Foundation; Bowel Cancer Australia; Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation; Crohn’s & Colitis Australia.

Opposite left: Julie Breathnach-Banwait.

Above: Lorraine Sindel

She plans on adding to my health-related book range with topics like Endometriosis, Dementia, IBS, Arthritis, Diabetes and more. “All of the topics have personal significance,” she added. “I don’t have any medical qualifications, and that isn’t what my books are about. They contain simplified explanations for a younger audience, to build awareness and understanding, in an effort to not scare or overwhelm them. My qualifications in Journalism and Communication have helped me make the books something I’m proud of, that I hope others will find helpful.”

For more information visit: bravebooks.com.au

Do you have a

Congo connection?

In July the state government changed the name of the picturesque King Leopold Ranges in the Kimberley region in the Kimberley region of WA to the WunaaminMiliwundi Ranges for very good - if not long overdue - reasons.

At the turn of the last century, a hero of the Irish Easter Rising had much to do with exposing the unimaginable atrocities carried out in the name of the Belgian king after who the mountain range was named.

About sixty years later, an estimated 6,000 Irish men would also play an important part in the African country’s affairs some with their lives. The next edition of Irish Scene will explore the fascinating ties between the Irish Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As part of our coverage, Irish Scene would be interested to hear from readers who have a special connection with that part of Africa. You - or a member of your family

Image credit:Yohann Bouvier / MONUSCO

- might have been a UN peacekeeper, missionary, diplomat, FIFO worker or tourist on the adventure of a lifetime. If you would like to share that story with us please contact editor Lloyd Gorman at irishsceneperth@gmail.com or by phone 0479 047 250.

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www.aiexpress.com.au THE IRISH SCENE | 83

PAULA XIBERRAS

FROM TASMANIA

TARA MOSS

No, this is not a botanical article about moss on that famous Irish site, instead it is a review of the latest book by Australia’s Tara Moss. Cobra Queen is a supernatural story full of drama and humour based on mythology and folklore. The story’s main protagonist Pandora lives in a very supernatural Manhattan with her great aunt.

Pandora is the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter - a feminist twist on the Irish legend of the seventh son of the seventh son. As such, Pandora has special powers granted her, the onerous one of saving all life on earth from a coming ghoul revolution. Coinciding with the coming revolution is a MET art exhibition of a female pharaoh.

In the midst of this challenge, Pandora manages to maintain a spiritual romance with her spirit guide lieutenant Luke, unravel the story of what happened to her parents and take on less friendly ghouls, ghosts and vampires.

Image: Twitter, tara_moss

When we chat, Tara explains the inspiration for the novel was her childhood fascination with folklore, the gothic and her special attraction to the 1930’s Bela Lugosi Dracula movies.

Tara also wanted to include the historical female pharaoh who had to dress as a bearded man to rule. Tara wanted this fascinating woman to be remembered and to represent such female leaders for young women readers.

As a child Tara tells me she was a sleepwalker, and on one particular night her dad and she watched one of those favourite films. Later that night he heard a noise in the kitchen which opened onto a staircase and just in time he caught Tara before she plunged down the staircase.

Tara is continuing to plunge - thankfully not down staircases, but rather into increasingly challenging and provoking fiction.

COBRA QUEEN IS OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY ALLEN AND UNWIN.

SOMETHING FISHY

Karen Brook’s latest book ‘The Darkest Shore’ is set in the early 18th century on Scotland’s Wild East coast, and is based on the historical tale of the witches of Pittenweem. The main protagonist, Sorcha McIntyre, is the wife of a fisherman or a ‘fish wife’. She is returning back to her home after staying for a time with her sister, who sees her as a temptress out to seduce her husband. This sets the tone for the novel of how women were seen as temptresses and seductresses.

Scorcha has lost her own husband, his death blamed on her for failing to carry him out to his boat on his last fishing voyage. It was common practice for fish wives to carry their husband to their boat, so their husband did not get his clothes wet and sicken.

This carrying of their husband becomes a metaphor for the female characters carrying many burdens. One of these burdens was the tendency for people to see these women’s abilities at healing as the work of witches.

The setting of the novel was a time of patriarchy and women had many superstitions attached to them, such as demonstrated in the beginning of the book when a dark haired women was seen first on the New Year, a sign of a bad year to come. After a young man seemingly falls under the spell of one of the women and sickens, the women are seen to be witches. In our more enlightened times, the young man’s illness may have been a case of physical symptoms brought on by an epileptic fit.

THE DARKEST SHORE IS OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY HARPER COLLINS. THE IRISH SCENE | 84

COOKING

Italian meatballs

with lee behan

This dish is the perfect midweek winter treat, serve alongside your favourite glass of red wine and if you want to load up on carbs, add some garlic bread on the side.

SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS 500gm free range pork mince 2 garlic cloves diced 1 onion diced ½ red chilli diced 1 tin of chopped tomatoes ½ cup tomato passata 12 baby tomatoes

METHOD

4 slices of white bread (crusts removed)

1. Soak bread slices in milk for 5 minutes.

1 cup of milk 1 pack of fusilli pasta 1 tbsp dried oregano 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar Salt and pepper Olive oil Grated parmesan Fresh herbs

2. Add pork mince to bread/milk mixture and mix well together. Season with salt and pepper and roll into small balls approx. 2 cm in diameter.

3. To make the nap sauce – in a large pan, sweat onions and garlic in olive oil for 6 minutes until soft. Add chilli and cook for a further 5 minutes.

4. Add tinned tomatoes, baby tomatoes and passata to the onion mix and half a tin of water, then add sugar, balsamic & oregano and cook on a medium heat for 15 minutes.

5. Place a pot of water on to boil and season with salt.

6. Add meatballs to the nap and ensure they are covered with sauce, cook for 8-10 minutes until cooked through. Meanwhile cook pasta according to packet directions at the same time to ensure both are ready together.

7. Serve 3-4 meatballs with sauce on top of pasta, top with any fresh herbs, grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

For more recipes, check out Lee on Instagram @lee.behan | THE IRISH SCENE

85

‘embassy’

a beacon of hope for irish monks

BY AJ GLEW AND LLOYD GORMAN Indie-funk rockers The Wild Tibetan Monks traded Dublin for Perth about two years ago on a journey of musical exploration, but found themselves caught up in the misadventure of their lives with difficult decisions to make quickly.

The fun loving up-and-coming group who formed in March 2013 were on the brink of launching a brand new single on March 20 in a Perth City club, having spent most of their time in their exciting experimental environment crafting and honing their songs and sound.

They made a good start and were travelling in the right direction of their ambitions.

As soon as they landed in Perth in August 2018 and found a place to live the boys set about the next big task of sourcing some musical instruments and gear. “After a few days of scouring Gumtree we had kitted out the back room in our house with guitars, amps, keyboards and a drum kit; much to the detriment of our other roommates!,” smiled drummer Liam. “We had been playing as a trio for a number of years in Dublin but this seemed like the perfect time to begin experimenting musically. We quickly drafted in three new members and suddenly we were a six piece ensemble that could barely all fit in what little practice space we had but we began practising heavily and the new members added new elements to our old songs.”

They scored their first gig in the Sewing Rooms on Murray Street and were hooked from the start.

“We played a slew of gigs across Perth thereafter, including Mojos, The National and The Rosemont Hotel, and were lucky enough to have a devoted following, amongst our friends in the Irish community in Perth, come to each and every gig to help spur us on. We recorded with Rada studios in Perth. There we were fortunate enough to work with Matt Gio, a well known producer, engineer and musician in the area. He was definitely a bit bemused to be working with five Irish guys in Western Australia! His insights and expertise were invaluable, and we completed the bones of two tracks (“Cartoons” and “Liam”) during these sessions.”

They had just finished their catchy upbeat number ‘Liam’ at the start of March and were looking forward to launching it - supported by Sunsick and Daniel James - in the venue that gave them their start in Perth, and playing some more gigs.

“It’s amazing looking back and seeing how oblivious we all were to the changes that were coming around the world,” said Ringo, who plays guitar. “Within the next few weeks, we unfortunately had to cancel our single launch at The Sewing Room. The promotions staff were very understanding, and we will always be grateful to them as this was the first venue we ever played in Australia and also for being so accommodating throughout our stay. Eventually, we had to make the tough decision to come home. As many countries closed their borders and several airlines continued to close their services, it was uncertain how and when we would ever reach Ireland, but one beacon of hope lit THE IRISH SCENE | 86

the way, the Irish Embassy.”

The band praised the ability of a very limited and stretched team to somehow pull off the seemingly impossible task of booking seats for 170 Irish citizens on a direct flight from Perth to London with Qantas. This was at a time when all other Qantas flights were booked up and the national carrier was going to stop international flights the following week. At the time, Irish Scene was one of the first media outlets anywhere to report the mercy flight was on its way back with about 80 Irish doctors and nurses who gave up everything in Australia to return home and fight the virus. For the London to Dublin leg of the trip Aer Lingus offered the passengers free flights.

“We really want to highlight the generosity and commitment everyone made in order to get us home,” lead singer Sean said.

Delighted and relieved to land at Dublin airport they were welcomed back by a ‘limited’ number of family and friends and then went into quarantine for two weeks.

“It was uncertain times, and no one knew how long this would go

BACKPACKERS • TOURISTS WINDSURFERS • SURFBOARDS on for. No one knew when we would next see each other,” Sean added. “As for the band, we couldn’t wait to gig and record again. When the COVID restrictions finally eased, we began recording and creating new content. We released our first track “Liam” along with a montage music video, with clips from us as a band over the last 8 years, including both Ireland and Australia. We plan to release our next track “Cartoons” in October, but no date is set yet. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Australia and really appreciated everything that everyone has done for us. We made many friends and hope to see them some time in the future. With any luck, next year, the world might return to some reflection of normality, and we might have to come to visit.”

The other band members were all Irish. Sophie joined temporarily on vocals while rob came on board on guitar when Sean dislocated his thumb. Sophie is now in Louth while Rob is also in Ireland. Jack, who played bass, is in Melbourne while Sean (Brennan) on ‘keys’ is still in Perth.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 87

Around the

irish scene If you would like to be featured in the next issue, please email irishsceneperth@gmail.com

LEFT: A ‘pint of plain’ is your only man! Gerry Murphy with a picture perfect pint of porter at the Irish Club recently.

above: The Gannon Family celebrating Finn’s First Holy Communion left: Saoirse, Hannah & Finn celebrating their First Holy Communion

Right: Many happy returns Matty Matty Bissett celebrated his 30th birthday with his better half Shelly McVoi and a legion of friends - including from Gaelic football and hurling - for the big occasion! It took a while to shepherd everyone into the photo but we got there!

Musical Entertainer / Teacher

David MacConnell

0413 259 547 0doublexx7@gmail.com www.maccdouble.com THE IRISH SCENE | 88

above: Jordan & Carlotta celebrating Jordan’s 21st tapping into his Viking roots!

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above: Birthday girl!

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VALE LYN BARRY

Lyn Barry passed away peacefully surrounded by family on 28th August 2020.

Lyn is pictured here with her late husband, Fenian historian Liam Barry, at the JB O’Reilly monument in Australind when he won the Brendan Award in 2012.

CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Beloved mother of Tania, Shayne, Michelle and Scott. Mother in law to Lance, Helen and Cameron.

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A beautiful and amazingly strong woman who we all adored and will be greatly missed.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 89

Thursday 17 september 2020

Music by: BERNARD CARNEY O.A.M

JOHN BROMFIELD Guest Speaker: VIBE LEGAL - DAVID ENDERSBY

Thursday 15 october 2020 Music by: PAUL SPENCER Guest Speaker: WA POLICE

THE IRISH SCENE | 90

CARRAMAR

SHAMROCK ROVERS FC SPONSORED AND SUPPORTED BY INTEGRITY PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

Who’d have thought, at the beginning of a season that has no promotions or relegations because of Covid 19, that State League Div 2 would be so competitive. There are only two rounds left in this part of the competition, and only 6 points separating 8 teams who are all pushing for a top 6 position.

It has been a great season so far and we’ve had some great games to watch.

We are currently sitting in second spot, two points off top-placed Murdoch Melville, who beat us 1-0 in a top of the table clash last weekend. The lads played well and deserved at least a share of the spoils. Over the season

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we’ve had some bad injuries to some of our key first team players, however it has provided opportunities for other players. Gerry and the coaching staff are delighted with the talent that is showing through. Good luck for the final two games!

Our amateur teams have been very competitive all season and are starting to get the results their efforts deserve.

Our Ladies team is back and has had some very good results and after a slow start are sitting just a point off the leaders.

As you can see in the photo, our junior teams are actively involved with the State League side! The youngest teams turns to lead out the first team at home games, and the older boys act as ball boys for the reserve and first team games. No more chasing the ball for us oldies!

There is a great buzz around the club, so come along and enjoy a great family day up at Grandis Park in Banksia Grove.

We are already making plans for next season as well as our end of season awards night. We will be holding our annual golf classic before the end of the year – obviously we couldn’t have it at our usual time because of Covid.

Once again a big thank you to our sponsors:

• Madman Motors • Pipeline Technics • The Duke • Integrity Property Solutions • Pegasus Plumbing & Gas • Killarney Autos • Bendigo Bank Also to Nicky Edwards for his continued support.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 91

Last month saw the start of Gaelic games in Western Australia with hurling and football getting under way. The first games at Tom Batman were live streamed on the Australasian YouTube channel, these were some of the first competitive Gaelic games played anywhere in the world after all the global lockdowns. Due to the great success of this live streaming event, this year’s finals on the 26th of September at Tom Batman will also be streamed live.

With both hurling and football leagues now well under way, Sarsfield are looking good at the top, with Greenwood and Western Shamrocks at the top in the men’s and ladies football respectively.

The Hurling and Camogie League finals will be held on the 22nd of August in RA Cooke reserve at 1:50pm and 3:15pm.

The Championship final will be held on the 12th of September.

Top: Sarsfields league champions. Above: Swans league champions

This month saw Sarsfield, Western Swans and St Gabriel’s all visit the junior academy to impart some for their knowledge to all those attending.

THE IRISH SCENE | 92

This year marks the 50th anniversary of GAAWA. This milestone will see a celebration later in the year to commemorate our anniversary.

THE IRISH SCENE | 93

GAAWA CLUB DETAILS 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 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 GAA GROUNDS

NICHOLS O

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THE IRISH SCENE | 94

RD

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Tom Bateman Reserve Cnr Bannister & Nicholson Rds, Canning Vale (entrance off Wilfred Rd)

Where has 2020 gone! It’s hard to believe we are hurtling towards the end of another season! Definitely the fastest yet! With the late start and a few storms days missed the time has flew! We still have new faces showing up which is fantastic, and a couple more parents putting their hands up to help out- thank you! It does take a fair bit of work to make it look like it runs so seamlessly, so a big ‘bualadh bos’ for our dedicated tireless coaches, as always without your commitment many children would be missing out on this opportunity to play and keep improving their hurling and Gaelic football skills.

We will be holding a compromised rules blitz again this year in October which will be held in the Falcons stadium in HBF Arena Joondalup again, which is a superb venue for such a big day. It’s a great way to display the skills learned whilst competing against all the local AFL junior clubs. Of course this year we will be hoping to defend our title as overall winners, so a lot to live up to!

We will need all hands on deck plus extra hands- so if you can help out by being a ‘linesman’ or ‘flagsman’ or referee or a general volunteer on the day we would be delighted to hear from you! So if you’ve ever thought about helping out in the community- time for less thinking about it and more doing! We have a great friendly bunch who would be happy out to show anyone willing the ropes!

We are training up in HBF arena Joondalup every Sunday 12-1.30/2pm and ages from 4-14 welcome! Season runs until Sunday 27th September. Look for the Australian and Irish flags.

As always thanks to Lloyd and Imelda at the Irish Scene for their ongoing support!

contaCT

Call/text: 0406 229 450 Email: ggjunioracademy@gmail.com Facebook: The Gaelic Games Junior Academy of WA THE IRISH SCENE | 95

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