Catalpa Monday 2023

Catalpa Monday April 10, 2023 Mark it in your diary!

In the long timeline that is Irish history Easter Monday is a key date in Ireland and Western Australia. It is best known perhaps as the day on which the Easter Rising started in April 1916, an important moment that helped lead to the creation of the modern nation Ireland is today. But it is also a significant occasion to the story of Ireland for reasons much closer to home for the Irish community in Western Australia. Indeed, exactly forty years to the day before the Easter Rising began a group of Irish patriots struck a blow for their freedom – literally – and the cause of Ireland in one of the most dramatic and daring prison breaks in modern history. On Easter Monday, 17 April 1876, six Fenian prisoners who had been transported on the last convict ship to Australia – Hougoumont – made good their escape from the Swan River Colony against the most incredible odds onboard the American Whaling ship Catalpa, an escape orchestrated by many of their compatriots in America, Ireland and Western Australia. More than a century later and a generation of Irishmen like Ormonde Waters, Liam Barry and Brendan Woods (now all sadly deceased) all equally passionate about our history used their respective talents to document and share the incredible Fenian story of Western Australia. Today that legacy is carried on by the likes of Dublin born Peter Murphy and the John Boyle O’Reilly Association. Their work and the efforts of others helped lay the path for the Catalpa Escape Wild Geese Memorial on Rockingham Beach – designed by local WA Irish sculptors Joan Walsh and Charlie Smith – in 2005. Since then the Australia Irish Heritage Association has staged an annual commemoration at the Catalpa memorial. Now a major re-enactment of the events of Easter Monday, 17 April 1876 that has been three years in the making is planned for Easter Monday 2023. “It will be an iconic event with two core elements,” said Laurie Smith, Chair of the Rockingham Catalpa Rescue Project. A large free festival of Irish culture, music food and entertainment, will be held in park on the coast and close to Railway Terrace, the main street of Rockingham. There will also be two performances on the day of a 90 minute long re-enactment of the events of the day. “Three carts bringing six prisoners and others will arrive at Railway Terrace and they will proceed down to the beach where they will be met by Captain George Anthony and the rowers from Catalpa,” he added. “Once they get to the beach there will be a whaling row boat – an exact replica of the type used by George Anthony – that we’ve been fortunate enough to get from the Albany Maritime Museum. They’ll be rowed out to the Catalpa, our wonderful three masted STS Leeuwin II, a great replica

for the purposes of the day. One of the good things about Rockingham is that the deep water comes within 50 metres of the shore where we expect 10,000 people will be at the park for the Irish festival, able to see this magnificent ship just about 100 metres away. Once they get on board we have another ship that has been donated to us, which the maritime experts say is the closest thing to the (police boat) Georgette that will be nearby. The bloke who owns her has kindly indicated he has an old cannon which can make a big noise and which he can get, so she’ll be firing a couple of shots which will be dramatic and a great spectacle. “There will also be excellent narration so nobody will be in any doubt about what’s happening and on the oval there will also be a large screen on which our incredible cinematographer Paul Barron will show what transpired a few hours earlier when they got out of the prison. And Paul will be filming the whole thing, so all in all quite an amazing event.” Laurie said there has been an amazing groundswell of support for the project, which will cost his Rotary Club approximately $280,000 to produce. “We are expecting City of Rockingham to put in about half of that and I’m sure the WA community will put in the balance.” A prospectus with event and sponsorship details has been printed for the historic project. In 2024 the Rockingham Catalpa Rescue Project organisers intend to repeat and expand the event to include Fremantle, another part of WA steeped in the Fenian story and home to kindred spirits in the Fenians Fremantle and Freedom Festival Committee and Joanna Robertson, director of Kidogo Arthouse at the historic bathers beach and Freo locals Joy and Mike LeFroy, authors of the book The Catalpa Escape, and many others. “Following a successful implementation in 2023, we aim to grow the event annually to involve more Irish groups and stakeholders in the program, culminating in a two-day event for 150th anniversary of the Catalpa Adventure in 2026,” he added.