The Irish Scene - Jan/Feb 2023 Edition

You can take the man out of Ireland...and he can go anywhere/do anything!

BY LLOYD GORMAN

The

long way round….Tony Mangan, pictured, set out on his amazing adventure from Scarborough Beach on April 30 2017. Inset: Tony, with friends, back at Scarborough Beach on December 10, 2022.

Ireland’s walking man conquers Australia

Perth’s Scarborough Beach was the start and end point for an incredible trek around Australia by a remarkable Irishman.

On 27 February 2016 Tony Mangan set off on his Dublin to Dublin world tour from the Run Logic sports shop in Temple Bar – owned by Australian marathon runner Ash Senyk – where he worked. From there, the determined Dub hoofed it across England, Holland, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam.

Fourteen months later he arrived into Western Australia where on April 30 2017 he began the Australian leg of his walking tour

of the world at the iconic northern suburbs seaside location.

Last month around December 10 Tony returned to the same spot after a remarkable journey.

The original intention was to walk across the Nullarbor plain headed for Sydney, but the then 59 year old’s plans soon changed and expanded..

Seven months after he left Perth Tony was interviewed on the road for a video on YouTube.

“I’m having such an amazing time in your country that when I got to Bondi Beach in Sydney I turned left and here I am walking towards Glen Innes—a Scottish Gaelic area –and I’m having a wonderful time, that’s why I’m extending it,” he said. “My world walk,

Ireland’s walking man conquers Australia

not only is it an adventure but its also a message of cancer awareness and my message is this, that early cancer screening can save lives. So far a few people have listened to my message and that’s another reason why I’m extending the walk here in Australia, people have told me they listened and they went to their doctors and things were discovered. Obviously I wish them well, and as difficult as this is, its not difficult really, not in comparison to the problems other people have, this is only manual work.”

He would make his way to Brisbane and then Mount Isa (QLD) and then onto Darwin. “[After Darwin] I will see what happens,” he added. “I might just continue all the way round to Perth, it depends. I’m having such a wonderful time I don’t want it to stop.”

Tony’s trek is about raising awareness, but not money, for the cause. He is walking to honour his mother who died from cancer after a late diagnosis. He hands out hundreds of business cards with the message: “Life is precious. Early cancer screening saves lives…”.

He depends entirely on the kindness of strangers, something that seems to have never been in short supply no matter where he was in the outback, regional areas or built up areas. Local residents, passerby’s, fellow travellers, shops, road houses and truckers and other motorists frequently stop for a chat and to give him bottles of water, stubbies of beer, food, shoes, a bed and a meal for the night and sometimes even hotels giving him a free room. The good natured traveller always has a smile, kind word and interesting story to share with those he meets.

The tricolour flying on his ‘pram’ helped identify him to fellow countrymen and women, of whom there were plenty along he way in Australia. [By sheer serendipity Tony found a random Irish flag by the side of the road along the Russian/ Mongolian border after his one had been lost in a storm much earlier].

While her was in the far north of WA, for example, two local cops stopped for a chat, with the male officer hailing from Galway with his police partner from England. In August Tony crossed path’s with John Treacy

and Sinead, pictured, for some company and food while making his way down to Perth. The Irish couple found a hat in a Queensland bar that Tony had lost at the start of his trip, which put them onto his story and eventually they tracked him down to return it. About the same time as he met John and Sinead, Tony also ran into Peter and Shirley Rooke, the parents of Lisa, married to Jamie Blanchard, who he stayed with in Scarborough when he first came to Australia. “They have kindly offered to walk with me to the finish in Scarborough Beach in Perth and let me stay with them again,” Tony tweeted.

On the long way down from the top end of the state Tony made an appearance at the Midwest Geraldton Irish Club for craic, company and of course pints of Guinness (which recently became available on draught). Simon Miller talks about their special visitor in the club’s column, see page 55. [On the other side of the country back in November 2017 Tony was guest of honour with the good folk from the Penrith Gaels Cultural and Sporting Club]. He eventually inched his way closer and

closer to Perth until he could tweet the route for his final walk in Australia, from McDonalds carpark 211 Wanneroo Road, on December 9, the same day he was invited to attend an official function for local hero and accomplished middle distance runner Peter Bol in Stirling Council. “Please feel free to walk with me,” he said in the social media posting. “There may be some stops along the way for photos etc. I expect to reach Scarborough Beach around 2:15 to 2.30. Then a toe dip in the Indian Ocean where I started. After that, it’s across the road to the Galway Hooker Irish bar for a short visit. The lap has taken about 18 months to walk and has been walked in two segments; before Covid and after Covid. Or technically three if you count me walking New Zealand during the Australian summer and then I returned to the same spot in Toowoomba.”

Tony restarted his Australian adventure in June 2022, when Australia – and Western Australia – lifted their hard borders and passenger quotas. “Its been jammed packed with so many fabulous memories,” he said

Ireland’s walking man conquers Australia

about his time in Australia – which he says is his favourite country in the world. “Thanks a million times to all of those that helped me.”

From Perth, Tony travelled to the Pacific Ocean island nation of New Caledonia. He estimates that by the time he makes it back to Dublin having completed his journey that he will have clocked up somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000kms. What’s even more incredible is that this was his third time making his way around this planet under his own steam.

Good luck Tony and great work. You’re an inspiration to many and an amazing ambassador for your country and humanity.

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Let the good times flow &

It felt a lot like St. Patrick’s Day in JB O’Reilly’s on Friday January 6 2023.

There was a great sense of occasion, much to celebrate, plenty to toast and even a few tears.

It was thirty years to the day since a new Irish pub – named after one of WA’s most high profile Irish Fenians – opened its doors in Cambridge Street, West Leederville in 1993. Everybody and anybody there – and they came in their droves – had invested time or an emotional claim to the place and were there for the milestone event.

Three decades produces a swag of friendships, memories and experiences and when so many people and their stories reunited for the common celebration it became a JB’s jamboree –

With ringmaster, Wexford man and publican Paul North at the heart of the festivities JB’s longstanding players Grand Remedy and The Healys and Fiona Rea provided the music and entertainment to help reel in the years.

Paul could not have predicted this outcome when he started out.

“When we came into the pub, I said to myself ‘I’m going to go in for two years, build it up and sell it, and then I’m going to get another one, do the same again, get another one and so on,” he told Irish Scene. “But it didn’t quite work out that way, I just fell in love with the place, actually I fell in love with the customers, they built it up as much as I did, and the staff of course, I’m super proud of my staff, there’s been a few I haven’t been super proud of, but you get that. And I while

Paul and Family.

a good time to let it go

I hate to admit it, Shelley, my ex-partner had a lot to do with it as well, it couldn’t have happened without her.”

There was some bobbing and weaving involved on Paul’s behalf in getting the fledgling public house up and running.

“At the time there was the Irish Club and Fenians, and that was it and I told more lies to the banks, and more lies to liquor licensing, and more lies to everybody to actually get the money to get the lease on this place, and I told loads of lies to the landlord too. But three or four years later I turned around and bought the freehold as well and we just kept going.”

“I just couldn’t tolerate the idea of it being knocked over”

In more recent years it has been others who

have been offering him money, particularly developers eyeing the prime block of land, occupied by the pub and carpark for apartments.

“I won’t mention who, but a couple of big builders (made me offers) but I just couldn’t tolerate the idea of it being knocked over,” Paul said. “The pub is not just a part of me, it’s a part of the Irish psyche in Perth. JBs is a part of Perth, its a very important part for a lot of people because we are the closest thing to an Irish pub you are going to get outside of Ireland and that’s only because of the attitude the customers have and that I have.”

If preserving the legacy of JB’s as an Irish pub and part of the community was more important to Paul than profit there was fortunately a better option on the cards.

The ARK Group – the ex-owners of Durty Nellys in Perth and The Galway Hooker in Scarborough – amongst several other well known metropolitan venues – are taking over as the new owners.

“I wish the new proprietors the best of luck,” Paul added. “The thing about running a pub is, you don’t look at the money, you look at the customer and you try and keep him or her happy, if you keep them happy, the money will come. Its not a game that everybody understands but the people who are buying the place from me they understand that, in fact I know they do, especially the dad, Danny, he’s a good publican, otherwise I wouldn’t sell it to them.”

In good news for the legions of loyal punters who love JB’s just the way it is the venue will be keeping its name, staff and menu Paul said. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Paul currently has about 28 staff on the books but it might be anybody’s guess as to how many have others have pulled pints, cooked and served meals since 1993. Devotees like Sharon, long-term manager and more importantly friend, daughter Aja for running the show and putting up with himself, daughter Deva, who used to run the restaurant years ago amd always makes a comeback mid-march, son Isaac who just loves a busy event day, Vonnie, who’s never missed a Paddy’s Day (or selfie opportunity) since her arrival in Australia and Daithi, even if he is a dub and pretended to quit so he got

a party from the regulars! There are so many to mention who will never be forgotten or thanked enough for their contributions, Claire, Carmel, Kevin our handyman, Tod Gorey, Paul DeHass, Marie, Marti, Big Sharon. They all know who they are.

Added Paul: “A lot of families have had babies and the babies end up working here you know! Which to me is a very proud thing. I’m super proud of my staff (there’s been a few not as much) but you get that. For the most part they’ve all been great and if they’re not great, I get rid of them straight away because “being not great” spreads through the community quickly and I think the customers appreciate that, the customers treat the staff with great respect.” Paul is mindful of former employees whose lives were tragically cut short. “There was Gerry, an old head chef, he’s now dead God bless him,” said Paul. “And then there was “Gerry from Derry” who along with pal Joe McDermott, was tragically killed by a concrete slab while they were on their tea break. Gerry had just left here because

he couldn’t work here any longer than six months and if immigration laws had been different they might be alive and still working here. I’m not blaming the immigration laws but that’s the way it was. Then there were two waitresses who were killed in a car crash...that broke my heart.”

Slán to Sean

Another great friend and loss to Paul and JB’s was the one and only Sean O’Rourke,

originally from Cork city. “One of the greatest days we ever had in this pub was Sean O’Rourke’s funeral,” Paul told the packed pub. “Stephanie, we miss him every day,” he said to Sean’s widow who was there to share in the special occasion.

Sean was an important part of JB’s from the very beginning Shelley added. “The first day we took over and opened Sean O’Rourke was the first Irishman who came across the door. He said guys, you’re doing well, I’ll support you.” Paul and Shelley led a toast in his memory.

When Sean died some years ago there was only one place for the funeral wake to be held.

Paul told Irish Scene: “It was a highlight and a low point at the same time because Sean was my dad and I was his son, the son he never had and my dad died when I was

really young so it was kind of an adoption of convenience. So to have him here for his funeral was special, and it was his wife who asked me if I could do it, and we had discussed it when he was alive. I’m sure he was quite happy about the whole thing and probably pleased we didn’t mention God once, or prayers, there was just singing, dancing and reciting poetry, which was very important to Sean, Sean was a great poet himself.”

The Currach and the Keg Owning a pub has helped Paul pull off some pretty colourful situations and shenanigans over the years.

A historic breakthrough in the Troubles in Northern Ireland presented him with the opportunity to do something unique in the world and a permanent reminder of that event hangs to this day from the roof of the pub.

“The Currach [the JB’s Muscle Vessel] was great,” Paul said. “Ray Lee, a guy from Dublin, and myself built that out of Pine, Canadian Maple, hessian and tar. We rowed it to Rottnest shortly after the Good Friday Agreement [April 10 1998] so we rode it with two Irishmen and two Englishmen [Ian Wigam and Graham Davidson RIP] to celebrate the Agreement, and to bring the first keg of Guinness to Rottnest. That idea came out of the famous Guinness commercial: ‘Ta siad ag teacht’ (They’re coming), that was made on the Aran Islands and had the dog looking out the window waiting for the keg of Guinness to arrive from the mainland. That ad always stuck in my head when I was a young fella so I thought

Rottnest is about the same distance away as the Aran is from Galway, and I said why don’t we build a Currach and bring the first keg of Guinness to Rottnest as well.”

The whole expedition went swimmingly until they hit the beach where they were confronted by an officious constable who refused to allow them to take the keg onto the island.

“I told him: ‘I’d passed it with the Rottnest Island board, the Harbour authority and loads of other bodies and you’re telling me I can’t!’. Straight out I said to him: ‘You’re just in the pocket of the hotel’, so that was it, the keg stayed on the Currach for a while but in the meanwhile, it was coming up the back way! Eventually the copper came around and I was just after having a shower and he said he had checked it out with everybody you’re allowed to bring the keg onto the island. He told me to get into the squad car and he’d drive me around the island and teach me the facts of life about the island and I said, “I’ve been here more times than you have buddy” and I was only in a towel after a shower.”

The keg and the Currach crew and the party that ensued were all given God’s blessing by the priest on the island, the late Monsignor Sean O’Shea, [who died in December 2012 and is buried beside the Catholic church on the island that he built]. That was some shindig.”

Bothersome bureaucrats

The colourful crossing generated huge media interest and publicity for the Irish pub but it hit the headlines again in February 2016 when Paul clashed with some over zealous bureaucrats.

JB’s did not sell cigarettes but it did stock cigars, for which it needed to have a licence from the state government. One day, after years of routine site visits by officials to check the pub’s paperwork was in order, an inspector took exception to the presence antique cigarette signs on the paraphernalia filled walls of the pub. As far as he was concerned they represented a breach of strict anti-tobacco advertising rules and a hefty fine – with the threat of further even more legal action and severe sanctions – was issued. Not one to back down easily Paul was determined to fight the ridiculous charge and when the media in Perth got wind of the story it became the big story of the day. When Premier Colin Barnett was asked about it at a press conference he rebuked the stupidness of the situation and overruled the wayward public servants, and put an end to the matter once and for all.

“All these run ins are good, there was nothing wrong with the run in about the cigarette signs, that was the best bit of publicity I ever got and I milked it to the nth degree. I said ‘Bring it on boys’, and do you know, the boys who brought the charges against me were subsequently fired for

being idiots!.”

Today a sign on the wall outside the main entrance to the pub reads: “No stupid people beyond this point”.

The point of no return

Before Perth and his publican days Paul worked in bars and the hospitality sector in Ireland.

“I worked in the Galway Ryan Hotel where I was renowned for pouring the worst pint of Guinness in the world,” he laughed. They’d say “don’t get a pint off him, he’ll fecking kill you’, but I think they were only joking, having a laugh.” As a young man entering the workforce in the 1970’s/80’s he worked at Sachs Hotel in Morehampton Rd, Donnybrook and was transferred to the famous Gresham Hotel in O’Connell Street, where he spent close to six years, working as the personnel manager for the hotel’s 500 strong staff.

Looking back over the last thirty years there is much to reflect on for the outgoing publican – who expects to be out the door weeks before St. Patrick’s Day roles around. Looking back over the last thirty years there is much to reflect on for the outgoing publican – who expects to be out the door weeks before St. Patrick’s Day rolls around. “It’s been great fun,” he said. “It’s had its challenges, but it’s been great fun. I was here looking after customers, making sure everything was going right. I was very rarely at home, which is part of the reason why I want to retire because I want to be with my grandkids a lot to make up for what I didn’t have with my kids!”

O’Connors pipedream going strong at 120

BY LLOYD GORMAN

16.3% of the nation’s infrastructure spend, according to Engineering Heritage Western Australia. “Personally managing this large body of work, combined with the massive pressure on O’Connor from the media and politicians, led to his suicide in March 1902,” the engineering body states. The official investigation into this death, published five days after his death, came to the following conclusion.

Whatever about the debate around January 26 being an appropriate date to celebrate Australia Day, January 24 is a date that the Irish community and West Australian’s can be justifiably proud of. At the very least the significance of the date should not go unannounced

On January 24 exactly 120 years ago the remarkable vision of Irish born engineer Charles Yelverton to pump five million galloons of fresh drinking water a day over 530km became a bright new reality that would benefit the former colony from that day until this.

At a special ceremony in Kalgoorlie the former Premier of WA Sir John Forrest – who had head hunted O’Connor to build the pipeline and other big projects – turned on a tap and water from the Mundaring came out as planned. It was a defining moment for the dry, scorched goldfields town, WA and even Australia. Water that had first been pumped into the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme (CY O’Connor pipeline) two days earlier had travelled over 500km in what was the world’s longest freshwater pipeline.

At the time Western Australia had just four per cent of the Australian population but

“At the inquest concerning the death of C. Y. O’Connor, Engineer-in-chief, the jury found that the deceased met his death at his own hands while in a state of mental derangement caused by worry and overwork.”

It was too late to save O’Connor himself but the success of his project silenced opponents and ensured his place in Australian history.

The fame game

Australia Day is the occasion when the shire of Kalgoorlie Boulder announces new ‘inductees’ for the city’s Walk of Fame in Hannan Street. This award was set up to honour people for their significant and positive contribution to the Goldfields

city and its citizens. Recipients are also considered for the award due to the recognition they have brought to KalgoorlieBoulder nationally and internationally. Normally the committee picks at least one nomination to have their name and contribution recognised permanently in the high street with a plaque laid into the footpath.

For reasons that aren’t clear no Hall of Famers were listed for last year but there were three from the 2021, including CY O’Connor.

The Walk of Fame started ten years earlier in 2011 with the first one being awarded in honour of Clareman Patrick Hannan who, along with fellow Irishmen Dan Shea and Tom Flanagan, discovered gold near Mount Charlotte in June 1893. Their discovery sparked one of the biggest gold rushes in Australian history. Between Hannan’s name and O’Connor’s there are 22 other figures all with a strong – and deserving – claim to the area, including another Irishman Sir John Kirwain (who commissioned Hannan to go on another (unsuccessful) gold hunting expedition, and Victoria Cross medal winner John Carroll, whose parents were Irish but killed when he was a child.

When you consider the monumental and enduring impact his work had on the Goldfields city and ensured its future it is curious that it took so long for O’Connor’s

From right, Joan Gray with Mike and Joy LeFroy at the laying of the plaque for O’Connor.

name to be added to the local fame trail. One local woman who admires his accomplisments believes they have not been given due and full recognition. Joan Gray, 75, is greatful for what he did every day. “I thank him every morning when I have a shower, when you do your washing, when you’re washing the dishes,” Ms Gray told ABC News in May 2021. “You couldn’t do any of those things if it wasn’t for him.”

Two years earlier she found herself setting out on a mission to help restore him to his rightful place in the town’s memory. “I went looking for the bust, which I thought was in a nice place and it wasn’t,” she added. “I found him stuffed away in the back of our town hall upstairs. He was badly damaged because he’d been in the middle of a water fountain and he looked terrible and I was so sad and I wanted to get him fixed up, so I started.”

She got a petition up and running in 2019 and with some persistance and time – two years – she talked the council into allowing her to go ahead with the project. The bust was restored to its former glory and placed inside the entrance to the Kalgoorlie Town Hall. O’Connor’s great grandson Mike Lefroy from Fremantle praised her as a “magnificent advocate” for his ancestor in the locality. “She’s just such an enthusiast in keeping the story of CY O’Connor alive and she’s doing a wonderful job,” Mr Lefroy told the ABC. Joan, Mike and his wife Joy, met for the unveiling of the Walk of Fame plaque two years ago. The plaque is a starting point in her crusade to elevate O’Connor to the same status as the town’s number one Irish prospector.

Kalgoorlie has two statues of Paddy Hannan while O’Connor (now) has a bust. “It should be Paddy Hannan and CY O’Connor or better yet CY O’Connor and Paddy Hannan,” she said.

The engineer from Drogehda who inherited O’Connor’s pipeline

CY O’Connor’s unique role in the creation, development and installation of the pipeline is beyond doubt. That story has been documented and detailed again and again as it deserves to be. But on this occasion it is worth highlighting the little known contribution of another Irish engineer to the project who would help ensure the cutting edge pipeline lived up to its promise. Following his suicide in March 1902 the urgent task of finishing the job was given to one of O’Connor’s capable subordinates Charles Stuart Russell Palmer. Palmer was

THEPERFECT AUSTRALIADAY BBQWITHCLONAKILTY

appointed to succeed him on June 11, 1902 and he got the project over the line within the allocated schedule and budget. His time with the pipeline would be brief and within a year of its completion his talents were being used to further develop the rail network in WA. The man who stepped into his shoes in May 1904 would have a long association with the piece of critical infrastructure and who was practically from the same part of Ireland. James Thompson was born on August 22 1863 at Drogheda, Co. Louth (O’Connor was born {in 1843) at Gravelmount House, Castletown, Co. Meath, which borders with Louth).

Thompson’s first engineering role was with the Dublin Docks and Harbours Board from 1882 until 1889, including being involved with various railway and harbour developments across Ireland and England. Together with his wife and son he migrated to Melbourne in 1889 where he was an assistant engineer in the survey branch of the state’s railways. From there the Thompsons came to

Western Australia in 1891 where he found employment with the Public Works Department as assistant to engineer-inchief CY O’Connor himself. He assisted the “Chief” (O’Connor) with the designs of works and preparation of railway contracts for lines between Perth and Bunbury, Boyanup and Minninup, Boyanup and Busselton and Northam to Southern Cross and by June 1896 he was appointed engineer in charge of the entire Railway Construction Branch.

The two men would have worked closely to build the state’s railways but it seems Thompson did not have much to do with the next big project, the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. The ambitious pipeline only got the green light to go ahead in 1896, the same year Thompson was badly injured by a rail accident outside Northam and left immobilised for several months. But even in this condition he managed to keep working by having a phone installed in his room. The Irishman – who had a penchant for horse racing – was hurt again in 1898 as he and a

companion were travelling to the races on his two-horse buggy and the horses bolted. Despite the set back he was made engineer in charge of the Harbours and Rivers Branch. This work, and railways, seems to have occupied his time during the same period when the Goldfields water scheme was underway.

In early 1904 he became acting engineer-inchief for the Public Works Department and was appointed to the role that September.

Like O’Connor before him Thompson was now “Chief” of everything, including rail, ports and water supply schemes. Indeed he became WA’s longest serving Public Works boss and stayed in the job until 1925 when he retired. Some 200 candidates applied for the position.

Like O’Connor, Western Australia progressed by leaps and bounds under Thompson’s time the Public Works department made a massive contribution to the advancement and progress of Western Australia. Fremantle Harbour was expanded and further developed during his term while there were other harbour and river works at Albany, Bunbury, Hopetoun as well as multiple bridges, roads, drainage and sewage works. More than two thousand miles of new track were laid in his time and water supplies for Perth – including its first sewage system in 1906 – were upgraded.

He also carried his Irish heritage with him through life. Both his homes – 59 Brisbane Street Perth and 52 The Esplanade in Peppermint Grove were called “Rostrevor”, named after the Co. Down village in Northern Ireland.

He died on January 2, 1945 and was buried in the Presbyterian section of Karrakatta cemetery.

From Bord Gáis to Goldfields pipeline

Today the Goldfields pipeline is under the authority of the Water Corporation, which is headed up by another engineer from Ireland as it happens. A native of Co. Offaly Pat Donovan has been the Water Corp boss

since 2019 and his current contract expires at the end of December this year. Pat went to Dunkerrin Primary School in Offaly and then the Christian Brothers in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary before enrolling at Trinity College Dublin where he studied Mechanical Engineering. Pat became a Bord Gáis graduate engineer. One of the projects he managed at the time was the construction of a 15km pipeline to Leixlip to supply gas to the newly built Intel factory. “Its not on the same scale as the Goldfields Pipeline I grant you but it had its challenges nonetheless, traversing urban and farm land, golf courses, crossed the River Liffey twice and the main Dublin-Galway rail line before arriving at Intel. Quite the adventure for a 23 year old engineer,” Pat told Irish Scene in an interview published in March 2020, in the early stages of his CEO-ship.

Pat stayed with the semi-state body until he and his wife emigrated to Perth in 2003. Just one day after their arrival Pat found employment with Alinta. They made the move having already visited Australia two years earlier to check it out. Their travels took them to Perth on Christmas Eve 2001, after a stop over at Kalgoorlie. “I remember then being both curious and impressed by the significant contribution of Irishmen in the Gold Rush, including Paddy Hannon, and of course the engineering achievements of of CY O’Connor,” he added. He said the pipeline holds a special place for most West Australians but particularly for Water Corp staff. “It is an iconic, heritage listed and still fully functioning engineering marvel that opened up the Goldfields at the turn of the last century and continues to support the economic and social development of the region to this day. The fact that it was the vision and determination of an Irish engineer CY O’Connor, who ultimately gave his life to turning the pipe-dream into a reality, is not lost of me, another Irish engineer, who, working alongside the incredibly talented people at Water Corporation remain committed to ensuring the pipeline will continue to be here for generations to come. It is such an important part of WA’s history and like so many other significant engineering and and infrastructure projects

that opened up new frontiers the world over, the Irish were found to be at the forefront of building those projects and putting down roots in their newfound homeland. The Goldfields Pipeline remains to this day our largest single asset and is a critical asset supplying over 100,000 people in the Goldfields and surrounding agricultural farmlands areas. It gets a lot of attention at Water Corporation – from the boardroom all the way to our pipeline operators who ensure it delivers safe reliable water for our customers 24/7. I have spent time with our maintenance crews as they performed repairs to the pipeline, and visited a workshop we still have in Northam with a team dedicated to fabricating repair fittings unique to the pipeline, which our welders install on the pipeline to take care of leaks when they occur. However the most poignant moment for me was when I visited Mt Charlotte Reserve in Kalgoorlie and read the historical information that is on display at the lookout, including photos of the official opening of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme in January 1903 by then Premier Sir John Forrest. It really hit me that CY O’Connor never got to see the completion of his beloved pipeline, and also little did he know that some 120 years later it would

still be supplying water to Kalgoorlie and beyond”.

No doubt Pat has had a lot more to do with the pipeline since then. At the end of November last year he joined then Water Minister Dave Kelly and Steel Mains CEO Dean Connell to announce that extra-large steel water pipes would be manufactured in Western Australia for the first time. The $58m state government contract means each 12 metre long 1,600mm diameter water pipes weighing in at nine tonnes a piece will now by made in Kwinana rather than in Victoria. The first locally produced extralarge pipe will roll off the production floor in 2024 and be used during construction of the new Alkimos Seawater Desalination Plant to convey water from the plant into the network. Steel Mains traces its history back more than 140 years in WA and its forerunner supplied the steel pipe used in the construction of the Golden Pipeline from Mundaring Weir to the Goldfields.

Meanwhile, more recently, on December 22 the state government heritage listed 22 sites along “C.Y.O’Connor’s Golden Pipeline” on the state register.

Watercorp CEO Pat Donovan, right, with former minister for water Dave Kelly and the CEO of Steel Mains.

The big Brotherly Love of Ignatius Hannick

Achance encounter in June 2022 with John McLoughlin, proprietor of McLoughlin Books in Westport, County Mayo led me on an interesting journey of discovery about the life and times of his uncle, Brother Ignatius Hannick of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate Order. McLoughlin’s Bookstore had requested a re-supply of our ‘We are Mayo’ book (Sean Rice and myself are the co-authors) and I had completed a delivery to them. Before I departed the shop, John asked me if I had ever come across a Brother Ignatius who had moved to Fremantle, Western Australia many years earlier. I had to admit that I knew nothing about him but undertook to make some enquiries on my return to Fremantle in early July 2022. Ignatius was the third youngest of eleven children - four boys and seven girls - born to John Joseph (JJ) and Margaret Hannick, General Merchants and Potato Exporters from Ardnaree, Ballina, County Mayo. He was the youngest of the boys and like his 10 siblings attended the local national school in Ardnaree. The family business must have been quite successful as Ignatius and his brothers had their secondary education at the Jesuit boarding school at Mungret in Limerick while his sisters boarded at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo. One of his sisters, Breege, died at age 16 years following an accident at school. Two of his sisters, Phyllis and Therese, later joined the Ursuline order though the latter subsequently left due to ill-health and worked

BY TOM BRETT

as an Art teacher in Ballina. Another two sisters, Ann and Agnes, trained as nurses in Jervis St Hospital in Dublin. Dympna became a PE teacher in Connecticut, USA while Margaret owned a bookshop (McLoughlin’s) in Westport and was the mother of John. Tommy was the eldest of the family and became a Bank manager in Sligo while Jackie began farming in the Ballina area. The remaining boys, Tony and Ignatius, worked for a while learning the tricks of the trade of the family business as apprentices with Williams’ store in Tullamore before eventually deciding on careers in religious life. Tony, became a priest and ministered in Yakima, Washington State, USA while Ignatius joined the Oblate of Mary Immaculate Order and was professed in 1959. In his youth Ignatius was a passionate Gaelic footballer and played with the local Ardnaree Sarsfields team. By all accounts he was also an accomplished singer and his favourite party piece was the song Jerusalem. In his late teens he developed the dreaded scourge of tuberculosis but was fortunate to be one of the lucky ones who survived and made a good recovery from the condition.

A kind heart in a cruel place

Brother Ignatius worked for a while at St Conleth’s Reformitory School for young boys in Daingean, County Offaly which was run by the Oblate order at the time. It was there that he got to know Martin Cahill (an inmate from 1965-67) who would subsequently become one of Ireland’s most notorious underworld figures and was known as The General. Daingean had a reputation for the severity of punishments meted out to

the boys incarcerated there. In later years, Martin Cahill who would become one of Ireland’s most notorious crime lords wrote to Brother Ignatius and thanked him for the kindness he showed to him during his stay at Daingean. It was a letter that Brother Ignatius treasured greatly*.

Reports from family members were that Brother Ignatius was not particularly enamoured with the draconian nature of the Daingean institution and when he got the opportunity to relocate to Australia, he gladly accepted the opportunity. He was initially posted to one of the Oblate Houses in Camberwell, Victoria and later that year moved to Iona College in Brisbane. Within a year he found himself in Fremantle, Western Australia and he never left. He was attached to the Oblate order parish in Fremantle in 1968 and lived at the local Presbytery there. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate have charge of the Fremantle parish and Brother Ignatius played a key role in leading the development of social services for the homeless and less fortunate in the Fremantle area. There is a story from 1972 of a frail, elderly man turning up at the door of the Presbytery one cold evening seeking help. He was cold, hungry and in serious need of care and Brother Ignatius recognized that the poor man on his doorstep was one of many in a similar predicament. His presence inspired Brother Ignatius to take the initiative in establishing a soup kitchen to cater for the needs of this enlarging group in the local community. Reports from some old timers who remember Brother Ignatius speak of his ability to provide not just food for their bellies but also a sense of community and belonging and that someone did care about their welfare. The original meals were provided in a small building at the rear of the local church. This former school

later developed into the Parish Hall. Luckily, the new venture was well supported with donations of food by some local businesses while a growing number of local volunteers and support workers also played a crucial role in getting the soup kitchen up and running. Many of the local businesses have continued to provide their support to the present day. His work ethic and caring nature saw Brother Ignatius named Fremantle Citizen of the Year in 1981. He featured on the front page of the Fremantle Gazette newspaper on the 27 January 1982. When Pedro Rose was aged 19 years, he was homeless and living in cave near the Swan River until he heard about Brother Ignatius. “He gave me my first meal in three days. He could sense your problems before you even told him – and he was like that to everyone who asked him for help. He gave me advice which I took and it gave me another life.” St Patrick’s Community Support Centre With the passage of time, some government and non-government agencies including Lotterywest provided additional funding and what started out as a basic soup kitchen service gradually developed into something more comprehensive. The original building was upgraded to accommodate the needs of the expanding services which now included a more complete meal service, better washing and hygiene facilities, a library, day room and recreation area. The original soup kitchen had now grown into the St Patrick’s Community Support Centre and in the early years of the new millennium, the organization registered itself

Newly ordained Brother Hannick (centre)

Ignatius Hannick

as independent, not-for-profit and moved to its present location on Queen Victoria St a few hundred metres from its original startup site. Today, St Pat’s, as it is affectionately known, is widely recognized as one of the leading specialist support services and community housing providers for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness in Perth. Their work is supported across all levels of government, local business, philanthropists and the wider community, and while they still focus their efforts on the south metropolitan region, they have teams active across the city. What started out as a group of committed volunteers evolved into an independent organization which today employs over 80 staff with a full-time equivalent of around 65, ably supported by a further dedicated team of over 100 volunteers. The face of homelessness has also changed over the years. Unfortunately, like much of the world Australia is in the grips of a housing affordability crisis, with a social housing shortfall of 39,000 homes in Western Australia alone. This has put added pressure on service providers like St Pat’s as well as families already struggling to make ends meet. “For the first time since we began collecting data, the number of women needing support from our services is greater than the number of men. This is a strong indicator of the growing number of families facing homelessness as well as the lack of suitable, safe and appropriate housing options for people on low incomes,”

St Pat’s chief executive officer, Michael Piu, said. “St Pat’s is leading projects to build new social housing and are actively working with government and other providers to unlock more affordable housing options to improve outcomes for people in our community.”

The milk of human goodness

One of the great legacies of Brother Ignatius was that he recognized that what many people sought was more than food and a bed – they wanted a sense of community, of belonging somewhere and that someone did care about them. He worked across all religious denominations and was hugely supported by the nearby Anglican Parish of St John. He pioneered the breaking down of stigma and was happy to work with anyone who wanted to work with him and the goals he sought to achieve. In his later years Brother Ignatius reflected on the tough early days. “Over at the Presbytery the housekeeper was providing about eighty hampers of food to a queue of people every night. They’d be fighting for a position. I spoke to the Superior and he said, ‘If you can do anything about it, you’ve got my full support.’ I visited bakeries and asked if they would donate bread and I went to market gardeners and asked if they would supply me with potatoes or vegetables. I’d go out in a utility, get a couple of stone here and a couple of stone there, hoist them up on my back. Some people were sleeping out, elderly people, and I told them if they’d

Long table, lasting legacy

The annual Fremantle Long Table is one of the main fundraising events for St. Pat’s and the premier social and entertainment fixture on the calendar for the Port city. Hundreds of locals and supporters come together to help raise funds for people experiencing homeless but also to celebrate local businesses, experience the best artists and musicians and enjoy a sense of community as well as fresh produce and drinks. The much loved charity extravaganza is hosted by the National Hotel in Freo and supported by scores of other local generous donors and sponsors.

Br. Ignatius Hannick

like something to eat to call up to St Pat’s. About ten came up and I gave them soup and bread. That’s all I had! I was doing this for a month or two and the numbers were increasing when the Anglican minister down at St John’s said to me, ‘I see what you’re doing up there at St Pat’s, can we help you?’ I told him we were desperate for voluntary workers. ‘I’ll put the hard word on our parishioners on Sunday,’ he said.” Mr Piu remembers Brother Hannick as a man of great humility. “He rarely spoke about himself, for Brother Hannick it was always about the other person and how he could support them. Every day he’d be mucking in and helping out at the Day Centre but still take time to sit and share a yarn and a meal with people, play a game of pool and build those important relationships. “St Pat’s has shifted to data-based models to help us tackle chronic homelessness but the interesting thing is, Brother Hannick was already doing a lot of the things we now know, through verified evidence, are exactly what is necessary to support people on their journey as they exit homelessness, into housing and onto living a life where they can thrive,” Mr Piu said. “He knew that loneliness, and a lack of feeling welcome and accepted, was a silent killer of people experiencing homelessness, and he was absolutely right.”

The Freo – Street – Doctor

The Freo Street Doctor, a mobile medical service for the disadvantaged in the greater Fremantle area, provides an in-house clinic each week at St Pat’s. The Day Centre also boasts a health clinic, with nursing staff and visiting allied health professionals including podiatrists, chiropractors, physiotherapists,

counsellors, optometrists and more.

One of St Pat’s proudest achievements is its Dental Clinic, which is better-resourced than most private practices and provides more than $200,000 in pro-bono oral health treatments a year. In addition, there are 22 small units on-site – affectionately known as Iggy (Ignatius) House - for which St Pat’s has received development approval to transform into 28 long-term apartments for people exiting homelessness who need wraparound supports. Among St Pat’s range of accommodation options are homes for single men, women, couples and families and young people (15 to 25).

Looking to the future, St Pat’s CEO Michael Piu says the agency is actively involved in supporting and leading advocacy in areas like investment in social and affordable housing, better and expanded service delivery, better access to mental health supports, and strong collaboration between community service providers and government.

“It’s been humbling looking back over our fifty year history and realising the breadth of support and goodwill which has helped us change the lives of thousands of people and made us into the organisation we are today. In November, we are planning some events to celebrate the work of Brother Ignatius, his volunteers and the staff at St Pat’s and their dedication to the Fremantle community,” Mr Piu said. “I think Brother Hannick’s family and the people of County Mayo should be extremely proud of his dedication and lifelong commitment to the most vulnerable people of Western Australia and it is an honour to continue his legacy.”

When I visited St Pat’s Community Support Centre recently, I was delighted to present them with an inscribed copy of our ‘We are Mayo’ book – a small gift from one Mayo man to recognize the great work of another Mayo man, Brother Ignatius Hannick. After moving to Australia, Ignatius managed to return to Ireland on two occasions to catch up with family and friends. His nephew, John, remembers them climbing Croagh Patrick together when he was a youngster of 10 years. Brother Ignatius’s health declined in his later years and he died in 2005 aged 77 years).

Dr.Tom Brett, left, presents, Michael Piu, CEO, St. Pat’s with a copy of his book ‘We are Mayo’.

Fr. John Archbold

Vale Fr John Archbold

St Patrick’s and the Fremantle community lost another Irish Church stalwart late last year. “It is with a heavy heart we share that Fr John Archbold OMI returned to the Lord in the early hours of this morning,” the Basilica announced in mid November. “Please keep Fr Archbold’s family, and our Parish community, in your prayers at this time.”

Fr John Archbold OMI was born the 9th October 1933 in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, Ireland. After his schooling at Knockbeg College, Co. Carlow, he took his first vows on 24th October 1952 at Cahermoyle, near Ardagh, Co. Limerick and was ordained a Priest on 21st September 1958 at Piltown, Co. Kilkenny. He joined the staff of Belcamp College where he was an exceptional teacher and was its headmaster from 1976 to 1984. According to a profile for his diamond anniversary in the priesthood, published in the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate magazine in November 2018, his: “great love for reading was the foundation that made him an exceptional teacher at the Oblate Belcamp College, Dublin, where, to quote one of his contemporaries, Fr Paul Byrne OMI, ‘He even put life into Latin’. As teacher and headmaster, he was noted for his sense of fairness. In a college known for its sporting achievements, he introduced table tennis, where new heroes were created

and some became national champions. After his ministry in education, Fr Archbold took on responsibility for the Province’s mission magazine Oblate Missionary Record, based at Inchicore. This led to him spending time in South America, where his love for the Spanish language grew stronger, following earlier visits when he took students to Spain for excursions.

Fr John arrived here in 1994, the last of a number of Anglo-Irish Oblates who came to assist the Australian Province. Since 1994, he spent time in Lesmurdie WA and Sunshine VIC, but St Patrick’s Fremantle benefited from his ministry for many years. He was the first Oblate chaplain at Notre Dame University, and has assisted Fr Tony Colbert with the chaplaincy of Fremantle hospital.

Fr John’s love for his Irish homeland never faded, always sharing in a joke and good craic! He was a great storyteller, and loved a bet on the horses. Known affectionately as “Archy”, he was described as a “loveable rogue” with a big heart, who did all things well and loved the people he served.

The funeral mass for Fr Archbold was held at St. Patrick’s Basilica on Monday 28th November, 2022.

*The brotherhood of man

Irish crime journalist and author Paul William included Cahill’s letter to Br. Hannick –exactly as he wrote it - in his book “The General: Godfather of Crime”, published in May 1995. Cahill wrote it in March 1968, a year after he left the industrial school in Co. Offaly, at a time when he was planning to get married and go straight. It is a rare and honest insight into the mind of a man who spent his life hiding from the gaze of the law and society.

In his book Williams described Cahill as a gangster, criminal mastermind and as Ireland’s most wanted man who for twenty years netted an illegal haul of more than $40m through obsessive secrecy, brutality and meticulous planning that defied the best attempts of the Gardai to end his criminal career that included the Beit robbery – one of the worlds biggest art heist and the attempted assassiation of a top forensic scientist, amongst many others. The General, the movie was released in 1998, with the role of Cahill played by Brendan Gleeson.

For his part, Cahill blamed the way his life turned out on his time spent in the industrial school.

If anyone corrupted me it was those mad monks down in the bog”. He was not the only one to hold that opinion. Retired Garda Inspector Gerry O’Carroll once told Joe Duffy’s Liveline radio show that his tough upbringing in the home was probably responsible for him turning to a life of crime.

The sexual and physical abuse Cahill and others spoke about was detailed and documented by the Commission to Inquire

into Child Abuse (CICA), which sarted in 1999 and published its final report in 2009. The comprehensive inquiry became known as the Ryan Commission after Justice Sean Ryan who headed it up. The Catholic Church and the religious orders involved resisted cooperation with the state investigation.

In 2019 for the tenth anniversary of the publication of the inquiry report Justice Ryan was interviewed by the Irish Times about the experience, including about the brutal institution of Daingean. “Shocking, shocking. I mean utterly,” the former Court of Appeal president told the newspaper. “This is where a lot of people who were later notorious criminals came out of [The General, Martin Cahill being one]. Frankly, no surprise. The conditions and the way they were treated were truly shocking and there was an episode where the resident manager described how this (abuse) was happening within earshot.. It was truly awful. Kids were lined up in a big old barrack of a building at the bottom of a stair well and they had nightshirts on or were completely naked for the purpose of being beaten by two Brothers and the screams, of course, in waves went all over the place…The details of the physical abuse in Daingean was quite shocking and the terror of the place.” St. Conleth’s Reformatory School operated between 1870 and 1973.

Dear Brother,

Sorry for not writing sooner. I just wanted to let you know how Im getting on, for a start it took me long enuf to get a job but I got one, my flat wages are £11. Some weeks I earn £16 to £17 a week but its hard work and its okay. I am getting over weight and pale, all I need up here is clean fresh bog air, and bog work to get my weight down. Anyway the money I got on the bog I put into prise bonds and I still have it and with a bit of luck, I might win a £100 this week. I have a great chance, well who knows. I kept out of trouble so far, please god I stay like that, you know I did [not] for get what you done for me, you made me feel as do I was free, in other words needed, I just want to let you know how grateful I am you made my time fly in. I have met some of the lads some of them seem to be doing well, but I cant tell, I don’t pal with any lads. You know I don’t mix much, out straight I don’t trust them, I tink that I get better along on my own so far, I’m not stuck up or anything like that. Im going with a girl a very nice girl and I am very happy the way I am. I met Frances two years ago and I love her very much and we are getting married on 16th March next week. I know it is very soon and you might tink that I should weight, but I tot very seriously about it, and its the only thing we want. I know there will be hard times and easy times but please god that we will be happy and I will go about it the way you would want me to go about it, thats what I want to tell you.

I hope yurself is okay, some of the lads there need a good bashing and don’t give into them because you dont hear them talking. as you say you have to be cruel to be kind, and let some of the loud mouths beat you in a cople of games of handball on till it goes to there heads and then beat them and take them down a peg or two, when they need it. I will close now, sorry about my writing, wright soon. I want you to know that we are saving money since I came out as well as my bonds. (Its not much but you know what to do).

I remaine,

a screaming success for Perth movie-goers

The Banshees of Inisherin proved to be a major hit at all four Luna cinema’s over the Christmas/New Year break. Pictured here – photos by Alec Thomas and Tony Bective – are some of the scenes from the advance screenings in Luna Outdoor (Leederville) and Luna SX (Fremantle) in early December.

Perth’s St Patrick’s Day parade back on track for 2023

It’s with great pleasure and excitement that the St. Patrick’s Festival WA Committee can announce the return of St Patrick’s Day Parade WA in 2023. The parade will be back in full force on Saturday the 18th of March through the streets of Leederville, followed by a family fun day on the Leederville Oval. We haven’t had a parade in Western Australia since 2019, due to Covid, and we are so happy the festival is back. This will be the first celebration of our heritage for so many kids in Western Australia, so we encourage everyone to make a huge effort to attend, support and make the day everything it was in years gone by. We have locked in our major sponsors: The City of Vincent, The Irish Government and Lotterywest, but more than ever we will need the support of sponsors old and new. If you know any organisations willing to get involved please contact us on 0479061147 alternatively email olanstpatsfestival@gmail.com

Application forms for parade participants and vendors can be found on our facebook page and website.

Aussie As Irish indeed

Australian Clint Drieberg was amongst the 3,300 people from 130 countries who in late 2022 became sworn citizens of the Republic of Ireland at mass citizenship ceremonies in Killarney, Co. Kerry. “FINALLY! On the centenary of the Irish Free State, Saorstát Éireann, it was an honour to become a #dualcitizen of Ireland & Australia today. It was a long and complicated process but a lovely ceremony day with @dmitchy by my side, #IrishCitizens2022 Sláinte �� ”, Drieberg tweeted on December 7. His name may or may not ring a bell for readers but there was a time when his moniker could be heard on a daily basis around the traps in Perth, as the source of Hollywood gossip and celebrity news.

“My time in Ireland comes after 15 years of working in radio in Australia where I started my media on a talk-back radio Breakfast program with 6PR in Perth,” he said. “So impressed with my efforts while on work experience, the company created a role for me as producer off the air and on the air as the station’s entertainment reporter. This was the beginning of period of work producing exceptional content for radio, working in every major metropolitan market in Australia.”

Drieberg cut his teeth in the media and entertainment business during his first eight years (late 1990’s/early 2000s) locally with 6PR, 96.FM and 92.9 Triple M Perth before later branching out into television.

He has called Ireland home now for some time including the last seven as assistant programme director and executive producer of Breakfast for Dublin’s Radio Nova. He is not shy about promoting his accomplishments.

“During my time in Nova I have been instrumental in the “swap” of our breakfast shows (with Ireland’s Classic Hits) which resulted in record breaking figures in the JNLR, including the highest ever ratings in breakfast and biggest station share and weekly reach in the station’s 11 year history.

A charity initiative “Hill To Hill for Jack & Jill” I executed live on air raising €100,000 won a Gold IMRO Radio Award in 2022 and I was shortlisted in the 2016 PPI Radio Awards for “Stripped Back” as Best On -Air Competition/ Promotion. I also beat off stiff competition to secure Foo Fighters and Bruce Springsteen’s radio shows exclusive to Nova for the entire Irish market.”

Australia Day in Ireland

For the first time in three years hundreds of Australians and their friends will this month be able to come together to celebrate their national day in style!

The annual Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce “Australia Day “corporate lunch returns on January 27th 2023 at one of the most iconic venues in Ireland, the Hogan Suite in Croke Park, Dublin.

“We can’t wait to welcome back over 300 guests and friends of the Irish Australian

business community in Ireland, marking the strong business ties between our two countries,” said organisers. Because gatherings of large (or even small) numbers of people were not possible in January last year Barry Corr from the IACOC broadcast an online interview with the president of the Irish chapter, PJ Bryne. No doubt everyone will be glad to be able to press the flesh and meet face to face again at the reinstated event.

St. Patrick’s Day in WA

Indeed, the Irish Australian CoC in Australia is busily preparing for its equivalent – the St. Patrick’s Corporate Lunch, happening in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth on March 17th itself. Given it coincides with the big day itself demand is expected to be strong for tickets. Organisers for the Perth event say a significant number of tables will be carried over from 2022 when restrictions applied, so seats will be at a premium.

“This is a must-attend event for Irish Australian business people, those who do business with them, and those who have an affinity to Ireland – even for the day,” said promoters. “Expect top-class entertainment, specially commissioned for the event, interesting

speakers and a lively, professional atmosphere, conducive to celebrating recent successes, and unlocking new possibilities.”

Karl Langdon MC March 2020.

Stay up to date with what’s happening in the Australian Embassy, Ireland by following:

Ambassador Gray back Down Under for Christmas

On the 30th of November I returned to Australia for the first time since departing for Ireland in August 2020. As is ever the case however the work hasn’t stopped. Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Whyalla, Port Augusta and Perth, the Christmas period has been filled with a mixture of professional engagements and important catch-ups. In Canberra, I was pleased to meet Bindi Mamouni who was an important part of the Embassy team until the untimely death of her popular husband Simon in Canberra early 2020. After hearing about Bindi’s life and catching up once again, I had to fulfil a number of meetings at the department for our midterm consultations before a short fight from Canberra to set up base for a while in Sydney where there was more outreach.

Christmas in Australia meeting Bindi Mamouni, our Irish embassy’s much loved partner.

Pictured below: Christmas in Australia meeting Bindi Mamouni, our Irish embassy’s much loved partner

In Sydney, I had the privilege of meeting Alan Joyce, prominent Irish Australian business leader and Qantas CEO then author Mr, Thomas Keneally. Keneally of course, is famous for writing his nonfiction novel Schindler’s Ark, the story of Oskar Schindler’s rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, which won the Booker Prize in 1982. The book would later be adapted into Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film Schindler’s List, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Keneally, as you might imagine by the name has Irish roots. Keneally is planning a trip shortly to Ireland to follow these roots and in meeting with him he has generously agreed to donate a number of signed copies of Schindler’s Ark to Dunboyne school who have studied the book and its cultural impact since publication. It seems to get harder now to meet people without some connection back to the Emerald Isle and at Embassy HQ we’re helping Thomas prepare for a successful visit by reaching out to people we know in the area he is now writing about.

AUSTRALIA’S AMBASSADOR IN IRELAND

@ausembire Australian Embassy, Ireland @AusEmbIre

After Sydney, it was to Melbourne where after more work meetings and conferences, I ran in the park run and I had the privilege of meeting the legend that is Michelle Payne who won the 2015 Melbourne Cup, riding Prince of Penzance - the first and only female jockey to win the event. In October of this year, the Embassy in Dublin along with Harvey Norman Ireland showcased the brilliant “Ride Like a Girl” – Rachel Griffith’s fantastic biopic on Michelle’s 2015 Melbourne Cup. It was great to see the work Michelle was still involved in and we hope Michelle is able to visit us in Ireland and experience Ireland’s incredible racing and equestrian industry in the near future!

From Melbourne my attention started drifting West and after a small time in Southern Australia where I visited the remarkable Mount Horrock’s vineyard, following Steph Toile’s visit to Dublin. We also spent a day looking at a significant Irish energy initiative at Port Augusta. The 500 million dollar hybrid solar wind energy farm at Port Augusta is impressive and will help Australia meet its climate targets in the years to come. Australia already has the world’s highest uptake of household solar panels and mega projects like this will help industry make that transition as well.

Then it was on to Perth for Christmas. After two years absence, it’s hard to put into words how much it meant to be back in my home state for the festive period. Here, I met our wonderIrisc consul, Marty Kavanagh, Irish business and community leaders and the WA Government.

Before we left Ireland we entertained over 250 people at the Abbey Lea Christmas carols. It was fun and a perfect end to a busy year. Writing this now, back in the brisk temperatures of Dublin, I am grateful for everything I have at this time of year and am looking forward to what will be by last full calendar year in Ireland with my tenure as Ambassador ending late in 2024.

We hope you enjoyed a wonderful and safe Christmas.

Ambassador Gray inspects the new installations at Port Augusta.

Gary with Thomas Keneally (above). 2015 Melbourne Cup Winner, Michelle Payne introduces Gary to her companions in Melbourne

Winners are Grinners

That’s the ticket...for a lifetime trip to Ireland

The buzz of Christmas may have well and truly faded into the background but the excitement of the festive season is far from over for one local Perth family who have yet to get their main present.

A family from the southern suburbs will be able to enjoy a holiday to Ireland in 2023 thanks to a $10 Xmas ‘scratchie’ ticket bought by the dad back in November. The man – whose identity or family name has not been released

day for the Irish community and women all over the world”.

by Lotterwyest – bought the festive scratch and go ticket for his wife who is just crackers about Christmas from his local newsagents Seahaven News in Waikiki where he normally plays the lotto. Naturally enough there was great excitement in the house when she scratched up the magic $100,000

“My wife nearly collapsed when she realised we’d won,” he said. “We couldn’t believe you can win

They had a bit of a celebration with family and close friends but already knew what they wanted to do with the windfall. “My wife had been hoping to get to Ireland for a holiday next year. This win makes that possible and means the entire family can come on the trip,” he added.

Perth’s Irish community – like many others in Australia and across he world – came together to hold a vigil in the wake of the shocking murder of 23 year old Tullamore teacher Aisling Murphy while she was jogging in broad daylight in her home town of Tullamore, Co. Offaly in January.

Winners are Grinners

A group of musicians played traditional Irish airs and a flute and fiddle as well as a top with her county’s colours were amongst the tributes laid out for the young Irish woman who was in adition to being a promising and popular educator was also heavily involved with her local GAA club and a musician in her own right. Elaine O’ Grady who attended the vigil tweeted: “The beautiful song of the kookaburra who sang along to the stunning traditional Irish music at the vigil tonight for #AshlingMurphy in Perth,”.

As Dundalk born comedian Dave Callan who now lives in Joondalup – and is the face for Lotterywest’s current advertising campaign which featured in a recent edition (Winners are Grinners) – might say: “That’s the ticket!”.

Hundreds of Irish people – including families with young children, took part in an evening time vigil and walk at the Flame of Remembrance in Kings Park on January 19, organised by the Claddagh Association and supported

Irish Scene hopes to be able to bring readers an incredible story of an Irish family in Perth who had a life changing Lotto win in 2022.

Similar events were staged across Australia, including one at the Amphitheatre at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane “to remember her and all who have died by genderbased violence”, organised by the Irish Australian Support Association Queensland. A piece written for her.ie by Anna Rourke described a sunrise

vigil in Sydney attended by dozens of people on the hill above Bronte Beach and spoke to the emotions felt by all who were touched by her death.

“In front of the crowd on the grass, a row of candles illuminates a framed photo of smiling young woman,” she wrote. Sunrise-watching at beaches across the city is a staple social activity for lots of Sydney’s Irish expats. It became more popular than ever during last year’s lockdown, when outdoor meetups were the only opportunity for many of us, living thousands of miles from our families, to see friends. But Saturday’s clifftop gathering is by far the biggest I’ve ever seen at Bronte... The primary school teacher’s murder has deeply shaken many of us in Sydney. The mood among those gathered with their candles on the hill this morning is of sadness – and utter disbelief.”

Call Fiona or Adrian for a great tyre deal! You won’t be sorry

35 Troode St (next to Licensing Centre) West Perth. Email perthcity@tyrepower.com.au

A matter of life and death on the thin-blue line

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Junior Irish doctors in Perth celebrated a local festive tradition when they assembled under the sun at Cottesloe Beach on Christmas Day morning. The ritual get together has been held regularly now for a few years now but judging by the group photograph they took on this occasion and posted on Twitter this was one of their biggest – if not the biggest – bash at the popular seaside spot. “100% of the people in this photo are young Irish doctors,” the tweet said. Such a photograph would be an impossibility in Ireland. Not because a trip to the beach “at home” for Christmas isn’t a thing or a cultural practice! And not because it conjures up visions of shivering miserably in the cold of any of the Irish coastal waters. The reason why it could never happen in Ireland is because it would be the exception to the rule to be off duty at that time of the year. Most would probably find themselves pulling gruelling marathon shifts in a health system that is stressed and stretched to breaking point. Getting so many of them together at the same time would be inconceivable in Ireland.

Over December and January news in the mainstream Irish media was dominated by one crisis after another in hospitals.

RCSI Graduate School of Healthcare Management senior lecturer Dr Niamh

Humphries (pictured) was asked in early January on RTE radio why so many young doctors, who traditionally went overseas to get experience, were now leaving in increasing numbers and staying away.

“My research has found that the pandemic has intensified what were already very difficult working conditions for hospital doctors,” Dr Humphries said. “So in interviews doctors told us the system is under resourced and understaffed and how it feels to have too much work to do and too little time in which to get it all done. So they work really long days within really long working weeks and have a work life balance that’s just tipped in favour of work. So their jobs make it really difficult to protect their well being and they often spend their annual leave and any time off work recovering from work. So even before the pandemic they spoke of the guilt and moral injury they faced or they felt not being able to be able to deliver the level of care they wanted because of the deficiencies in the Irish health system. All of this has been intensified during the pandemic and has likely intensified further in recent weeks as the system has come under an awful lot more strain [from factors such as Flu and Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). And even though these are really long standing problems they are ones that haven’t been solved so when the health system hasn’t solved these problems its up to the hospital doctors to just keep working in these really challenging conditions day in day out and to come up with their own solutions for relieving

the burden on themselves and what we found in the research was that some early career doctors were considering emigration as an escape from the difficult working conditions while more senior doctors and consultants were speaking about early retirement or career breaks to help them cope with the really unsustainable conditions they face, particularly since the pandemic. And while these solutions are really understandable from an individual level they’ll leave the system even more under strain in the future from a staffing perspective.”

Dr Humphries said working conditions needed to improve to the point where the health system was so attractive it could keep the medics it already had and encourage those who had emigrated to return.

The Irish health system is a long way from that situation at the moment. Dr Emily O’Connor, an emergency medicine consultant also told RTE that she had worked “some horrendous shifts between Christmas and New Year”. She was angry that patients and staff in ED’s around the country were being ‘let down enormously’ by the system.

Junior Irish doctors

She said: “Not being able to meet the eye of the paramedics in the ambulances that are lining up in the corridors and you can’t offload, its passing the patients in the corridor, hour after hour after hour who haven’t been seen. Its expecting the triage nurse to go out into a waiting room when there’s 40 patients waiting to be triaged and a four hour wait to be triaged. It is simply inhumane to ask people to do this again, and again and again.

Its breaking young nurses, its breaking senior doctors, people are leaving in their droves.”

Alison O’Connor, the political correspondent for the Irish Examiner, made a very telling point to host Brendan O’Connor. “The political will is not there to solve this problem,” Ms O’Connor said. “There are three former ministers for health in the Cabinet and one is actually minister for health [Stephen Donnelly], one is Taoiseach [Leo Varadkar], one is a former Taoiseach [Micheál Martin]. How come none of them have said health is going to be the thing that I’m bringing front and centre and the entire cabinet is going to work on this?.”

Painful loss for Dublin a gain for Perth

Dr Darragh Fitzgerald was recently awarded the merit award at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) Faculty of Pain Medicine. The doctor from Drumcondra in Dublin was described as “a loss to Irish medicine” who is now a specialist pain medicine physician practicing in Western Australia.

A matter of life and death on the thin-blue line

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Specialist police were brought in to end the siege, which resulted in the deaths of six people.

Queensland Police Commissioner Katraina Carroll told media it was: “the largest loss of life, police life, we have suffered in a single incident in many years. In my opinion those officers did not stand a chance. The fact that two got out alive is a miracle.” Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said: “this was a pure execution”.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch offered the full support and condolences of the WA Police Force to their Queensland counterparts following the tragic deaths of two of its officers.

Australia and Ireland were mutually and suddenly plunged into shock and disbelief in the week before Christmas for similar tragic reasons.

Constables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were ambushed and killed while conducting a welfare check at an isolated Wieambilla property on Monday, December 12. Neighbour Alan Dare was also gunned down in cold blood by the Train brothers when he came to investigate the source of the disturbance and to try and help.

Constables Randall Kirk and Keely Brough, both 28, also attended the welfare call out and found themselves being fired upon by the heavily armed and well planned perpetrators. Kirk was shot and wounded while Bough called in backup and then texted her family believing she was about to be killed, as the twisted Train brothers – and their shared partner Stacey– attempted to smoke her out and shoot her, by burning the grassed area where she took refuge.

“This is a tragic reminder of the dangers that police officers face on a day to day basis and there was undoubtedly extraordinary bravery shown by police in this tragedy,” Mr Blanch said. “Our thoughts are with the

Thin-Blue Line

families, friends and colleagues of the officers.

I know WA Police officers have also felt the impact of the deaths, and many have reached out to their colleagues in Queensland to offer support. All officers across Australia and New Zealand will be feeling a sense of loss today. The law enforcement community comes

together at difficult times like this.”

Officers Arnold and McCrow served at Tara Police Station, in the community of about 2,000 people, which is believed to take its name from the first farm set up there in March 1852, assumed to be named after the Hill of Tara, Co. Meath.

On the front line

Just days later on December 14 the Irish public was confronted with a brutal reminder of the dangers faced by those serving in uniform. On that Thursday morning an Irish soldier on a UN Peacekeeping mission in Lebanon was killed in a vicious and almost certainly targeted attack.

A convoy of two Armoured Utility Vehicles (AUVs) carrying eight Irish troops came under small arms fire while travelling to Beirut.

They were escorting members of the Irish detachment to the airport so they could fly home for the funerals of loved ones who died while they were abroad. A large hostile group of people surrounded the military vehicles one of which was over turned.

Private Seán Rooney, a member of the 27 Infantry Battalion and a native of Newtwoncunningham, Co Donegal, who was behind the steering wheel and trying to get them out of the danger was shot in the head by a gunman behind the armoured jeep. He was just 23 years old and due to get married this year. Cavalry trooper Shane Kearney (22) from Co. Cork suffered several fractures to his skull when the AUV overturned.

The four soldiers in that vehicle were rushed to a UN hospital but Pte Rooney was pronounced dead on arrival, Kearney went into surgery for his critical injuries while the other two were treated for minor injuries.

Pte Rooney became the 48th Irish soldier to die keeping the peace in Lebanon in the Defence Forces 44 year mission to the war-torn country – but he was the first to lose his life in more than 20 years. UN military personnel wear light blue

helmets/berets (the same colour as the UN flag) to help them stand out from other forces. “As a people, we take great pride in our unbroken record of peacekeeping with the United Nations,” President of Ireland Michael D Higgins said. “However, we must never forget the dangers that come with this work, or how the members of our Defence Forces serving on peacekeeping missions abroad risk their lives every day in order to build and maintain peace in conflict zones across the world. As President of Ireland and Supreme Commander of the Defence Forces, it is with a

heavy heart, and conscious of the great loss it will represent to them, that I offer my deepest condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of the member of the Defence Forces who has lost their life. A life lost serving the people of Ireland, serving the United Nations, and serving all those wishing for peace in our shared world. The news will come as a great shock to the family and wider circle of all those who have served the cause of peace with pride on behalf of the people of Ireland. I know that the members of the Defence Forces will reach out to each other following this tragedy, as will the people of Ireland.”

Irish friends first Qld police killed in uniform

The names and service details of constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow will be the latest additions to the Queensland Police Service’s honours board for fallen offices. The first two names on that roll call belong to two Irish men who were murdered in the same crime.

“Constable John Power and Constable Patrick Cahill met their deaths on duty at the age of 25 and 27 respectively, brutally murdered near a lonely outback river crossing,” the mypolice. qld.gov.au website states. “Patrick Cahill was born in Waterford County in 1840, and was a childhood friend of John Power, born two years later in Carrick on Suir, between the counties of Waterford and Tipperary. They emigrated separately to Australia in their early 20s and reconnected in Brisbane in 1865.”

The discovery of gold in central Queensland in 1861 sparked a rush to the region and all that entailed.

“Gold escorts were needed to transfer gold nuggets from the diggings to the bank for exchange into bank notes, which then had to be transported back to the gold fields,” the QLD police website adds.

“In early 1867, the two friends travelled together to Clermont to join the police force as Gold Escort officers, and they commenced their duties escorting deliveries

of bullion and cash between Clermont and Rockhampton. Later that year, on October 26, Gold Escort officer Sergeant James Julian – another Irishman from County Kerry – was instructed to escort 10 canvas bags containing more than £8,000 in notes and coins from Rockhampton to Clermont. The man issuing the instruction was 45-year-old Thomas John Augustus Griffin, Police Magistrate and Gold Commissioner to the Clermont Gold Fields. Although a former member of the Royal Irish Constabulary and decorated for his service in the Crimean War in the 1850s, Commissioner Griffin came with a reputation for gambling, bribery, infidelity and tyrannical behaviour. He was also in debt for £252 to six Chinese miners. “Constables Power and Cahill were assigned to the escort along with Sergeant Julian, and Commissioner Griffin announced his intention to travel part of the way to Clermont with them. There was no official reason for him to accompany the gold escort and his presence raised the suspicions of the three officers. After several delays and false starts orchestrated by Commissioner Griffin, the escort departed Rockhampton for Clermont on November 1. Sergeant Julian had been relieved of his command after confrontations with Commissioner Griffin, and Constable Power had been appointed in this place.

The bank manager had halved the quantity of cash to £4,000 in recorded notes due to the inexperience of the young constable. Less than a week later, Commissioner Griffin returned to Rockhampton and bought drinks for his friends at the Commercial Hotel, paying with one of the recorded bank notes. The same day, Constables Power and Cahill were found murdered at the crossing of the Mackenzie River now known as Bedford Weir, near Blackwater. The fledgling Queensland Police Detective Office had its first major case to solve. After the crime scene had been examined, post-mortems conducted and witnesses interviewed, Commissioner Griffin was arrested on November 9 on suspicion of having drugged and shot the two constables, and stolen the money on November 6.He was found guilty and executed by hanging on June 1, 1868.”

The two officers were originally buried at the murder site but in 1869 their remains were exhumed from their lonely Bedford Weir resting place and reinterred at Rockhampton.

In 2018 Blackwater police officer Senior Constable Gonna Gilliand led a community

project to install a new headstone over their graves and a memorial and information board at the spot where they were murdered.

Face to face with their killer

Amongst its many artefacts and records the Queensland Police Museum holds a remarkable photograph that may tell us a lot about this story. The image is undated but shows constables John Power and Patrick Cahill (seated, centre) with other gold escort officers. It also shows constable Cahill glaring at the officer sitting beside him, Gold Commissioner Thomas Griffin, who murdered him and his Irish mate. So while we do not know when this image was taken it clearly or what is happening at the moment the photograph is taken the expression on Cahill’s face strongly suggests he harboured some deep concerns or doubts about him.

Danger never a stranger

always been “much the same”, and recounted a tragic incident in which a colleague was killed.

Frank Murphy, the host of Celtic Rambles on Radio Fremantle, raised the Wieambilla attack and the danger to police officers with guest Bob Kucera on December 17. Welsh born Kucera joined the WA police in 1966, and rose to the rank of assistant commissioner before he left the service in 2001, to run for parliament.

He told Murphy that unfortunately it had

“I had a similar situation many years ago in Mt Barker when I was a copper there,” said Kucrea. “I went down to a farm run by a fellow who I went down to serve some bailiff papers on and he became quite aggressive. He had signs up around the farm telling police to keep away and he was a really strange fellow. About three months later I was transferred back to Perth to become a detective and Constable William Pense who took my place. Unfortunately the next time he visited the same farm the fellow shot him and killed him. So it was a very similar situation quite frankly.” That was October 12 1979.

At time of publication, some 87 WA police officers had died in the line of duty. Detective Senior Constable Michael Cursiter’s name is the most recent one on that list.

Cursiter was originally from Orkeny, Scotland and came to WA Police having served with Grampian Police. A father of two the 53 year old officer had been involved in a chase on foot of an offender from which he suffered a heart attack and died.

The list of fallen WA police includes some officers with names that strongly suggest Irish heritage, including Constable Patrick Hackett who was brutally bashed to death at Beverley in September 1884 and Joseph O’Connell, shot dead in Fremantle in April 1887. Every death tells a grim story of loss.

Hackett, 26, for example, the only police officer for the district was beaten to death by two drunken ex convicts using hammers they took from a blacksmiths. His murder came just days after he had become a father for the second time (his first child had died two years earlier, just ten days old).

His funeral – at the Roman Catholic Cemetery at York – was reported by newspapers at the time and portrayed the heartbreaking ceremony. “Lamentably conspicuous

among the mourners was the deeply-pitied young widow who followed the coffin in a buggy with her baby in her arms and her appearance excited the most profound sympathy towards her and the deepest feeling of hatred towards the wretches who had caused her irretrievable loss.”

Leading the heart breaking funeral service was high profile churchman, Fr Matthew Gibney – who was born at Killeshandra, Co. Cavan in 1835. Gibney came to Perth in 1863 as soon as he had been ordained a priest from the Catholic College of All Hallows, Drumcondra. He was a big man with boundless energy and ability and amongst other things opened the Catholic Girls’ Orphanage in Perth and the Clontarf Orphanage for Catholic Boys in Subiaco, in 1871. Based in the west he happened to be travelling through Victoria by train on June 28 1880 when he learned that Ned Kelly and his gang were trapped in Glenrowan in a deadly stand off with a large number of police who were tracking them down. [The Kelly crew planned to derail a train full of police officers hunting them, but the

ONSALENOW!

ambush attempt was foiled] Gibney got off the train and made his way to the stand-off and where he tended the badly wounded Kelly, heard his confession and gave him the last rites. Going against the advice of Kelly himself, Gibney dashed into the hotel that police had set alight, where the rest of the gang were hold up to offer help to those he could find. The man hunt for Const. Hackett’s killers – Andrew Miller and Thomas Carbury (Carbeery) lasted four days and ended in a bloody shootout when they were tracked down to Dale River near Waterhatch Farm, east of Beverley. Another convict character William Brown, who had nothing to do with the murder but who had decided to join them on the run, was killed in the exchange. Miller was badly wounded but lived just long enough to confess to members of the police

posse that he was involved in Hackett’s killing. Carbury escaped the fire-fight and slipped away injured only to be caught soon afterwards when he was recognised by police at The Lakes and captured. He was found guilty of Hackett’s murder and hanged in Perth Gaol in late October 1884. None of the four men who tracked them down were hurt in the confrontation and they probably caught up with them in time to prevent more mayhem or even a massacre.

Carbury told police that at Waterhatch the three men started planning to hold up the town of Beverley just like the Kelly gang had held up Jerilderie a few years earlier. The trio were armed with revolvers, a double barrelled gun and “a great quantity of ammunition” in their last stand with the authorities.

Hackett decorated 133 years later

The Western Australia Police Star was a new decoration created in about 2017 and awarded to sworn police personnel who were killed or seriously whilst carrying out their primary function on or off duty.

The first Police Star recipient was awarded to Constable Ryan Marron in May 2017 by then Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan at the WA Police Academy in Joondalup. The policeman was left severely disabled and unable to walk or talk as the result of

contracting a mosquito-borne virus when he was stationed at Balgo, in the Shire of Halls Creek, in 2011.

A few months later in August 78 Police Stars were awarded to the families of deceased officers as well as serving and retired officers with a permanent injury or illness as a result of their service.

The oldest Police Star was awarded to the family of Constable Patrick Hackett.

The Irish singer-songwriter who is best known for his song’s Hit The Diff and Slip The Clutch and has been making waves across Ireland and the UK with his eclectic blend of country - rock and folk and is already gaining more and more fans across the globe. He hits Badlands on Friday 20th January.

Hermitage Green are an Irish acoustic folk rock band. Formed in July 2010, the band primarily feature on the Limerick music scene. They have toured in Ireland, the UK, and Australia. They bring their unique sound to Badlands on St Pat’s Day weekend - Sunday 19th March.

Jimmy Duffy

Duffy leaves the country, goes Western

Former Connacht assistant Jimmy Duffy touched down in Perth over the Christmas holidays to begin the next stage of his successful career as Forwards Coach for the 2023 and 2034 season with the Western Force.

The Galway man joins the Force from Ireland United Rugby Championship side, Connacht, where he was Assistant Coach for seven years, leading the club to a Guinness Pro12 title in 2016. Widely recognised as a technical coach, Duffy is known to cement a formidable defensive structure, which was marked in the most recent Irish U20s 2022 Six Nations Grand Slam title where he was Assistant Coach in the 54-point triumph over Scotland.

The 46-year-old further boasts a wealth of coaching experience on the world stage, having steered the Irish U18’s through four international campaigns.

Duffy’s appointment to the role was announced in September 2022 but in a brief video posted on the Force’s site on December 27, he declared he was now ‘here’ in WA.

“For me it was a new challenge. I’ve been in Ireland for over 20 years and yeah it was nice to get an opportunity on the far side of the world, so its something very different for myself and my family,” said. “Its a brand new competition for me, I haven’t coached in this part of the world before, its going to be a great challenge, new players, new faces, new staff, a lot to learn but a lot to look forward too as well.”

When he broke the news he was leaving the West of Ireland club Duffy said it was a “tough decision” to go but that he felt: “now is the time for me to stretch myself and further myself and further my development as a coach.”

Prior to that role he was Elite Player Development Officer with the Connacht Academy and before that as a Coach Development Officer working across the game at grassroots level.

“When I spoke to [Western Force Head Coach]

Simon Cron and Tony Lewis the ambition and determination they have to see the club thrive is phenomenal,” Duffy mentioned.

“The drive they have to develop players in local areas and grow the talent base is something that I’m extremely passionate about. I’m all for the plan to make the Force a successful entity both on and off the field with a focus on highlevel performance. I like to foremost work with the person, I constantly encourage the notion of ‘if it’s their challenge they will rise to it quicker. I believe when you build solid relationships and collaborate on ideas, you get to know the players on a personal level, I believe this promotes best out of them.”

Simon Cron said after a rigorous pursuit he was looking forward working with Duffy and the wealth of knowledge he can bring to the club. “We had a handful of extremely talented candidates, so the process was very detailed and competitive,” Cron claimed. “What stood out with Duffy is that he has the ability to simplify his breath of expertise in a clear and precise manner, allowing players to grasp concepts, progressing their development.”

Duffy is not the first Irishman to join the Club. Ireland international Rob Kearney, who was born and raised on a dairy farm on the Cooley Peninsula, Co. Louth, signed a one year contract with the Force for the 2021 Super Rugby season. But things didn’t quite work out as expected and six months later the Irish fullback had moved back to Ireland.

Western Force fans will get to watch six home games at the redeveloped HBF Park, kicking off with a season opener against historic rivals, The Melbourne Rebels, on February 25.

More to the man than meets the eye!

The change of light and landscape from the west coast of Ireland to Western Australia could also be good for Duffy’s other passion, painting abstract pictures. It is something he has been doing “for about thirty years on the quiet”, but really explored again during lockdown.

Vale Niamh Finneran Loader

January 2023 was meant to be an exciting time for Irish born UWA student Niamh Finneran Loader. The bright 25 year old with a promising career was due to start her internship at the American Institute for Economic Research in Massachusetts, USA but her life was cut short in early December when she was found dead in her hotel room in Bali, where she had travelled for a minor dental operation and had apparently been happy the outcome of the procedure. Niamh’s heartbroken family flew out from Perth to retrieve her body and a go-fund me campaign helped to raise more than $42,000 to make that happen. The family, originally hailed from Ballydangan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, where Niamh was born, emigrated to Perth when she was a young girl. “Niamh will be missed by her many aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family members in Ireland, England and Australia, as well as friends, colleagues and acquaintances,” the family said. “In her short 25 years, Niamh touched the lives of so many. May her fighting, fair and free spirit live on in the hearts of those who loved her. Malcolm & Tina would like to thank all those who have supported us in so many ways.”

Niamh is survived by her parents Tina and Malcolm, brothers Joe, Daniel and Ronan, grandparents: Ned and Mary Finneran (Taughmaconnell, Co. Roscommon) and Dorothy and Gerald Loader (London).

Niamh made a big impression on life and everyone she met. Between 2018 and 2020 she studied for a Law and Society degree at UWA between January 2018 and October 2020 and was awarded the Kate King Legal Prize in third year at uni for being the highest performing student in the crime, justice and public course. She followed this up with a graduate certificate in International Relations and then the course she was currently taking and due to complete in October, a Masters in International Relations and Strategic Communications. “It was with great shock and sadness that we learned of the sudden passing of Mannkal Scholar Niamh Loader following a medical procedure,” the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation in Subiaco said about her passing. “Niamh was a

BY LLOYD GORMAN

gifted writer who had several pieces published this year in The Spectator Australia and on our own Mannkal blog. Below you will find the relevant links to her work,” the Foundation added. “Niamh had a gift for a pithy phrase that summed up her opinions – opinions she was always keen to share. She was determined to get to the truth of a situation and then to write about it in a way that not only pointed that truth out but helped the rest of us to understand what was frequently the absurdity of it.” Niamh contributed articles to the Foundation’s blog but also The Spectator Australia. Editor Mark Burgess said he met her at a conference in May last year.

“Niamh was a character,” he wrote in a tribute piece. “Though I only knew her for a short period, I will remember Niamh for her cheeky Irish sense of humour and sharp wit, coupled with a strong intellect, which facilitated enjoyable philosophical discussions. A free spirit and a lover of freedom, I admired and shared Niamh’s ardent support of liberty and personal freedom. To Niamh’s credit, she was no doubt blessed with more patience than me for the many in our generation that have seemingly pivoted toward socialist ideas!

In my relatively short experience, there are some rare people that you only cross paths with in this life for a short time, but make a remarkable impression upon you. Niamh was one of those individuals. Never explicitly political, Niamh called a spade a spade. She was an impressively critical thinker and ultimately wanted the truth to prevail above all else. Most of all, she was a friendly individual who was a pleasure to be around. I enjoyed reading Niamh’s work for The Spectator Australia. She was a lover of literature and had a deep insight into the Western canon of great works, especially fictional works, and their impact on culture. As she wrote, ‘without imagination, we stagnate’. My favourite quote of hers though, which for me concisely summarises the times in which we live, was as follows: ‘Analyse anything deeply enough and you’ll inevitably take offence to something.’ Niamh had a very bright future ahead of her, and she has been taken far too soon.”

Niamh’s funeral was held in Mandurah on Friday 23 December and streamed to family and friends in Ireland and beyond. RIP.

Midwest Geraldton Irish Club

Greetings from the Midwest Irish Club

The end of October saw Halloween celebrations at the club take place with members being unrecognisable due to their creative outfits. Members, both young and old all took part and there was plenty of candy for the kids and Guinness for the adults. Refer to some of the photos taken

on the day. In the month of November, the club was notified that a man by the name of Tony Mangan from Dublin, would be walking into Geraldton (YES WALKING) on Sunday 20 November 2022. Tony, a remarkable man, was on his way to Perth to complete his lap walking around Australia. In addition to this, Tony has previously walked across Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, East Asia, Africa, Saudi Arabia, and New Zealand. Tony does this to promote the message of early cancer screening and that life is precious. Tony lost his mother to cancer after a late diagnosis and is walking to honour her life. Since February 2016, Tony has walked a massive 38,300kms. The club greeted Tony with open arms with the aim to rehydrate him with Guinness and re stock his energy with some food. Club president, Peter Vanderpol and wife Kerry kindly offered Tony a comfy bed and a hot shower for his two-night stay in Geraldton. Before he headed off again, local business “Revolutions” cycle shop in Geraldton serviced Tony’s cart named “Karma” and donated some muchneeded spare parts free of charge. You can follow

Tony’s journey by following him on Facebook. In November, the club were saddened to hear that local musician and regular performer at the club, “Bro”, lost his wife to a long-term illness, leaving behind two young children. The club prides itself on promoting the values of Claddagh and when the committee were made aware of this news, it was decided to create a Go Fund me page and to host a fundraising event at the club. This event was held on Tuesday 6 December, consisting of live music performances from what seemed to be all of Geraldton’s local artists. There were raffles and donations being made throughout the evening. The event was well attended by its members, friends and family of Bro. We

were pleased to announce on the night that the club through the generous donations of club members, businesses and members of public raised $7,193.70.

The club hosted several Christmas events, firstly with a visit by Santa Claus himself for the Midwest Irish Clubs kids Christmas party and then the clubs Annual Christmas dinner. Members were again treated to a delicious two course meal provided by local caterers and were entertained throughout the night by local music legend, Geoff Udy.

The club is already preparing for the 2023 entertainment program which will continue with live music every Friday evening and

Darryl Hunt, the Pogues and Irish punk in the 1980s

When the death of Pogues’ bassist

Darryl Hunt

Darryl Hunt was announced earlier this year, it prompted an outpouring of grief and sympathy not only from his former band mates, but from fans around the world who had been touched by his contribution to the Irish folk and British punk genres, and the electrifying mixture of the two which was made manifest in this band from the 1980s through to the early 2010s. Hunt – who had been a mainstay of the Pogues from 1986 until their final dissolution in 2014 –died on 8th August, with the news prompting reflections from those who knew and had played with him. The official Pogues’ Twitter handle announced his death with a photograph and the words to ‘Love You Till The End’ which Hunt had written for the band’s seventh and final album, Pogue Mahone. Shortly afterwards, singer Shane MacGowan posted his own response, describing Darryl Hunt as a ‘great friend and a great bass player’; Spider Stacy –who contributed both vocals and tin whistle to the band added ‘This is wretched. See you around the way, Daz.’ Tracking back almost fifty years to the beginning of Hunt’s career, we can see how he was one of many young men drawn to the English capital by the punk scene of the late 1970s, a movement which itself gave voice to those disappointed by the lost promise of post-Sixties Britain. The DIY culture of punk encouraged its proponents to try out various creative projects, and so Hunt emerged as both a musician – with the Favourites – but also producer of music zine Haywire, which documented the scene developing around the pub Pindar of Wakefield. It was in this setting that he became acquainted with some of the figures who were beginning to play together as Pogue Mahone, particularly MacGowan and Cait O’Riordan. The connection between punk

BY CAROLINE SMITH

and Irish music – and the capacity for punk to express some of the key themes of Irish culture and community – is not immediately obvious, although the movement did include a number of musicians from this background. In this vein, Shane MacGowan explained his early interest in the Sex Pistols by saying it was partly due to Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) being ‘so bloody Irish’, and Lydon himself has commented on the alienation – evident in his music – which resulted in being cut off from his family’s country of origin and cultural roots. A similar narrative played out in MacGowan’s life: born in Kent, he spent his early years on the family farm in Tipperary, looked after up by relatives while his parents worked in England. Joining them at the age of six, he returned to Ireland only sporadically, with southern England providing the rest of his childhood and youthful context, including an education at Holmewood House Preparatory School and Westminster (from which he was expelled in his second year). Like Lydon, he acknowledged feeling like a fish out of water, writing in a 2001 quasi-autobiography that “Irish kids of my age got split down the middle, really heavily. They either decided that they would never be English . . . or they became ashamed of their own parents and their own roots.” Choosing largely the first option, he went on to note that his youthful interests included ‘hurling and the IRA’, neither likely to receive a warm welcome in his adopted country. At the same time, MacGowan was able to somewhat resolve the two through the creative process, at first through literature and then music. At Holmewood, his teachers at first responded with scepticism when he told them of his voluminous reading list – which included luminaries of both Irish and British literature (and later Russian and German) – but upon reading his short stories, they realised he had a unique voice which allowed him to draw on these influences and his own background. Discussing these works

The Pogues and Irish punk in the 1980s

with his father Maurice was a key feature of this engagement, and by twelve MacGowan was already working his way through Joyce, O’Casey, Greene, Lawrence, Waugh and Dostoyevsky. His parents and teachers thought literature would be his calling too, but before his teens he had identified a more suitable path, telling Maurice that he would earn his living ‘through music, writing through music because that’s the way you communicate with people nowadays. It’s a much wider form of communication.’

With the formation of the Pogues in 1982, Shane MacGowan was able to put forward a voice that had already been seen in his youthful stories: his songs knitted together the symbolism and preoccupations of Irish culture – emigration and the diaspora, rebellion, the Catholic Church, death, guilt and whiskey – and drew upon the influences of punk and Irish folk to produce a unique sound. After opening for the Clash in 1984, the Pogues produced their first album Red Roses for Me, and followed this up with Rum Sodomy and the Lash the next year. The latter yielded both artistic and commercial success through a cluster of noteworthy songs including The Old Main Drag and The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn as well as unique interpretations of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (by Eric Bogle) and Dirty Old Town (by Ewan MacColl). The first two stand testament to Shane MacGowan’s ability to write about vastly divergent subjects: the eternal Irish fighter (and drinker) evoking figures from Celtic mythology, and the seediness of London’s Piccadilly and its rent boys. What both songs have in common is the ability to address human struggle and hardship, requesting not saccharine sympathy but only a thought for those who experience it. It was at this point that Darryl Hunt joined the Pogues, following the departure of O’Riordan, and the band went on to achieve their peak of commercial success with If I Should Fall From Grace With God in 1988, an album which included the song for which they are perhaps best known, Fairytale of New York. This too evoked the sounds and vernacular of the streets (with the scrubbing of its lyrics a few years ago proving controversial), and it reached number one in the Irish charts and number two in the British, going on to become a festive staple in these and

other countries. However MacGowan’s personal struggles – particularly with drinking - had begun to take their toll on the band, and following a failure to attend their 1988 American tour or promote subsequent album Hell’s Ditch two years later, he was forced out, and the Pogues continued without him, producing Pogue Mahone in 1996. One point of interest during the band’s peak years was the direct connection they made to the Irish folk music scene through their collaboration with the Dubliners on the song the Irish Rover. There would be very few Irish living in 1987 who did not tune into the Late Late Show that year to see the Dubs celebrate their 25th anniversary, and it was here that the two bands performed together for the first time. The song – a multi-instrumental riot of exaggerated lyrics, telling the story of a doomed ship – revealed how well the Pogues’ energy (and MacGowan’s idiosyncratic vocals) could contribute to traditional Irish folk, and put a new spin on it. When the song was recorded later that year for the Dubliners’ anniversary album, it reached number one in the Irish singles chart, and number eight in the UK. In this way, perhaps the Pogues had come full circle.

Mac Gowan’s Happy Christmas and Happy Birthday

The Rainy Night in Soho signer was rushed to hospital in the run up to Christmas as a result of an infection. But his wife, Irish journalist Victoria, 56, tweeted on December 15 that her husband has responded well to treatment and was back home where McGowan celebrated his 63rd birthday, on December 25. MacGowan put out a short video on twitter in wich he wished: “Happy Christmas everyone and thank you for your messages and prayers. Merry Christmas Everyone.”

THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB

THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB

Meets fourth Tuesday of the month, with exception of December. At 7.30pm May 24 ‘Phosphorescence’ by Julia Baird, to be presented by Trish Dooey June 28 TBA to be presented by Cecilia Bray

Meets fourth Tuesday of the month, with exception of December. At 7.30pm Jan 24 ‘Surrender’ by Bono, presented by Gayle Lannon Feb 28 The Queen of Dirt Island’ by Donal Ryan, presented by Trish Dooey Venue Irish Club Committee Room, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco Admission Free. All welcome. Light refreshments provided. Tea and coffee from the Bar $2 Contact Convener Mary Purcell, m.purcell@telstra.com

Venue Irish Club Committee Room, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco

Admission Free. All welcome. Light refreshments provided. Tea and coffee from the Bar $2 Contact Convener Mary Purcell, m.purcell@telstra.com

BLOOMSDAY - James Joyce Literary Competition presentations

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, Sun February 26

Date Sunday February 26 at 3pm, followed

To mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses, the AIHA will hold a celebratory event on June 16th , officially known world-wide as Bloomsday, after Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. At the event, the shortlisted entries from our competition will be staged as readings, drama, music and visual presentations by solo or groups The overall winner will be chosen by popular vote on the night and will receive a cash prize.

We thank our adjudicators Frank Murphy and Frances Devlin-Glass

AIHA FILM CLUB SEASON Wednesdays February 1,8,15,22, March 1

Date Thursday June 16 at 7.30pm

Venue Irish Club Theatre, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco (to be confirmed) Admission AIHA members $20, Non-members $25, includes light refreshments Prizes Best Edwardian dressed male or female. Plus special Irish raffle Bookings https://www.trybooking.com/BZAVU

AIHA Website

Fifteenth annual outdoor Irish Film Festival with a programme of rarely seen and some classic Irish cinema. Private garden cinema, 7.45pm nightly. Ample parking available. Big fifteen-foot cinema screen. Programme will be released in January Plus Each night a supporting Irish short film or documentary, together with tea/coffee and cakes. Ice creams $3 Venue Kensington (South Perth) Entry Donation $10 to cover catering and costs, pay at the gate. Seating Come early for best seats, bring deckchair if running late Enquiries Tony Bray - Ph 9367 6026, check our website and facebook

Check our website https://irishheritage.com.au/news-blog/ for a selection of exclusive interviews conducted by committee member Gill Kenny and other articles of note. If you click on the interview with Aine Tyrrell you will arrive at our YouTube channel. Aine is really interesting - victim of domestic violence, successful singer, living in a bus and rearing 3 children. She has great perspectives on life and had a real Irish chat with Gill. Easter Monday Annual Catalpa Commemoration was professionally videod this year. The link will be on our website as soon as available.

We thank Gill and Patricia Bratton for this new member feature.

Current projects

The JOURNAL

Members of AIHA receive 4 editions of the Journal each year. Latest edition for March 2022, Vol 31, No 1 is available. We now have a library of 30 years of Journal and are compiling an index of every article title, author and subject detail to be made available on our website from May this year. We anticipate almost 2,000 titles in the index.

Contributors can email editor Julie Breathnach-Banwait on journal@irishheritage.com.au Non-members can purchase copies at $10

Bloomsday Planning Meeting Saturday, 28 January, 2pm. Annual International literary celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses to be held on Friday 16th June. If interested in contributing please contact our secretary. The Journal – we are still seeking a new editor for our quarterly bound publication. Our current editor Julie Breathnach-Banwait had to step down due to her family moving interstate. Enquiries to our secretary Brendan Award 2022 – finalisation of this annual community award has been deferred to early 2023 Program of Activities for 2023 is available to members and those on our database

Coming Up

Annual Mary Durack lecture to be delivered by Patsy Millet, daughter of Dame Mary Durack, AC DBE Australian author and historian, (1913 - 1994) Date is subject to confirmation by Irish Club in July or August

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Due 1

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a hilarious, poignant, thought-provoking work by Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. Boasting a large, zany cast of characters, the play asks one of the most plaguing questions in the Christian ideology: What happened to Judas Iscariot? The facts (we think!) we know are these: Judas was the disciple of Jesus who betrayed his friend and teacher

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a hilarious, poignant, thought-provoking work by Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. Boasting a large, zany cast of characters, the play asks one of the most plaguing questions in the Christian ideology: What happened to Judas Iscariot? The facts (we think!) we know are these: Judas was the disciple of Jesus who betrayed his friend and teacher

to the authorities. He is seen as the man responsible for Jesus’s death; afterwards, Judas fell into despair and hung himself from an olive tree; since then, he has been suffering for his deeds deep in Hell and will continue to do so for all eternity. Is that really fair? Was Judas the duplicitous master of his own fate, a much-suffering pawn used for Jesus’s ends, or just a man who made a mistake? Set in a courtroom in Purgatory, The Last Days puts Judas’ case to a hilarious, riotous, piercing trial, the results of which are sure to make the inhabitants of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory — and the audience — reconsider what each thought they knew about forgiveness, faith, and the human inside one of history’s most infamous

to the authorities. He is seen as the man responsible for Jesus’s death; afterwards, Judas fell into despair and hung himself from an olive tree; since then, he has been suffering for his deeds deep in Hell and will continue to do so for all eternity. Is that really fair? Was Judas the duplicitous master of his own fate, a much-suffering pawn used for Jesus’s ends, or just a man who made a mistake? Set in a courtroom in Purgatory, The Last Days puts Judas’ case to a hilarious, riotous, piercing trial, the results of which are sure to make the inhabitants of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory — and the audience — reconsider what each thought they knew about forgiveness, faith, and the human inside one of history’s most infamous 7.30PM.SUNDAY MATINEE 24TH AT 2.00PM THEN 28TH, 29TH & 30TH AT 7.30PM.

DEFIBRILLATOR TRAINING

Following the very generous donation of a defibrillator to The Claddagh Association by the Hon. Alanna Clohesy MLC last month, St Johns Ambulance held a very informative training session at The Claddagh Offices. The course was hands on, covering both general and basic life support skills. While the training was excellent and helped us all feel more confident in providing emergency first aid, anyone can use a defibrillator. Once you turn it on, it will give you clear instructions on what to do. The device checks the heart rhythm and will only tell you to shock if its needed. Thank you again for this much needed life saving device. It now accompanies us on every senior event. While we hope to never have to use it, knowing it is available in the case of emergency is very reassuring.

Claddagh Seniors Enjoy Some Wonderful Days Out!

LUNCH ENJOYED AT THE PICTURESQUE PARKERVILLE TAVERN IN OCTOBER

On a chilly Spring Day, our seniors headed up to the heart of the Perth hills to enjoy lunch at the Parkerville Tavern. Steeped in history, the double storey federation style pub is nestled in a wooded valley and provided a lovely location for lunch and good company.

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS LUNCH A BIG SUCCESS

Held at The Mighty Quinn, over 100 guests enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch, fabulous entertainment by the Broken Pokers and of course a flying visit by the man himself! Some lucky seniors also went home with prizes from the Christmas Raffle. A wonderful day was had by all. The Claddagh Association also took the opportunity to announce, ‘Lifetime Honorary Member’ Awards to four members in appreciation of their tremendous support over many years. Thank you, Joe Carroll and Annie Ross, who were presented with certificates and Irene McGovern, and John McGovern, for your generosity of time and service. Thank you to our many sponsors and supporters who make this day possible, especially to Jessica Stojkovski, MLA, Hon Stephen Dawson. MLC, Hon Alanna Clohesy, MLC, Mcloughlin Butchers, Hetty’s Scullery, The Gathering, Anne McKeaghney, Mary Bowes & Friends, Jean Hill, Tom Tallon & Anonymous friends of Claddagh. And a very big thank you to our Seniors Committee who spend many hours organising these events. They provide a great opportunity for our Seniors to relax, get out and visit new places and of course share time with old friends and the opportunity to make new friends within our community. If you would like to be part of our Seniors Events in 2023, go to our website – claddagh.org.au and become a member for only $10 per year.

FREMANTLE BOAT HARBOUR LUNCHEON

Gorgeous sunshine and delicious fish and chips were enjoyed by our seniors on a bus trip to Ciscerellos in Fremantle. Lots of smiles, laughter, and an opportunity to catch up with friends ensured a fun day was had by everyone.

OUR SENIORS ARE BECOMING TECH SAVVY!

Our last two Seniors Digital Training Workshops were held over October and November.

Workshop 4: Introduction to Smart Phones helped our Seniors to really use the features on their phones enabling them to do useful things like set reminders, book wheelchair taxis, use banking apps, the torch and calculator! And so much more.

Workshop 5: 5 Ways to Use Smart Technology, was an eye opener to what is available today to help older Australians in their homes, making life easier as they become less mobile. Fun was had and a little bit of amazement experienced, learning that you can use your voice and your phone to activate your lights, security systems, your tv and so much more.

Thank you everyone who attended and for your very positive feedback. Well done on becoming a more informed and confident part of the digital world.

Our 2023 Digital Training Programme commences on the 18 February. Keep an eye on our social media for all dates and topics – we look forward to seeing you in class!

The Seniors Digital Training Project is sponsored by the Emigrant Support Program Grant.

All Workshops are designed especially for Seniors and endeavour to provide a fun and supportive learning environment that teaches practical skills in using today’s technology.

THE CLADDAGH ASSOCIATION

- THERE WHEN YOU NEED US

The mission of the Claddagh Association is to provide help and support to members of the Irish community who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

To support these needs of both individuals and families Claddagh must fundraise throughout the year.

If you would like to support Claddagh’s work in 2022/2023 you can donate at our website: claddagh.org.au or sign up to volunteer – your time can make the world of difference. https://claddagh.org.au/support-our-work/make-adonation/-, alternatively for $10 you can become a member. Increasing our membership allows us to access additional funding and support through other avenues. See our Website for full details.

Don’t forget, if you or someone you know needs Claddagh’s support, please contact the Claddagh office via admin@ claddagh.org.au/08 9249 9213. If your need is urgent, you can call Claddagh’s Crisis Line on 0403 972 265.

The Claddagh Association’s Annual Remembrance Service was held on Sunday 6 November at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Subiaco.

Officiated by Monsignor Tim Corcoran, the lovely service was attended by over 70 of our community. The service was made especially poignant by the delightful musical accompaniment by Dympna Finch playing the tin whistle, vocals by Veronica Byrnes and Fred Rea playing the guitar, and the melodic sounds of the Irish Choir. Thank you to all who contributed to the service.

It was the beginning of summer. A beautiful Perth Saturday. I set off for my normal Saturday afternoon event. A bunch of us singing with ukulele accompaniment. Everyone was happy. Christmas was coming and we were all looking forward to our grand party in the following Saturday. It was there I met Connie, a real menace. Yeah, Connie was the name I gave to that rather fantastic virus that appeared some three years ago. A very nasty little piece of apparatus most of us now know really well. Three days later I tested positive, and Connie managed to make herself available to my good wife as well. Now here I had a piece of good luck. My good wife ( Yeah, the one from Dublin 4) managed to phone her doctor (mine was unavailable) and procure a prescription for a certain antiviral tablet, the cost of which was $1100 for the 40 tablets. A cool $27:50 a tablet. Because I had reached a certain age the government awarded me with a price of $6. Yes, that is $6 for the 40. A significant drop you would have to agree.

Because you are reading this you will realise that we both have come out the other side, after over a week which would be well worth forgetting about and not what you want to read about in this happy little magazine. Connie won many of the battles at the beginning but, I am more than happy to report, was the eventual loser. I had plenty of time to think on my article for this great little magazine

BY DAVID MACCONNELL

even if many of the thoughts were not on the positive side or all that helpful.

For a start I became quite home sick. This had never occurred at any time in the fifty or so years I have been living away from the place. Perhaps Ulster was not noted as the in place to live in the sixties although, I must admit, I enjoyed the many experiences I had there. At that time travel was not all that popular or affordable. My parents, for example, visited Scotland once during their lifetime and my grannie never travelled more than twenty miles from the place where she was born.

It was with these thoughts that I concluded I would probably never return to the old sod ever again which of course was the reason for the home sickness. What would I miss? I asked myself. Not the obvious tourist sites like the Giant’s Causeway, The Titanic Quarter, and the Europa Hotel. Rather things I did when I was in my early teens. Riding a one-geared bicycle from Newtownards through Belfast to Ballmoney. Cycling from Belfast (when as a boarder at Methody) to Annalong in the Mourne Mountains and trekking around the latter all weekend. Walking through the Botantic Gardens in Belfast three times a week for six years on the way to the schools sporting grounds some three miles away. Playing rugby in Armagh and Dungannon. The only time I ever visited those two towns. Visiting my old home in Shrigley, a village near the town of Killyleagh with its unique castle where I won a fancy dress parade at the age of 7. Buying my second harmonica when I was aged 9 at Matchetts Music Shop in Belfast. It is still there! That was the day I heard a young flautist playing at the back of the shop. It was a magic sound. No wonder, when my mother asked who he was, ‘a

young lad by the name of Jimmy Galway,’ she was told.

Playing golf at the Scrabo Golf club when I was 14. We had no car at that time and I used to cycle up to the club with the clubs inside my father’s old bag. It cost me one shilling. I was a junior! Later on I joined Bangor golf club. There were so many lovely courses to play. Clandeboye was a favourite where I watched Christy O’Connor (Senior) play in some tournament. Donaghadee was also a favourite although the lighthouse was more spectacular.

My favourite two golf courses of all were Mahee Island and Ardglass. The former was founded in 1930 and many reckon it is one of the most scenic in all of Ireland. It is situated on an island at the edge of Strangford Lough. The latter is a few miles away along the coast. Of course there are many other areas of interest in the Provence. You might have noticed that most of the items I have mentioned are in Co Down. We tended not to travel too far from our own ‘home’ area in those days.

Naturally, the thing I miss the most is the pubs and the craic. All of the pubs (I am pleased to report) are still there.

Balloo House in Killinchy always served scampi with the Guinness. The Crawfordsburn Inn between Holywood and Bangor was just the sort of place you imagine an Irish pub would be like. I never once had a bad time there. And of course all my ‘locals’ near the University.

The BOT. (Botanic Inn), The EGG. (Eglantine Inn), The Club Bar and the WELLY BOOT (Wellington Park Hotel).

As I have mentioned before, I often worked for the Beslfast Festival in its formative years. The Guinness Bar made so much profit that at the end of

the festival, they would collect those workers (like myself) and board us on the train to Dublin to visit the brewery. We all returned on the evening train much the worse for wear but after such a good time. Such great craic we all had.

I have always been surprised when I google Ulster to learn that the other counties have great land marks and things to view as well. Fermanagh is rich in culture with its lakes and Tyrone has quite a few sites to visit. Donegal and Derry should not be missed on any future visit and I still have relations in Cavan and Monaghan. Looks like I will have to return!

In conclusion I hope you can give Connie a miss and now that I am on the mend, I can only hope that the phrase “Never say Never” will apply to the wife and myself in the future. I hope you all have had a great Christmas and I wish you all happiness in the year ahead. As always may your God go with you.

Book Reviews

Books reviewed by John Hagan

A HEART FULL OF HEADSTONES

BY IAN RANKIN / ORION $32.99

Recently knighted, Ian Rankin is back with this, his 24th book in the continuing John Rebus thriller series. Settling in to retirement following decades as a detective in the Edinburgh police, the ageing Rebus seems content to listen to his many LPs and take his dog, Brillo, for leisurely walks across the golf course near his Marchmont flat. That is until he receives a call from his old criminal adversary, Morris Gerald (‘Big Ger’) Cafferty, now in a wheelchair, requesting Rebus’ assistance to trace an old business colleague. At the same time, Rebus’ former protégé, DI Siobhan Clarke is pursuing police officer Francis Haggard for wife beating and harassment. Haggard’s defence is that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his time stationed at the dysfunctional Tynecastle Police Station. Haggard, is adamant that if the case is not dropped he will spill the beans about the deviant culture and corrupt ‘goings-on’ at Tynecastle, something that the police hierarchy view with trepidation. DI Malcom Fox, from the Special Crime Division, and another Rebus nemesis, is seemingly keen to quash Clarke’s investigation in order to save law enforcement blushes. Rebus’ search and Clarke’s sleuthing soon intersect while suspicions arise as to who is second guessing who, and who is bending the truth to their advantage. Framed by a background of Covid and Brexit, Clarke’s loyalties to her former boss, the police force and the course of justice are all tested to the limit as she makes unsettling discoveries. Rebus, as he pursues his hunt, becomes the target of both the city’s criminals and his former police colleagues leading to his appearance in court. This time however, Rebus is not giving evidence –he is in the dock facing a possible prison term. Rankin, in his inimitable way, deftly weaves several related story lines together in another clever and complex narrative to maintain his status as the UK’s top crime novelist.

SCOOPS

I’ve noticed recently on news programmes (such as ‘The 7.30 Report’) acknowledgement is made not only to the reporter but also to the segment’s producer –and rightly so. To delve in to the rationale for this opinion, or out of curiosity as to what a news producer actually does, Scoops is the answer. The book sheds light on the often unacknowledged efforts of producers as well as providing an interesting peek behind the scenes of a major television channel. Any good news feature requires the producer to display innate instinct, patience, organizational skill and an extensive array of contacts. And Sam McAlister has these in spades. In a candid memoir she takes us behind the camera to reveal the secrets of many legendary interviews on the BBC flagship Newsnight programme including the celebrated 2019 screening which brought the royal career of Prince Andrew to a shuddering end. McAlister, disenchanted with her legal career as a criminal barrister, joined the BBC ‘for a couple of days work experience’. This small step eventually led to 12 years as a producer on Newsnight, which was hosted by Jeremy Paxman - ‘the most brilliant broadcaster of his generation’. A master of persuasion, McAlister specialized in bringing world leaders, those on the brink of reputational ruin, those who want to set the record straight and array of celebrities to the screen. Some, such as Julian Assange, Steven Segal and Conrad Black were fairly straightforward to arrange, while others like tht of Australian DJ, Mel Greig (whose hoax phone call to St Mary’s Hospital London to enquire about the health of the Duchess of Cambridge, caused a sensation) took almost two years to eventuate. Ex-FBI Director James Comey, former White House Secretary, Sean Spicer, entertainer Amy Schumer and Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with Donald Trump were also some of Newsnight’s big name guests. But it was the interview McAlister arranged and produced with Prince Andrew about his association with convicted sex-offender, Jeffrey Epstein and the accusation of having sex with a minor which caused the most furore. McAlister describes the tense, protracted, Palace negotiations and the shuddering aftermath

which has been described as ‘a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering an explosion’. Throughout this absorbing, free flowing, well written zinger of a book McAlister shares the tricks of the trade and the machinations behind some of TV’s most memorable interviews.

THERE’S BEEN A LITTLE INCIDENT

ALICE RYAN / HEAD OF ZEUS

$29.99

Molly Black has disappeared- and not for the first time. Marshaled by Uncle John, thirteen members of the Black clan squeeze into the front room of John’s Dublin house to decide on a course of action. ‘A map of Europe stretched across the wall. Red thumbtacks marked Molly’s movements like the Allies’ progress during the Second World War – if the Allies had moved between damp flats in North London’. Despite her failings, Molly is important to them all; she ‘was like electricity – sometimes she lit up the world. Sometimes she electrocuted you’. John commands a disparate group of individuals, many with their own personal, and secretive, motivations to discover Molly’s whereabouts. Amongst the gathered Black coterie are Uncle Danny (an alcoholic pub waiter), cousin Anne (straight laced spinster and accountant), Lady V (rich owner of a chain of Dublin gyms), cousin Bobby (gay rugby union star and teacher), and B (best-selling cook book author). The novel is structured into separate chapters for each of the central characters and overall there is the sense that Ryan inhabits, and loves, each of these individuals while despite at times poking fun at them (‘probably mainlined Lucozade late into the night’). With changing time signatures she deftly explores the connections and shared history of this vibrant, and sometimes chaotic, family as they try to bind together in pursuit of a common goal. Along the way, each of the Black tribe is forced to challenge their own self-image, what they mean to each other while discovering the true significance and importance of being ‘family’. Sometimes heartbreaking, but uplifting, Ryan narrates with lightness, warmth and humour in a vibrant novel full of intrigue, rich characterization and moments of genuine pathos. Parts of the book brought a lump to my throat and at other times I just laughed out loud. With this stunning, absorbing, clever, debut novel (just a tick over 400 pages long), Ryan can rightly take her place amongst the award-winning, bestselling, female authors such as Lucy Caldwell (These Days), Louise Kennedy (Trespasses), Sally Rooney

(Beautiful World, Where Are You) and Catherine Ryan Howard (56 Days), who are making such a significant contribution to current Irish literary fiction. Given the normal two book publishing deal, I suspect Ryan has another manuscript lurking somewhere in a desk drawer. Can’t wait.

AN POST BOOK AWARDS 2022

Since inception in 2006, the An Post Irish Book Awards celebrates and promotes the best of Irish writing to the largest range of people possible. Each year the awards bring together a wide community of readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians, all passionate about books, in recognition of the best Irish writing talent. Previous winners include Mike McCormack (Solar Bones), Doireann Ni Ghriofa (A Ghost at the Throat), Vicky Phelan (Overcoming) and Emile Pine (Notes to Self), all of whose books have gone on to become bestsellers and established their authors in Irish literary circles, and beyond. This year’s winners include: Sally Hayden – My Fourth Time, We Drowned (Odgers Berndston Non-fiction Book of the Year): Marian Keyes – Again Rachel (National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year): Edel Coffey – Breaking Point (Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year), with Alice Ryan – There’s Been a Little Incident, acknowledged as ‘Newcomer of the Year’ (this book is assessed in the magazine’s ‘Book Reviews’ section). Eason Novel of the Year Award went to Louise Kennedy for Trespasses which was reviewed in Irish Scene’s July/ August (2022) edition.

John Hagan presents Irish author ED Thompson with a copy of Irish Scene. Thompson’s new novel Closing In is recently released in Australia by Hachette ($32.99).

Paula from Tasmania

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

Cane and Able

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

The author of ‘The Cane’ Maryrose Cuskelly, agrees readers love thrillers but she wasn’t thinking of writing to a particular genre when she wrote the novel, it was meant to be a coming of age story set in Qala in North Queensland for the young people in the book, the seventies generation. It was a time of change with conservatism being slowly disbanded by a subsequent generation. This new attitude to encourage young people to be able about their lives is personified in the young teacher in the town who wants to empower his students. One way he does this is by providing them with copies of the controversial ‘Little Red Book’ covering issues of freedom, politics and sexuality. The young teacher is distrusted by the community for his actions.

The story has a gothic feel in its story oFa missing girl, some years previously another girl Cathy McCreadie was also lost but in different circumstances. While the missing girl’s mother, Barbara McClymont searches the cane field each day for her daughter she knows time is of the essence as soon, the fields will be burned to release the sugar.

True to it’s slightly misogynist times, when a female office is put on the case it is hoped she may do better in solving it. In the end it is a clue, a lip gloss that symbolises the feminine that provides the clue to solve the case. The burning of the Cane field’s offers a metaphor for a cathartic cleansing and the beginning of a new age for the novel’s young people.

The Cane by Maryrose Cuskelly is out now published by Allen and Unwin.

Flynnian Fiction

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

I joke with Irish Australian author Chris Flynn that his hard to categorise fiction may indeed create its own genre called ‘Flynnian’ or ‘Flynnism’.

In his former novel ‘Mammoth’ the narrator was an extinct animal.

In this new book ‘Here be Leviathans’ Chris takes his original premise further and widens his narrators to include more of the animal kingdom and what we might consider inanimate objects with soul.

In one of the animal tales called ‘Inheritance’ Chris explores the incredible idea of cellular memory. This is the belief that our memories can be held in other cells in our body, in addition to the brain. Cellular memory has been proven by people who had had organ transplants and in some cases come to possess character traits such as preferences and interests of the donor. In this tale ‘Inheritance’ of a grizzly bear that eats a teenage boy and takes on the memory of the child he has eaten. He and the boy form a cordial relationship.

Another story ‘Aircraft 22F’, a tragic but beautiful story of an air seat on an aircraft that crashes. The seat enfolds the now lifeless body of the young woman that took the journey sitting in the seat. We see the ravages time and the environment has on both the human body and the air seat itself until they as in ‘Inheritance’ become one.

A happier story concerns hotel ‘Room 719’ the hotel room a young couple, Hector and Diana, spend their wedding night and at regular intervals there after. The room is privy to their most intimate moments, their joys and tragedies, including their infertility struggles. Ultimately Diana presents their first child to the room. In a sense the room becomes the child’s Godparent. On the subject of life given to seemingly inanimate objects, Chris says it is nothing new. Disney is one organisation that consistently animates the inanimate. For example, the candelabra and teapot in ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Chris reminds us too, of the value, respect and nostalgic love we place in these objects, like coin collections or other precious gifts.

Returning to the fact that Chris’s books are hard to categorise, Chris tells me he is often compared to Dali and some South American writer, however. even with this difficulty, he is happy to know that his demographic is from teenagers to 80 plus year olds.

Here Be Leviathans by Chris Flynn is out now published by University of Queensland Press.

Podcasting the Fremantle Fenians story

It was mid 2021 when Fenians, Fremantle and Freedom Committee (FFF), in search of a project to follow their successful events held in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, undertook a Strategic Planning Exercise with skilful facilitator, Andrew Huffer to come up with an idea for our 2022 project.

As a direct result of our planning exercise, we came up with two fantastic ideas: a series of podcasts based on the trials and tribulations of 62 Fenian political prisoners transported to Western Australia in 1867, and the upgrading of our website detailing their background history, and contributions they made to the fabric of Australian society. We realised the Fenian story is there, written by the men themselves. They were young and engaged. So we needed to find a way to showcase their story to a younger Irish and Australian audience, in a vibrant way, so they too could learn about these brave and courageous men.

So FFF Chair, Margo O’Byrne, and treasurer, Felicity Dillon got straight down to business. They pitched our project idea to the Irish Embassy in Canberra, under their Emigrant Support Program, to help fund our project. They loved the idea, and gave our project the go ahead with a generous grant albeit with a short timeline for completion, meaning we’d have to immediately get down to business. As writers, Margo and I were nominated to come up with some rough drafts for the podcasts (two each). It was tough going knowing we had such a short deadline to meet. However, having a historical connection to the Irish Uprising of 1866-67 helped inspire our creative writing juices, whilst presenting the opportunity to create more public awareness

of the courage and sacrifices the 62 Fenians made in wanting a free Ireland. Draft scripts for the series completed, it was then up to the rest of our committee to separate ‘wheat from chaff’, and with Jacqueline Hagan’s editing skills, Anne Golden’s research, and Joy Lefroy’s roving literary eyes, we finally came up with scripts we could all agree. Next was to find suitable actors to add voices to our scripts. It was FFF committee member and actor, Jennifer McGrath, who at our Strategic Planning Process meeting, first seeded the idea that we tell the Fenian story in a different way, while younger members, Anne Golden, Valerie Prentice, Analise Heeley and actor John McCarthy, showed us new and different ways to share the story with a wider audience. Jennifer, a Dubliner, was a definite choice as our narrator and extra voices. She had taken on several different character roles with great aplomb in the Irish drama performance, ‘Dear Frankie’ (produced and directed by Frank Murphy). Killarney man, John McCarthy, was also a good choice. He received great reviews for his acting role with the Irish Theater Players in the drama, ‘Trappe Family’ (written by Seamus O’ Rourke). He has a Killarney accent that would slice clean through an Irish mist. Kerry women, Anne Golden, whose great-grand-uncle happened to be one of the transported Fenians, and a Kerry accent to warm the cockles of your heart, also won us over. Dr. Darryl Milovchevich, whose enthusiasm to be involved in the project and with a thunderous voice to rattle window panes, completed our choice of actors. And once the actors read our scripts, they began to pitch some great ideas, and

which got our creative writing juices on the boil. Writers and actors met in Fremantle on April 9th and where we rehearsed the scripts; along the way fine tuning them, including lending particular voices to various parts, while exploring where and when music and sound effects might be required. It was an exhausting day I recall. However our passion for the story (fuelled by Margo’s yummy salad rolls) kept us buoyant, while unrelenting support from the rest of our committee, Analise Heeley, Jacqueline Hagan, Valarie Prentice, Joy Lefroy, and Jim Kelly lifted our spirits. Anne and her new baby Nora also showed to add support. Scripts eventually morphed into four 30 to 40 minute master scripts. Our next task was to find musicians to add not only music to our podcasts, but also drama and atmosphere. However finding musicians who could perform music from mid-nineteenth-century Ireland and Australia would be no easy task. Bodhrán player extraordinaire, John Clare, and multi-instrumentalist, John Reed have been working with FFF since 2018, while guitarvoice virtuoso Ciaran O’Sullivan performance at the ‘Hand in Hand’ festival at Kidogo Arthouse in Fremantle in 2021 blew us and the rest of the audience away. We didn’t have to convince or pitch our project to them, while it was FFF committee member Jim Kelly (a musician in his own right) who helped further nurture the connection to the trio. Our musicians then began to write and rehearse music to work their magic in and around the parts of our scripts. They adding drama, emotion, joy, and sadness, and with parts of the music so moving and melancholy I’m positive members of the Irish folk band ‘The

Fureys’ on hearing it would have shed a tear in their pints. Ciaran O’Sullivan will launch his new CD on October 13th . Scripts finalised, actors prepared, and musicians rehearsed, we booked Alan Dawson’s recording studio ‘Witzend Studio 4’ at O’Connor to record our podcasts. Alan, who plays in the band ‘The Rogues’ with John Reed, was so taken with our project he couldn’t have done enough to make sure the recordings were of the highest standard.

But alas, didn’t the scourge of Covid 19 raise its ugly head and begin to play havoc – not only with our actors and musicians – but also our deadline coming up fast. Consequently, we had to choose various days and times when actors and musicians could record their parts. Jennifer recorded her parts on podcasts 1 and 2 on June 22nd, while our musicians also had to record their parts separately, thereby clocking up extra recording studio time, placing immense pressure to meet our deadline, and dipping into our budget. But thanks to Alan’s ongoing enthusiasm for the project and his generosity, we came through. Covid issues finally resolved, and with podcasts 3 and 4 still to record, early morning June 25th saw a dozen of us jam into the tiny ‘Wizend Studio 4’ in O’Connor, unable to stretch-out our arms. When Fliss arrived with the coffee and Margo began to dish out the cream buns, and yummy fresh fruit it was the closest thing I’ve experienced since my schoolboy days back in Dublin. Our actors piled into the recording sound booth to do their stuff. From Alan’s recording booth behind a huge plate of glass we watched and listened (through crisp-soundingloudspeakers) our actors perform their respective parts into microphones. For Margo and me finally to see our scripts come to life was such an emotional and satisfying experience. Jennifer with her velvety Irish accent as narrator, including her delivery of various character parts; John with his Irish whimsical lyrical way; Darryl with his grandiose baritone delivery; Anne plucking on our (golden) heartstrings, and Margo

Podcasting the Fremantle Fenians story

here and there, added an extra voice for reason.

I came away from the studio that morning knowing we had achieved something rather special, and something to be very proud of.

Next was to

source sound effects to help give the podcasts that extra drama and atmosphere. Somehow this chore ended up in Felicity and Margo’s laps. And like two kids in a toy shop together they delved into the little known world of sound effects, eventually coming away with numerous gems, such as a drone of mosquitoes, snorting horses, clanging chains and slamming of cell-doors. So when hearing them at first, they had me glancing over my shoulder. The skills of production wiz Josephine Hayes (Gneiss Designs) then came into play by placing all the above pieces of our podcast jigsaw together, adding some extra fiddle sounds along the way (Josie is a respected musician in her hometown of Albany). And what a splendid, splendid job she did too! Lisa Jacobs (The Pod Resource), who designed our website, has done a superb job with layout and graphics, while members of FFF have contributed

articles, newsletters,

documentaries, stories, maps, music, images, and videos associated with the 62 Fenian political prisoners. The website also provides a digital hub for research information about the Fenian 62, and can be added to as further scholarship comes to light, and as we reach out to descendants of these men. It also provides information on up and coming events, and festivals, and links to other websites and podcasts mentioning the Fenians 62.

A last minute stroke of genius by Margo for podcast 3 was to seek permission from Men of the West Choir to record them singing the yuletide hymn Adeste Fideles. This was to pay homage to the 62 transported Fenians as they celebrated Christmas Day while onboard the Hougoumont in 1867. How grateful we are to them for their sterling performance and permission to use their recording. Our last task was to design and provide artwork to compliment the cover of our podcast series. This was also professionally executed by Josephine Hayes. Our podcast series finally done and dusted, and the completion deadline met, we now had to get the fruits of our labour out to the

Podcasting the Fremantle Fenians story

wide world. As usual, it was Felicity who came to the rescue – having during the early days of our project – as an experiment in what was going to come – begin to record and download on Pod Bean her short series of podcasts. Consequently we were able to upload and successfully launch our four podcasts on Pod Bean on August 25th. It’s great to see what can be achieved by a cross-generational committee and patience the younger members extend us oldies who only use our smart phones to make and receive phone calls (not very smart). Should you happen to listen to our podcasts, or view our website, and you enjoyed the experience, please share the links with your family and friends, schools, tertiary institution, social groups, or any others

who are interested in this part of Irish-Australian colonial history.

Podcast 1 - Ireland’s Fenian Rising Podcast 2 -Transportation on the Hougoumont Podcast 3 - In an out of Fremantle Prison Podcast 4 - The Rebel Poet Website: www.feniansfestival.com.au Fenians, Fremantle and Freedom Inc (not-forprofit organisation) would like to thank the Irish Government Emigrant Support Program, and all those who gave their precious (voluntary) time for bringing to life such an important part of Irish-Australian history and heritage, paying homage to the 62 Fenians, and making their story accessible to future generations.

Catalpa Monday – A Fenian story recreation event

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Easter Monday April 10 2023 is shaping up to be a major occasion for the retelling of the daring and orchestrated escape on the American whaling ship Catalpa of the six Fenian prisoners from Fremantle Gaol in April 1876 to the wider WA community. “The Rockingham Catalpa Adventure will proceed on Easter Monday April 10th with the annual Australian Irish Heritage Association’s Wild Geese Ceremony at the Catalpa Wild Geese Memorial, to be followed from midday by a major festival nearby on Churchill Park,” Rockingham Catalpa Rescue Project Chair Laurie Smith told Irish Scene. “The Catalpa personalities and story will be presented on the Park stage.”

However plans for a “significant reenactment” of the prison break – particularly the dramatic scenes on the sea involving a tall ship and other period vessels typical of the time – have had to be scaled back, at least for now. “The City of Rockingham was generous with the amount granted to our event but not to the extent of staging the major re-enactment,” Mr Smith added. “It was probably a large ‘ask’ for the City to provide half the funds needed for the major re-enactment event as planned as with

anything untried. But we will still have the Wild Geese ceremony, presented by Tony Bray at 11am, and then the festival. tAs 2026 will be the 150th anniversary of the Catalpa Escape, this celebration will be extended and next year’s event with substantial support from the community will provide that ‘stepping stone’ and a turn out of 10,000 or more people to the event on Easter Monday next year will be the best thing to ensure the success of commemoration and celebration.”

Mr Smith said contact had been made with Irish groups, ambassador and other representatives around Australia and that the Hon. Kim Beazley has agreed to be the event’s Patron.

Gioraíonn Beirt Bóthar

(Two Shorten the Road)

The art of storytelling has been around since the mists of prehistory and far longer than that of recorded history. It is estimated that the cave paintings at Lascaux in southwest France are over 17,000 years old. Proof is also emerging that the Neanderthal’s may have been decorating their caves with artistic stories well over 40,000 years ago in Germany.

People have been telling stories for a very long time, and they are very much embedded in ancient Irish folklore. The following tale is one of our most famous examples and may have originated as far back as 7th century Ireland.

The Gobán Saor was the greatest craftsman and builder who ever lived in Ireland. He built mighty castles for all the lords, and for each of Ireland’s five kings. Though he was most famous for his skill as a builder, he could fashion a spear-shaft in the time it would take you to count to five, and make a spear-head with only three strokes of the hammer.

The Gobán Saor was blessed with a son but as the way is with the world the blessing was marred by the fact that his son’s brightness often shone behind clouds and was difficult to see at the best of times. At other times so absent was that brightness that he seemed just plain dim.

Setting out one day to walk a day’s journey to his next job, he said to his son, “shorten the road!”. The son was perplexed and didn’t know how to reply. “How can I shorten the road?”, he muttered sullenly. “Sure isn’t it as long as it is? How can any man shorten a road?”.

The Gobán was not to be deterred. “Well so”, he said, “if you can’t shorten the road there’ll be no travelling today. And with that he turned and went back to his house.

The son was baffled and not a little annoyed. “What kind of a question is that?” he wondered and spent the rest of his day slowly simmering his resentment for his inscrutable father. Next morning the scene was repeated, faithful in every detail. “Shorten the road!”, instructed the Gobán to his lumpen boy. “Shorten the road yourself, ye…..” but his words were lost on the wind as he turned and stalked back to the

house and the comfort of the kitchen where his mother was baking griddle bread. “What ails you, son?” asked his mother as he slouched into the kitchen. “My father, the Gobán Saor. It’s free of his wits he is, the fool,” he answered. “There’s no sense in that man at all.”

“Why is that?”, his mother asked, sensing once again a familiar experience. It is hard for a woman to get the better of a man like the Gobán but she had had married him after all and had made it her life’s work to match him even if she couldn’t outwit him.

“He told me to shorten the road, twice, this morning and yesterday morning too.” Does he think I’m a fool?” “We’ll not answer that for the moment,” his mother observed quietly. “Do you mean you don’t know how to shorten the road?” she asked him. Do you not know that good stories shorten long roads just as good talk brings people closer together?” “Tomorrow, if the Gobán asks you again, tell him to walk on and you’ll tell him a tale to toll the passing miles.”

It would be no surprise to tell you that the very next morning the Gobán instructed his son to shorten the road, and he did. The day was not long in passing, the miles covered seemed no longer than a couple of inches and they both arrived in high good spirits for the work which awaited them.

“Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds.” —

Janet Litherland

Australian Irish Dancing Christmas Concerts

IRISH SCENE

little dancers from the Kavanagh Studio ready to perform at their Christmas concert.

Happy with their performance at the Kavanagh Christmas concert.

Kavanagh dancers preparing for their end of year concert at Newman College.

GAAWA

The Annual General Meeting was held on December 6th, a new Executive was elected for 2023;

President: Morgan O’Shea

Vice-President: Oisin McFadden

Secretary: Emmett Lavery

Vice Secretary: Tom Murphy Treasurer: Ronan Cullen

Public Relations Officer: Charlotte Geoghegan

Registrar: Dympna O’Brien

Tom Bateman Manager: Sean O’Casey

Over 20 motions were discussed with a good representation from most clubs in Western Australia. A big thanks to the 2022 Executive Committee for all their hard work and efforts over the past year.

The Executive would like to wish all of the GAA WA family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hurling/Camogie & Football Clubs:

All of our clubs have held their 2022 AGM’s and have turned their focus to 2023. If you would like to get involved in a playing, coaching or at an administrative capacity each club has a presence on Facebook, to get in contact there are several options:

• Message the GAA in WA Facebook page

• Message the GAA in WA Instagram page

• Visit www.gaawa.com.au for club contact details

• Email progaawa@gmail.com or secretarygaawa@hotmail.com

Gaelic Games Junior Academy

The Michael O’Connor Cup and Richard Callaghan Cup tournaments were played at John XXIII Mount Claremont on Saturday 27th November. The finals were an accumulation of over many Gaelic football sessions, which were

a great success. Thanks to all the teams, players, parents, coaches, and families for participating!

• Na Fianna Catalpa

• Stirling Gaels

• West Coast

• Whitfords

• Junior Academy

• John XXIII

• John XXIII / Junior Academy

• Piara Waters Junior Football Club

Michael O’Connor Cup Final and Winners:

Final: John XXIII / Junior Academy v West Coast

Winners: John XXIII / Junior Academy

Richard Callaghan Cup:

Final: Piara Waters Junior Football Club v Junior Academy

Winners: Piara Waters Junior Football Club

Scór 2022 - Irish Club, Subiaco, December 4!