The Irish Scene May/June 2023

Stuck in the moment with Bono and Albo!

U2 and Irish Scene shared joint billing for the attention of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s around St. Patrick’s Day!

On the big day itself (March 17) ‘Albo’s’ gaze was largely focused on domestic politics. He was on the campaign trail in Sydney with Philippa Scott, Labor’s candidate for Balmain in the New South Wales state election, and NSW Labor Party leader Chris Minns. The visit from a popular party leader and serving PM was straight out of the campaign rulebook for how to support a local candidate in an important constituency. It may have helped to achieve the desired effect because Ms Scott won an 8.5% swing to Labor. After the March 25 ballot she was returned as the local member and Mr Minns was returned as state premier, in a sweeping move that saw every territory and state on mainland Australia turn red with Labor governments.

In all the hussle and bussle of electioneering Albo tweeted a photo and brief message in recognition of the day that was in it: “Happy St Patrick’s Day Australia!”. This followed another

BY LLOYD GORMAN

tweet by his party (Australian Labor Party) which said: “For all the Irish, their descendants and their many friends on this day of celebration, Slàinte Mhaith!.”

Because he was on the ground in Sydney’s inner west Mr Albanese wasn’t able to accept an invite to the Queensland Irish Association’s St. Patrick’s Day dinner on that Friday, an event he has attended in the past. Labor MP for Moreton Graham Perrett stepped in to represent him at the annual Irish bash, which is always a great gathering by all accounts.

Some get shamrock, others get rock and roll

March 17 2023 was Mr Albanese’s first St. Patrick’s Day as PM and if it had largely gone by in the blink of an eye then there was at least a belated – and very personalised –injection of Irishness in store for him, courtesy of the holiday in honour of Ireland’s patron saint.

An Irish crystal bowl filled with shamrock (grown in Ireland) is the traditional gift presented to the American president by the Taoiseach (Irish PM) in Washington DC for St. Patrick’s Day. Around the same time this is happening, dozens of other members of the Irish government are deployed around the world on similar goodwill missions.

One of Ireland’s most senior and seasoned politicans came to Australia for this reason; Simon Coveney, Ireland’s minister for trade, and TD for Cork South Central.

As the political capital of Australia, Canberra is home to the Irish embassy and a vital pitstop for any visitors of Mr Coveney’s ilk. He got to meet his ministerial counterpart Don Farrell and no doubt the two talked about

bi-lateral trade and investment opportunities.

As soon as their business meeting was concluded there was the chance for a bit of bonus diplomacy. Mr Coveney was taken to see PM Albanese in his office for a friendly meet and greet. It might have been an informal affair but the former Irish minister for foregin affairs came well prepared for the encounter. As well as banter the Corkman had a couple of aces up his sleeve.

Dear Albo, from Bono

One was a copy of U2’s brand new album Songs of Surrender. Mr Coveney was already in Australia when the record was released internationally on March 17, but he left Ireland with an advance copy packed safely in his suitcase. The unique thing about this copy was the inscription it carried, a hand written message from Bono (62) to Albo (60).

“In Australia for St Patrick’s weekend, Irish minister Simon Coveney met one of U2’s biggest fans & fan of old fashioned black vinyl records, Australian PM AlboMP,” the Australian Embassy in Ireland tweeted. “What a great way to showcase Irish creativity & talent than by giving him a copy of the new @U2 album including a special note.”

Widely recognised for his love of music

‘DJ Albo’ has handled many vinyl records in his life but this must have been a thrill and an amazing surpise. Indeed Mr Albanese tweeted: “Thanks @U2. Can’t wait to have a listen.”

That gift came courtesy of the Australian ambassador in Ireland Gary Gray. The official residence of the ambassador is Abbey Lea in Killiney, which makes Mr Gray – who has his own musicial credentials – a neighbour of the U2 frontman.

Irish make a Scene in PM’s inner sanctum

A second item presented to the prime minister also spoke volumes about his lifelong love affair with music. Mr Coveney produced a copy of the Irish Scene magazine from last July, our first edition in the wake of him winning the top job and forming a new government in May.

The cover photo and story was about a much younger Albo who spent time in Dublin in 1988 and his claim to be “half Irish”. There is much we don’t know about that episode in his life but we do know while he was there in the summer of that year he went to see an Australian punk group ‘The Celibate Rifles’ play in the Irish capital. Apparently the photo of himself as a 25 year old pictured in Dublin and the story inside also got his attention and interest, enough for him to ask if he could keep the magazine. Okay, so it’s not quite on the same level as a personalised album cover from Bono but it is probably fair to say it tickled his fancy and may well have been the most unusual coverage of his asscent to power in all of Australia. And it was a new one on him and the first time he had seen it, a pleasant throwback to his youth. It was a few days later on Mr Coveney’s visit to Perth when we found out about it. It is very difficult to get something like the Irish Scene in front of the PM so it was quite a thing to see it happen completely outside of our own efforts to make it happen. We don’t know who was behind this PR coup for the magazine, if it was the ambassador Gary Gray in Ireland, the Irish ambassador in Canberra Tim Mawe and his staff or Mr Coveney and the team who traveled with him, perhaps all of them had a role to play, but we would like to express our gratitude and say thanks for your confidence that the story was something he would like to see! Hopefully he enjoyed our take on his Irish connections and now that he knows about the magazine maybe an interview with him might be on the cards. Watch this space!

‘Thank you Perth/WA’ – Coveney

Perth was the final port of call for Simon Conveney’s tour and his departure point to return home. On March 22 the Irish minister for trade and enterprise rounded off a full day of meetings and engagements with a function in Anzac House in St. George’s Terrace for members of the Irish community. “We couldn’t have gotten a warmer welcome,” Mr Coveney said in Perth, fresh from his meeting with the PM. “Then...we came west and its been 24 hours of welcomes, meetings and reinforcing the positive relationships between this part of Australia and Ireland. I want to say thank you to this state and city for what they continue to do for Irish people, the welcome and opportunities you provide for Irish people should be acknowledged because the support networks here are really fantastic and its the reason why young Irish people choose, not out of necessity, to come here for the lifestyle and the opportunity that modern Australia now provides.”

As well as deep rooted historical ties and strong cultural connections there was another good reason to be optimistic for the future. “From a commercial point of view we are seeing a new era in the bi-lateral relationship,” he added. “Believe it or not, Australia is now the second fastest growing market on the planet for Irish companies...trade is worth about €11bn a year and is growing rapidly...

there are 300 Irish companies now across Australia, which has grown by 60 in one year.” He said there are 70 Australian firms in Ireland and the government was working to convince others to consider Ireland as their ‘gateway’ into the European Union, particularly in post-Brexit times. “There are significant opportunities we intend on exploring in the months and years ahead and to allow that trade to function I hope in the next couple of months we will see the EU and Australia funtion, finalise a free trade agreement.” This was a year of historic anniversaries for Ireland and the Irish he said. These included a 100 years since Ireland joined the League of Nations: “effectively the world recognising an independent Ireland for the first time”. It was fifty years since Ireland joined the EU.

“This transformed Ireland as a society, as an economy. We have become more diverse, more outward looking, more global, more tolerant and the EU has in my ways over five decades reshaped Ireland, not only in terms of how we see the world but how the world sees us.” It was the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April. “It brought peace to Ireland for the first time in 30 years and some people came to Australia more than 25 year ago to escape that violence, to seek refuge and a more peaceful opportunity for themselves and their families.” The Irish government did not take that peace for granted and would work hard to try and help reinstate the “institutions” of the Agreement in Northern Ireland. He hoped to see progress in coming weeks. “People in Northern Ireland desperately want to see it [and] the success story of peace on the island of Ireland can be an inspiration for others at a time when they are desperately needed. So I hope all of you who are from Ireland...look at whats

Back on the ranch

Mr Coveney’s Australia trip was the subject of some interest in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) when he got back.

On April 18, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for Carlow asked: “if he met the Australian Prime Minister” and for a statement about it.

The Fine Gael minister from Cork gave a broad outline of his Australian visit, including that he had a wide range of community, business and political engagements in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. “This included a brief meeting with the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, at the Australian Parliament,” Mr Coveney replied. “The discussion was very warm and touched on current topics.”

In terms of answering the specific question, that was it! He didn’t mention anything else about the friendly encounter, so the interesting highlight about the personalised gift he presented to Anthony Albanese went unremarked on the parliament’s official record. Because she was curious enough to ask about the encounter, a copy of this

happening in your country and how its evolved, and changed and grown and I hope it makes you proud of where you come from and who you are.” Ireland might be a small country, but it is a global nation not restricted by its borders or boundaries.

“[Irishness] is a way of thinking and a way of living in communities, supporting each other and I get that sense as strong in Perth as I do back home in Ireland. So...thank you for the work you do, thank you for the fact that in many ways you are ambassadors for Ireland because of how you live and how you work and the relationships you continue to build. I’m going home with a sense of confidence the relationship between Ireland and Australia will continue to grow and strengthen across politics, trade but more importantly personal relationships, because of the extraordinary sense of community we have as a people”.

Irish Scene interviewed Mr Coveney after the event and we will bring you that report in the next edition.

edition might find its way to the deputy.

Peadar Tóibín, Aontú party leader, asked for a breakdown of the travel and accommodation costs involved in sending Mr Coveney, two junior ministers and officials from his department (Trade & Enterprise) overseas for St. Patrick’s Day. It cost €946.76 to send one minister with a secretary to Spain and Portugal for five days and just over €1307 to send another similar duo to France for a week. Mr Coveney’s trip, minus accommodation costs which weren’t available at the time, cost €39,507 for the period March 12 to 22.

Mr Coveney added: “I travelled to Australia as part of a St Patrick’s Day Trade Mission led by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, where I carried out a series of engagements in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. Australia is the second largest export market for Enterprise Ireland clients in AsiaPac, growing by 28% in 2021. The trade mission focused on promoting Irish innovation and collaboration between Irish companies and companies in Australia. The duration of the mission was for 10 days. I was accompanied by my special advisor and two members of staff of my department, including the Secretary General.”

Cá bhfuil na Gardai? Where are the Gardai?

Asking questions is something police are very good at doing, but answering them not so much.

Irish Scene has given the state government’s recruitment campaign targeting existing police in Ireland, the UK and New Zealand a lot of coverage since it was launched in October last year (Gardai fit the Bill as ready to go cops! Nov/Dec 2022 Irish Scene), particularly on the Irish front, something which has been overlooked by almost every other media outlet in WA.

In the last edition we saw how police minister Paul Papalia was to head up the next phase of that campaign, a ‘jobs mission’ to the UK and Ireland to try and source more than 30,000 badly needed tradies, medical workers and cops.

In what he called a ‘pub takeover’ Mr Papalia boasted about how the mission would occupy a pub in Dublin as an information centre and decorate it with posters and images of Cable Beach, Lucky Bay and even Mandurah foreshore, and use sand and heat to give people who came along a flavour of what might be in store for them. Meat pies, lamingtons and local WA wines and beers would be on offer too (Papalia’s pop up pub plan, Irish Scene March/April 2023).

The WA delegation with Mr Papalia at the helm left on February 24 and returned on March 7 during which time they hit London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Dublin. The mission team included six serving police officers, including

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Deputy Commissioner Kylie Whiteley and another officer as well as “four...expatriate police officers who had come to Western Australia and had trodden the same path a decade or more ago”, the police minister told the Legislative Assembly on March 14 when he was giving a summary of the trip top the House.

“They were able to convey information directly to police officers who were applying to come to Western Australia,” Mr Papalia said.

At least one of these officers on the head hunting mission would be a former member of the Irish police force we figured, particularly for the Dublin leg of the tour. A little local knowledge goes a long way after all. ‘Invites’ to the WA themed pub – which we believe was a wine bar – were distributed to Gardai stations in the city centre.

Irish Scene contacted Police Media asking for an interview with this particular presumed person about

Members of the headhunting team

their boomerang trip ‘home’ to help entice other Gardai make the jump and tell them what to expect. That opportunity for a positive news story in a WA media outlet went unanswered. Perhaps the answer was unwittingly revealed in an interview Deputy Commissioner Whiteley gave with RTE Radio 1 on March 2, while they were on the Irish leg of their mission. The show presenter asked her why they were recruiting in Ireland. “We’ve had great success in the past in Ireland and the UK and we have some amazing officers who have transitioned into our police force and taken up really senior and specialist roles and are still with us,” DC Whiteley said.

Many of the former Gardai featured in the 2015 RTE programme ‘Garda Downunder’ were still with the WA Police Force and they and their like had proved to be “a fantastic investment for us” she added. “We are really excited to get this opportunity to offer it again.”

The 2IC policewoman also said: “We have a team here who are both ex-officers from the UK who are serving and over doing information sessions so we can offer information to [Gardai] officers who might be interested.”

DC Whiteley would be acutely aware of the cultural and political differences between policing in Ireland and the UK. It seems bizarre that not a single ex-Gardai were involved in the Dublin presentation. After all, you just wouldn’t send a team of only former Gardai to the UK to talk to serving coppers in England, Scotland or Wales, so why would send only former British officers to do the same in Ireland?

It is a point the RTE Radio presenter should have picked up on, did the deputy commissioner not think Irish officers, or even just one, should have been used for this purpose?

It is even more curious when you consider the information session in Dublin was specifically targeting Gardai!

Mr Papalia described the Dublin event as “incredibly successful”. In a media statement issue on March

16 DC Whiteley was equally upbeat. “The enthusiasm of attendees at the information sessions was infectious,” she said. “The delegation spoke to applicants who had literally packed their bags and put their homes on the market in anticipation of moving here. During that time, almost 48,000 new users logged on to the Let’s Join Forces website and another 66 international applications were received. Recruiting police is currently a global challenge and this is felt even more sharply in Australia due to the highly competitive employment market.”

An interesting aspect of the information session in Dublin went unmentioned by the police minister and police media. A VIP who would be known to many in Western Australia

for different reasons took part in the event. Governor Chris Dawson and his wife Darrilyn were in Ireland at the time and Mr Dawson addressed the gathering. “The Governor took the opportunity to speak to attendees about life as a police officer in WA and the benefits of living in our great state,” a statement on the Government House Western Australia website, dated March 6, said. The organisers could not have asked for a more eminent or expert speaker. Mr Dawson joined the WA Police Force in 1976 and he was the Commissioner for the last five years of his career in the force. He was sworn in as the 34th Governor of WA on 15 July 2022.

“His Excellency enjoyed speaking with Scottish Police Officer Stuart Dunsmore who was so keen to learn more about life in the WA Police that he made the trip from Edinburgh to Dublin for the event.” the Government House statement added. A photo of the Governor with Mr Dunsmore and WA Police Officer Tanya Tidy (a former London Met police officer) at the Dublin event was also published. But still no sign of a Gardai anywhere, either in or out of a WA Police uniform!

Indeed, if a recent official social media posting about the international recruitment drive is correct there were no former Gardai in the first batch of “transitional officers” to pass through the police academy in Joondalup.

“We’re thrilled to welcome experienced

transitional officers from across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, who commenced today on a 13-week intensive training program before being deployed across Western Australia,” WAPOL posted in a Facebook message on March 20. “With their diverse backgrounds and exceptional skills, we’re confident that these officers will make valuable contributions to our organisation and the communities we serve. We look forward to seeing their impact as they take on this important role in serving and protecting our community.”

Its curious there was no mention of Ireland, given there was for the UK and New Zealand, the other two countries where they went poaching police officers. Perhaps there exGardai are in the mix with the new arrivals and someone just forgot to mention them, which would be very bad form for an organisation that prides itself on its multicultural credentials. Or maybe there just no Irish men and women in this intake, which would also be a bit strange.

Perhaps a WA Police Force Recruitment social media post on March 17 confirms that the Irish have yet to arrive.

“Happy St. Patrick’s Day from WA! ,” it said. “May your day be filled with luck, laughter and lots of green! St. Patrick’s Day is an opportunity to honour and celebrate Irish culture and heritage. We’re looking forward to welcoming Irish police officers later this year, along with officers from the UK and New Zealand. Applications are still open.”

Irish ‘top cop’ mentioned in despatches

The issue of staffing levels and conditions in the WA Police Force was the subject of debate in the Legislative Assembly on March 30. During his discussion Police minister Paul Papalia made special mention of one officer with an Irish background who

has obviously made an impression. Mr Papalia said he regularly travelled to the GoldfieldsEsperance police district. “It is the biggest subdistrict in the world. I go by car and by aircraft, because some of the places that we go to, like Warakurna and Kintore, are very

Gov! Governor Chris Dawson in Dublin with a WA and Scottish police officer

remote. Kintore is in the Northern Territory, but it has one of our police stations—we have an officer out there—and Warakurna is just about there. All those places are in that huge subdistrict, and I have been there. Steve Thompson, an Australian Irishman, is an excellent superintendent. I have seen him probably three or four times since I got this role.”

Superintendent Thompson was originally a police officer in Northern Ireland for 13 years before he moved to Perth with his family in 2001.

In a 2015 interview with news website soundtelegram.com.au Mr Thompson explained why he made the move. “When I came to Australia and I was continuing my career development I wanted to do different

things I hadn’t done before,” he said. “I was in prosecuting division, I even ended up in forensic division as an accident … but during the past 12 months I found myself wanting to go back to frontline policing, which is the role I had always done and always enjoyed.”

Gardai go multi-national

An Gardai Síochána have not totally given up all hope of Irish people living in Australia and other foreign parts returning to Ireland to enlist with the Irish police force.

The latest ‘Gardai recruitment competition’ opened on March 24 and closed on April 14. The new selection season was accompanied by a €550,000 promotional campaign with the slogan, “It’s A Job Worth Doing” hitting TV, national and local print and radio, online, social media, and outdoor billboards across the country. “The campaign will also target Irish people living in countries such as the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said at the launch of the campaign.

His speech and all of the publicity material around the campaign was devoid of any detail about how they planned to reach out to these diaspora communities but presumably there is a plan.

The budget for this recruitment drive is interesting. It is significantly more than the €450,000 the state has spent in the previous two years on the same thing. Another interesting aspect of the new campaign was that it targeted Ireland’s European and migrant residents as potential recruits.

Posters in ten languages – including Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Urdu and Arabic – were printed for ethnic communities in Ireland. Who knows, maybe they’ll even snag an Australian or two!

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Successful transplant Games for the Irish

Seventeen medals – seven Gold, six Silver, four Bronze and a broken record or two – and behind every one of them an inspirational example that anything is possible.

The 14 person strong Irish team – half of who had participated in previous Games – took part in eleven sports and acquitted themselves remarkably well in the 24th World Transplant Games, held recently in Perth, between Sunday April 16 and Friday April 21.

“An impressive performance for a relatively small Irish team of 14!,” Transplant Team Ireland said about its athletes who competed in the games against more than 1,500 people from 46 countries.

“Ranging in age from 36 right up to 75, the current Transplant Team Ireland panel of

ten inspirational men and four women... have all received organ transplants including two liver, two bone marrow, and ten kidney. They are among 1,524 participants from 46 countries, all embracing their gift of life and honouring their donors in this celebration of life through sport.”

Cork woman Mairead O’Mahony proved unstoppable. With some of the other members of the Irish team she returned to Dublin on Sunday April 23 laden down with two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze.

Ron Grainger from Castleknock Dublin defied the concept of slowing down in old age. After making a world transplant time record (16.14) in the 100 m event on the Thursday of the tournament the retired Urologist and kidney transplant recipient went on to break another world record on

the final day, in the 200m race with a time of 33.97 beating the previous record of 35.93 in the age category 70-79 for which he was rewarded with his second Gold medal. Proving his sporting diversity he also won a Silver and Bronze in Golf events earlier in the week. Dubbed ‘the flying doctor’ Ron is certainly enjoying his golden years. With extra luggage of 5 heavy medals to take around with him (2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals), Ron extended his time in Australia with his wife Joyce who has been his number one supporter throughout the games. Teresa Smyth from Galway would also stay on in Perth to spend time with her daughter who lives here.

The first person to undergo a liver transplant in Ireland 30 years ago at St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Tony Gartland from Hacketstown, Carlow, on the Wicklow border, celebrates the successful longevity of his transplant and on the last day the 59-year-old won a Bronze medal for his stamina, coming third in the 5,000 meters race walk event.

Games veteran John Loftus from Clarina, Limerick and veteran secured Bronze in Ball Throw but later had to declare himself ‘out’ of the 100m race due to a calf injury.

Playing under 26 degrees sunshine on Wembley Golf Course on the Wednesday Corkman Hugh Nolan from Doneraile, who plays off scratch, picked up a Gold medal for his 33 points scoring 1 over (71 shots) in golf singles. This was his second Gold medal win at the Games for the kidney transplant recipient having won the Golf pairs event on Monday with his teammate Pat O’Sullivan, also from Cork. Hugh stood proudly at the

medals podium with second placed teammate and bone marrow transplant recipient Nick Heather, from Sutton, Dublin who has been living in Melbourne for 12 years. Nick, with a handicap of 6, won Silver today for his 32 points scoring 7 over (77 shots) in the lowest golf handicap category 1 and was followed by a South African who won bronze. Also on the links Dubliner Ron Grainger and Tony Gavigan from Longford, on form performance secured them second place position and another two medals for the team with a score of 79.

Members of the Irish team --- who all funded their own costs and fundraised for the Irish Kidney Association – came close on several occasions to securing a place on the podium. A full account of each days events with reactions from the Irish athletes and where they ranked can be easily found at transplantteamireland.ie.

The spirit of the Games

An opening ceremony held in Perth (Optus) Stadium on Sunday April 16 set the tone for the impending Games.

Athletes and their supporters gathered on the far side of the Matagarup bridge beside the stadium. “There was a great buzz

Transplant Team Ireland were:

Bryan Duignan, Palatine (kidney) from Carlow

Tony Gartland, Hacketstown near WICKLOW (Liver)

Michael Kiely, Cork, Ballylanders, Mitchelstown, on LIMERICK border (living kidney donor)

Pat O’Sullivan, Mallow (kidney)

Hugh Nolan, Donaraile (kidney)

Mairead O’Mahony, Berrings (bone marrow)

Teresa Smyth, Dunmore, Tuam (kidney)

Bernadette Cox, Newbridge, Co. Kildare (kidney)

John Loftus, Clarina, Limerick (kidney)

Tony Gavigan, Navan, Meath and native of LONGFORD father of deceased donor (kidney)

Sheila Gregan, Nenagh, Tipperary (kidney)

Ron Grainger, Castleknock, Dublin 15 (kidney)

Finbar O’Regan, Pearse Street, Dublin 2 (Liver)

Nick Heather, Sutton, Dublin, now living in Melbourne, Australia (bone marrow)

there with the 46 countries and over 1500 participants gathered in eager anticipation of what was to come,” transplantteamireland. ie said. “Stories were shared and team pins were exchanged. Soon the supporters headed across the bridge to prepare a guard of honour for the athletes who paraded across the bridge and through a wonderful cacophony of cheers and applause through all the supporters. The Irish supporters were not shy in expressing their support as the athletes passed by, they were amazing. The supporters headed into the stadium to await the parade of athletes around the pitch. There was a real sense of anticipation

as the teams waited in the bowels of the stadium to be called out for their moment in the spotlight. It was with pure joy that the Irish team entered the stadium and the enthusiastic waves and cheers of the team were met with a huge reaction from all the supporters and the teams that were already in the stadium. It was not hard to find where the Irish supporters were. The green, white and gold was very obvious and the noise they made was something to behold! When the athletes parade finished and they were all seated it was time for the parade of donor families and living donors. As one, all the supporters and competitors rose and the applause and cheers were the loudest of the evening. It was immensely emotional as the donor families and living donors passed by everyone in the stands. The official part of the ceremony got under way as we all enjoyed the majestic setting of the Optus stadium. There was a wonderful greeting and welcome from an Aboriginal leader accompanied by some dancers and a Didgeridoo. It was beautiful to behold. A representative of the International Olympic Committee welcomed the members of the World Transplant Games family to the IOC family and officially announced the Games open. The ceremony concluded with a fantastic light display, an experience the stadium is renowned for.”

Just as they began their adventure to Perth the Irish team could return to Ireland with their heads held high, and a swag of silverware to boot.

TEAM MANAGER, Colin White from Balbriggan, Dublin

St. Patrick’s Day, fun

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WA’s 125 year long Irish Habit

Wednesday April 19 was a very significant date in the history of Subiaco and Western Australia.

On that day exactly 125 years ago in 1898 St John of God Subiaco Hospital opened its doors to the sick and those in need of healthcare in the then Swan River Colony.

The first Catholic hospital in Western Australia was a one storey building with 30 beds looked after by ten Sisters.

Today it is a sprawling complex of hospital and healthcare facilities with 600 beds and some 2,000 medics, nurses and other caregivers and one of 19 SJOG facilities (including 14 in Perth, two in Broome and two in Melbourne).

It all began in 1895 when the Sisters of St John of God – founded in Ireland in 1871 by Thomas Furlong, Bishop of Ferns, Co. Wexford –responded to a request from Bishop Matthew Gibney in Perth to minister to the sick and attend to the pastroal and social needs of the people in his diocese. Eight Sisters from Ireland arrived in Perth on November 25 1895 and they – and the many who followed in their footsteps – would go on to have a huge impact on their adopted home.

“This anniversary is not only about recognising the enduring contribution our hospital has made in caring for generations of Western Australians,” said St John of God Subiaco Hospita CEO Tina Chinery. “It is also about thanking our current caregivers for everything they do and for continuing the legacy of the Sisters of St John of God. St John of God Subiaco Hospital is an iconic Western Australian organisation and one that many residents have a connection with. There are those who were born here or gave birth

BY LLOYD GORMAN

here, those who have been healed here, and those whose loved ones have been comforted here in their final hours. The hospital has positively impacted the lives of countless numbers of people over the past 125 years and has grown substantially to meet the evolving health care needs of the community.”

A celebratory Mass and lunch was today held for members of the hospital community. The Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Sproxton and St John of God Subiaco Hospital Chaplain, Father Jude D’Rosario. Attendees included Labor Member for Nedlands Dr Katrina Stratton, Federal Member for Curtin Kate Chaney MP, Deputy Mayor of the Town of Cambridge Cr Kate Barlow, Mayor of the City of Subiaco David McMullen, Chair of the Trustees of St John of God Health Care the Hon Neville Owen AO, Chair of the Board of St John of God Health Care the Hon Kerry Sanderson AC CVO, and St John of God Health Care Group CEO Bryan Pyne. Guests were also honoured to be joined at the service by the Sisters of St John of God.

A series of events and activities –including an exhibition about the hospitals “incredible journey” is on display in the main entrance of the hospital.

The hospital has maintained strong Irish links, including as the workplace for large numbers of Irish doctors and nurses and other workers. Perth’s 2018 Rose of Tralee was SJOG Subiaco Hospital intensive care nurse Laura Cannon. Also in 2018 during his visit to Australia for St. Patrick’s Day Ireland’s junior minister for mental health and older people Jim Daly visited the Subiaco hospital. (Mr Daly had a high profile health scare. A doctor watching him being interviewed on the TV programme

Tonight with Vincent Browne in 2012 realised the politican had skin cancer and contacted him immediately with his life saving diagnosis. The former Fine Gael politican retired from politics in 2019 and is now the CEO of the Private Hospitals Association.) Claire Cunnigham from Irish technology company Sonru also gave a presentation about how their video recruitment systems are used by St John of God Health Care to find staff. A tour of the hospital ended with morning tea with the Sisters of St John of God, many of whom were born in Ireland or have family ties to the country.

Irish priests towering achievement in Perth

BY LLOYD GORMAN

of Clondalkin village may well have sown the seeds in the mind of young Leahy for what would become a major part of his life’s work. Certainly, he was schooled locally by Presentation Sisters whose convent and church was described as being “very attractive, well-maintained and beautifully executed Gothic-style”. Like the round tower, the convent was a testimony to the simple beauty and grace of stonework. His education continued at the Christian Brothers in Inchicore and then at O’Connell Secondary School in the centre of Dublin. He studied ‘building science’ at Bolton Street School of Technology in the city, where including other subjects he would have learned about architecture and draftsmanship. But he never finished his studies. His calling to God saw the young man start his vocation with the church when he entered the Dominican Order in Cork in 1940. Two years later he was back in Dublin – in Tallaght close to his home in Clondalkin – studying at St Mary’s Priory for six years. He was ordained at Clonliffe, on the northside of Dublin, and completed his theological studies in 1948. After this, he was assigned to Australia and the parish of North Adelaide where he was curate until 1955. It was in the City of Churches where Leahy completed his first construction project – the magnificent church of St. Dominic, designed in the New Norman Gothic style. He served in Auckland, New Zealand where he built a parish hall and school and helped lead the architectural team behind a new convent in Sydney.

As other projects followed in different parts of Australia his talents and renown grew, as did the price he paid for his perfection and vision. By the end of 1967 he suffered a heart attack and after he had recovered he was sent to Western Australia where he was to design classrooms for the Holy Rosary School in

Doubleview. In addition to an expansion of two classrooms, a new parish church would also be built on the south side of the school. His instruction was: “to prepare a suitable design of a church that would be both serviceable and beautiful”.

Fr Leahy arrived in WA in October 1968 and to a parish that was little more than a collection of sandy bushland, market gardens, a few houses and dairy farms. The school and church site was surrounded by a carpet of wildflowers. He spent the next 18 months thinking about the design of the church and often spent entire days walking the site, considering every factor. He planned it so the sunlight would never shine directly into the eyes of the priest giving mass and plotted the main entrance to avoid strong or problematic winds. Every worshipper would have a clear line of vision to the altar. It was his intention to build a church that made it easy for people to pray in and that brought them closer to God. The Irish priest travelled widely across WA to research other churches, architectural sites and building materials. He was impressed with St Columba’s Church in South Perth, built in the 1930s.

Goodwin writes that Leahy’s masterstroke in the design and construction of the church was his choice of building material, an ancient and unique quartizite quarried about a hundred kilometres away, outside the town of Toodyay. “I fell in love with Toodyay stone and was determined to use it for the church,” Fr Leahy told a newspaper reporter. “It reminds me of eternity.” Indeed, the author writes that the geographical formation from which the rock came dates back more than three billion years. With the final plans approved, Fr Leahy worked relentlessly in overseeing the church’s construction and was involved in the laying of every stone and brick. Almost all the physical work of clearing, excavation,

finished Fr Leahy’s ill health forced him to return to Ireland in February 1973, leaving ‘Bony’s’ friends and fellow Irish priests, Fathers Antoninus Costello (Cork) and Niall McDermott (Dublin) to finish the job on his behalf, with about 12 months worth of work left to do.

On Sunday May 13 1973 the church was officially opened and blessed with a series of events and services attended by eight hundred people, hundreds more than it was designed to hold. Prominent Irish Dominican, Donagh O’Shea, extolled its magnificence, describing it as “one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It is often described as the most beautiful church in the southern hemisphere. Years before I got to see the church, I used to hear [Leahy] talking about it,”

Fr Leahy himself would not see his completed creation until he returned to Perth for a short time some 11 years afterwards.

“I’m very pleased with it,” Fr Leahy told a reporter for a newspaper at the time.

Bonaventure Leahy died in Nazareth House, Sligo on July 16 1990, eleven days before his 70th birthday.

In his book Mr Goodwin writes: “Although it bore no resemblance to the medieval round tower in Leahy’s hometown, in a reverential act of symmetry he ensured that the two structures shared a unique characteristic: their height. In subtle testimony to the impact of that historic Irish architecture echoing in his mind, Leahy built the church’s tower exactly 25.6 metres high, identical to the 84 feet of Clondalkin’s surviving stone structure dating from 12 centuries earlier.”

Another common feature of both is that neither has a straight line in their design.

‘Stone of Eternity’ will be launched at the church on Saturday 13 May. Proceeds from the book after costs will go towards the church’s maintenance. Copies can be ordered for $20 from doubleview@perthcatholic.org. au. An amazing edifice deserves an equally wonderfully written history.

Around the Irish Scene

Time to re-tyre and escape to the country

March 17th was an important date for longstanding Irish Scene advertisers Tyrepower Perth City. While a lot of folk were out celebrating the day that was in it Adrian Shipcott and his wife Fiona –from Tullamore, Co. Offaly – were having a significant day in their own right. That was when they officially sold their West Perth business in Troode Street to new owner Emil Vujcic (pictured left). For more than 20 years, starting in Subiaco, Fiona has worked the front counter while Adrian and their team have handled more tyres than you can shake a stick at. They plan to spend a lot more time on their farm in Chittering, where they have a herd of Angus cattle – most of which they won in a competition out of 16,000 entries. For years now they have spent every weekend on the property but have – until now – had to rush back for work Monday morning. The couple had an amazing time in the business and they wanted to say thanks to all their loyal customers and friends. Customers could expect the same level of personal and professional service under his watch said Emil. Irish Scene would like to express its thanks to them for their support over many years and wish them well for the future.

Long time no see!

Its always great to catch up with old friends, especially when it has been a long time between drinks. For the first time in more than 20 years Jimmy Flannery from Limerick was back in Perth in April, to visit his sister Imelda and her family. Jimmy and Imelda both used to work in Rosie O’Grady’s Irish Pub in Northbridge during the mid 1990’s and really enjoyed working there. They were delighted when a chance to meet their manager from those days Lorcan Keane (pictured middle) presented itself. Plenty of old memories and a some new ones were shared over a few pints when they got together.

Out on the town

Gerard and Geraldine O’Leary enjoyed a night out with friends

Gemma and Barry Punch recently.

County O’Como Gaelic Football Club

40th Anniversary Celebrations and Hall of Fame

Saturday 27th May 2023 7.00 pm

Irish Club, 61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco

All past players, supporters, partners are invited to

Double Trouble

right) was in town recently to visit his identical twin brother Jack. The brothers squeezed in a fair bit of golf and a trip to Kalgoorlie during the holiday. Jack was in charge of functions at the Parmelia Hotel in Perth, where under the watch of the late Irish honorary consulate Michael Nolan a big St. Patrick’s Day bash was held every year. Also visiting his younger brother Cormac in Perth was Ciarán Mahon from Ballinteer, Dublin. As well as getting in a few scoops and some sight-seeing along the way Ciarán spent so much of his holiday barracking for the Sorrento FC kids that he is an honorary member of the club!

this once in 40 years event. Cost will be $45 pp for a 3 course meal.

Please confirm your attendance and numbers by 8th May for catering purposes. Reply to fluoro@iinet.net.au or on Facebook page.

Corkman Michael Comerford (pictured

We take the pressure off!

pressure cleaning equipment for sale and hire. With pressure washers on trailers, on skids, on wheels, rotary surface cleaners in varying sizes, hoses, hose-reels, and many accessories such as lances, nozzles and fittings, it’s a true one-stop-shop.

HIRE

As the old saying goes, ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself’. And so was born Perth Pressure Washer Hire & Sales.

When trying to purchase several trailer-mounted pressure washers for use in his civil construction business, Civil & Structures, and faced with exhaustive lead-times, Perth businessman and serial entrepreneur, Mayo-man Martin Conroy decided to take matters into his own hands and build his own top-quality units.

“We used to hire trailer-mounted pressure washers from well know plant-hire companies in Perth, but we frequently found they had none available when we needed one or when we did manage to get one from them, their well-used examples frequently broke down which impacted productivity on site. We didn’t have much better luck when we tried to buy trailer-mounted pressure washers from several suppliers in Perth, as none would commit to a timeframe to build, let alone deliver!”

“There’s no point in doing things in half-measures” as Martin says, so along with fellow directors, Corkman, Shane O’Meara, General Manager, and Katanning man, Scott Cattanach, Workshop Manager and doyen of the pressure washing industry in Western Australia, Perth Pressure Washers was formed.

“Operating from state-of-the art workshop and offices at 48 Pilbara St in Welshpool, just off Orrong Road, we’re centrally located and within easy reach of Roe, Tonkin and Leach Highways”, according to Shane. “Even though brand new on the scene, old school-values of quality, value for money and superlative customer service underpin the business.”

SALES

The boys at Perth Pressure Washer Hire & Sales stock an ever-expanding range of premium quality

As the name suggests, a major part of the business is the Hire of Pressure Washers of all shapes and sizes, catering for both short-term and long-term rentals for various applications and budgets. “Whether it’s a rotary surface cleaner for cleaning your driveway or a 5000psi Jetter for blasting barnacles from wharf piles, we cater for everybody” says Martin.

SERVICE & REPAIR

With his team of highly qualified and skilled technicians in the workshop, Scott’s experienced service team is on hand in the event of a breakdown, to get you back up and running with minimal delay, servicing all makes and models across all industries including mining, construction, graffiti removal and domestic use.

“We also specialise in custom building pressure washers to suit our clients’ requirements and have a vast range including, choice of trailer, tank size, pump, motor, hose length, reel capacity, layout and even mine-site specification if requested” according to Scott. “Our trailer mounted pressure cleaners with 1000L water tanks are proving very popular and ideal where access to running water is limited or non-existent, and they come in petrol or diesel and hot or cold-water configurations” says Scott.

If you find yourself in the market for a new pressure washer, need your old one looked-at or just need some advice, why not pop in and have a yarn to the guys at Perth Pressure Washers.

Double commemoration for Catalpa escape in Rockingham

Under brooding skies a large group of people gathered at the Wild Geese Memorial on Palm Beach Rockingham on Monday 10th April to recall the incredible events at this location on the same day, Easter Monday, 17 April, 1876.

The escape of six Fenians on the American whaling barque has been well documented by the work of late historian Ormonde Waters and writer Peter Fitzsimons, whose book ‘The Catalpa Rescue’ was launched at a high profile event at the memorial in 2019.

Rockingham Mayor and event supporter Deb Hamblin officially welcomed those in attendance, which included councillor Rob Schmidt.

Master of Ceremonies, Australia Irish Heritage Association secretary, Tony Bray credited the commissioning of the impressive monument to the late Francis Conlon in 2005 and the efforts of Irish Scene founder Fred Rea’s with Rockingham Council to have it completed to the sculptors specifications, which was finally unveiled on March 29th, 2014.

Mr Bray acknowledged Waterford-born and now Gidgegannup based sculptors Charles Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith who designed and created the memorial.

Queen Victoria’s assistant secretary and administrator of famine relief in Ireland Sir Charles Trevelyan – aka actor Michael Sheehy – appeared among the crowd mistaking one lady as his monarch and another as a peasant lady as he talked about the potato. This was Michael Sheehy at his acting best, in costume and full voice totally engaging the audience. Accompanied by Ormonde Og Waters on the tin whistle the Irish born actor also read out a Letter from the Grave by James Wilson. That letter amongst other factors was responsible for awakening the conscience of Fenian leader John Devoy in New York, to do something to

free his companions, many of whom he had recruited into the movement himself.

Michael Malone, the Co. Clare born founder of iiNet, read out the background of the Fenians and the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood, and how 62 of them were transported to WA as convicts.

Multi-award winning author and communicator Kez Wickham read ‘Plans for the Catalpa escape’ while Stephen Pratt, MLC Labor member for South Metropolitan Region, representing Premier Mark McGowan read ‘The Escape Day Finally Arrives’.

The high drama of the chase in the local waters of the British armed Georgette and the Catalpa and its cargo of fleeing Fenians was played out by Fremantle Fenians Committee member John McCarthy as Major Finnerty and Superintendent John Stone on the Georgette and Catalpa Captain George Anthony and John Breslin, played by Mr Sheehy.

Federal MP for Brand Madeleine King narrated the scene and using handed out songsheets the audience sang the Catalpa ballad accompanied by Mr Waters on concertina. John McCarthy then read a paper on The Aftermath of the Escape in the USA.

Richard Offen, respected historian and heritage expert, author and broadcaster presented his paper on the impact of the Catalpa escape on Western Australia.

Mr Sheehy concluded the entertaining program of events with a poem written by John Breslin – who masterminded the escape – accompanied by the distinctive sound of the uilleann pipes, played by Mr Waters.

Mr Bray thanked all the participants and Frank Murphy and Gerry Grogan – who present ‘Celtic Rambles’ on Radio Fremantle on Saturday mornings – for their show on April 8 – which is available on archive – which focused

on the event. Patricia Bratton and Cecilia Bray helped with administration and PR on the day.

David McKnight who devised the programme for the AIHA event was an apology on the day, having just flown out to Ireland on Good Friday. Emergency services minister Stephen Dawson was invited but also absent because he was also in Ireland. Other apologies

included AIHA chair Heather Deighan, who is suffering long-Covid, Honorary Irish Consul Marty Kavanagh and US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy.

Fred Rea took photographs for Irish Scene and also posted a short video of the event online at https://youtu.be/vE1C3vxU7fc.

At the end of proceedings the group was

encouraged to proceed to Churchill Park in the town centre for the inaugural Catalpa Adventure Festival. The free family event was held for the first time ever and had a full programme of Irish entertainment, organised by the local Rockingham Catalpa Rescue Project. Festival chairman Laurie Smith – who attended the AIHA event – plans to make it an annual event for the community, with a major re-enactment on the cards for the 150th anniversary in 2026.

Mr Smith said the organising committee was satisfied with the outcome of the Catalpa Adventure Festival, even if some major challenges emerged on the day.

“Thousands of people came to the Festival for the planned exciting six hour programme of on stage performances, which had to be cancelled into the fourth hour because of

TheFenians

In Ireland’s dark and troubled times, Amidst the Famine’s pain and crimes, A band of patriots did rise, To claim their land and free their skies. The Fenians were their chosen name, Their cause was just, their hearts aflame, With Irish blood and Irish pride, They sought to cast the Brits aside.

In jail and exile they did dwell, Their spirits strong, their stories tell, Of battles fought and hopes held high, For Ireland’s freedom they would die.

Their dreams live on, their cause endures, A flame that burns, a hope that’s sure, For a land where justice reigns, And the Fenians’ spirit remains.

So let us honor their sacrifice, And keep alive their flame of light, For a free and just Ireland, we pray, And the Fenians’ memory lives each day.

Many books, poems and stories – including in this magazine – have been written over the years about the Fenians. This poem about the historic Irish patriots was written just before this edition of Irish Scene went to print. It was created in seconds by ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot!

heavy rain and inclement conditions,” he told Irish Scene afterwards. “In spite of the cloud there was much fun and laughter.

Two excellent presentations by Mike Sheehy and Ormonde Waters were particular highlights but there as great Irish dancing, Irish football, poetry and three leading Irish bands delighted the large audience. There was wonderful support for all the food vans and Guinness and other beverages were on tap and the bar was a busy place. The committee took particular care to promote our sponsors for their generous and vital support. Hundreds of copies of Irish Scene magazine were distributed around the event area. The Festival achieved the intent of the Committee which was, quite simply to enhance the morning Wild Geese Ceremony presented by Tony Bray and the AIHA,” he added.

Perth vigils Aisling

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.

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

by every group as businesses the event day for the women all A group of traditional and fiddle county’s tributes laid woman who promising also heavily GAA club right. Elaine the vigil tweeted: of the kookaburra to the stunning traditional music at vigil tonight #AshlingMurphy in Perth,”. Similar events were staged across Australia, including the Amphitheatre at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane and all who based violence”, Irish Australian Queensland. by Anna

Its Eurovision time again and if you happen to be heading to Liverpool for the event you better be prepared to pay 650 pounds sterling. That’s if you are lucky enough to get a ticket from a scalper otherwise you will be one of the diehard fans partying as they glue themselves to their television’s soaking up every minute of this annual mega TV phenomena. I don’t think there is a single person on the planet who hasn’t heard of ABBA and If so, more than likely they will also know that their big break into world recognition began with their stunning jaw dropping performance of Waterloo on The Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. Prior to that time the viewers looked at the song contest as a bit of a novelty rather than a serious event. Eurovision has had some great winners and some great songs that didn’t win. Eurovision threw up some hit songs along the way such as (Beg Steal or Borrow) by The New Seekers in 1972, Cliff Richards (Power to All the People) in 1973, Olivia Newton-Johns Long Live Love) in 1974. 1976 delivered another hit (Save all your kisses for Me) for Brotherhood of Man. In 1981, Bucks Fizz won and had a huge hit with their (Making Your Mind Up).

Some other worthy mentions of singers that went on fame after their performances in the E.S.C. were Hot House flowers and Riverdance, both went on to world recognition after their performances as interval acts on the show.

1972 saw Greek singer Vicky Leandros win singing (Après Toi) representing Luxembourg. In 1988 Canadian Celine Dion won, representing Switzerland singing (Don’t Leave without me) In 1995 Gina G, an Australian, finished 8th singing (Just a Little bit) representing the UK Ireland has some interesting intertwines involvement in Eurovision since 1965. Butch Moor sang (I’m walking the streets in the rain), their first entry came 6th. The following year Dickie Rock’s (Come Back to Stay) came 5th. In 1967 Sean Dunphy’s’ (If I Could Choose) was beaten into 2nd place by Sandi Shaw’s (Puppet on a string), which became a big hit for her. In 1968 Spain’s entry (La. La.La.) won by one point, England’s Cliff Richards came 2nd,

singing (Congratulations), that song went on to become another big hit. Irelands Pat McGeegan finished 4th with (Chance of a Lifetime). In all honesty, Cliff should have won hands down if the Irish voting jury weren’t so bias to the English at the time. In 1969, Ireland finished 7th with Muriel Day & the Lindsay’s singing (The wages of love)

1970 was Irelands chance to make history when Dana won, singing (All kinds of Everything) beating England’s Mary Hopkins into 2nd place with (Knock Knock who’s There?) and surprise, surprise, Spain’s world recognised Julio Iglesias only managed to come 6th. Ireland followed on from then with six more wins in the years to follow. In 1980 a young man born in Frankston Melbourne Victoria on May 13th, 1954, became the first Australian to win the Eurovision Song Contest and the only one to date. Yes, an Australian, Johnny Logan sang and wrote (What’s Another Year). He then went on to win The Eurovision again in 1987 writing and singing (Hold Me Now) To make even more history he won it again in 1992 having written Linda Martins (Why Me). He qualified to represent Ireland, as his father was the famous Irish Tenor, Patrick O Hagan. Johnny’s 3 wins are credited to Ireland as he was representing Ireland and not Australia. He is the only one to have won Eurovision 3 times as a writer and twice as singer. Ireland have won the Eurovision a record 7 times, thanks to Australia’s Johnny Logan’s 3 contributions. Irelands other wins included Niamh Kavanagh singing (In Your Eyes) in 1993 and Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan singing (Rock ‘n Roll kids) written by Brendan Graham. Brendan won it again in 1996, as the writer when Eimear Quinn sang (The Voice) giving Brendan his second win in three years. Brendan hailed from Tipperary but spent some years in Perth W.A, working and playing rugby in the mid to late 1980s. 1996 registered Irelands 7thand last time win.

I have attended three E.S.C., two in Ireland in 1995/7 and the other in Oslo, Norway in 1996 while working

with the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva. They have been showcasing the event since day one. My business partner Alan Sherratt and I were invited to those events after we, on behalf of our company Globe Events Management submitted a request for Melbourne to host the event in Australia and for Australia to become an annual part of the E.S.C. We worked with the E.B.U. for three years on the possibility. The E.B.U. were enormously positive in allowing the E.S.C. to go to the land down under if either of the Federal or Victorian Governments would agree.

This is where the sad part kicks in like a kick in the guts because the Australian music and tourist industry missed out on so much. While Alan and I continued to attend many meetings in Geneva, London, Dublin, Norway and France where all were positive on letting the ESC go to Melbourne. Alan and I spent a great part of that three years meeting with members of the Australian Government in Canberra, VIC, NSW and SA. Hoping against hope that one of them would put their hand up, neither of the Government’s did.

Alan and I retired from the attempt to bring the event to Melbourne in 1999 after having so many doors slammed in our faces by politicians who couldn’t see any further than the end of their own noses. Some years later Jeff Kennett, the then retired premier of Victoria said to one of Australia’s most respected singers at a dinner function that one of the biggest mistakes he made in office was NOT backing the Globe bid to have the 1997 ESC in Melbourne. As the saying goes who’s laughing now. Australia finally entered the ESC in 2015 with Guy Sebastian singing (Tonight Again) with no thanks to any of the blind politicians. It had taken twenty more years for the penny to drop before anyone would listen and realise the amazing merits of the ESC. One can only wonder of the many opportunities lost to the music industry over the twenty years from when Alan and I first presented the Australian plan, to be part of the Eurovision Song contest, to the E.B.U. in Geneva, in 1975. I hope you have a great night watching the biggest song contest on the planet and don’t forget to wear your party hats and have plenty of champagne on ice.

Until next time, be good to those who love you and Slainte from Melbourne.

Perth museos to rock Eurovision 2023

Australia’s debut as a Eurovision entry in 2015 raised a few eyebrows at the time but it quickly went on to become a serious contender and committed player in the song contest. Representing Australia in this years competition in Liverpool on May 11 and upholding that reputation will be Perth rock group Voyager with their song “Promise”.We wish them well, but of course we will also be shouting for the Irish entry, “We Are One” by Dublin group Wild Youth.

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Australia should be “very proud” of Irish roots – McGowan

The busy series of St. Patrick’s Day events and activities in Perth came to a close with a gathering of community leaders in the Irish Community inside Parliament House, West Perth, on March 23. “This is our first St Patrick’s Day event in Parliament that we have been able to have since 2019 and I’m pretty excited about that,” said co-host Alanna Clohesy, president of the Legislative Council Ms Clohesy, the member for the East Metro Region, said the function was an opportunity to mingle with members of parliament and talk to them about the issues they are facing, and to have a good time. “The purpose of this event from my perspective is to acknowledge the work that you have all done in our community, particularly over the last few years. We have an incredible array of community organisation representatives here and all of you have done an amazing job and a ’thank you’ doesn’t seem enough, but it is a heartfelt thank you for all you do.”

Ms Clohessy paid special tribute to the Claddagh Association and Joan Ross – who was not present – who she said was due to return to Ireland to live. “Joan has made an enormous contribution to the Western Australia community over a number of years through her work with the Claddagh, through her hard work with the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust and through her own work with the Department of Human Services she has helped in-numerous people in their lives.” She also thanked Irish Families in Perth, Darkness into Light and the musicians of Ceoltas Ceoltairi Eireann for providing the music for the night. Ms Clohessy thanked everyone present for the role they played.

Dublin born Minister for Emergency Services and Ms Clohessy’s official co-host for the evening was notable by his absence. “[He] got lost on his way to St. Patrick’s Day and ended up India” Alana quipped. Fellow Labor MP of Irish extraction Jessica Stojkovski (nee O’Gorman) who also helped host the event made his apologies because: “it’s a long way for him to travel back for the event, given that he is currently in India”.*

Ms Stojkovski, the Member for Kinglsey, said that he had had the pleasure of meeting

the Irish minister for trade, enterprise and employment twice on his visit to Perth. “He said something that resonated with me…. Ireland may be a small country but we are a big nation. I feel like this is never more relevant than on a day like St. Patrick’s Day (which is more like St. Patrick’s Day week). For many reasons over the years Irish people have travelled to the far flung corners of the world. You just have to look at emigration and the location of so many Irish pubs around the world to see that is true. “

There was more to Irish culture than drinking. “No matter where the Irish go in the world we are renowned for our warmth and our hospitality,” added Ms Stojkovski, whose parents are from Limerick, Ireland. “Its not wonder that so many of them have chosen Australia to be their home, either in the short or the long term. An astounding 2.4 million Australians, or 10.2%, call themselves Irish or claim Irish ancestry. In Western Australia that number is 233,323, or 9% of the WA population. I am very pleased to say we are well represented in the West Australian parliament, with 12% of members claiming Irish heritage, and that’s just in the Labor caucus. Now with a name like McGowan, a man we can faithfully call one of our own, I now invite the Premier to the stage”.

“A lot of people claim Irish heritage, I actually do have Irish heritage,” Premier Mark McGowan said. “I went to Ireland for the first time in my life last year, to Dublin, and it turns out McGowan is actually quite a common name over there,” he laughed. “I met the Prime Minister (Taoiseach), his name is Michael Martin, he’s a lovely guy and we sat and talked for about an hour about different things and the terrible experiences of political life, we counselled each other for about an hour, and he’s from Cork, it turns out my heritage is from the Munster/Cork area.”

Mr McGowan also said he had met the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, who he said was “an amazing guy”. “He was out here in 2017/18 and I went back and he returned the favour. He took me to the presidents palace Áras an Uachtaráin, a lovely palace with a little town, and for about an hour he showed

Photos by John MacKay

me around the gardens and showed me the monuments to the 1916 uprising, the statues and he gave me a listening history and he was talking poetry, he didn’t have any notes or anything like that, it was unbelievable stuff.”

If President Higgins imparted the premier with a personalised history of Ireland, then Mr McGowan was able to offer his take on the impact of the Irish in Australia and St. Patricks Day was the perfect opportunity to have fun but also to recognise that legacy. “Its been an incredible role Irish Australian’s have played,” Mr McGowan said. Their arrival could be traced back to the First Fleet in 1788 and over the decades that followed. “What was really important about the Irish experience

to Australia is that it affected the culture of the country, the whole culture of the country of Australia was in many ways created by the Irish people who came here because they were so focused on avoiding the issues that had beset them in Ireland, where people were poor and often exploited and people didn’t have the opportunities in life. They wanted to make sure their new experience in this country was different, that they did have the opportunity to make something of yourself, that you had the opportunity for a decent life and if you got sick you could go to a hospital, and that children got a good education and that kind of thing. They were so keen to create a new society here in Australia and that is the society they created and we should be very

proud of that. Irish Australians were a large part of achieving that….it came home to me (in Dublin) because I went to the EPIC museum. [The rest of his delegation visited the Guinness Hop-store and Jameson factory in the heart of Dublin]. “They had displays of people of Irish heritage, such as (Former American president) Ronald Reagan…but they also had a display of Paul Keating – former Prime Minister of Australia. In the Australian experience people like him have helped create the society we have today. So St. Patrick’s Day is a good opportunity to acknowledge all that.”

With a second attempt at the pronunciation of the Irish drinking greeting Sláinte – Mr McGowan toasted the occasion.

*Duty calls

As a Cabinet member in the McGowan government Mr Dawson wears several hats and it was as the minister for Innovation and Digital Economy and Medical Research that he was in India beating the drum for Western Australia. He took part in Umagine Chennai 2023, a three day global technology, entrepreneurship and skills summit which attracts 10,000 delegates and 150 exhibitors and 250 speakers, including Mr Dawson. He gave an overview of the innovation, data centre and medical research programmes supported by the state government and announced research collaborations and research fellowships between India and WA, as well as details of the Health Challenge andWA Landing Pad. His address can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1QJzWv6bm0

He also officially opened the Invest and Trade WA office in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, the second largest economy in India. Mr Dawson got in early with his official St. Patrick’s Day greetings. On Thursday 16 March Dr Brian Walker asked Mr Dawson – who was representing the minister for police – a question about Cannabis legalisation.

“Noting that tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day, I refer the minister to the recently published report by the Irish Senate’s cross-party Committee on Justice, which recommended that the Irish government consider a policy of decriminalisation of possession of a range of drugs including cannabis,” said Dr Walker. He asked if the (police) minister was aware of the report and its recommendations and also if: “the minister take this opportunity, on the eve of the world’s largest and greenest Irish celebration, to consider advocating for a similar approach here in Western Australia, a state which was founded, in large part, by Irish convict settlers, many of whose crimes would nowadays be dismissed by any right-minded court?.”

Mr Dawson replied: “I thank the honourable member for some notice of this question, and I take this opportunity to wish everybody who is Irish, and those who would like to be, a very happy St Patrick’s Day for tomorrow.” The answer on behalf of the police minister to both questions was no.

A

AND SOFT DRINK) ........................................ $18.00

HUNGRY HOOR ( 2 BATTERED SAUSAGES, CURRY CHEESE CHIP AND SOFT DRINK) $17.00

THE LOT BOX ( 2 BATTERED SAUSAGES, CHICKEN BALLS, ONION RINGS, MEDIUM SERVE OF CHIP, CURRY SAUCE AND DIPPING SAUCE) $29.00

G’day from Gary Gray

AUSTRALIA’S AMBASSADOR IN IRELAND

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

@ausembire Australian Embassy, Ireland

Australia’s Ambassador to Ireland, continues to broadcast Australian music regularly across Irish radio waves via The Rock radio station Dublin, a live radio station based in Temple Bar. Here, Ambassador Gray shares his ANZAC Day playlist, and explains to Irish listeners just how important ANZAC day is to us, and how Australians use song and verse to process, reflect and commemorate fallen Australian soldiers from all conflicts since WW1 and the important role of our defence forces.

@AusEmbIre

In Australia there will be gatherings and remembrances at every war memorial in every town, big and small across our island continent. There will be commemorations at traditional Australian Rules football games, on mine sites and fishing villages; people will gather at Marble Bar in the North of Western Australia where at sunrise it will be warm. They will gather at first light in Hobart Tasmania, my mum will be at the memorial service in Whyalla, South Australia, my son who serves in the Australian Defence force will be at the commemoration in Canberra, where it will be cold and probably wet. ANZAC Day is when they turn the heat on for winter in Canberra. We have ANZAC biscuits with our coffee and tea.

Radios across Australia will carry broadcasts of our dawn services, they will carry the music, the poetry and the verse of our nation and our wars and our stories, the music of sadness and suffering, death and commemoration, it is not the music of celebration. Our ANZAC music culture is one of reflection on ANZAC Day and speaking the things that should be spoken.

This Australian ANZAC music play list is of Australia’s music of war time stories, some deeply evocative of the Great War, such as the music of Eric Bogle, from Canberra. (I’ve met people in Cork who thought Eric was Irish. I can assure you he is Scottish Australian!)

The West Australian band, The Waifs, from the southern coastal town of Albany tell a heart felt real story of Australian War brides of WW2 and their journey to new lives

ANZAC Day is a big day for Australia and New Zealand.

in America. Albany is the site of Australia’s first ANZAC dawn service over 100 years ago, it’s also where our troop ships massed in 1915 before the voyage to Egypt, North Africa and ultimately, ANZAC Cove where 100,000 people died; Turkish, Australian, New Zealand, French, Indian, Irish, English and Scottish.

Our music of the Vietnam War is deeply linked to Adelaide band Red Gum and its principal, John Schumann and another Adelaide band; Cold Chisel, led by another Scottish migrant, Jimmy Barnes whose song Khe Sanh reminds Australians of the lost generation of our soldiers in the Vietnam War. I have included Becky Cole singing of our most recent war in Afghanistan.

I hope you like the thoughts and the music of Australia’s day of commemoration. The Irish are a literary and musical culture, and our Irish-Australian relationship is deep and real. There is no doubt Australia’s music culture has been influenced by our Irish forbears.

This ANZAC Day we will remember those who serve our country and the fallen from wars and invasions since. Australia stands with Ukraine and the people of Ukraine. We will think of Ukrainian families and soldiers. We call on Mr Putin to immediately withdraw his military forces from Ukraine. Australia has provided military assistance to Ukraine. We also provide humanitarian assistance to meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian people. We stand with Ukraine and call upon Russia to end the conflict.

1. Eric Bogle And The Band Played ......................................... Waltzing Matilda.

2. Eric Bogle..................... No Man’s Land.

3. John Schumann........... On Every ANZAC Day.

4. John Williamson.......... Cootamundra Wattle.

5. Lee Kernaghan............. When The First Bombs ......................................... Fell.

6. The Waifs Bridal Train.

7. Redgum ........................ I was only 19.

8. Cold Chisel .................. KheSanh.

9. Paul Kelly..................... Peace.

10. Cold Chisel ................. When The War Is Over.

11. Adam Brand ............... The ANZAC.

12. Becky Cole.................. Poster Girl - Wrong Side Of ......................................... The World

G’DAY FROM GARY GRAY

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

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

June 28 TBA to be presented by Cecilia Bray

Venue Irish Club Committee Room, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco

May 23 ‘The Power of the Dog’ by Thomas Savage, presented by Cecilia Bray

June 27 To be Confirmed in May

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

BLOOMSDAY - James Joyce Literary Competition presentations

Contact Convener Mary Purcell, m.purcell@telstra.com

BLOOMSDAY Literary Entertainment, Friday June 16

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

Enjoy performed readings from James Joyce’s literary masterpiece Ulysses, published 1922. The novel parallels Homer’s Odyssey with main characters Stephen Dedalus (the hero of Joyce’s earlier Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man); Leopold Bloom, a Jewish advertising canvasser; and his wife, Molly as modern counterparts of Telemachus, Ulysses (Odysseus), and Penelope, respectively. The events of the novel take place in Dublin on one day, June 16, 1904 and loosely parallel the major events in Odysseus’s journey home after the Trojan War. For 29 years we packed the Irish Club with this popular event. After a 5 year break we reintroduced the event last year on the global centenary celebration of the novel supported by the Irish Government. This year editor Sean Byrne presents an Exile themed selection of Ulysses extracts overlaying Perth on Dublin with guest performers Peter Holland, Diana Warnock, Irish Theatre Players and featuring pianist Louise Hodge playing Edwardian parlour music of the day.

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

Part two of the evening features a Joycean movie ‘Love’s Bitter Mystery’ under license from Scene Studios Melbourne. This immersive and intellectually satisfying film focuses on a critical year in Joyce’s life. It was created as part of Bloomsday in Melbourne’s 2022 celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Prizes Best Edwardian dressed male or female. Plus special Irish raffle Bookings

https://www.trybooking.com/BZAVU

Date Friday June 16 at 7.00pm

AIHA Website

Venue Irish Club Theatre, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco

EAdmission AIHA members $20, Non-members $25, includes light refreshments

Prizes Best Edwardian dressed male or female. Plus special Irish raffle Bookings will be available on Trybooking in May, or ring 9367 6026

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.

Of Interest

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

We welcome Teresa O’Brien as our new editor of The Journal – our quarterly book publication. Teresa is a Doctor of Education with editing and publishing accreditation. The March Journal, Vol 31, No1 was mailed to members in early April Correspondence may be emailed to journal@irishheritage.com.au

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.

Catalpa Commemoration, Easter Monday in Rockingham – see separate report in The Irish Scene with link to entertaining audio-visual compiled by Fred Rea.

Contributors can email editor Julie Breathnach-Banwait on journal@irishheritage.com.au

Non-members can purchase copies at $10

Coming Up

Youth Ambassador – we are seeking to appoint a young adult to help broaden our activities to appeal to younger generations of Irish Australians. Please contact our secretary Tony Bray for information. IT website and Facebook assistance - if you know of someone who can assist with Wordpress for an hour a month we would love to hear from you.

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

Family membership $65

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL Due 1 January, 2023

Concession (Centrelink and unwaged students with ID) $55

Membership fee includes tax deductible donation of $20 Members enjoy discounted rates to dinners and functions, exclusive events, quarterly Journal, voting rights, and opportunities to participate in activities which promote an awareness of Australia’s Irish Heritage.

Distant (200 kms from Perth) $45

Supported by a tier

volunteers.

Non Political-Non Sectarian-Emphatically Australian PO Box 1583 Subiaco 6904. Tel: 08 9345 3530. Secretary: 08 9367 6026

Email: secretary@irishheritage.com.au or admin@irishheritage.com.au Web Page: https://irishheritage.com.au/. Look us up on Facebook

Chairperson – Heather Deighan Treasurer/ Membership – Patricia Bratton Secretary – Tony Bray Committee – Gayle Lannon, Peter Conole

of

Please talk to us if you are interested in being involved in some way!

AIHA Committee

Fleadh Cheoil Perth 2023

Venue: The Irish Club of WA, 61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco WA 6008.

Date / Time: Saturday 20 May 2023 at 10.00am.

Comhaltas Perth Sean Doherty Branch is delighted to announce that it will again be hosting its Fleadh Cheoil Music Competition at The Irish Club of WA on Saturday 20 May 2023 from 10am. Competition entrants are requested to have two tunes ready for the competition. Categories include individual, duet and trio across various instruments in addition to seannós singing. The Fleadh Cheoil will be held across the following age categories: Under 12, 12 – 15 years, 15 – 18 years and Over 18. The competition is available to Comhaltas members only with an entrance fee of $5.00 per person per category. Entry forms for this year’s Fleadh Cheoil (including Fleadh Cheoil Rules) can be obtained from Perth Comhaltas website at https://perthcomhaltas.com.au/fleadh

Entrants are requested to fill in the entry form and return to perthcomhaltas@gmail.com . Entries for Fleadh Cheoil close on 6 May 2023. We wish all competitors the very best of luck.

Comhaltas Music Camp at Bickley Outdoor Recreation Centre

Venue: Bickley Outdoor Recreation Camp, Hardinge Rd, Orange Grove WA, 6109.

Date: 5 – 7 May 2023.

Perth Comhaltas will be hosting its music camp at Bickley Outdoor Recreation Camp (Hardinge Rd, Orange Grove WA 6109) in between 5 and 7 May 2023. The camp starts on Friday evening and goes through to Sunday morning. Music workshops will be held on the Saturday.

Activities include Friday night session, Saturday workshops and family evening dinner followed by dancing and an open session. Details of the music workshops can be found on our Comhaltas Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/perthcomhaltas

All past and present members, family and friends are welcome to join in.

Bickley Camp Fees and Charges

Fees and Charges for attendance at the camp are as follows:

• Saturday Workshops $10.00 per person for the day (family pass $40.00 for the day);

• Saturday evening meal $10.00 per person (family $40.00);

• Visitor (if not attending workshops) - day and/or night $5.00 per person (family pass $20.00 per day); and

• Overnight stay $10.00 per person per night (family pass $40.00 per night).

Members are encouraged to bring a sweet plate for after evening dinner. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you at this years Comhaltas Music Camp.

Comhaltas Membership and Lessons

Perth Comhaltas welcome and encourage aspiring musicians of all ages and levels to get in touch. Members of our committee will be able to assist in the many areas of Irish music, song, dance and language, whether that be learning the bodhran, to gain an understanding of sheet music and common tunes played at the Irish sessions, the basics of Irish language and set dancing, and more.

Membership Benefits

• Discounted Tuesday Night lessons (at the Victoria Park RSL);

• Discounts for Perth Comhaltas Camps.;

• Discounts for Perth Comhaltas Events (Céilí Dances, Dinners); and

• Access to Comhaltas instruments and gear.

Membership Costs

• Pensioner: $20

• Child: $20

• Family: $65

• Adult single: $40

• Adult (couple): $55

Tuesday Sessions

This is our main gathering with a beginner’s lesson starting at 7:30pm, and a free open session from 8:30pm. We meet most Tuesday nights with the exception of public holidays. Lessons are for Music and Irish Language which take place at the Vic Park RSL, 1 Fred Bell Parade, East Victoria Park.

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Fees for Lessons: Members: $10 / NonMembers: $15 (there is no charge to attend from 8:30pm and join in the open session).

Sunday Sessions

On the 3rd Sunday of the month, we have an afternoon session in the Victoria Park Centre for the Arts, 12 Kent St, East Vic Park. This is suitable for beginners and for those who cannot make the Tuesday night lesson. The Sunday session takes place between 2pm and 4pm.

Sunday session 2023 dates: 16 April, 21 May, 18 June, 16 July, 20 Aug, and 17th Sept 2023.

The Midwest Irish Club Incorporated

PO Box 346 Geraldton 6530

La’ maith from the Midwest Irish Club.

The Midwest Irish Club had a weeklong St Patrick’s day celebration, starting off with the “Deadly Woodbines” performing to a sell out audience on Saturday 11 March 2023. Alan Woods, Ken Woods, and Val Cutler once again put on an impressive performance playing us their extensive list of Irish songs and instrumentals from Val on the Fiddle.

Feedback from members on the night was extremely positive with many commenting on how well the band interacted with the crowd and the variety of songs played from traditional Irish songs/instrumentals to Van Morrison, Don Maclean, and some newer music from the likes of Mumford and Sons. There was no room left on the dance floor with members dancing the night away. The club are looking at booking the Woodbines again later in the year.

Following on from this event, the committee were straight back into it preparing the club for St Patrick day celebrations on the Friday. Not even a 6-hour power outage to the Midwest Region could stop us from putting on a wonderful day of entertainment and craic. The club opened its doors at 10am putting on a morning tea for members before the bar officially opened at midday. A visiting Princess Cruise Liner was in the Port of Geraldton and the club made arrangements for a bus to collect approximately twenty passengers to bring them down to the club for a nice cold pint of Guinness whilst they were entertained by local legend Johnny David who was playing a variety of Irish songs.

Following from this, a visiting bagpiper from Queensland made himself known to the committee and he was quickly chucked on stage to perform some jigs, reels, and hornpipes to a very appreciative audience.

Being a Friday, once the clock struck 4pm, the clubs numbers swelled as the afterwork

crowds headed into the club to join in with the festivities. There was something for everyone with local business Braids by Zem braiding members hair in bright green, this was a hit with both the young and old.

Young and upcoming solo artist, Tobi Williams, 14yo, performed on stage before the headline act, Geraldton’s one and only Irish Band, “Bleedin Irish” took to the stage to perform late into the evening.

Bleedin Irish is a 4-piece band made up of committee and general members of the Midwest Irish Club. President, Peter Vanderpol on Guitar and lead vocals, Kerry Vanderpol on vocal, Jen Mullins on bass guitar and Simon Miller on the Cajon performed a list of Irish classics and chucked in the odd Johnny Cash, Bob Seager and Billy Ray Cyrus songs along the way. The dance floor was yet again at capacity. Whilst the patrons were enjoying themselves inside, we had local food van “Sea Girl” providing beef and Guinness sliders, fish tacos and local crayfish rolls for sale which was a huge hit. Moving forward, the committee are busy planning future entertainment events outside of our normal operating hours of Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Our next Saturday night event is a Wild West night on Saturday 13 May 2023 with entertainment being provided by Johnny David with raffles and a best dressed prizes to be won.

Moving forward, the club is preparing to host its first “Fleadh” festival over the weekend of the 11-13 August 2023. The aim of this event is to promote Irish music and culture within the Midwest region. This is sure to be a magnificent event, watch this space. Continue to keep up to date with our upcoming events and live music programme by visiting our Facebook page. Until next time. Regards

Simon Miller Committee Member

contribute your

CAN YOU PUT YOUR HAND UP? VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

We are gearing up for a big year at Claddagh in 2023 and we look forward to sharing with you over the year, some interesting and valuable volunteer opportunities. We hope you will be able to contribute your time and experience to some of these and help us support our community. We are blessed with a strong, community minded membership, and many of our members take opportunities to make a positive impact on the world by sharing the gift of their time. We are so grateful for the support – and the people who benefit from the work of our Volunteers are too. Whether you can spare an hour or two, or commit to an ongoing programme, we can’t wait to have you involved! Please contact us at the office to enquire. Some of the key projects we need ongoing support with are:

• Digital Training Workshops

• Outreach Programme

• Darkness into Light Walk

ST PATRICKS DAY FESTIVAL

Thanks to our committee, volunteers and four legged friends who marched with us in the parade and helped at our information tent and seniors’ tent, we couldn’t have achieved a successful event without your contributions. We were honoured to have our very own mascots Lily and Flint marching in the parade with us (see photos!)

CLADDAGH SENIORS ENJOY ST PATRICKS DAY AT THE MIGHTY QUINN TAVERN!

The Claddagh Seniors St Patrick’s Day event took place on Monday 27 March 2023 at the Mighty Quinn Tavern. The Seniors were delighted to have with them a very special guest all the way from Ireland, Tony Curtis, an Irish Poet who writes beautiful poems which are compassionate, elegiac and sometimes funny. The Broken Pokers delighted everyone in the Tavern playing some craic’in tunes which got many of our seniors up on the dance floor. The room was a wave of green. We’ve got upcoming events in April, May and June you can attend – or if you have visitors over from ireland, mums and dad or grandparents, why not send them along for a day out. Follow us on Social media or contact the office for more details.

Outreach Darkness

DARKNESS

The 2023 Darkness

DARKNESS INTO LIGHT

The 2023 Darkness into Light 5km walk will take place at Sir James Mitchell Park, South Perth from 5:30am on Saturday 6 May 2023.

5:30am on Saturday Claddagh are committee in Durty Nelly’s

Claddagh are so honoured to the charity partner for this year’s walk, a huge thanks to the DITL committee in Perth for their support! It was fabulous to meet some of you at the launch event in Durty Nelly’s on Sunday 16 April and at the GAA Seven’s at Tom Bateman on Saturday 22 April 2023. We did the official cheque handover for the 2022 DITL event and were overwhelmed with the support of the whole of Australia for last years walk. The money has already been put to good use supporting individuals and families with suicidal ideation and mental health concerns and putting proactive support in the form of Mental Health First Aid Training for Community Groups and Claddagh Committee Members and Volunteers. If your community group is interested in this training, please reach out to our office to discuss. Look out for some future programs which we’ll run as well. If you can please register for the event www.darknessintolight.ie/event/australia and come along and support Pieta House and Claddagh Association and the fight against suicide and selfharm. If you cannot attend on the day and want to support please consider donating to our Chairperson Heather, who along with our other committee members and volunteers will be taking part in the walk.

We did the official support of the supporting individuals proactive support Claddagh Committee training, please run as well. If you can please and support Pieta you cannot attend Heather, who walk.

We are blessed opportunities grateful for the Whether you you involved! h Digital

SENIORS DIGITAL TRAINING WORKSHOPS ARE RETURNING IN 2023

WORKSHOP 3: SAFETY FIRST- CYBER SECURITY

Saturday 29 April 2023 - 10am - 1pm

Workshop 3 will focus on updating your passwords to protect your information, protection against scammers and some ‘cyber safe’ skills. Join us for this fun and informative workshop. You’ll get simple advice, be able to practice with support in the workshops and a take home folder to practice at home. We’ll also definitely have a few laughs and maybe some morning tea to keep the strength up! Call our office on 08 9249 9213 or email - admin@ claddagh.org.au to secure your seat now. Join us and become Tech Savvy in 2023!

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

FREE VISA CLINICS

The Claddagh Association hosts FREE Visa Clinics every quarter.

Next Visa Clinic Tuesday 23rd May 9am-2pm

Patricia Halley (MARA 1383611) from Visa4You - a registered and experienced Migration Agent is available for face to face and telephone appointments. If you need advice about Visa’s or citizenship, please make an appointment with our office for the next clinic by contacting - The Claddagh Association 08 9249 9213 or email our Co-Ordinator: Geraldine at admin@claddagh.org.au

Appointments are available to anyone in the Irish community and is a great opportunity to get advice from a professional. We’ll look at how we can make these sessions more interactive in future and potentially look at some group face to face sessions or webinars so people who work remotely or in the evenings/weekends can join.

THE CLADDAGH ASSOCIATION - THERE WHEN

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 2023 you can:

• donate at our website: https://claddagh.org.au/support-our-work/ make-a-donation/ claddagh.org.au.

• sign up to volunteer – your time can make the world of difference.

• become a member for only $10. Increasing our membership allows us to access additional funding and support through other avenues.

See our Website for full details: https://claddagh.org.au.

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.

“Will we have a united Ireland by 2050?”

BY DAVID MACCONNELL

This was the question asked on an ABC television program this week called The Drum. Not everyone would have been watching but the good wife from Dublin 4 likes to watch the ABC news at 7 and The Drum is on before it. The reason for the question was that we were about to celebrate (assuming that is the correct word) 25 years since signing the Good Friday Agreement. The historic deal will be commemorated in a series of events in April, with US President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton both set to visit Ulster (read N. Ireland) to mark the anniversary. The deal brought an end to 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles. The latter being a word I have tried to avoid writing in this article during the last 15 years or so since I had the privilege of writing the Ulster column for this great little mag. Since then, the agreement has touched on every aspect of life in Northern Ireland - from the political institutions, such as the power-sharing government, to Brexit and how it operates in this part of the UK. So, what is the Good Friday Agreement? The Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was a political deal designed to bring an end to 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.

If you read this column regularly (well you have got this far in this one) you will have realised that I am one hundred percent apolitical which I have explained before. As I approach the latter part of my tenure in this position, (author of this column) I am going

to take the liberty of expressing some of my views and how I came to form them.

My father was from the “South”. Kells, Co. Meath to be exact so most of my relations are from that part of the Island. My mother was from Co. Down. Consequently, some of my relations are from that area. I have lived in Ireland, England, Wales, Spain, the U.S. and of course Australia. I am now going to break one of my major rules in that you should never speak strongly about a country you do not live in. So, I encourage you to take my views below with a pinch of salt as the saying goes. I believe that Ireland has changed greatly over the last 50 years. If you had asked me in the sixties should the North be united with the South, I would probably have said no. To me it would have been like going to a poorer standard of living amongst other considerations. Many items have changed significantly. The ‘South’ (in my humble opinion) is not dominated by the Catholic Church as it seemed to be in the last century. Joining the E.U. (as it was called at that time) was hugely beneficial for the country. You only have to drive from Dundalk to Dublin or Dublin to Galway to see the vast improvements in the road system.

The whole country now is vastly more cosmopolitan than it was fifty years ago. I don’t really recall meeting or seeing many foreigners (if I may call them that) when I attended University in the sixties or on the street in general. When I travelled to the

“South”, it was the same. With the advent of many refugees, that fact is no longer true. Ireland is part of Europe and copes with the same problems as the other countries in the E.U.

At the last census we were informed that Catholics now outnumber Protestants. I beg to differ in this division aspect. I have never been a believer in calling it a division by religion. I always thought that the majority of Catholics were of Irish Celtic origin and the majority of Protestants were of either Scottish Presbyterian or Anglo Saxon Anglicans and Methodists. Believe me there is a distinction here. I was also aware that at least ninety percent of the population had little to do with religion and the on-going conflict. Certainly, some inhabitants, for example the lawyers, the builders and the glaciers were financially happy for the conflict to continue.

From what I can ascertain (from friends and the internet) the country has moved on. Of course, there will be hard-liners from both sides, but their arguments now are not so clear or one-sided.

The U.K. is not the country it used to be. There are not so many advantages now of being part of that country. I can easily see Scotland and Wales changing to have more say in their own affairs. N. Ireland could easily follow suit. It certainly would solve the Brexit problem and maybe a few others as well.

When I visited Belfast some eight years ago, the good wife was much more at home there than I was. There were certain areas I would never venture into and when she asked me to visit a pub which was situated in what looked like a very confined street with only one entrance, (therefore only one exit) I was very loathed to enter. Of course, it turned out well. I would never have ventured near the place when I lived there permanently. It did show me, however, that the place had changed. I

Ulster Rambles

also went on the hop on bus through the Falls and Shankill Roads. Sorry to say it still looked rather unnerving when I saw the gate which closed during the night-time hours.

During my time at Methody (Methodist College) as a boarder, we had to play either rugby or hockey. If you were ‘tough’ you played rugby, if you were not, you played hockey. If you did not play either of these, well, modern times does not allow one to say what word was used to describe such a boy! Football (soccer) was also frowned upon, and I recall one boy being expelled because he played football on a Saturday.

I was led to believe that in the Catholic system, one had to play Gaelic Football and Hurling. To my knowledge, these sports could be played on a Sunday. Not so for rugby and hockey. But the latter two sports have taken the lead in that they both have representatives from The North and the South or if you like a United Ireland.

With rugby, the out half (fly half) for Ireland was sometimes someone who kicked the ball

well and with this in mind, a Gaelic player could have been chosen to fill the position. Some of the older readers might remember Barry McGann who in fact was a star soccer player. Most of us who have ever played rugby, have been delighted to see that Ireland has moved on from this kicking game. For such a small nation to be number one in the world is a truly magnificent achievement. We won the six nations championship on the day after St Patricks Day. We won’t forget that for a long time. I am very proud to include the table (top, following page).

Roll on the World Cup” was the message from Ireland captain Johnny Sexton after his side completed a Six Nations Grand Slam in a campaign that showed just why they are the world’s top-ranked rugby team. Ireland was far from their confident and controlled best in the 29-16 victory over England but found a way as they as they have been doing with increasing ease in a run of 10 straight wins

and 22 in their last 24 games. Ireland coach Andy Farrell told a news conference “I’ve just been saying to Johnny that there are bigger fish to fry than this. We’re onto the World Cup. We’re a good side that’s nowhere near reached its potential. Everyone’s going to get better in the summer and we get to spend a lot more time together so we expect our side when we get to the first game of the World Cup to be a lot better than what we are now and that’s the reality of it.”

We always said that in previous World Cups that the team had peaked too early when they raised expectations ahead of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups with similar Six Nations success only for those bids to end in disappointment. Ireland is still the only top tier side never to go beyond the quarter-final stage. Sexton has previously praised Farrell’s approach of openly talking about building towards the 2023 tournament in France and said that like last July’s first series victory in New Zealand, the Grand Slam is another “very special” part of that journey. Quoting Johnny Sexton, “I just said in the dressing room that this is not the end, there’s plenty more left in this team. Roll on the World Cup, that’s what we need to focus on now.” While Farrell was particularly pleased with how Ireland used more than 30 players in an injury-hit campaign and rarely missed a beat, he saved his highest praise for Sexton, Ireland’s 37-year-old talisman who plans to retire after the World Cup.

“It’s unbelievably fulfilling that in my opinion the best player ever to play for Ireland is able to sign off with a Grand Slam on St. Patrick’s Day in front of his own crowd,” Farrell said. The now thirty-seven-year-old became the championship’s outright all-time leading points scorer by surpassing former teammate

Ronan O’Gara with a total of 566 before being hailed by Andy Farrell as Ireland’s greatest player. Wonderful memories of the England game are still with me especially seeing Johnny celebrating with his family after the game.

So, who then would be Ireland’s greatest politician, Uniting Ireland in the foreseeable future and what would be the consequences, realities, and practicalities of the join?

There is plenty of scope for conversation and discussion here with this idea, but I must leave it for another time. I do hope you had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day this year and as always, may your God go with you.

The last Anzac Day!

Anzac Day ceremonies are a sombre and respectful affair but there was an added sense of pathos at the Cambridge RSL subbranch service in West Leederville on April 26. In his address to the well attended event branch president John Murphy – originally from Tipperary – delivered a shock announcement, that the century-old veterans association would soon be wound up, POST Newspaper reporter Ben Dickinson reported for the paper’s April 29 edition.

“Like many others around the nation, we face the prospect of closing down as the number of veterans in the older suburbs declines,” Mr Murphy told the service.

“Soon this [RSL] sub-branch... will hand in its charter and cease to exist. Old soldiers never die, they say. Neither does the Anzac spirit. Sub-branch or no sub-branch, the Town of Cambridge will continue to hold Anzac Day services at this sacred place so that the legacy of all Australians who have served will never be forgotten.”

Mr Murphy, a 93-year-old Korean War veteran, is one of just 12 remaining members of the Cambridge sub-branch, which no longer holds regular meetings.

The sub-branch’s dwindling membership stood in stark contrast to the hundreds of residents who packed the Memorial Gardens in Cambridge Street to pay their respects on Tuesday.

A small group of veterans, their descendants, and a contingent of RAAF cadets marched around the gardens to open the service.

Mr Murphy – who had been in the Irish army before he emigrated to Australia – volunteered for service in Korea where he saw action. His hearing was badly affected as a result of a Chinese grenade that blew up close to him.

The Cambridge sub-branch was founded by returned wounded veterans from Gallipoli and is one of the oldest in WA.

“West Leederville, Wembley, Floreat and

Cambridge will always have a direct link to the names engraved on this memorial and to the hundreds of returned Diggers who were members of this sub-branch and have since passed on,” he said.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, and the 50th anniversary of the end of Australian involvement in the Vietnam War.

Not far away from events at the West Leederville war memorial – which is near JB O’Reilly’s – the Irish were well represented at the service in Subiaco. While the service itself was held at the Subiaco Fallen Soldiers Memorial clock tower in Rankin Gardens it began with a parade, starting from the top of Rokeby Road.

The Australian, Irish and United Nations flags were carried at the front of the parade, held (respectively) by Joe Carroll, Celia Bray and Willie Quinn (Subiaco-Shenton Park RSL vice-president and former Irish Defence Forces and UN Peace) all born in Ireland and heavily involved with local Irish community groups. Amongst those marching behind the flags were former Subiaco mayors Tony Costa (who enlisted with the Citizens Military Forces during the Vietnam War but whose Irish credentials need no introduction) and Heather Henderson (who was mayor involved with the unveiling of the An Gorta Mor monument in Subiaco by Michael D Higgins), Honorary Irish consulate Marty Kavanagh and his husband Richard, as well as Tony Bray and Dennis Bratton from the AIHA. Amongst those to lay wreaths as part of the service were Mr Bray and Irish Club president Alan O’Meara. Several others from the Irish community were amongst the large crowd at the event.

Straight after the service Fred and Lilly Rea – acting for the Irish consul – laid wreaths on behalf of the Irish government – at the graves in Karrakatta of Irish born Anzacs John J Dwyer and WWI Victoria Cross recipient Martin

O’Meara, accompanied by his wife Lilly and Irish Scene editor Lloyd Gorman. Lest we forget!

Lloyd Gorman Fred Rea Subiaco parade

John Murphy Cambridge service

Looking for something to read? Try this doctor’s script!

Somehow in between the balancing act of dividing his time between the medical centre at Murdoch University and working in the Kimberely as a hospital doctor Peter Burke manages to find time to write and publish books – mainly novels – about the state he is proud to call home. And more often than not there is a strong Irish element running through the story.

On April 26 the Perth born medic launched his latest book ‘The Silk Merchant’s Son’ in conjunction with Boffin Books and the City of Perth Library, which is due to hit the shelves on May 1.

The shadow of the Great Irish Hunger looms in the background of this tale.

“In 1845, linguistics professor Fabrice Cleriquot is dispatched from Lyon to the Swan River Colony, sent away with a box full of silkworms to stop him from bringing more disgrace upon the family,” the blurb for the new book states. “Accompanying him on board the Elizabeth are twenty-eight mismatched and misguided Catholic missionaries including Dom Salvado, who seeks to create a Spanish Benedictine monastery deep in the bush, and the Irish Sisters of Mercy, who are fleeing a dreadful famine. Given the job of distributing a huge donation from a wealthy benefactress, Fabrice bears witness to the folly of his travelling companions whose presumptuous attempts to rescue the colony and the original inhabitants from themselves, can only lead to tragedy.”

On his own website the author said: “you’ll be transported to 1846 and take a fast-paced, humorous, filmic, thought-provoking ride with 28 misguided Catholic missionaries to Western Australia.”

Perth’s first Roman Catholic Bishop – John Brady from Co. Cavan who was educated in a French Seminary – makes an appearance in this fascinating story.

As a writer this doctor specialises in fresh retellings of the stories that Western Australian’s thought they already knew inside out and introduce them to the real history. He believes that WA’s history is different to

BY LLOYD GORMAN

everywhere else on the plantet due to its vastness and remoteness.

“WA history makes most people’s eyes glaze over,” the writer told POST newspaper reporter David Cohen in an interview in 2016. “It is regarded as dreary by some, but it isn’t. I can get through a book a bit more easily if there’s a bit of humour and humanity.”

His first novel, The Drowning Dream (1998), a pearling mystery set in Broome in the early twentieth century, was shortlisted for The Australian / Vogel’s Literary Award and WA Premier’s Award.

In 2015 Burke achieved a remarkable feat by publishing two books based around the story of Irish engineer Charles Yelverton O’Connor. Wettening Auralia was set in the 1890’s WA goldrush and tells the story of the malign forces that hounded the pipeline engineer C.Y. O’Connor to his death. The second title ‘A Dangerous Gift. The Curious Anonymity of Tommy Walker’ looks in detail at the role played by Thomas Walker (1858-1932) in editing and writing for the West Australian Sunday Times newspaper at the height of the attacks upon Chief Engineer CY O’Connor which precipitated his suicide in 1902. Walker’s article “Corruption by Contract” – in which he called O’Connor a “toadie”, “trickster” and “crocodile imposter” who had “robbed the taxpayer of this state out of millions”, is said to have pushed the Irish engineer over the edge and lead to him taking his own life.*

Dr Burke has described O’Connors sucide as a “Shakesperan tragedy”. Walker went on to become a prominent politican and even the Attorney General for WA.

The Silk Merchant’s Son is his third historical fiction and is published by Fremantle Press.

The suicide note written by CY O’Connor on March 10 1902, the same day he took his own life, offers an insight into the tortured thoughts of the engineer who was hounded – unjustifiably – by the press. It starts: “The position has become impossible.” He goes on to say: “I feel that my brain is suffering and I am in great fear of what effect all this worry may have upon me — I have lost control of my thoughts.”

Despite the tremendous toll it took on him personally his final words and dying wish were to make sure the Goldfields pipeline that he had designed and built would be successful. “The Coolgardie scheme is all right and I could finish it if I got a chance and protection from misrepresentation but those who hope for that now and its better that it should be given to some entirely new man to do.”

Instead of signing of with his own signature he left one final instruction for the mammoth engineering project: “Put the wing walls to Helena Weir at once.”

Less than a year later O’Connor’s pipeline was successfully completed on time and on budget. An opening ceremony was held at Mundaring Weir on January 22 1903 when the pumping machinery was switched on. Two days later and 566km away another ceremony was held to mark the flow of fresh drinking water to the parched Goldfields.

Lifeline on 13 11 14

Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800

MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978

Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467

Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36

Headspace on 1800 650 890

QLife on 1800 184 527

THEPERFECT BREAKFASTIN BED

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

Book Reviews

Books reviewed by John Hagan

THE CONSULTANT

BY IM SEONG-SUN / RAVEN BOOKS $29.99

The inscription on his business card is quite innocuous stating that he is a ‘restructuring con-sultant’, but in reality there is nothing harmless in his work – quite the opposite in fact. For-merly a budding on-line, crime novelist, our narrator now undertakes meticulous research in how planned murders might be made look natural. On orders from the shadowy Company he creates circumstances which convince the police and forensic experts to conclude that no crim-inal activities are associated with the deaths. His crime action plans are handed over to anoth-er operative, unknown to the protagonist, to undertake the killing. ‘There was no grand ideolo-gy, religion or philosophy, it was just about killing people for money’, our narrator confides. The Company controls every aspect of his life including paying for plastic surgery for his girlfriend behind his back. His key performance indicators are always excellent, rating him amongst the Company’s top consultants. But when his next customer turns out to be someone he knows, for the first time, he begins to question the role he plays. Time to leave? But perhaps, in those cir-cumstances the Company might arrange just one more perfect murder- his. How far will he go to escape? How far will the Company go to stop him? Before embarking on a writing career, author Seong-Sun worked in the film industry as a screenwriter and assistant director, but in an industry notorious for job insecurity he became almost destitute. To exacerbate his plight he contracted the neurological disease of agraphia which inhibited his ability to communicate through writing. ‘The Consultant’, the fruit of his efforts in combating the disorder, went on to win the prestigious Korean Segye Literary Award in 2010. The novel, which has been translated, was recently picked up by Bloomsbury for publication in English, quite a rare event for novel initially written in Korean. Under the ‘Raven Books’ banner, ‘Bloomsbury thinks that the book is … a page-turner…bestseller’ which will ‘launch the global career of the author’.

OLD GOD’S TIME

BY SEBASTIAN BARRY / ALLEN & UNWIN $32.99

After 40 years in the Garda, Detective Sergeant Tom Kettle has finally retired to a modest flat overlooking the Irish Sea at Dalkey (just south of Dublin). Now accustomed to the rhythms of his new sedate life, his often solitary existence is abruptly interrupted one wintry February afternoon. He is visited by two young detectives enquiring about a case Tom investigated ten years previously involving the mysterious death of a priest accused of pedophilia. As Tom begins to rack his memory he is pulled into its darkest recesses as he recalls his happy married days with now deceased wife June, together with recollections of his daughter, Winnie and son, Joe, now apparently a doctor in New Mexico. But just how reliable are Tom’s memories as he is yanked back decades to revisit the secrets of his life as a policeman? Nothing is quite as it seems as Kettle confronts his past as an orphan in a Catholic Church boy’s home where he was abused and traumatized. He recalls that on the night of his marriage, June discloses to him her own troubled past and ‘sorrowful revelations’ of childhood abuse and rape by a malevolent parish priest. In the hands of another author this ‘mothballed cop yanked back in to action’ scenario might have turned out just another mundane, humdrum thriller. But this is far from the case in the deft hands of award-winning Irish, novelist Barry who masterfully explores the deep chaos of Tom’s aching, perforated, and sometimes vengeful, soul as he confronts his own ghosts and those of his family. Unfolding through the medium of Kettle’s stream of consciousness, this is an exquisite novel of love, memory and grief with Barry pushing the language to conjure up eloquent, evocative sentences that dazzle, making it hard to put down this emphatic tale of family ties and delayed justice. Already the author of eight books and numerous plays, ‘Old God’s Time’ is a stunning offering by an Irish novelist right at the top of his game.

TRENCH COAT

BY JANE TYNAN / BLOOMSBURY $19.99

For me, the words ‘trench coat’ immediately conjures up images of Humphrey Bogart either as the laconic,

Book Reviews

cigarette smoking, Sam Spade in ‘The Maltese Falcon’, or portraying the noble Rick Blaine in ‘Casablanca’. But Bogart wasn’t the only one to popularize the attire in movies with Trevor Howard (‘The Third Man’), Marilyn Monroe (‘Let’s Make Love’), Michael Caine (“Get Carter’), Peter Sellars (‘The Pink Panther’) and Audrey Hepburn (‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’) being amongst those also sporting the garb on the silver screen. While the garment derives its name from the First World War, it was the indigenous peoples of the Amazon who first discovered that a milky substance derived from rubber trees could waterproof their footwear and capes. This technology was further refined and developed during the early 1820s by Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh who created a waterproof, double textured, fabric (the ‘k’ was later added to give coats a distinctive name). By the outbreak of WWI various English firms including Burberry and Aquascutum were producing coats which soon became popular amongst British officers in the myriad of trenches snaking across the muddy western front. Images of army manliness and courage appealed to patriotic citizens (both male and female) back in UK where sales blossomed, establishing the garment as a fashion item and one of Britain’s most enduring clothing icons. But the ubiquitous coat was to serve in another conflict – the Irish War of Independence. To compensate for their lack of resources against the British Crown forces, a sort of a ‘uniform’ was developed. The favourite garb of the ‘flying columns’ in the Irish countryside consisted of a ‘dark jacket, a collared shirt, riding breeches --- belted trench coat, and a soft cap’. The coat, besides being a suitable cover for concealed weapons, became ‘the battledress of the IRA’, before passing in to folklore in the popular rebel song, the ‘Broad Black Brimmer’:

It’s just a broad black brimmer

Its ribbons frayed and torn

By the carelessness of many’s the mountain breeze

An old trench coat that’s all battle-stained and worn

And britches almost threadbare at the knees…’

In this slim publication, Tynan recounts the development of the trench coat, its seductive entanglements with technology, popular mythology, film, literature, politics and war. The book is another engaging, thought-provoking paperback in Bloomsbury’s excellent ‘Object Lessons’ series which focuses on the hidden lives of ordinary things.

LOVE, PAMELA

BY PAMELA ANDERSON / HEADLINE $34.99

During the mid-1960s, as her alter-ego CJ Parker, Anderson rose to fame in ‘Baywatch’, a production destined to become the most widely viewed TV series in history. The show even had a ‘Pamela clause’ as international broadcasters (across 142 countries) were only interested in screening the episodes in which she starred. Now at 55, Anderson has decided to record the story of her life, and this is all her own work – no ghost writer involved. She chronicles her humble beginnings in Ladysmith, a depilated, coal-mining and fishing town on Vancouver Island, where she was born into a somewhat dysfunctional, but loving home. Mum was a sexually intoxicated waitress, while repair-man, and hot-rod fanatic, dad oscillated between bouts of affection and violence. Plucked from the crowd at a local ball game, Anderson became a Playboy bunny with an ensuing lucrative modeling career before scoring the ‘Baywatch’ role. Married six times, Anderson reveals her turbulent bond with first husband, and only really true love, Motley Cue drummer Tommy Lee, the father of her two sons (whom she adores). ‘The rest of my life, my relationships paled in comparison’, she states. In later years, Australian Julian Assange became the focus of her interest as she visited him both in the Ecuadorian Embassy and at London’s Belmarsh Prison. In a plea to have him released she contacted Scott Morrison with the then PM cringingly responding that ‘he’d love to meet me, if he could bring a few friends along’. While she documents her sexual encounters, famous colleagues, Hollywood adventures and career, it would be wrong to think of Anderson as merely a ‘sex symbol’, she is much more than this putting her lifelong celebrity to good use as activist for many worthy causes including breast cancer, the environment and especially animal welfare (she even managed to persuade Vladimir Putin to save 12 beluga whales). She recounts in candid, conversational style, her tumultuous and abusive relationships, sexual assaults, struggles with addiction, health issues, coping with breast cancer and of course the background to infamous Anderson-Lee sex tape. This is a forthright, sometimes sentimental, tale of a woman reclaiming her own identity while shrugging off those who have grown rich on her coat tails along the way. As a celebrity memoir, ‘Love, Pamela’ provides an insight into the life of a Hollywood icon, blending brisk, flowing prose with snippets of her original poetry.

Paula from Tasmania

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

A Prudent Keepsake

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

The Keepsake is a dual time novel by Julie Brooks which sees the main character travel from England to Samoa in a time (1832) that may not seem prudent for females to explore alone. ’Prudent’ is the word, in that the symbolically named, Prudence, is that woman traveller. The novel also recounts the story of Prudence’s relative Eliza, living in contemporary times and being the receiver of a treasured family book once belonging to Prudence. Protagonist Prudence in 1832 wants to go against conventions and be in control of her own life while her equivalent Eliza, the benefactor of Prudence’s book, discovers the somewhat unconventional life of Prudence Merryfield. The ‘Merryfield surname also tells a story in that it name itself hints at a less than merry life that Prudence is living and so her later mysterious disappearance may not be altogether unexpected, but which poses a mystery for the reader.

The author, Julie Brooks, told me when we chatted that she seeks to inform readers that women explorers like Prudence did exist in the form of the many female migrants of the time that came to Australia seeking a new life. On her time in Samoa Prudence was a female Robinson Crusoe but the author didn’t want to replicate what she calls ‘the slightly arrogant nature’ of Robinson Crusoe. Instead readers see a Prudence that does not allow her companion to do everything for her. The Keepsake by Julie Brooks is out now published by Hachette.

Twin Tales

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

Western Australian writer Kate Mcaffrey in her novel ‘Double Life’ looks at issues such as gender identity, acceptance, religious cults and how we apply a lens of truth to everything but how we also bend, shape and remove it or hide it so that the only reality is what we want to see.

The book was inspired by Kate’s time as a high school teacher and how she saw in the young people she was teaching a real ability to accept differences in people. Kate’s dad was from Arles, or Arless in County Laois in Ireland. Kate’s family, when they visited there, were surprised that the people remembered the Mcaffrey’s form Liverpool Street well, commenting that we ’know who you are’.

Double Life by Kate Mcaffrey is out now published by Echo Publishing.

Wo-maning the Newsroom

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

Kirsty Manning’s novel the Paris Mystery is a ‘cosy crime’ novel, Kirsty tells me when we chat, set in 1938, the last summer before war arrives. Our heroine is an Aussie girl Charlotte ‘Charlie’ James embarking on a correspondent Career in the City of Lights. Charlie is ambitious to get the scoop on her male colleagues and gets to know British expats Lord and Lady Ashworth who are very much the in crowd with parties and balls featuring everything from burlesque to circuses, tightrope walkers, jazz and the Bohemian scene.

The character of Charlie was based on a compost of real female journalists, including ABC Emmy winning Correspondent, Sara James, from whom she takes her surname, Louise Mack, the Australian war journalist born in Hobart and Martha Gellhorn, the world’s most famous war correspondent.

The Paris Mystery by Kirsty Manning is out now published by Allen and Unwin.

The following is the story of Conal Cearnach, the famous and renowned warrior of the Red Branch Knights in Ulster over 2,000 years ago. The ancient legends tell us that he was present with a group of Roman Centurion comrades to witness the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

‘Again the vision shifted and changed, and he saw himself the comrade of a band of centurions, who had journeyed over land and sea in peaceful wise to the populous cities of the East. It was afternoon of a certain day when they reached Jerusalem, the city of the Jews, a strange day and a fearful one, for the sun hung like a ball of fire in the heavens, and the air was filled with the noise of shouting men and the wailing of women.

Past the bare and brown synagogues the strangers went, following in the track of hurrying crowds that stayed not for question or reply, intent were they on the purpose that drew them onward. Here and there a group of women talked in whispers, pausing at sight of the Romans and the splendidlyclad chieftain of Uladh, whose like they had never gazed on before. For Conal Cearnach wore his wide-spreading scarlet cloak, fastened with a large brooch of gold, across his breast, and his ruddy hair fell down in many plaits to his broad shoulders, each plait being tied at the end by a string and tiny ball of gold. His short trimmed beard was as ruddy as his hair; his cheeks were like an apple when the sun hath kissed it, and his bright blue eyes, keenglancing, drew the eyes of all to look at him. And the Jewish women hushed their talk as he came up the way to marvel at his height and grandeur, and it was then that the centurions, seeking speech of them learned what had so disturbed the wonted customs of the city.

‘It is one whom they go to crucify on Golgotha,’ said the women. ‘A Man who hath called Himself the Son of God, and we know not if the deed they do be just or wise.’

‘What crime hath He done?’

‘Nay, no crime, unless crime it be to raise the dead to life, , or restore sight to the blind, or hearing to the deaf, or give strength to the lame and feeble, and comfort to the sad of heart. All this He hath done, for we have seen it; and there are many who have followed Him in the belief that He is the long-looked-for Messiah, whom the prophets have foretold.’

‘And is it for this the Jews have given Him to death?’

‘Yea’, answered the women, ‘and because that He hath spoken to the Kingdom of His Father and of Himself as King of the Jews.’

‘Then He deserves death for that saying,’ cried the Centurions, ‘for Caesar , and Caesar alone, is your king. We go to see him die. What name hath He?’

‘Jesus of Nazareth’

Up the steep stony road that led to Calvary Conal Cearnach went with his Roman companions. Here and there he noted drops of blood upon the pathway, as they hastened onward with such speed that the crowds gave way before them, and the little black-eyed Jewish children drew aside from their course in terror. Once they stopped before a weeping woman , shrouded in a long dark cloak, across whose knees as she sat was stretched a blood-stained towel, upon which her tears fell thick as rain, and over which many people were bending. Then they saw that the towel bore the impress in lines of blood of a most sad and weary face – ‘the face of Him who is being crucified,’ said a bystander, in answer to their looks of wonder. ‘This woman wiped the sweat from His brow as He passed by, and his face is here as a memento of Him whom Pilate hath called ‘that just Man.’

Into the soul of Conal the hot anger came rushing as he broke away from the centurions and sped like a blast of wind towards the mount where the people had assembled. One thought filled his mind, ‘shall I be nigh and witness the torture of this Man, whose only crime hath been the good that He hath done? Nay, it were not known in Emania (Ireland) that many should fall upon one; it is the trial of single combat we give even to our enemies. I shall be His champion to the death if He will take me for such.’

Yet, alas, and alas, it was a bleeding and dying Christ that hung upon the cross When the Chieftain of Dunseverick drew near and stood beneath. And as he gazed in horror at the dastard deed, a soldier coming up in haste pierced the victim’s side with a spear so that the blood shot forth and trickled down the rough wood upon which they had nailed Him. And a drop touched the brow of Conal Cearnach before he knew, and the fury left him for a marvellous and unwonted peace while he watched the Saviour die. Then rocks were rent and graves opened, so that the dead came forth in their cerements in that most awful hour; and lightning flashed from the black thick clouds that had suddenly covered the sky, and all was dread and unearthly, so that the people shrieked and crouched upon the ground repentant and very afraid.

‘It was indeed a God who died,’ said the chieftain sadly and slowly, ‘this cruel and untimely death. My grief, oh, my bitter grief, that the Red Branch Knights are afar, else a sure and fierce revenge would overtake the murderers of Jesus of Nazareth, their city should be levelled and their name effaced had the chivalry of Uladh been here this day with sword and skian and blueblack lance to hold the battle straight with me.’ This was the memory that Conal Cearnach dwelt upon the night he returned through storm and darkness, after many wanderings, to his Caiseal of Dunseverick on the bleak sea-swept Northern coast of Ulster.

Australian Irish Dancing Association Inc.

In March, members of AIDA WA celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day with multiple displays of dancing across Perth. It was marvellous to celebrate with one another after years of cancelled events and social distancing. We then began our feis season with the AIDA WA Blackout Feis taking place in the last weekend of March. Congratulations to all the dancers who competed, especially our first timers who were wonderful on stage.

In April Western Australia were lucky enough to have 29 dancers compete at the CLRG Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne (World Irish Dancing Championships) held in Montreal, Canada. Congratulations to each and every one of these dancers for representing WA at such a prestigious event, with a fantastic display of dancing shown throughout the week. We saw great success with 12 dancers receiving world recall medals, six of whom were successful in advancing through to the final round and placing overall.

Congratulations to:

Vaughan Cooper, WA Academy – 3rd Place Mens 18 Years

Joel Brooker, Kavanagh Studio – 11th Place Mens 18 Years

Tara Collis, Celtic Academy – 23rd Place Ladies 20-21

Dara McAleer, The Academy – 3rd Place Senior Ladies O23

Shannon Kennedy, Kavanagh Studio – 22nd Place Senior Ladies O23

Caitlin Bone, The Academy – 28th Place Senior Ladies O23 Special congratulations also to Dara McAleer (The Academy) for winning the inaugural Michael Flatley Freestyle Competition.

AIDA WA is now looking forward to our upcoming Feisanna, with the Sweets of May Feis coming up on 6th & 7th of May and the Mrs McGowan Memorial Feis on 24th & 25th of June. We wish all dancers the best of luck and look forward to further success throughout the year.

WA Academy: Vaughan Cooper

Brittany Pymm - WA Academy and Tara CollisCeltic Academy

Dara McAleer - Michael Flatley Freestyle Champion

Tara Collis, Dara McAleer, Caitlin Bone and Shannon Kennedy

The Academy: Dara McAleer

Trinity Studio: Georgia Western, Faye Conway, Isobel Ashely, Stella Ashley and Blythe Garry

Kavanagh Studio: Hayley Brooker, Molly Stenning Alexander,Nova Rooney, Ashleigh Hugo and Niamh Glynn

Irish Dancing

AIDA WA EXECUTIVE 2023

President: Teresa Fenton TCRG

Vice Presidents: Katherine Travers TCRG & Eileen Ashley ADCRG

Secretary: Shannen Krupa TCRG

Treasurer: Martina O’Brien TCRG

Registrar: Jenny O’Hare TCRG

WA Delegate: Caitriona Slane TCRG

SCHOOL CONTACTS:

CELTIC ACADEMY

East Victoria Park

www.celticacadmeyperth.com

Siobhan Collis TCRG 0403 211 941

KAVANAGH STUDIO OF IRISH DANCE

Mt Hawthorn

www.kavanaghirishdance.com.au

Teresa Fenton TCRG 0412 155 318

Deirdre McGorry TCRG

Avril Grealish TCRG

O’BRIEN ACADEMY

Joondalup www.obrienacademy.com

Rose O’Brien ADCRG 0437 002 355

Martina O’Brien TCRG 0423 932 866

O’HARE SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCING

Doubleview, Wembley Downs & Craigie

Jenny O’Hare TCRG 0422 273 596 SCOIL RINCE NI BHAIRD

The Academy: Koral Smith, Caoimhe McAleer, Ciara Stobbie & Medbh Flanagan

The Academy: Layla Barnes and Sahara Donelan

O’Hare School: Niamh Leahy and Aislinn Healy

Kavanagh Studio: Shannon Kennedy, Joel Brooker, Sasha Brown, Lene Brady and Zoe Cahoon

MID AMERICA & WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Kalamunda & Bicton

McAleer TCRG

McCarthy TCRG 0437 073 744

Caitriona Slane TCRG

TRINITY STUDIO OF IRISH DANCING Morley, Midland & South Lake trinitystudiowa@gmail.com

Eileen Ashley ADCRG 0413 511 595

The Academy: Caitlin Bone and Sinead Daly

Minister for Emergency Services; Innovation and ICT; Medical Research; 12th Floor, Dumas House

2 Havelock Street, WEST PERTH WA 6005

Email: Minister.Dawson@dpc.wa.gov.au

Telephone: (08) 6552-5800

Katherine Travers TCRG

Nell Taylor TCRG

Siân Fitzgerald-Cain TCRG

Taryn Owen TCRG

WA ACADEMY OF IRISH DANCING

Malaga www.waacademyofirishdancing.com

Shannen Krupa TCRG

Stephanie Leeder TCRG

Glenalee Bromilow ADCRG

Sue Hayes TMRF

Stephen Dawson MLC

Mates swing into action for great cause

Recently MATES in Construction WA were supported through a charity golf day organised by Rocksteady Electrical, and what a day it was! This golf day was an opportunity for construction industry workers and business owners to come together for a fun day out on the green while supporting suicide prevention within the industry. MATES in Construction WA is a bipartisan non-profit

organisation formed to reduce the level of suicide and improve the mental health and wellbeing of workers in the Western Australian building and construction industry. Construction workers are six times more likely to die from suicide than an accident at work. MATES provides suicide prevention through community development programs on sites, and by supporting workers in need through case management and a 24/7 helpline – 1300 642 111.With over 275,000 people trained nationally in the MATES General Awareness Training, MATES continue in their mission to reduce the high suicide rates within the construction, mining and energy industries. The MATES team attended the golf day for MATES and would like to thank Ben O’Sullivan, Peter Mckenna, as well as the event sponsors for organising such a fantastic day. Raising $7,000 for MATES in Construction WA means we can continue to support workers and their families who are not travelling well.

A Tribute to Mark Sheehan of The Script

BY JONATHAN, MIKE, AND EMMETT BOWEN

The news over the weekend of the tragic passing of The Scripts guitarist Mark Sheehan aged 46 has hit all fans and staff at the Irish Examiner USA hard. The Irish Examiner USA has been covering The Script since 2001 and Mark was more than just a musician, we knew he had become part of our publican’s family.

Mark was born back in 1976 in Mount Brown in the Liberties area of Dublin. Mark was an incredible guitarist, his energy on stage was electric and he had such a positive attitude to life! He was a person who in my opinion seemed to have life figured out. He loved his wife and children first; he also loved the music he created with Danny and Glen, and he had an incredible passion for The Script fans. He was under no illusion that The Script fans were the reason he was able to do what he said was the best job in the world.

We have many stories about Mark from our times of catching up over the years. One on my favourite stories was the one he told us about his beloved Gibson Les Paul. Les Paul’s were Mark’s go to guitar for creating The Scripts sound. He used to say it was a B*&%H to keep in tune and the neck constantly moved on it but the sound it created was like nothing else going around!

Mark got his start in music in a Dublin band called Mytown back in 1996. The band was never given the opportunity to make to its mark in the charts and by the end of 2000 Mytown had fizzled out. Mark was joined in the band by Danny O’Donoghue and together would go onto create the band The Script along with Glen. Mark was a songwriter from the start and together with Danny wrote many of The Scripts major hits. Mark’s relationship and marriage to wife Rina was the inspiration behind The Scripts No #1 album Science and Faith. Mark commented that the chorus from the album’s title song he wrote almost verbatim based on a conversation he had with his wife.

You won’t find faith or hope down a telescope

You won’t find heart and soul in the stars

You can break everything, down to chemicals

But you can’t explain a love like ours

Mark was a very private man away from The Script. When he took a break from the band

in early in 2022 fans were concerned that he would not return to the group. At the time he was quoted as saying “I need a break from the band as my wife needs a husband and my kids need a father” He returned to The Script briefly to record a new song in 2022 called Dare you to Dream. Readers will recall my interview with Danny which talks about the song’s recording process and how the music video was filmed for it.

Mark’s contribution to The Script can never be underestimated. The Script would go onto sell more than twenty million albums worldwide and would enter the records books as a co-songwriter with Danny when their worldwide hit song Hall of Fame would go onto have over one billion streams on Spotify. Mark was survived by his wife Rina, and children Cameron, Avery and Lil. Rest in Peace Mark xx Slainte From Mike, Jonathan and Emmett Bowen in Melbourne.

The 2023 State League season is now well underway. After 4 rounds, our 3 State League teams are still unbeaten.

Our first team made it 4 wins from 4 with a 2-1 victory over home side Joondalup City FC. An early first half goal from Phil O’Callaghan put the boys ahead before City equalised a short time later. A foul on Dylan McCann in the second saw the ref point to the spot with Alan Reidy putting it away. A couple of junior players have debuted for the First team recently, Charlie Gooch and Kieren Smith: It was a goalless first half for the Reserves before young Griffin Sture came off the bench in the second and scored a hat trick within 10 minutes. City came back scoring 2 making for a nerve-wracking end to the game but a win nonetheless. This takes the Reserves to 3 wins and a draw so far.

And our 18s had a hard-fought game, coming away with the draw at 2-2. Both goals from an on-form Sam Lawless. So the 18s also have 3 wins and a draw so far.

A great start to the season for all of our players and coaches. Long may this continue!

Follow us on Facebook for lots more information, news and photos!

A massive thank you to our major sponsors for the upcoming year:

• Gay Collins, Pipeline Technics

• Declan McDermott, Integrity Property solutions

• Dave Madman Muir, Madman Motors

• Chris Williams, Muscleworx group, and

• Frankie Atkinson, Muntz partners

Special thanks to Nicky Edwards for his ongoing work in getting sponsors on board. Thanks also to our banner sponsors and various teamwear sponsors, several of whom have been with us for a number of years now.

And always remembering the hardworking volunteers and committee members.

If you are interested in getting involved with your local club in any capacity – coach, volunteer, committee member – please contact us at CSRFC2020@gmail.com

DO YOU NEED PROPERTY MAINTENANCE?

Winners of the Claddagh Cup on St Patrick’s Day at Maylands Golf Complex were Kieran Sweeney and Martin Price. Runners up on the day taking out the Charlotte Cup were Scott Twigen and Owen Donaghy. Every-one enjoyed the good weather and our fundraising went well with $10,000.00 raised, split 50/50 between The Charlotte Foundation and The Claddagh Association.

20 23

GAAWA

Camogie/Hurling Clubs:

Perth Shamrocks (Hurling) - perthshamrocks@gmail.com

Sarsfield’s (Hurling) - sarshurlingperth@gmail.com

St. Gabriel’s (Camogie & Hurling)

- stgabrielsperth@gmail.com

Western Swans (Camogie & Hurling)

- westernswansgaa@gmail.com

Gaelic Football Clubs:

Greenwood GFC - greenwoodgfc@hotmail.com

Morley Gaels - morleygaelsgfc@hotmail.com

Na Fianna Catalpa GAA – nafiannacatalpagaa@gmail.com

Southern Districts - southerndistrictsgaa@gmail.com

St. Finbars GFC - stfinbarrsgfc@outlook.com

The Junior Academy - ggjunioracademy@gmail.com

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 club directly (See above)

• 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

GAAWA CLUB DETAILS

FOOTBALL CLUBS

GREENWOOD

Mens & Ladies Senior Football greenwoodgfc@hotmail.com

MORLEY GAELS

Mens & Ladies Senior Football morleygaelsgfc@hotmail.com

SOUTHERN DISTRICTS

Mens & Ladies Senior Football southerndistrictsgaa@gmail.com

ST. FINBARR’S

Mens & Ladies Senior Football stfinbarrsgfc@outlook.com

WESTERN SHAMROCKS

Mens & Ladies Senior Football westernshamrocks@hotmail.com

HURLING CLUBS

ST. GABRIEL’S

Mens & Ladies Senior Hurling & Camogie stgabrielsperth@gmail.com

WESTERN SWANS

Mens & Ladies Senior Hurling & Camogie westernswansgaa@gmail.com

PERTH SHAMROCKS

Mens Senior Hurling perthshamrocks@gmail.com

SARSFIELDS

Mens Senior Hurling sarshurlingperth@gmail.com

GAA GROUNDS

Tom Bateman Reserve Corner Bannister & Nicholson Rds (entrance off Wilfred Rd)

Canning Vale