2019 Irish Scene July-Aug Edition

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SCENE

vol 21, no 5

JULY/AUGUST 2019

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IRISH

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Sisters Erin and Maeve Carroll perform a beautiful piece of Irish traditional dance in front of the “An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger)” memorial in Subiaco

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Page Index

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¤10,000 Potentially Up For Grabs...........................81 Around the Irish Scene...............................................80 Australian Memiors of an Irish Patriot................... 52 Australian Irish Heritage Assoc................................ 31 Australian Irish Dancing Assoc................................66 Building Better Links with the Diaspora.................27 Breakfast Show Toasts Radio Host...........................18 Can Ireland Win The World Cup?...........................86 Chance Meeting in Darwin........................................85 Ciara Glennon Scholarship......................................... 15 Claddagh Report...........................................................70 Colonel John Bruce, Part 2.........................................42 Comhaltas Perth.............................................................53 Creative Juices................................................................68 Fresh Frontier Co............................................................58 Family History WA.......................................................82 Famine Commemoration................................................4 G’Day from Melbourne................................................48 GAA Junior Academy.................................................90 GAAWA...........................................................................88 Ghost Towns & Graveyards........................................ 22 Glory Days.......................................................................84 A Great Trip ‘Home’.........................................................9 The Homecoming of Martin O’Meara’s VC..........50 Interesting Facts about Ireland..................................72 Ireland’s First Farmers..................................................34 Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce................. 13 Irish Medical Students.................................................40 Irish Golf Club................................................................. 87 Irish Screen and Stage.................................................74 Irish Recipes from Marguerite’s Cookbook............73 Irish Scene is Your Vocal Local.................................. 12 Irish Theatre Players.....................................................55 Isteach sa Teach............................................................36 It’s Oval & Out for Subi...............................................56 Land of Milk and Honey.............................................45 Matters of Pub-lic Interest!......................................... 62 Meeja WAtch.................................................................20 Minute with Synnott.....................................................54 NexiaCorp.........................................................................47 Oliver On Radio VCA Airwaves 12 Months.........30 Paula from Tasmania.....................................................78 RMS Tayleur.....................................................................16 Rose of Tralee..................................................................14 Shamrock Rovers...........................................................91 A Surprise Send-off 20 Years in the Making..........6 Swim Your Way To Human Excellence..................29 Thank You For This Life!..............................................32 Ulster Rambles...............................................................60 Vale Brian McCrory......................................................30 Vibe Legal.......................................................................65

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Entertainment: 76 Fiddlestick............................................ David 0413 259 547 Fiona Rea Music.............................................0404 831 445

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Immigration advice: 81 EasiVisa................................Carol-Ann Lynch 9429 8860

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Pubs, Clubs & restaurants: Albion Hotel...........................................................9384 0021 Celtic Club, West Perth........................................9322 2299 26 Durty Nelly’s, Perth.............................................. 9226 0233 Fenian’s/Novotel....................................................9425 1634 Five 6 Eight..............................................................9325 4341 28 Galway Hooker

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Email irishsceneperth@gmail.com Lloyd Gorman 0479 047 250 Email irishsceneperth@gmail.com Canal Bank Media Caris Grant

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by contributors in articles, reproduced articles, advertisements or any other printed material contained in Irish Scene magazine or on www.irishscene.com.au are those of the individual contributors or authors and as such are not necessarily those of Gaelforce Promotions. The publisher and editor reserve the right to accept, reject, edit or amend submitted material in order to make it appropriate or suitable for publication. Irish Scene welcomes submissions, ideas and suggestions for articles and features as well as photographs of events happening around and within the Irish community in Western Australia.

THE IRISH SCENE | 3

Famine

Sisters Erin and Maeve Carroll then performed a beautiful piece of Irish traditional dance in front of the memorial (pictured front cover).

“Today, again, we commemorate the Famine and this memorial is dedicated to the young girls - not much older those these dancers if you add their two ages together - who came to Western Australia starting in 1853 and throughout the 1850’s and came out from Work Houses in Ireland. This is what the memorial is about”, said Fred Rea, Chair of the WA Irish Famine Commemoration Committee.

Commemoration

BY LLOYD GORMAN An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger) memorial in Subiaco was the focal point for the first international commemoration of the Great Irish Famine on Sunday 19th May. It was also the second annual commemoration at the WA Irish Famine Commemoration in Subiaco.

Up to sixty members of the Irish and WA communities turned out for the ceremony, with Tom Murphy as MC.

“In memory of those who died in the Irish Famine, grant eternal rest to them, as we remember them, let us never forget those who continue to die of hunger in the world today. We remember those who were forced to leave our country in search of food and security, open our hearts to those who come to our land in need. God of justice, to those who experience hunger give food and to those of us who have food grant a hunger for justice.”

Fred said he would be in Ireland in June. “I’m hoping to set up the making of another Travel Box in Arbour Hill Prison to continue the project of having these Travel Boxes dedicated to these young women who came out from Ireland. We are also planning to produce a brochure so it can be placed in venues around town so people can understand the significance of this memorial and what its all about. Unfortunately there was a plan to put in an interpretative panel, but it did not pass the council situation. We are also planning to have a ‘Friends of the Memorial’, we’re working on it and we are hoping people will help us going forward to remember all those girls who came out from Ireland during the Famine.”

Heather Henderson - who as mayor of Subiaco joined President Michael D Higgins for the memorial’s dedication in October 2017 - and former Subiaco mayor and child migrant Tony Costa jointly laid the first wreath. They were followed by Gerry McGough President of GAA WA and Eimear Beattie (Co-founder of Irish Families in Perth). Everyone in attendance was invited to lay a flower at the memorial.

Fred said special thanks was due to some people. Frank Smyth hand laid every tile and detail in the memorial. “Each letter you see there is an individual letter, some are of different thicknesses. Frank did a dry run of it thanks to the Colgan Group in Greenwood and then spent weeks down here putting the memorial together, totally free of charge, he did not charge

“This beautiful memorial was brought to life by our talented sculptors, Charlie Smith and Joan Walsh Smith,” said Tom who asked Joan to read the pray for famine victims.

THE IRISH SCENE | 4

one cent. You are a great friend of the famine memorial. He also came down here yesterday with a scrubbing brush and he cleaned the memorial for today. He’s even christened this memorial Bridget O’Brien, because there was a lady from Galway of that name. Frank is originally a Galway man himself.

The reason Frank did this is some years ago I was up in Kings Park with a friend of mine and Frank was up there and he just doesn’t do things like this without some emotion. He was taking down the war memorial, block by block, which he did, and he put it all up together, which he did.

He never looked once at the plans I believe, but don’t tell anybody that,” Fred joked. “He’s an absolute genus, a gifted man, we are so lucky we have people like Frank in our community.”

Fred Rea

Tom Murphy

Joan Walsh Smith

Fred also paid tribute to Joan Walsh Smith and Charlie Smith. “We went to them many years ago with this idea of a famine memorial, we were never going to go anywhere else for this memorial. For those of you who don’t know it, the most visited memorial in Australia in the HMAS Sydney in Geraldton. It was designed and created by Charlie and Joan. They also create the Onslow War Memorial in the North West, the John Curtin Memorial in Fremantle to name a few, and they are working on a piece called “The Lock Hospital Tragedy Memorial” in Carnarvon. There was one in Dublin and one here. They are dedicated sculptors and designers and WESTE N the legacy they are leaving to AUSTRALRIA N this country is unbelievable.”

IRISH FAM MEMORIAINE L DEDIC In the run preparation for the memorial being installed and unveiled by President of Ireland - there were meetings after meetings.

“The driving force during all that was Peter McKenna.”

Peter presented Charlie and Joan - who hail from Waterford - with a framed letter from President Higgins, “so they can remember what they did for us, and the Irish community.”

ATION PRO

GRAM

THE GREA T HUNGER Monday 9 Oct

ober 2017 Market Square, Subiaco

Joan said thy were overwhelmed and that it was the most incredible honour and opportunity for them as sculptors.

“Its goes some way towards the disappointment we had when the memorial was dedicated,” said Charlie. “By sheer bad luck both of us were struck down with pneumonia and we never did get to, despite all our efforts, to meet the Irish president. So this is very special to have in our house and to remember that extraordinary occasion.”

“The third Sunday of May has been designated Irish Famine Memorial day and every year now in this place we will commemorate it....”

Fred said he hoped that younger people would become involved with the committee. “The third Sunday of May has been designated Irish Famine Memorial day and every year now in this place we will commemorate it. Thank you.”

www.waifc.org

A global appetite for change World Hunger Day fell on May 28, 2019, with this years focus being on sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty. More than 821 million people in the world do not have enough to eat.

World Hunger Day is an initiative of The Hunger Project. The Hunger Project is a global, nonprofit, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. Their vision is a world where every woman, man and child leads a healthy, fulfilling life of self-reliance and dignity.

“Our mission is to end hunger and poverty by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, womencentered strategies and advocating for their widespread adoption in countries throughout the world.”

www.worldhungerday.org THE IRISH SCENE | 5

BY LLOYD GORMAN For more than 20 years Fred Rea of the Irish Scene magazine has been showing up at countless events of Irish interest in Perth and further afield. He has photographed numerous smiling faces at Irish Race Days, Rose of Tralee balls, GAA games and championships, official visits by dignitaries, table quizzes, pubs and clubs, gigs and theatrical performances, launches, historical commemorations, charity and community group events, St Patrick’s Day parades and masses. But when he walked into Durty Nelly’s pub on May 25 expecting to hear his daughter Fiona signing at the venue where she regularly plays, it was a first for him. Friends and family threw a surprise party to celebrate his and wife Lilly’s long association with the Irish Scene and their decision to retire as the magazines publishers. They walked into a trap, set for them largely by Fiona and son Stephen. A loud cheer went up as Fred and Lilly with some of their family walked into the main bar area of the Shafto Lane venue, which had been decorated in Irish Scene posters and plenty of back copies for the occasion.

Once the dust had settled it was time for the obligatory speeches. Lloyd Gorman, who takes over as editor and publisher, said he had been lucky to be associated with the Irish Scene for ten years. “I’m sure there’s been times over those years that Fred would probably like to have pulled out my hair - rather than what’s left of his own - but by and large I think we worked well together,” he joked. “And Fred helped me to improve myself along the way. But I’ve also worked at the pointy end of the process, proof reading and correcting mistakes and typos with Lilly, and I always enjoyed our little discussions and brain storming sessions and I thank you for your enduring patience and grace. Lilly, like my wife Imelda, is the secret weapon behind the scenes that makes it work.” Lloyd thanked them on behalf of all the contributors and advertisers and everyone else associated with the magazine. He presented Fred with a copy of the

A suRprise send off Twenty-one years in the making first Irish Scene and the last May/ June edition published under his stewardship, carefully framed by his son Stephen.

As a young man and new arrival to Perth, Fred worked for the Government Print and played folk music for a while before returning to Ireland to teach printing. “I came back from Ireland and I was lucky enough to meet Lilly and she’s been my strength because everything I’ve ever got involved in, she’s supported me all the way,” he said.

They had a printing business here in Perth for 20 years. “When I got out of the printing business, I got to fifty and I decided to do something and along with my good friend Joe Crozier (whose widow could not attend the party) we started this Irish Scene magazine and it took over our lives.

About a year ago I started getting itchy feet - I think its a 20 year thing - and started winding down and I decided to hand it onto someone who had been involved with me, as Joe handed it over to me, I handed it over to Lloyd and Imelda. Its not about me and Lilly anymore, we can just go off into the sunset, but we’ll support them. They’ve got young kids and they need support, the support of the

THE IRISH SCENE | 6

Irish community, big time, whether its financial, taking out subscriptions or whatever it is. There’s a good chance we could lose that magazine if they don’t get that support. Its important to get the support of the Irish community, that goes for the Irish Club and everything in the Irish community. If we don’t support these things we lose them and when they’re gone we wonder what happened.”

Fred said it had been a wonderful journey with the magazine and life in Australia. “I’m trained to be a compositor, when I started working I worked in lead, I go back before fax machines,” he joked. Lilly said their fax machine had cost them $3500 dollars and they had recently thrown it out.

A few days later Fred and Lilly would be travelling to Ireland. “I go back to the old days of serving my time and next week I go back to the scene of the crime where I served my seven year apprenticeship, as a printers devil. Lilly comes too, which is lovely because we are a team. It’ll be lovely to go back and walk through the streets of Cork where I lived, that’s what I like to do, more than

anything. I’ve had a fortunate live and a beautiful wife and beautiful children.”

football in the ‘top field’ which means he never got to play the creme de la creme of soccer.”

This trip to Ireland will be special and different because while they are there their son Michael, who has been in America, will fly in and meet them. “Michael’s decided that after me being in Australia for so long he’s going the other way to live in Ireland.

We’ve also been blessed in the last 12 months with a lovely grandson Cohen Frederick. I’ve had a fortunate life, I’ve never been happier, good luck to Lloyd and to all of you in your life and hopefully it’ll be as good as I’ve had it.”

“Not many people know Fred was instrumental in my appointment as Honorary Consulate. When the ambassador was looking around at some people Fred and Gerry O’Leary were responsible for putting the idea in his head.”

Honorary Consulate Marty Kavanagh, friend and fellow Cork man spoke next, and warmly. “Fred is the very epitome of what it is to be a Corkman, which is a love of talking, a love of knowledge, a love of stories and a love of our culture. You remind me very much of my own father, who had a fascination for all things. He wasn’t an educated man but very much in the Cork tradition of inquisitive minds. When I think of Fred he’s a very good ball hopper - for anyone not from Cork, that means playing tricks on people and telling stories.

He’s a bit of a ‘head the ball’, which translates as a bit crazy sometimes and I understand he never played

Fred’s contribution was significant and his achievements many, Marty said. “The kind of things you have done are important things,” he said.

“The Famine Memorial, for example, celebrating the lives of people forgotten by history. But I know despite your music and everything you do, you are a shy man and don’t like the spotlight yourselves. But you have helped so many people, you and Lilly.

You do it quietly and I know about it only because of the circumstances.

You’ve helped many an unfortunate person. And with this magazine you’ve also reminded us of the important things, of our culture, who were are, that we are Irish and

THE IRISH SCENE | 7

are proud of it but that we are also a part of this great country that has been so good to all of us. Lilly and Fred you are a fantastic couple and you are an inspiration to all of us, just look at your kids and the great life you’ve led together, so enjoy the fruits of your hard work. So on behalf of the Irish community in Perth I thank you both, you’re great and I wish you every happiness. You are a couple we can all be very, very proud of and the work you’ve done.”

Editor - Such is the spans of their contribution that there will be more to say about Fred and Lilly in upcoming editions of Irish Scene! But for now, I offer my thanks and the thanks of many to two people who are the greatest of friends.

See over for more photos from the party!

A suRprise send off Twenty-one years in the making

THE IRISH SCENE | 8

A great trip ‘home’

BY FRED REA In the words of Eric Bogle’s song ‘Shelter’ “But now my view has shifted, and I think I’ve just come home”. As our plane headed over Rottnest it was a strange feeling of “coming home”. Many immigrants returning to the Australia, having lived here for many years, fight with this emotion.

There was a mini market going on and yours truly sampled the local oysters, yum!

My good friend John Spillane was appearing in the famous De Barra’s in Clonakilty, West Cork and as John would say “So far so good” it was a must for This trip to Ireland him and his father in Kilkenny. Peter me as it was on with Lilly was was in Perth only weeks earlier at a special as it was an my wish list. John commemoration service for his late opportunity to catch was at his best and grand uncle John Dwyer in Karrakatta up with friends, his Ballyphehane Cemetery. It was there we also met especially those who song was a beauty. have visited us in Patrick Healy a descendant of the late John’s working of Australia over the Bishop (Big Bob) Healy. I had visited the audience years. and the continued on page 10 stories While in Kerry we met the legendary Top: Oysters in Kinsale. Above: John Spillane behind his ‘Kingdom’ footballer performing in Cork songs made and holder of many the evening All Irelands football titles, Donie one of the best of our trip.

Sullivan and his wife. Over afternoon Following our week in Cork, tea, organised by John O’Leary we Dublin called, and we were on shared many stories of Donie’s visit to our way in a hire car. On the Australia some years ago. way we fulfilled a promise to In Cork we met another group of Peter Dwyer that we would visit Patrick Healy, John Dwyer & his father friends at Franciscan Well Brewery.

It was also an opportunity to meet old neighbours. The brewery was where I served my apprenticeship when the premises was a printing factory. Again, many stories shared, PERTH CITY Twice Winner “WA Tyrepower Dealer Of The Year” and memories recalled followed by a few songs.

Lilly and I spent a week in my native Cork at an Air B&B and it proved a good choice. It was close to the city centre and no need for a car, shanks pony and the odd bus or train.

Our train journey took us to Cobh and a visit to Spike Island, once a place of sadness for many Irish who were transported to Australia. The Island is now a major tourist attraction and the guided tour was excellent, finding out more of the history of the place, well worth a visit.

A bus took us to Kinsale, walk around the old town and a wonderful lunch.

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continued from page 9

Fred & Michael in Cork

his cousin Kath Joynes (nee Healy) in Osborne Park a few weeks earlier and handed over an Irish Scene magazine with the story of the Kilkenny connection to Osborne Park.

We stayed overnight in Mountmellick with Ann and Liam Dowling and Liam kindly Lilly and Liam Dowling took us to an at the Gap amazing place called ‘The Cut’ where one sees as many as eight counties from its top.

Above: Fred and Lilly take a ride!

Right: Lilly and Dave McGilton include sash-style windows, pavilions, a balustrade, a hipped roof, and large dome. Amazing grounds and Liam told us the story of its restoration by an English banker.

I could not help but think of such affluence when so many outside its walls suffered during the great hunger.

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk to Emo Court, a large neo-classical mansion located near the village of Emo in County Laois.

Architectural features of the building Kieran Garvey, Lilly, Michael and Fred in Galway

The following morning, we met our son Michael at Dublin Airport.

He had been travelling in the USA and

decided to check out Ireland and the UK for work. We stayed that night with Valerie and Andy Kavanagh, wonderful friends, and had a great evening.

Galway was to be our next stop, with Michael this time, and what a vibrant city. I always say Galway is where Ireland comes alive. Our B&B was a few hundred yards from the Eyre Square and an opportunity to have a pint (or two) with Kieran Garvey.

Kieran brilliantly acted the role of Martin O’Meara in Noel O’Neill’s play ‘Under Any Old Gum Tree’. Irish Pub, Tig Coili, not far from Eyre Square was a fitting meeting place and a good choice by Kieran. Again, memories

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our last weekend. These days, no visit to Ireland would be complete without lunch with Peter St John at his favourite watering hole.

Pete has had a few health issues but he is on the mend and was very enthusiastic about his Speaking of song ‘Waltzing on Borrowed O’Meara, we met Time’. Pete has asked that I Dave McGilton in introduce the song to Australia Cork who wrote and New Zealand audiences, a song dedicated this I will be doing in the near to Martin. We future. The song is to do with paid our respects what we are doing to our world by visiting Dave’s and the environment. Pete is a mothers grave very private man and we were near Ballincollig privileged to be and also in the company visited of the writer of legendary ‘The Fields of blues Athenry’. That guitarist, evening, Lilly Rory and I celebrated Gallagher’s our 44th grave in anniversary the same in Dublin’s cemetery.

Temple Bar with It was time Top: Fred at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. friends. The to head Above: Fred, Pete St John and Lilly restaurant was back to La Caverna and Cork and for our son Michael to meet was a great choice by our hosts. his Irish family. We had a great feed in the Ovens Bar just outside Ballincollig Thanks to Tourism Ireland we stayed in the Trinity City Hotel in Pearce and in the evening went to an Irish Street for two nights.

Session in the city. I heard an awful were shared, and I have a feeling that Kieran and his family might return to Australia! Great craic and the pint of Guinness was the best I had in Ireland.

racket coming from next door and who was it, none other than Mr Blues guitar himself, Gerry Quigley, playing as well as ever.

It was time to return to Dublin for

commentary was very entertaining although the driver had a slight bias in his comments, he was brilliant. A visit to the GPO is a must and the 1916 exhibition and display. I must say, Dublin is starting to grow on me, and that is coming from a Corkman. It’s a vibrant city with lots of young tourists and the quality of the buskers’ music in Grafton Street is amazing.

Our last night in Dublin was with Mark O’Brien’s family. Mark is responsible for the Travel Boxes used by the WA Famine Commemoration committee for our many events in Western Australia wide. I put in place plans for another Travel Box in the coming year and we hope to present this one in Geraldton, where some of the bride ship girls ended up.

These were some of the highlights of our visit to Ireland. Galway was excellent and on my next visit, more time on Spike Island will be a must for me.

We took the Hop On Hop Off Tour Dublin Bus the following day and I highly recommend this way of seeing Dublin. We stopped off at many of the landmarks on the tour including the Guinness Stonehouse.

It’s the only way to see Dublin and the

Lilly with Carmel and Shane O’Brien. Right: Fred and Jim O’Sullivan

Left: Celebrating our 44th anniversary Below inset: Spike Island.

Bottom: Ballycotten

THE IRISH SCENE | 11

Irish Scene

is your vocal local Perth and Western Australia are blessed with an amazing Irish community, and we in turn are lucky to be here in this place. The number of Irish groups - sporting, cultural, theatrical, charitable, musical, historical, social, religious - in WA is counted in double digits. There are many Irish pubs across the metropolitan area and beyond as well as traditional member based venues such as the Celtic Club and Irish Club.

On Anzac Day each year the Irish tricolour is proudly flown alongside the Australian and New Zealand flags in Subiaco as a large contingent of Irish representatives take their part in the parade and pay their respects.

Thanks to the revival of the St. Patrick’s Day parade and festival the Irish and broader Perth community have an incredible opportunity to gather and bond.

The Irish have history and heritage dating back to the first days of WA as a colony, and in the Eastern states even before that. Some families can trace their ancestry back to those early days while others have in more recent decades put down roots here.

Waves of younger Irish have washed up here in more recent years, with some being pulled back to Ireland and others staying. Some swap where they live, sharing their lives between Ireland and WA. There is always the ebb and flow of family and friends and other visitors and special guests.

Everywhere you look and go you will find Irish people running their own businesses or as employees, all contributing to the economy and society as best they can. Touring Irish acts, stand up comedians and performers of all kinds are a great way to ‘top up’ one’s Irish quota and generally go down well with WA audiences. Sadly, there are times of tragedy and mourning. On very rare

and special occasions an Irish president might visit. Irish Scene is the magazine of the Irish community.

For 21 years under the ownership of Fred Rea Irish Scene has been telling all of these stories, and more besides. With any kind of luck, as the new owners we hope to continue that legacy for at least the next twenty one years, starting with this issue. Even though I have been writing stories for the magazine for ten years it has been a steep learning curve taking over as the publisher. Thankfully my wife Imelda is an absolute rock and very capable person who more than makes up for my inadequacies. Inevitably there will be some changes to the magazine and you may have noticed a new look in this edition.

A big thanks to our graphic designer Caris who has developed the new design, and patiently and gracefully made fifty million changes and corrections. Our appreciation too to Fred and Lilly who have done everything they can to ensure a smooth transition and their friendship. There is a lot of goodwill for Irish Scene and we have been humbled by the numerous offers of moral and practical support from a lot of different people. Our advertisers also deserve a special word of gratitude. It is thanks to them that it is possible to publish Irish Scene as a free publication which the community values. Please consider using their products or services first and if you do let them know you saw their advertisement or offer in the Irish Scene. A bit like the old Guaranteed Irish logo - readers above a certain age will remember this scheme - there are a lot of benefits to supporting your own We welcome your feedback and thoughts about the redesign, and other aspects of the magazine. Even if the look changes there will be a lot of familiar things about it that stays the same. Many of our regular contributors are sought after by readers and their columns help to give Irish Scene its colour and character, dare I say it, even its identity. New faces and voices might well come along from time to time as well. In one way or another we would hope to capture and share the stories of as many people - Irish and otherwise where relevant - in WA as possible. Readers and groups are encouraged to submit photographs and yarns about their weddings, christenings, outback travel adventures, special events or whatever it is. The more of you we get into these pages the better. Ideally, everyone who would like to should appear in Irish Scene at least once! The more local and relevant we can make the content the better.

LLOYD GORMAN, EDITOR THE IRISH SCENE | 12

The Kindred Network - Well Connected he Kindred Network - Well Connect Global Perspective

Recognition

Irish Australian Business Awards

Recognition

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Irish Australian Business Awards

Global Perspective

Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide,

Leadership Programs

Irish Australian Learn moreover aboutthe theyears IACC Connect The Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce, relationships with TheIrishChamber the Chamber leadership @IrishChamber @IrishChamber the peak Chamber of Commerce with us organisation for Irish Australian business, is delighted and look forward to working withirishchamber.com.au them, as part of the to announce the incorporation of the Ireland WA Forum team, in the months and years ahead.”

(IWAF) into the Chamber’s WA Chapter. Since forming in 2011 IWAF has provided Western Australians in business, Mr Black will lead the Chamber’s WA Chapter and will who share an affinity to Ireland a platform to discuss be joined by an experienced IWAF team. As a director on issues of economic, social and cultural importance to the Chamber’s main board he will seek to represent the needs and aspirations of the Irish Western Australian Western Australia and Ireland business community in shaping and the opportunity to build their the Chamber’s future. networks at a local level.

The merging of IWAF into the @IrishChamber @IrishChamber WA Chapter of the Chamber is a positive step which sees a likeminded business group gain access to the national and international opportunities available through the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce’s extensive network, delivering value to all.

IrishEvents Australian Next Chamber of Commerce

WA’s Energy & Resources Future 4th July 6pm-9pm The Globe, Perth

Women in Business

16th October 12pm - 5pm The Champagne Bar Members Floor, Ascot Racecourse

The WA Chapter of the Chamber TheIrishChamber will be bringing a number of programs and events to the Perth market in the months ahead, commencing with the St Patrick’s Corporate Lunch on 15th March, presented in association with PwC, our well-established Mentoring Program and more recent initiatives like our Emerald Leadership Program, Horizons and the Irish Australian Business Perspective Awards.

The Kindred Network - Well Connected

Welcoming the move, Mark Black, Chair of IWAF, said “We are extremely proudRecognition of what IWAF has achieved as an organisation since its inception and Irish Australian Business Awards incredibly grateful to all those who have contributed so much to its success over the years. Having enjoyed a loyal and vibrant support base in WA for so long we felt the time was right to bring next level opportunities to our members while maintaining the informal & curated network events that have been so successful for us and our community in the past. It now makes absolute sense to do that as part of the Chamber. We’ve built up strong

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President of the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce, Carl Walsh, said “Mark, Lindsay and their team in WA will bring fresh voices, diversity and energy to our group and we look forward to supporting them to achieve our shared objectives. The Chamber will be further strengthened by this development and we’re looking forward to continuing to present opportunities to our customers, wherever they may be located.”

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THE IRISH SCENE | 13

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rose of

tralee ​BY LLOYD GORMAN

Perth girl will be Rose of Tralee for Sydney Sydney will be represented

by Rebecca Mazza in this year’s Rose of Tralee Festival in County Kerry, Ireland. Rebecca Mazza But the Sydney-sider actually harbours a WA secret. She is a Perth girl who hails from North Perth to be precise but moved to the NSW capital in recent times. Rebecca’s Irish ancestry can be traced to her great-grandfather. A 19 year old James Daly left Kanturk, Co. Cork, in 1909 destined for Fremantle. James cleared and farmed land in WA and also raised a family of four children with his wife. With the outbreak of WWI in 1915 James signed up with the Australian Imperial Force and would fight at Gallipoli and also on the Western Front. Rebecca never met her forebear but is intensely proud of him and her family.

Irish Scene hopes to catch up with her at some point after the Rose of Tralee event, which this year happens from the 23rd to 27th of August.

“I am a 24 your old speech pathologist living and working in the inner suburbs of Sydney,” she said in her profile on the official Rose of Tralee website.

“Originally born and raised in Perth, WA, I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland after high school, volunteering as a schools assistant in Waterford.

Here, my appreciation for Ireland’s beauty but mostly its people truly began! I had the opportunity to meet many of my Irish relatives from Kanturk, County Cork. I was privileged to learn more about my ancestors and their stories have deepened my understanding of who I am and where I come from,” she said.

“After my experience in Ireland I returned to Australia inspired to continue working with young people. After a life changing family experience I knew that speech pathology was the career for me.

Four years later, I graduated with a Masters Degree

in Speech Pathology and was offered a job in Sydney, working with both children and adults with speech and communication disorders. Since applying for the Rose of Tralee, I have further developed in confidence, met countless strong women, and have gained a new ‘Sydney Rose’ Rebecca and her family at home in Perth. family who have made this experience unforgettable. I am absolutely honoured to be representing the Sydney Irish community at the Rose of Tralee Festival this year.”

Last year 57 Rose representing Irish communities around the world travelled to Tralee for the festival but just 32 of them appeared on stage in the Dome with host Dáithí Ó Sé for the televised finals.

As a result of this imbalance in the number of contestants getting through to the final stage a rule change was introduced to the competition last year to give every Rose an equal chance at the title, which takes effect this year.

As a result, Perth, like a number of other Rose centres around the world, now enters a Rose for the Tralee festival every second year, with this being the year no one goes forward from WA. As well as her family and friends who will no doubt be proud of her achievement Rebecca is a really genuine individual who the Irish community in Perth and beyond will be able to get behind in August. Congratulations Rebecca and all the best in your adventure ahead! ​

Happy life, happy wife There are a few non-negotiable eligibility rules that every girl who puts her hand up to become a Rose of Tralee contestant must follow. Girls have to be between 18 and 29 years of age and be ‘female’ and born in Ireland, be an Irish citizen or have Irish ancestry. Another unbreakable stipulation is that an entrant must “be unmarried or never been married”.

This condition has provoked some commentary about the nature of the competition as be- A contestant’s boyfriend ing old fashioned but it is unlikely to change proposed live on stage any time soon and has been a criteria from the first Rose of Tralee in the 1950’s. But the Rose festival is not a totally nuptial free zone. Last year the boyfriend of the New Orleans Rose proposed live on stage. She said yes! The same thing happened back in 2013, so there is a bit of a tradition emerging.

Anyhow, as it happens two former Perth Roses recently tied the knot themselves, within days of each other. From the Perth Rose of Denise Lynch Tralee Facebook site we learn that 2018 Rose Laura Cannon took the plunge with boyfriend Charlie on May 7, while 2015 Perth Rose Denise Lynch and her partner Diarmuid on May 13. Congratulations flowed in from local supporters including the Perth Rose Committee, Killarney Autos, The Irish Club, John Hughes, Mason Mill, An Sibin, Durty Nelly’s, Jessica Stojkovski MLA, Irish Theatre Players and The Laura Cannon Irish Scene of course.

THE IRISH SCENE | 14

Perth girl wins

2019 Ciara Glennon scholarship A third-year law student with a passion for helping others has been awarded this year’s Ciara Glennon Memorial Law Scholarship.

Former Western Australian Chief Justice Wayne Martin QC presented Tayu Wilker, 28, of Como, with the $10,000 scholarship at The University of Western Australia at the University of Western Australia on May 22.

It is 21 years since the first scholarship was awarded following the death of Ciara Glennon who was a law graduate at UWA. Tayu completed a Bachelor of Commerce at UWA in 2012 and is now Tayu Wilker undertaking the Juris Doctor, a postgraduate law degree, as well as working as a tutor in the Law School.

The 2008 dux of Ocean Reef Senior High School, Tayu has supported herself throughout her studies at UWA with a number of jobs including barista, cafe supervisor and yoga instructor.

She has also worked as a paralegal at Jackson McDonald in the legal technology support team, and as a volunteer for several organisations, including Blackstone Society (UWA’s law student body), Piddington Society, Oak Tree Foundation and WA Department of Communities.

The Ciara Glennon Memorial Scholarship was established in 1998 with the support of the Glennon family and is sponsored by Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson), the law firm where Ciara worked as a solicitor. It is awarded annually to a full-time student from UWA’s Law School who needs financial

help to continue studying, makes a recognisable contribution to the community, demonstrates an active interest in an area outside the practice of law and shows a balanced approach to life and concern for others.

The winner also receives an offer to undertake a paid seasonal clerkship with Ashurst in Perth.

Tayu said the scholarship would greatly ease her financial hardship as a full-time student supporting herself, and provide her with some measure of security.

“I feel honoured and privileged to be the 21st recipient of the Ciara Glennon Memorial Scholarship, a scholarship that celebrates Ciara’s spirit and greatly assists law students such as me,” she said.

“Together the Glennons, Ashurst and UWA Law School have significantly impacted the lives of many law students. More specifically they have significantly impacted my life. I will aspire to bring good into this world in equal measures.”

UWA Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Simon Biggs said Tayu was a worthy recipient who demonstrated many of the qualities the scholarship embodied.

“Tayu has managed to hold down a number of part-time jobs as well as volunteering to help others, while continuing to achieve excellent results in her law studies,” Professor Biggs said. “She has also been a volunteer mentor with the Department of Communities since 2018, working one-on-one with a young person in foster care.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 15

Ciara Eilish Glennon was born in 1970. Her parents Denis and Una were both Irish – from Mayo and Monaghan – but her birthplace was slightly more far flung and exotic.

She was born in a bush hospital in Zambia. When she was five the family moved to Perth where the family would set down deep roots.

At the age of 26 Ciara went on a one year career break around the world – including an extended stay in Ireland with relations. She returned from her travels in February 1997 for the wedding of her sister Denise in late March, and returned to work at Ashurst.

On Friday 14th March Ciara and some of her work mates went to the Continental Hotel in Claremont for early St. Patrick’s Day drinks. Ciara – who was wearing a Claddagh brooch – left the hotel around midnight to catch a taxi home. That was the last time she was seen alive and her body was found on April 3 in scrub in the northern suburb of Eglinton.

She was the victim of a serial killer known to have taken the lives of at least two other young women in the same area. Despite sparking one of the biggest murder investigations and man-hunts in Australian criminal history the Claremont serial killer eluded detection or arrest for two decades. The murders of three young women in the prime of their lives– carried out by a killer who remained at large – plunged the families, community and Perth into fear and mourning. There was a breakthrough in the investigation when police took a man into custody on December 22, 2016. Bradley Robert Edwards, 49, was charged with the murders of Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer. Last February Edwards was also arrested with the death of Sarah Spiers – whose body was never found. The trial process has started in the West Australian Supreme Court and is underway.

RMS tayleur THE FIRST TITANIC

BY LLOYD GORMAN One of Ireland’s worst maritime disasters has a direct link with Australia but the whole tragedy has been almost completely forgotten by history according to Dublin born Bassendean man Gerry Coleman. Gerry recalls the incredible story and terrible incident of local and international proportions that he believes deserve much more attention.

Buccaneer-pirate Luke Ryan

I find it astonishing that this tragic RMS Tayleur “I come from the small town story has not been highlighted more of Rush, Country Dublin, Upon hearing of the in Australian Ireland, where I watched our local “sad occurrence, and the history as they cargo boat (“Shamrock “) ferry coal, destitute condition of the were on their way cattle, bottled Guinness and other survivors, a quantity of to the goldfields produce to Lambay island, a few provisions , consisting of for a better life miles off the coast for many, many four carcasses of mutton, which in hindsight years but regrettably have never set bread, milk and some might not have foot there. As I lived near the pier gallons of spirits (whisky), been a true reality. there was always a great hustle and were sent by order of Sir One passenger bustle and even in the late 1700’s a Roger Palmer (landlord on board was local buccaneer-pirate and relative of the town of Rush) from Samual Carby who ‘Willow Pattern’ plates and tableware on my grandmothers side (Luke Ryan the mainland for the after serving 10 retrieved from the wreck relief of the survivors”. a personal friend and enforcer of years as a convict American Benjamin Franklin during in Australia for stealing mutton, History repeated itself in 1912 the war of independence) berthed his returned to marry his sweetheart when another unsinkable ship “Black Fleet” there. A most famous Sarah. Samual had made a small called the Titanic sank in similar incident happened on January 21st fortune in Australia so had 200 circumstances. Both vessels were 1854 when a ship bound for Australia gold sovereigns sewed into his with the White Star Line, the most from Liverpool called the “Tayleur “ wife’s clothing, a practice which was modern of their kind in the world which was thought to be unsinkable and classed as unsinkable with sealed replicated by most women on board.

Sarah survived with only two other as it had sealed metal compartments, compartments below the water line, women who along with her were was the biggest ship in service, carrying immigrants to a foreign wearing nightdresses and not heavy carrying 579 passengers smashed land, the largest ship of the day, cumbersome dresses. into rocks at the rear of Lambay on their maiden voyage and sunk killing up to 360. Of the 100 women because their hulls were pierced. If As this was a huge ship it carried a on board only three survived and somebody tells you a ship or boat lot of cargo of which little has been only three children made it ashore. is unsinkable, do not go onboard! retrieved except for a quantity of More than one hundred young Irish Unfortunately lessons were not learnt ‘Willow Pattern’ plates and tableware. drowned that day on their way to the and the sinking of the Titanic was As this tragic shipwreck is local goldfields of Australia. folklore in my hometown of Rush almost identical in 1912.

THE IRISH SCENE | 16

we as as a family we’re proud to have one such plate in our display cabinet in the sitting room. As a beautiful symbolic gesture my sister who migrated to Sydney brought this plate with her and is probably the only one to finish its journey. My 97 year old ma who still lives in our family home says that as a child she remembers a lot of talk about the Titanic but little about this tragedy on own doorstep.”

Editor: RMS Tayleur was built for owners Charles Moore & Company of Mooresfort lattin, Co Tipperary.

As the newest flagship of the White Star Line company - in Liverpool her launch on January 21 1854 attracted a crowd of thousands to see the world’s most modern ship set off on her maiden voyage. Just two days later she was a shipwreck, with hundreds of souls lost with her. There were four official inquiries with the inquest held at Malahide.

Members of the Irish Sub-Aqua Club discovered the remains of the wreck 30 metres off the south east corner of Lambay Island in 1959. Crockery was one of the main items recovered from the site.

A memorial to the people killed in its sinking was dedicated at Portrane, a small seaside settlement 1km from Donabate in Finglas, Co. Dublin in May, 1999.

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Dashed on the rocks: 360 perished when RMS Tayleur, the most modern ship of its time, sank off the Irish coast THE IRISH SCENE | 17

Bloomsday breakfast show toasts radio host!

BY LLOYD GORMAN A recent Song for Ireland was always going to be a bit different to the standard format, but quite how different the live radio show’s presenter, veteran broadcaster Frank Murphy, could not have expected.

Timed to coincide with Bloomsday - which falls on 16 June, the date in Dublin on which James Joyce’s Ulysses is based - the June 15 Saturday morning broadcast of A Song For Ireland on Radio Fremantle was always going to be ambitious. Frank, an avid cultural and literature devotee, has been deeply involved with many major Bloomsday productions and events over the years. This year he had hoped to stage an outside broadcast in a restaurant for the occasion and call it Breakfast at Blooms, but in the end it was the Radio Fremantle studio itself that provided the venue and the perfect place to set a trap!

Celebrating Bloomsday on the airwaves is perhaps one of the best ways to do it, but it can also be a complicated affair. Several members of the Australia Irish Heritage Association donned in period and appropriate dress also occupied the studio to play their parts. As the complex and colourful show stretched towards its natural conclusion producer Gerry Grogan came on the mike for an unscheduled announcement. “We are not ending there, we are turning the tables a bit on Frank Murphy,” Gerry said. “Its the Brendan award which he’s going to be receiving shortly we have Denis Bratton in

the hot seat whose going to say a few words to Frank as he tries to gather himself because he looks like he’s going to fall under the table!”.

Denis said he was there on behalf of the Australia Irish Heritage Association which 23 years ago started the Brendan Award for Irish people for their dedication to the Irish community. “The Brendan Award originates from St Brendan from Clonfert, Co. Kerry, who sailed around Ireland and I think he discovered America, the Irish believe that anyhow, so this is in honour of St Brendan and I hand it over to Heather Deegan our president who will present it to Frank,” Denis said. To applause, Heather said as the AIHA president it gave her great pleasure to present the Brendan Award for 2019 to Frank. “There are five criteria and on every criteria you received five stars and 24 carats,” she said. Frank, clearly moved and surprised by the gesture, had to compose himself to speak and when he did emotion saturated every word.

“I am absolutely speechless because in working behind the scenes over the years I have known the work and the scrutiny and the considerable private research that has gone into receiving this - Oh My God beautiful -acknowledgement. I have to say that I receive it with my partner Gerry Grogan, without Gerry’s support there would be no Frank Murphy in terms of offering what I can to the diaspora. I’m also thinking dearly of my father Paddy Murphy and mother Nora, who from a very early age, when we didn’t have much money, always encouraged us to be courageous to go out to sing in harmony

THE IRISH SCENE | 18

and to have reconciliation in music in the arts and in theatre and they energised me, and it encouraged me from the beginning that it was okay to be a little bit arty. Ok going through secondary school was a bit rough but being arty has remained in my life and I hope in the words of Oscar Wilde, while I keep my feet down low, not in the gutter I will continue to love Gerry and look at the stars, thank you! I am absolutely so proud and so delighted to end this programme on this beautiful note with my beautiful award.”

As the show faded out to the magical sound of Sharon Shannon’s amazing Sacred Earth tune Gerry invited the cast of players back to his and Frank’s home for a slap up feed. The morning may have started out as Breakfast at Blooms but it ended up as a toast for Frank! The AustralianIrish Heritage Association was founded in 1993 to encourage and promote awareness of Australia’s great Irish heritage and traditions.

Four years later the AIHA created the Brendan Award - named after Saint Brendan of Clonfert (484-577) an intrepid explorer and one of the twelve Apostles of Ireland. Franks award came almost exactly one month after St Brendan’s feast day (May 16). The first recipient of the Brendan Award was then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson who visited Perth at the time. A full list of all the winners of this prestigious award can be found on an honours board in the Irish Club in Subiaco, or on the AIHA website.

The Brendan Award The first Brendan Award was sculpted by Irish artists Joan and Charlie Smith and has been presented for the past two decades. Subsequent awards were designed by Denis Bratton and sculpted by Dave Burke of Celtic Swan Furniture and the latest ones sculptured by Charlie Totten.

The wood sculpture takes the form of an Irish Standing Stone, many of which are scattered around Ireland.

They represent many things, gravesites, boundary markers, and remains of religious structures which may have been used by the druids. There are five criteria any winner of the Brendan Award must satisfy.

They are commitment, contribution, performance, persistence and going the ‘extra mile’.

Tyrone take you home

FRANK MURPHY Frank served on the Board of the AIHA for many years, he has presented Irish community radio over the years and currently produces and presents the weekly ‘Songs for Ireland’ on Radio Fremantle, every Saturday from 8 to 10am.

He has a successful history as producer and director of community events on Irish culture - Song for Ireland AIHA in 2015 and 2016 in the Octagon Theatre (UWA), Cashman’s Diary Folk Opera at the Irish Club in 1997 (wrote and directed).

He has been host and a regular contributor of Easter Monday Catalpa Commemorations, he has served on the committee of the recently formed Fenian Fremantle Festival 2017 and participated as MC and host of events in this annual festival. He has participated as a performer and reader in the annual Bloomsday literary commemoration in the Irish Club and hosted his own Bloomsday event in Fremantle. He has been a Rose of Tralee judge, and MC for official Irish events.

Frank was a committee member for the WA 1916 commemorations in 2016 where he coordinated screening of an exclusive documentary at Cinema Paradiso and presented a paper at the AIHA 1916 symposium in Notre Dame University Fremantle.

Frank was the recipient of an AIHA cultural grant for his private production of Oscar Wilde at Kidogo Arthouse and under his own production company has presented most recently in terms of Irish theatre ‘Dear Frankie’.

Frank is an academic experienced in public media and arts, a front man who is well networked and who sets high standards that is a credit to the local Irish community.

THE IRISH SCENE | 19

Let

built by craftsmen

Meeja WAtch IRISH NEWS IN PERTH

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

fewer Irish In WA? Tuam Herald journalist Tom Gilmore came ‘west’ earlier this year around the same time that Daniel O’Donnell played Perth. In fact, the Donegal singer helped launch Tom’s new book ‘Big Tom: The King of Irish Country’. Tom is a keen observer of things who has been to WA before and is a contributor to Irish Scene.

Wednesday May 8, 2019

www.tuamherald.ie

40

41

PEOPLE

www.tuamherald.ie

Wednesday May 8, 2019

PEOPLE

Some years ago new Irish pubs Perth, were opening their doors in now many are gone, as too have Irish workers

boys NORTH Galway n at a Sharon Shannotle: concert in Freman Dunmore, Dermot Ryan, ey, Michael Keaven Glinsk and Joseph r with Coyne, Clonbu Tuam Tom Gilmore, Herald.

Fewer jobs and fewer Irish in West Australia

Upon his recent return to the west (of Ireland) Tom penned this article ‘Fewer jobs and fewer Irish in West Australia’ for the Tuam title on May 8, 2019. In his article Tom writes that “the magic has gone” from WA for many of the young Irish who came here in recent years. Unemployment figures are high and heading in the wrong direction here with other concerning signs around.

“A few short years ago Irish themed pubs and clubs were springing up around the Perth and West Australia area,” writes Tom. “But now many of those such as The Shed and The Cure in Perth’s Northbridge area, both which would be heaving with young Irish patrons, have disappeared. Meanwhile longer established venues such as The Irish Club in Subiaco, The Mighty Quinn, Tuart Hill and JB O’Reilly’s in Leederville, while still having some very big crowds, are no longer the regular hives of activity they were six to ten years ago. Indeed The Irish Club, which has been there for decades, is struggling with funding issues and trying

BELCLARE-Loughrea-Kerry Australian-Irish: Philip, Michelle and baby Ryan Conneely.

Irish patrons, have disappeared.

Meanwhile longer established venues such as The Irish Club in Subiaco, The Mighty Quinn, Tuart Hill and JB O’Reilly’s in Leaderville, while still having some very big crowds, are no longer the regular hives of activity they were six to ten years ago.

HE magic has gone from Indeed The Irish Club, which West Australia as far as is has been there for decades, many of the young Irish and struggling with funding issues the more people who flocked there for trying to diversify more and concerned. are last few years just to keep the doors open.

Unemployment figures in If one looks at the listings for reached the state have now Irish pubs, clubs and restaurants over 200,000 and Perth, the in The Irish Scene published of in destination for thousands magazine for the Perth area ago, young Irish only a few years 21 but in were there 2012 July of is now seeing a mass exodus the current issue of this popular them with youth unemployment magazine that number has an in parts of that city reaching dropped to 12. ter, Perth all-time high of over 16 per cent.

THE pier at Breakwa many So where have all the young, with Those startling figures were which is popular mostly single, Irish men and published recently in The West Irish swimmers. women gone? as Australian newspaper in a story Many have come back home which also stated that one in is very evident here in Galway to six young people, among 15 and other counties such as Mayo is Perth of parts in so 24-year-olds, occasions. and Dublin in particular, with His two friends, Dermot Ryan the out of work.

Among those are Philip much work now available in from Dunmore and Michael What a contrast that is to the Conneely from Loughrea, whose Irish capital.

Keaveney from Glinsk were early years of this decade when dad Michael and mum Philomena Others have left for Sydney people still happy to be in permanent frequently 500 young Irish are formerly from Tullrush, where there is still lots of work, employment in the West Australia Belclare and own Loughrea Plant per week would arrive in Perth especially in the construction area – and socialising around for work, many of them in the and Tool Hire. Philip and his industry, Melbourne which Perth and Fremantle as well. mines in the north of the country, wife Michelle came in its Irish rise a Kerry-born seen also has exodus Also, in spite of all this now at a time when they were fleeing to Perth eight years ago and population, and Brisbane. and the downturn in employment they have a little boy named Ryan unemployment in Ireland.

However, because Perth and many old. in Perth and West Australia, Now the downturn in the mining such who will soon be two years here West Australia in general is other young Irish who came of industry in West Australia and “We love the life out here but a beautiful place to live some as singletons have now become fewer construction jobs there since young Ryan arrived we the young Irish that at still there with maybe a baby or couples, as has resulted in reverse migration go out as much such don’t many obviously Perth love the life and in two. They are settled in the home to Ireland for many. to the Irish venues as we did Joseph Coyne from Cloughbrack, they first secured where who area Philip A few short years ago Irishsays a the early days,” a Clonbur who was among good long-term employment a themed pubs and clubs were works in sales with a truck and no number that we spoke to at Perth few years ago. But they are springing up around the Perth heavy goods vehicles firm in recent Sharon Shannon concert longer as visible in what’s left and West Australia area. set up by a Sligo emigrant many in Fremantle fly to Melbourne as of the Irish pubs and clubs as But now many of those such on to decades ago. on a regular basis and then is they will only go out now on The Shed and The Cure in Perth’s Another local emigrant who East Australia where there South social selected which both more carefully Northbridge area, is still much work in the mines. would be heaving with young

TOM

Gilmore

tom@tuamherald.ie

T

Of course we miss home and family but both of us secured good jobs here

Rescue AT the launch of The Catalpa Galway City-based barber Michael book in Fremantle were former FitzSimons, Limerick, Peter Murphy, Peter Anthony Sheehy, a native of author and Noel O’Neill. out crowds once again packing JB married in Perth with two young The Irish Club and the nearby from Gilmore Garry is children O’Reilly’s Bar and Restaurant. with still Cortoon, a Project Manager The Irish Scene magazine is his and Company, who Perth Water thriving in Perth but the man past wife Laura who is from West has been at the helm for the City, Clare.

21 years, Fred Rea from Cork “Of course we miss home and to retire this month decided has family but both of us secured having reached the age of 70. love good jobs here and while we Having run a very successful got the life we are like a lot of young printing company in Perth he be Joe Irish couples in that we can’t the idea, along with a friend, going out to the pubs and clubs Crosier, to start The Irish Scene says as we did in younger days,” magazine in 1998 “with an eightGary with a laugh. page little A4 newsletter”.

But young couples such as those “The rest is history as they say, still go out for selected Irish it’s now a 94-page full-colour events such as the St Patrick’s years 21 magazine but now after Day Parade in Leaderville, Perth of it being successful and being and which was still one of the biggest part of the whole Irish fabric of time ever this year with all facets the Irish society in Perth it’s Irish life represented and the

pf Ireland in Perth. Left to right: with their Lego landscaped map Kerrigan THE NEXT generation of Australian-Irish Jordon (directly behind Doirean), Holly Gannon, Fionn Saoirse who is Doireann Kerrigan, Molly Gorman, Ewan Gorman and Ronan Jordon Megan Gannon (sister to Holly), from Meath. (brother to Doireann), Eoin Boyle, Ray Kerrigan and Lisa (née Lynch) from and Fionn’s dad and mum are brother to Saoirse. Doireann Co. Kildare and Imelda (née Flannery) Lloyd Gorman, from Brownstown, (née Henahen) Molly and Ewan’s parents are both from Galway. Mum Tamar and Ronan’s dad and mum are J Gannon from Rhebogue, Limerick. Saoirse Holly and Megan’s dad is Jay Rahoon.

Park, Cruachan from Dublin. from Ballinderreen, and Ian Jordon Ballinderreen. Eoin Boyle is from Henahen – sister to Tamar) from Ballinrobe and mum Niki (née PHOTO: LLOYD GORMAN

move for me and my wife Lilly to on.”

Fred, who is also a seasoned musician and songwriter, admits was that perhaps The Irish Scene a catalyst for many of the books Fenians The of association on the with West Australia that have been published there in recent

second generation of Irish who roots are still proud of their Irish are (and Italian — Lilly’s parents

from Italy).

The new person at the helm of The Irish Scene is Dubliner Lloyd Gorman who also works as a reporter with The Post Newspaper Group and has been involved with The Irish Scene years.

Fred since 2010. with the on a Only last week a book Lloyd and his wife who have in Fenians titled A Catalpa Rescue young family are very settled

by Peter Fitzsimons is understood Perth and they say their children to have sold over 300 copies along with the children of some is at its launch in Fremantle. It many more of their Irish emigrant the born dedicated to the memory of friends, most of whom were 15 Fenian leader John Devoy. in Australia in the past 10 or Away from the publishing world fabric the much very years will be now the Reas’ family of three are of the new Irish-Australian cohort all doing well in their own careers in the land of the kangaroo in the the in Perth and they are among

future.

“So enthusiastic are those touch young kids about staying in with their Irish roots that they Lego helped make a huge floating out of landscaped map of Ireland an old election poster of Deputy Willie O’Dea of Limerick that ended up in packaging out here. local our in floating it had They swimming pool for St Patrick’s Day. “We even photographed the children, some of them with parents from Galway and Mayo, and used it as the cover of our current issue of The Irish Scene. s So, the young Irish-Australian are getting involved with the magazine at a very early age,” concluded Lloyd with a smile.

The article in the Tuam Herald

to diversify more and more just to keep the doors open.”

If the magic has left for many then there are many who are still enchanted with the place and its lifestyle and have made it their new home.

“Of course we miss home and family but both of us secured good jobs here and while we love the life we are like a lot of young Irish couples in that we can’t be going out to the pubs and clubs as we did in younger days,” says Gary (Gilmore from Cortoon) with a laugh.”

“my Perth” One of those Irish migrants who came here as a backpacker but chose to stay in Perth was featured in the Irish Times ‘Welcome to my place…’ series on June 2. Mallow, Co. Cork native Killian Hickey who liked Perth “too much”. “Eight years later, I am still here,” he said.

The redeveloped Scarborough Beach, Kings Park and Fremantle Markets were some of the local attractions the Mallow man talked up in the piece.

www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/ abroad/welcome-to-my-place-perthaustralia-1.3910812 THE IRISH SCENE | 20

Perth artist makes a scene in ireland But the human traffic isn’t all going one way. On June 4 the Enniscorthy Guardian, carried a story about Jane Crosbie, a ‘local’ textile artist, who is making a big impression in the Irish arts scene, a story the Irish Independent picked up on June 8. Jane is originally a Perth girl who now lives in Kilcarbry, Wexford with her husband who together are renovating an old farm where she plans to have a studio.

Crosbie was interviewed because she was invited to take part in the prestigious Bloom Festival in Dublin.

“I applied sort of the last minute Jane Crosbie because I saw it on the website and I took a photo of one of my pieces and submitted it,” she told the local newspaper.

“I like to work with materials that already exist rather than buying new things it’s a way of upcycling. I just love working with fabric that already exists,” she added, saying how “lovely and laid back” life in Wexford was.

www.independent.ie/au/regionals/enniscorthyguardian/news/local-textileartist-blooms-38177976.html

Paddy Hannon life story Another Irish historical figure who made a big contribution to WA but whose life would ultimately end sadly was Paddy Hannon. His life story was retold in the June 14 edition of Ireland's Own, in an article called "The Clareman who built a big town", by a David Marsh.

The town in question of course is Kalgoorlie, the site of Hannon's (and Thomas Flanagan and Daniel Shea) lucky strike on June 15 1893. The impact of their find for Western Australia then and now - with the area becoming known as the Golden Mile, the richest gold mine in the world - cannot be understated.

Curiously the significance of the date he and his friends struck gold seems to have been largely lost in WA but on this occasion remembered in Ireland itself. Perhaps it is time the Irish and wider WA community made a concerted effort to commemorate June 15 as a significant fixture on the local calendar.

remembering martin o’meara The tragic tale of Martin O'Meara was told again in the Irish Times on April 24, but this time with some positive news of sorts to add. Regular Irish Scene readers will be familiar with O'Meara's The West Australian carried this piece journey from his about Martin O’Meara and his VC home in Lorrha, going to Ireland on June 26.

Co. Tipperary to Western Australia where he worked in Collie as a railway sleeper before signing up with the Australian Imperial Force for World War I and how he won a Victoria Cross medal on the front in France for bravely rescuing more than 20 wounded Diggers from no-man's land.

"In November 1918, Martin O’Meara arrived back in Australia as a hero, promptly had a nervous breakdown and spent the rest of his life in mental institutions," is the opening sentence of the Irish Times article, which goes on to report that O'Meara's Victoria Cross medal would be loaned to the National Museum of Ireland (See page 48).

www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-victoria-crossmedallist-spent-the-rest-of-his-life-in-mental-hospitals-1.3870556

desmond gore jailed On May 31 a wide number of Perth and WA media outlets carried a story about a former foster carer who sexually abused seven children who was jailed for 15 years following an eight day trial in the WA Supreme Court.

Without getting into specific details the 73 year old man was reported to have been found guilty that week of 20 out of 21 sex offences against four girls and two boys, aged between six and nine years of age, who were in his care. The fact that one of the children had reported the abuse but was not believed by investigators, which allowed further abuse to happen, made the case particularly sickening.

On June 1 the Belfast Telegraph reported that the man who "preyed" on the children, Desmond Gore, was from Northern Ireland, having emigrated here in 1968.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/foster-carerfrom-ni-who-preyed-on-kids-is-jailed-in-australia-38169058.html

THE IRISH SCENE | 21

Ghost towns and graveyards

BY LLOYD GORMAN Lawlers - a town site found in the eastern goldfields of Kalgoorlie, nearly 1000km northeast of Perth in the Goldfields Esperance region of Western Australia - is what you might call a 'Ghost town'. But the problem with ghosts is that they are hard to kill!

Gold was discovered there at the outback spot by the prospecting party of one Patrick "Paddy" Lawler in 1894. It was his second outing to the location, which he liked very much the first time around even though he didn't strike gold on the first occasion.

As a result of his find two years later in April 1896 the town site was surveyed and gazetted and was named after the man who discovered gold there.

But gold has an enduring quality and it is the reason why life - albeit in a different form to more than 100 years ago - has returned to the area. In 1986 modern pit mining commenced at Lawlers and in the mid 1990's the lure of the precious metal saw the police station reopen as a office for a gold mining company. Since then that operator has changed hands but gold production has continued.

West Perth based company Gold Fields - which operates eight mines across Australia, Ghana, Peru and South Africa - is the current owner of the Lawlers mine, having expanded its WA operations by taking it over from Barrick Gold in October 2013. A 2003 Barrick Gold report showed

that in that year Lawlers processed 751,000 tonnes of ore and produced 99,000 ounces of gold.

The return of mining has seen new life come back into the old town site. In recent years the Shire of Leonora has budgeted $100,000 for the renewal of the former local police station. The prospect of Lawler ever returning to its former glory - even if it was short-lived - is as remote as the location itself, but the spot will always bear the name of the Irish man who discovered it and be the final resting place for other sons and daughters of Ireland as local Kalgoorlie historian and Outback FamilyHistory.com.au publisher explains over.

Civilization sprung up suddenly in the desert. According to the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society Lawlers was already a significant town by the early 1900s. Smaller satellite settlements mushroomed around it and the town itself boasted five hotels, a variety of shops as well as banks, schools, a resident mining warden, brewery, blacksmiths, cordial factory and Cobb & Co coach service. "By 1905 the district’s population peaked at almost 2,000, but five years later the mines began to close and by the 1920s Lawlers was a ghost town. The cemetery, old police station and the marked town site are all that remain."

Apparently at its peak Lawlers was the third largest town in WA, which seems incredible now when it has almost vanished off the face of the earth unnoticed to most of the world. Lawlers police station reopened in 1938 but shut for good in 1950 and the locality slipped back into obscurity.

If Lawlers was born of the Gold Rush era, then its fate was sealed with the demise of that period.

Top: The Rose Hotel. Above: Lawlers/Agnew Police Station 2015 THE IRISH SCENE | 22

Patrick J Lawler “Paddy Lawler’, a well-respected prospector on the Murchison Goldfields, was the leader of a prospecting party that obtained gold from an area known as Lame Horse Soak, near where the town of Lawlers was to be situated and where the Lawlers Gold Mine would be in 1995.

In early 1894, Paddy had spent some months prospecting in the area, but had only found a small amount of gold. However, very impressed with the area, so he returned to Cue to collect his mates. Two members of Paddy party were, Mr Gibson from the firm of Murphy and Gibson of Cue, and Mr Moses are reported to have found gold while hobbling horses near the camp at Lame Horse Soak. They said they saw the rays of the sun glinting on an outcrop!

The Murchison Times and Day Dawn Gazette, on the 19th September 1894, reported that 120 ounces of gold, one piece weighting 56 ounces, had been collected by W Skinner of Peak Hill, Lawlers. Few men had succeeded in getting more than 15-20 ounces of gold.

A rich alluvial flat was discovered at a place known as McCaffrey’s about eight miles further

north of Lawler’s find, by Nov 1894, 40 men were working on this patch.

As the alluvial gold petered out, shafts were being sunk on the field. Without the aid of a windlass or winding gear Paddy Lawler had sunk a shaft 58 feet deep on his ‘Donegal Reward Claim GM’ named after his home town in Ireland.

In January of 1896, Lawler’s Patch was favoured as the future centre of the Lake Carey District (as it was then called) due to the availability of good water and the richness and number of the reefs.

Lawler was awarded the reward claim in 1899 of £200 (the discoverer of a new goldfield), however, as was often the case, he was again broke by 1910.

He died on 8 Dec 1914 at the age of 60 at Youanmi in WA from cancer. He is buried in the Youanmi Cemetery. He was born in Donegal, Ireland and was a prospector till the very end, eking out a meagre existence. It said ‘Fortune hadn’t even taken a last glance in Paddy’s direction for a considerable time’. He was one of a group of well know prospectors in WA called ‘The Ragged Thirteen’.

Lawlers Cemetery - An Irish Snapshot

BY MOYA SHARP Where you have life you find death. In its meager time as a place where people lived and worked Lawlers had a graveyard consisting of 164 graves plus eight "lonely" burial sites. The first burial there was on March 14, 1895 and its last was on March 3, 1944. It provides a snapshot of the people who made up this small community, including 19 Irish people.

Peppered amongst the headstones are multiple stories of family tragedy.

This cemetery is quite small, with only 164 burials, with a large number of them being Irish (19). Like all cemeteries, it’s a snapshot of the people who made up this small community and among the graves are many a family tragedy. I have endeavored to offer a short biography on each of the people with as much information as I could find. If anyone has anything to add or notice any errors please let me know.

See www.outbackfamilyhistoryblog. com/2017/12/07/lawlers-cemeterysnapshot-irish/ THE IRISH SCENE | 23

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/ museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

Lawlers Cemetery - An Irish Snapshot Continued

DOOHAN, Thomas d 17 November 1901, Great Eastern Hotel, Lawlers. Aged 47 years. Occ - Storekeeper. Cause - Acute Alcoholism. b Kilrush, Co Clare, Ireland.

In WA 10yrs. Single DUNN, James d 11 April 1908, Kathleen GM near Lawlers.

Aged 42 years Occ - Millman. Cause - Fracture of the skull in accident at the Kathleen GM. Inquest held 22 Apr 1908. Father - James DUNN (Farmer) Mother Elizabeth LEMON. b Co Tyrone, Ireland www.wavmm.com FLETCHER, Thomas

Street, Lawlers. Married woman, Cause - Gastric carcinoma. Aged 50 years. Father - Patrick RODDY (Farmer), Mother - Catherine PRIOR. b Co Leitrim Ireland. In NSW 2yrs, in WA 19yrs.

Married to Patrick McALEER in NSW at 28 yrs. Children - Kathleen 20yrs, Charles 17yrs, J????? 15yrs, Rose 13yrs.

McCARTHY, Felix d

21 January 1912.

Surface, Northern Mines Limited Lawlers. Occ Contractor. Cause - Crushed by 150 tons of slime at the Northern GM. Aged 32 years.

Father - James McCARTHY (Farmer), Mother Julia O’NEIL. b Co Cork, Ireland. In WA 10yrs. Single.

d 29 Jun 1910, Lawlers Hospital.

Aged 30yrs.

Occ - Labourer.

Cause - Peritonitis from an accident The tombstone of Felix McCarthy (left) at McCAUSLAND, while returning to Lawlers Cemetery Claudius d 17 Aug his camp on the 1899. Aged 42 years. Great Eastern Mine 12 Jun. Father - Edward FLETCHER Lawlers. Occ: - Refreshment Room (Bootmaker), Mother - Bridget Keeper. Cause - Chronic Dysentery.

KENNEDY. In SA 20yrs, in WA 8yrs. b Father - James McCAUSLAND (Farmer), Ireland. Single.

Mother Betty. b Moyle Hill Newtown, GROGAN, Margaret d 31 Mar 1905.

Stewart Co Tyrone, Ireland. In SA Aged 27 years. Occ - Housewife.

30yrs, in WA 4 yrs. Married to Jane Cause - Tuberculosis. Father - Patrick ANDERSON. FOLEY (Cattle Dealer), Mother - Esther McDONALD, Arthur d 20 May 1905.

GROGAN. b Cashel, Tipperary, Ireland.

Lawlers Hospital. Aged 28 years.

In WA 6yrs. Married to John GROGAN Cause - Typhoid Fever. Father - John in Cashel, Tipperary, Ireland at age 21 McDONALD. b Castle Comer, Killkenny, yrs. Children - Patrick John, 3 yrs.

Ireland. Single.

HICKEY, David d 15 Aug 1896 in Park McKEEFRY, James Henry d 4 February Street, Lawlers. Occ - Horse Driver.

1903.

Aged 33 years. Occ - Hotelkeeper.

Aged 56 yrs. Cause - General debility. b Cause - Alcoholism. Father - Peter Ireland. In QLD 39 yrs ,in WA 2 yrs.

McKEEFRY (Farmer), Mother:- Mary KEANE, Thomas d 1 February 1904. Aged HENRY. b Londonderry, Ireland. 2yrs 28 years. Occ - Miner. Cause - Injuries in VIC, 11yrs in WA. Married to Sarah received through accidentally falling Teresa O’TOOLE, no children. from a bakers cart. Verdict of the McNEIL, Patrick d 13 September 1901.

Coroner. Father - John KEANE (Farmer), The Rose Hotel, Lawlers. Aged 45 years.

Mother - Norah FOLEY. b Co Kerry, Cause - Injuries self inflicted in the Ireland. In WA 8yrs. region of the heart during temporary McALEER, Katie d 7 March 1911. Clifton insanity, verdict of Coroner. b Co Antrim

THE IRISH SCENE | 24

Ireland. In NSW some years.

MILLIGAN, Mary Ann d 3 February 1911.

Lawlers Hospital. Aged 70 years.

Cause - Senile decay. Father - Charles HAMILTON (Bootmaker), Mother Susan JOHNSTONE. b Ireland. In WA 34yrs. Married twice: First in Scotland to Richard STANCLIFFE? Second John MILLIGAN. Children - (which marriage not stipulated) Susan 48yrs, Sarah 38yrs, Rachel 34yrs, Annie 32yrs, Maggie 27yrs, James 25yrs.

MOLONEY, Bryan d 12 July 1918,.Lawlers Hotel, Clifton Street, Lawlers. Aged 79yrs. Occ - Retired Civil Servant. Cause - Senile Decay. Father - David MOLONEY (Farmer), Mother - Helen MCMAHON. b Co Clare Ireland. In VIC 48yrs, in WA 10yrs. Married to Bridget RUANE in Melbourne VIC at age 26yrs. Children:Mary 53, Patrick 40, Joseph ?

O’CONNOR, Edmond d 19 Nov 1925. Water Reserve, Corboy’s Find Wiluna. Occ Prospector. Aged 57 years. Cause - by falling down a well, no evidence of how the accident occurred, verdict of the Coroner. Father - Peter O’CONNOR (Farmer), Mother - Johanna HOGAN. b Knockanore, Co Waterford, Ireland.

O’CONNOR, Peter C d 8 Dec 1926. Lawlers.

Aged 56 years. Occ - Miner. Cause Phthisis. Father - Peter O’CONNOR (Farmer), Mother - Johanna HOGAN. b Co Waterford, Ireland. In WA 30yrs.

Single.

PRATT, George d 9 June 1908. Lawlers Hospital. Aged 36 years. Cause Regurgitation. Father - George PRATT (Weaver), Mother - Ann McMANN. b Co Clare, Ireland. In SA 15yrs, in WA 12yrs. Married to Anne SAUNDERS in Coolgardie WA at age 29yrs. No children.

RUSSELL, Matthew d 27 February 1904.

Lawlers Hospital. Occ - Miner. Cause Heart Failure. Aged 67 years. b Cardiff, Co Antrim, Ireland. Single.

WINTERS, John d 22 September 1903.

Aged 38 years. Lawlers Hospital. Occ - Miner. Father - William WINTERS (Farmer), Mother - Helen DALEY. b Cork Ireland. In WA 6yrs. Single.

IRISH GRAVESTONE SYMBOLS THIS ARTICLE APPEARS COURTESY OF JOONDALUP LIBRARY - LOCAL HISTORY, WHO HAVE PARTIALLY REPRODUCED INFORMATION FROM THE BILLIONGRAVES BLOG (23 MARCH 2019).

Are there Irish gravestone symbols at your ancestor’s final resting place? Knowledge of the symbols and the meanings behind them will give you a greater understanding of your heritage.

Anchor – The anchor is a symbol of seaman. It was also used as a secret symbol for the early Christians. If you see a gravestone that has both an anchor and a cross, it indicates that the deceased was a Christian seaman. Anchors and crosses are also used as symbols of hope.

Angels – For centuries, neither angels or human figures were allowed in cemeteries because of the decree by Moses that “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” Over time, opinions changed. Angels were permitted in burial grounds provided their faces were either covered by their hands, tucked under folded wings or bowed towards the ground. If an angel’s arms are crossed, it means that they are seeking a blessing.

Band and Drum Guard Emblem – This

indicates that the deceased was a musician. Fife and drum corps were popular in European military units as they were used to keep up morale and provide rhythm so that the soldiers marched in time as they traversed the countryside.

Calvary Steps – The top of some gravestones resemble a staircase.

There are three steps on either side that represent faith, hope and charity. They are symbolic of the steps that Jesus took to Calvary

or Golgatha on his way to make atonement at the cross.

Celtic Cross

– The Celtic cross is a nod to ancient pagan sun-worshipers as well as a Christian symbol. Irish legend states that St Patrick introduced the Celtic cross to Ireland to guide pagans to Christ.

Lily – Lilies have

long been a symbol of hope and rebirth. A lily carved into a gravestone symbolises the hope of rebirth or the restoration of innocence for the deceased.

Shield – Shields or crests are used

in Ireland to represent family or clan relationships. They’re symbolic of family love.

Jesus as a Child – Irish gravestones often depict Jesus as a child.

The Last Supper – The Last Supper

symbol has Jesus holding bread and a chalice of wine. The halo or crown of light surrounding Jesus’ head is a symbol of his holiness.

The bread and wine represent the Last Supper.

Mary and Jesus – Mary and infant son Jesus are often depicted on Irish gravestones. A halo of light above their head means that they are holy or sacred.

Shovel or Spade – Shovels or spades symbolise death or mortality.

Laurel Wreath – Laurel wreaths are symbolic of accomplishment and victory over death and immortality.

Lantern – Flaming lanterns

represent light, wisdom, knowledge, faith and revelation.

Winged Head – The head symbolises

IHS – IHS are the first three letters of the name of Jesus in the Greek alphabet . The symbol was introduced in Ireland around 1780 and became very popular from 1810 to 1830.

the soul of the deceased. The wings on either side of the head indicate that the person’s soul has taken flight into heaven and has been resurrected.

An irish blessing

Ionic-Greek Cross – Ionic crosses flare out at the ends. Greek crosses are of equal length – much like a plus (+) sign.

May the road rise up to meet you.

Crucifix – Whenever you

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

see a gravestone that contains a crucifix, you know that the deceased was Catholic.

THE IRISH SCENE | 25

May the wind be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.

Until we meet again,

(This article was partially reproduced from the 23 March 2019 BillionGraves Blog)

THE IRISH SCENE | 26

Building better links with the diaspora Problems and issues facing Irish people living in Western Australian and the rest of Australasia were aired recently at a special event.

The Claddagh Association joined other community and support groups as well as consular and diplomatic representatives from across Australia gathered in the Irish Embassy in Canberra for the 2019 Link Plus conference, on June 24.

Minister of State for the Diaspora Ciaran Cannon chaired the conference which was held to gather views and information about the relationship between Ireland and the diaspora and how those bonds could be strengthened and better supported as part of a new government policy for the global Irish community, expected for early 2020.

In what proved to be a lively debate, Minister Cannon - whose constituency office is Loughrea, Co. Galway and who represents Galway East - urged everyone involved to take part and share their views so that he could take them with him back to Dublin to help inform the new policy.

“It was so good to see so many young Irish groups and entrepreneurs contributing at this conference and whose ideas may benefit all future migrants who leave Ireland for whatever reason,” one participant said. “The main concerns were the lack of support for returning migrants in Ireland, mental health support here in Australia, increased funding required from the Irish Government and the lack of one main support agency to guide the diaspora and provide contacts for aid agencies.”

Issues canvassed included homesickness, welfare to business, sport to culture, education to tourism, media to music and explored how Ireland could engage, learn and better support Irish people in Australia.”

It is encouraging to see the Irish government purposefully working on a policy for the future of the diaspora and actually engaging with grass roots organisations about real life everyday questions facing the ‘local’ Irish community. The publication of the new policy for the Global Irish early next year will be an important document, and will be studied closely. Watch this space!

CÉILÍ AND SET DANCING IN PERTH!

THURSDAYS AT THE IRISH CLUB, SUBIACO sean nos - 5.30pm set dancing & céilÍ - 6.00-7.00pm $10 pay as you go Teachers: Caroline McCarthy & Sinéad Hussey

www.facebook.com/TorcCeiliClub torcceiliclub@gmail.com

Attendees gathered at the Irish Embassy in Canberra on June 24 THE IRISH SCENE | 27

THE IRISH SCENE | 28

Swim your way to being an excellent human If you go down to Hillarys Boat Harbour early (5.30am) on any morning over July and August you will see what some might consider a strange thing - a large group of people jumping into the dark, cold waters below. Joe Brennan, managing director from Eire Scaffolding in Malaga, is an enthusiastic participant with the group he likes to call an amazing collective of special people.

“I am currently involved with a group in Perth called the Human Excellence project,” Joe, who comes from Dublin, said. “The group was formed in October 2018 by Paul Holiday. My Human Excellence journey started with the group on the 24th of December 2018 and since then I have basically swimming somewhere every day. I was back in Ireland this April 19 were I found a very identical group (the Happy Pear) doing the same swim rise and this was how I spent my time in Ireland.” Joe even managed to convince most of his family and friends to give it a go and said they enjoyed the experience.

What they are looking to do is just spread the word and start to get people to start their day with some positivity.

This is an open invitation to everyone in Ireland and Australia. Joe offered this

explanation for why they do what they do!

“Are we crazy? Maybe a little...

No, we’re not actually. We are deliberately forcing ourselves out of our comfort zones to challenge ourselves to break old habits and establish new ones. Without change, there is no change. Jumping into an ice cold pool (or the ocean) for an extended period of time releases in the body something called “cold shock proteins”. Cold shock proteins stimulate a beneficial process in the body called hormesis. Think of hormesis as a stress on the system that hardens the body up, makes it stronger, improves health on many physical, mental and emotional levels, and improves longevity.

“But these mornings, which actually happen every day of the week in different locations facilitated by the inspiring Paul Holliday from The Human Excellence project (top) meet early in the morning The Human Excellence at Hillarys Boat Harbour and swim at Mullaloo beach Project, isn’t just about jumping into ice cold pools and oceans. No, it’s so much more than that...It’s bringing together special individuals that want to change and improve their lives. They’re sick of the daily grind that we all fall victim to and they want better. They want better physical, mental, emotional and social health. They want to realise their potential and the special gifts the lives they’ve led can bring to the world.

They want to be around a like-minded group of people that celebrate their uniqueness, not cut them down in jealousy. This is The Human Excellence Project, and this is why we do the seemingly crazy things we do!! Go over and like their page, step out of your comfort zone, get out of bed in the morning and come have a dip. You won’t regret it!”

The Happy Pear group in Ireland

For more info see www.facebook.com/thehumanexcellenceproject/ or www.facebook.com/TheHappyPear/

Contact Imelda Gorman 0450 884 247 THE IRISH SCENE | 29

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www.irishscene.com.au

Oliver has been on Radio VCA airwaves 12 months July 4 will be a special occasion for Irishman Oliver McInerney.

On that date he will celebrate his first full year broadcasting as a volunteer radio presenter with local community radio station VCA 88.5FM in Ellenbrook, WA. “My radio show “Anything Goes” is live on air every Saturday afternoon from 3pm to 5pm,” said the broadcaster who hails from Longford. “I present an eclectic mix of some of the all time great singers, past and present. I play lots of Irish artists, some country and Australian singers, and songs from those wonderful unforgettable stage and Hollywood musicals.”

Listeners are always welcome to call Oliver at 9297 1088 or text 0450 459 217 to request a special song. Requests can also be emailed to radiovca88.5@gmail.com.

There are a few ways to tune in and hear Oliver, and the rest of his VCA colleagues and keep in touch with the local station. Radio VCA streams live on the net at www.internet-radio.com/station/vcafm/ and at www.radiovca88-5fm.org.au/

Oliver in the studio Other ways to check out VCA is their Facebook page radiovca88.5fm or website www.radiovca-88.5fm RADIO VCA is a not for profit local community station and is run entirely by volunteers, with presenters ranging in age from 18 to 80 plus.

An Irish man in Perth who never lived to see a United Ireland Vale Brian McCrory

BY CIARAN McCRORY On the 14th April 1969 Brian McCrory and his wife Isabel and four children landed in Fremantle Western Australia onboard the HMAS Ellinis. They had made the decision to leave their native Belfast city at the beginning of ‘The Troubles’, a decision that was easy for him to try to give his young family a better life than what the Falls Road had to offer at the time.

They settled in Koondoola in the City of Wanneroo and as a bricklayer by trade there weren’t many suburbs around metropolitan Perth that Brian hadn’t worked in over the years. Although Perth became his home his heart was always in Belfast and concern for his people he had left behind especially as things in the North escalated. It was for this reason that he and a handful of other expats formed the ‘Australian Aid for Ireland’ or AAI as it was better

known to help raise funds and awareness for the families during The Troubles, and in one of their regular fundraisers they even hosted the late Luke Kelly from the Dubliners fame at Brian’s home.

Brian loved everything Irish from his love of Irish food to celebrating St Patrick’s day and his passion for Glasgow Celtic never diminished.

A staunch nationalist his dream was to see a United Ireland but sadly this wasn’t to be. After suffering a stroke a few years back Brian developed pneumonia and sadly passed away on May 15, aged 85, leaving behind four loving children, 11 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. To his friends and family he will always be remembered as ‘The Hard Man Of The Falls’.

THE IRISH SCENE | 30

STORY OF IRELAND continues This series of five lectures titled ‘The Story of Ireland’ is meticulously researched, beautifully filmed and a definitive account of Ireland’s remarkable past.

This is not a list of dates and battle types of history experience redolent of school-day history lessons. Presenter Fergal Keane from Cork, one of RTE’s and the BBC’s noted presenters, travels across three continents, tracing the events, the people and influences that shaped modern Ireland.

If you didn’t study history at school, or did and hated it, this series of presentations will educate and delight you. If your memory of history lessons was dull and boring and sleep inducing, this will change your mind and should not be missed.

Sunday July 7 - The Age of Union Sunday Aug 4 - The Age of Nations Venue: Irish Club Theatre, Townshend Road Subiaco Time: 3pm to 4.30pm Presenter: Introduction and concluding discussion over afternoon tea moderated

by Denis Bratton. Cost: $10, pay at the door, includes Irish afternoon tea

Australian-Irish Heritage Association every state gallery, and major art Entrance Fee: $10 for all competitions. Deadline: 31 collections such as those of The October, 2019. Enquiries: Denis Bratton 9345 3530 University of Western Australia, Wesfarmers, Janet Holmes à Court, Kerry Stokes and the City of Fremantle.

THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB Although Kate was born in New Zealand, came of age in Western Australia, and lived and worked for most of her life in Paris, she identified herself throughout as being ‘Irish in mind and spirit’.

Amanda is author of novels Elemental (2013) and The Sinkings (2008), and short story collection Inherited (2011).

Elemental was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, and in 2016 was published in the UK.

Sunday July 21 Venue: Irish Club Theatre, Townshend Road Subiaco Time: 2.30pm Cost: $10 includes Irish afternoon tea and Q&A. Books will be available for purchase

Meets fourth Tuesday of the month, with exception of December.

July 23 - ‘The Shell Seekers’, by Rosamund Pilcher.

Presented by Margaret Ireland.

August 27 - ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’,

by Gail Honeyman Venue: Irish Club Committee Room, Townshend Rd Time: 8.00pm Cost: Free. All welcome. Light refreshments provided. Tea and coffee from the Bar $2. Contact: Convener Mary Purcell

CONGRATULATIONS TO FRANK MURPHY, BRENDAN AWARD RECIPIENT

During a live Radio Fremantle broadcast of the weekly ‘Song for Ireland’ on WRITING COMPETITIONS FOR 2019 Saturday 15 June, at the conclusion of live readings from “Ulysses’ by James Deadline 31 October ANNUAL MARY DURACK MEMORIAL Joyce, the director and presenter Frank The Joe O’Sullivan Writers’ Prize Murphy was interrupted by producer LECTURE honouring the memory of the Gerry Grogan who said ‘Frank I’m going Amanda Curtin, author of ‘Kathleen Organisation’s late founder, worth to turn the tables on you now’. There O’Connor of Paris’ – who was a daughter $1,000, limit of 2,000 to 4,000 words descended in the studio Board members of noted engineer CY O’Connor will prose, fact or fiction. Australian-wide of the AIHA led by president Heather explore the persistence and influence of entries invited. Topic: “Memories” Deighan and Award registrar Denis Kate’s Irish heritage on her Joyce Parkes Women’s Writers’ Prize extraordinary life and career. Kathleen Bratton who presented Frank with the honours Joyce Parkes who is a well(Kate) O’Connor, was a fearless, award for his outstanding contribution known poet living in WA. She is the determined woman who flouted the to Australia’s Irish Heritage. Frank was patron of the prize, which aims at conventions and expectations of her initially lost for words in a humbled and promoting and encouraging women time to pursue a career in art. She moving response. The packed studio writers in Australia. Limit of 1,000 to became an acclaimed impressionist included actors Mike Anthony Sheehy, 2,000 words – Prose, fact or fiction.

Prize artist, exhibiting for six decades, and Niall O’Toole, Howard Moses, Jennifer Money: $500 Australian-wide entries her work is now held in the national McGrath and AIHA Board members galleries of Australia and New Zealand, invited. Topic: “If Only” Patricia Bratton, Carmel Ryan and Tony Bray joined in a spontaneous applause for Frank who is highly respected in media, art and academic circles as a great ambassador for the Irish Brand. All adjourned back to Frank’s home where partner and elite Chef Gerry Grogan had secretly prepared a wonderful morning reception joined by friends and Be proud of your neighbours. Full report in AIHA coming Irish heritage Journal and in The Irish Scene.

Radio Fremantle, 107.9fm, Saturdays 8am to 10am

Australian-Irish Heritage Association - 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: www.irishheritage.com.au Find us on Facebook @australianirishheritage Membership Due 1st January – Family $65, Concession $55, Distant (200kms from Perth) $45. Membership fee includes tax deductible donation of $20 Check out events on www.irishscene.com.au/calendar-of-events.html THE IRISH SCENE | 31

"I'm a former Child Migrant myself, I was taken here (from the UK) when I was seven.

First they put me into Castledare Boys Home, the junior orphanage for children aged five to ten years, and then into Clontarf Boys Town. I was in fear of everything, I knew nobody and I had a disjointed view of life. I was sent to work on a dairy farm where I worked seven days a hundred hours a week for two pounds and five.

There was no escaping the milking every day, twice a day. I hated it and the despair I felt was quite profound.

I slept in a shed with no light or water on an old army stretcher with four potato bags stitched together as a blanket. The farm was in the middle of nowhere and even if I could escape I had nowhere to go, I knew nobody.

The biggest killer for me was the loneliness, I came from an institution with 250 kids to living in a shed on my own, the farmer wouldn't have anything to do with me and wouldn't let me into his house or near his family. That was my life for two and a half years. I've never gotten over that and I'm 76 now."

THANK YOU FOR THIS LIFE!

BY LLOYD GORMAN Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact.

Riverton man Norman Johnston might just as easily have walked past the bundle of Irish Scenes in the Celtic Club without picking one up, but he did. Norman says idle curiosity made him reach out for one of the magazines near the main entrance but that simple decision would come to mean a lot to him.

A short article and photograph tucked away on page 60 of the May-June edition with the heading "Lena (and Paddy) on the Mend" was about the former Irish Club Presidents at a recent Norman Johnston seniors lunch in the Club said both had had health setbacks but were now doing fine.

For Norman it was a revelation. "I thought Lena or Paddy or both of them were dead, that's what I had been told. I couldn't believe it when I saw the photo of the two of them, it was a relief and joy to know they were still around, I couldn't believe it, I was so happy to see them," he said. Paddy and Lena are two of the best known and well liked people in Perth's Irish community and many readers would have been pleased to read the news that they were doing well. Norman had a very deep and personal reason to be happy and overwhelming urge to meet them, again.

Norman arrived at the farm with no money (he had none) and the farmer would not sub him anything so he could buy a few toiletries.

"It was nine weeks before I got my first wages, there was a long time of cleaning my teeth with a bit of soap in the cow trough.

Isolation, misery, despair and loneliness accompanied Norman

THE IRISH SCENE | 32

every day of his life until one day when he was seventeen and slaving away as usual fate stepped in and saved him. Welfare department officers inspected the farm and told him he could leave and to report in to their offices in Perth. Norman didn't have to be told twice but he did have to give two weeks notice to his 'employer'. "I left as soon as I could, I didn't even hang around to collect my last week's wages. On the last day there he kept me in the dairy shed until 7am and told me I could go. I thought he might offer me a lift to the station (Waroona) about five miles away but he didn't. So I just grabbed my bags - which had been packed for two weeks - and ran all the way and I just managed to catch the train. There was no way I was going to miss that train Waroona to Perth," he said.

He was now free but still alone and heading into the unknown, but all that changed when he kept his appointment with the welfare department in the city. As well as the officials, waiting there for him was Galway woman Lena Costello who was going to take him in.

"It was a major junction in my life," said Norman. "In a few hours I went from the trauma of a terrible life to turning my life right around."

Lena took him home to the family home in West Leederville where she lived with Paddy and their five children. "I was going around the back of the house to sleep in the shed but they told me to come into the house where I had a bedroom with lovely white streets and a bed.

I couldn't believe I was being cared for. I couldn't believe how kind they all were. I remember Paddy took me to the pub - I think it was the Wembley Hotel - for a drink and he asked me what I wanted and he said you're only seventeen, you're having a squash. They looked after me, cared for me and in a way loved me. It opened my eyes and changed my view towards humanity. We had known no different from the cruel way we were brought up. But here was a wonderful world with a beautiful family."

Norman, they took in other students. All would follow their own paths and some would come back to say thanks. Lena and Paddy would look after them all like they did their own six children. "We treated him (Norman) like family," said Lena. I tried to give him Former Irish Club Presidents, Paddy and advice about things he needed Lena Costello at the Irish to know and do, like opening Club Senior's Lunch. a bank account, something he Paddy wasn't well some didn't know how to do. I advised month's ago and then him about joining the army Lena had a fall. But now all is good and they are too. If you can't do something back on deck and doing good for somebody then what's just fine! the point and its nice to know you've done something good for The article from the May-June edition that caught Norman’s eye someone else. I'm glad he came back to us, he told us that he thought we were dead. There's In 1961 Norman joined the Australian military and was no point in coming back to us when we're dead," Lena deployed across the country, and he did two tours of duty laughed. in Vietnam in 1965 and 1970. "When I got back from Vietnam both times I caught up with them but then Norman will be eternally grateful to the entire Costello some time later I was told that they had died and I felt clan. He is retired from the armed services now but sorry that they had passed away because I had missed enjoyed his time in uniform, he says in part because he an opportunity to say goodbye and to show them some was institutionalised as a child. For more than 20 years comfort and gratitude." now he has also been the president of the International When he saw them alive and well in the Irish Scene Association of Former Child Migrants and their Families, Norman said he was overwhelmed with emotion and which works with other child migrant bodies, to help he knew he wanted to reach out to try and contact others with similar experiences. He had a family and them. He figured they must have moved from their grandchildren now something he says would have been West Leederville home and not knowing another way to impossible for him to even contemplate when he was a contact them so he contacted Irish Scene directly and young man. asked for help to be put in touch with them.

"I don't know where I'd be in life if it wasn't for that He might have found them more easily than he thought. wonderful family, I'd do anything for them".

Lena said on June 29 the Costello's had been living in the same house for exactly 63 years.

Lena (and Paddy) on the Mend!

The two parties have met up on a couple of occasions already with more "chinwags" planned. One of those times was in the Irish Club where Norman recognised some other people he knew.

Tony and Veronica McKee PO Box 994 Hillarys WA 6923

Lena said it was lovely to hear from him again and to know how his life turned out. "It was nice to see him again, he was really appreciative, he reckons we gave him his life back," she said.

Lena explained that she had spotted a notice in the Record Newspaper all those years ago calling for families to look after students. She responded to the advertisement and as well as

info@mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au www.mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au Tel (08) 9401 1900 • Fax: 9401 1911

Mob: 0413 337 785

THE IRISH SCENE | 33

IRELAND’S FIRST FARMERS

BY BILL DALY The Neolithic settlers who came to Ireland around 3,500 BC were descended from the old Ice Age stocks of Western Europe. This was at a time when the Mesolithic (huntergatherer) phase was coming to an end. They have left to the Irish of today the physical heritage of paler skins and a higher number of light – coloured eyes than the people of any other area in the world.

At this time, on the mainland of what we know call Europe, people were beginning to explore new territories in a search for the best possible growing climate. Ireland would have had much to offer the prospective pioneers in the way of landing beaches, rivers leading to the interior of the country, lakes full of abundant fish stocks, woods full of game with no dangerous animals,

with a fertile soil and a mild climate.

In Archaeology, we call this the Neolithic or New Stone Age. There are two theories in relation to the origins of Agriculture in Ireland.

The first of these suggests that members of the Hunter-Gatherer (Mesolithic) people made journeys out to Europe where sheep, goats and cattle had been domesticated since around 4,000 BC. They then would have ferried young cattle, sheep and goats as well as varieties of wheat and barley to this country.

The second theory sees a large amount of people who journey from Europe across to Ireland. Whole families would have moved together with the domestic animals and crop seeds between August and November, after the crops had been harvested and when food stocks would have been plentiful. Which of these theories is the true one will

THE IRISH SCENE | 34

possibly never be known, but I have always favoured the first theory – a movement of ideas and not of people. Overall, this would have led to a fair degree of colonization and population increase.

Upon arriving, the animals would have had to be securely penned in order to protect them from wolves and foxes, who would never have seen such slow moving animals before. During this period, the pollen record shows a sharp decline in elm species and an increase in the traditional farming weeds of ribwort plantain, dock and nettles.

This shows that the forests were being cleared for tillage by ringbarking the trees and also by burning the ground scrub, which would give a much more fertile soil. After a while, they would have begun to collect manure and change the tillage patch every four to five years.

The Neolithic people used pottery vessels and implements of stone and flint, such as polished stone axes, digging mattocks, awls, scrapers and javelin heads.

The previous Hunter- Gatherer people would have been restricted to small families because of the movement involved, but the Neolithic folk could afford to have larger families as they had little or no movement and had more food supplies to go around. For the first time ever, they were able to create a food surplus which is always a driver of great civilizations and population.

Agriculture and pastoralism were established in Ireland by 3,500 BC, the humble beginnings of our most important industry today.

After the Neolithic people began to organize themselves, settle into a farming lifestyle and increase in numbers, there came into Ireland one of the most remarkable occurrences in the history of Irish culture.

During a period of many centuries, magnificent tombs, large pillars and impressive stone circles were erected in all parts of the island.

These features are called megalithic (large stone) monuments. They were

built so solidly that over 1500 of them survive in Ireland today, and where they are still looked upon with fascination and reverence.

The houses of the monument builders were poorly fabricated structures of timber and thatch, but much more work went into the construction of the monuments to make sure they were solidly built and dry. The magnificent passage tomb of Newgrange in Co. Meath is one of the earliest buildings in the world, even constructed before the Pyramids in Egypt. Building these impressive monuments required enormous amounts of materials, manpower and also some scientific and technical knowledge. The task was all the more remarkable when one considers that neither the wheel (late Neolithic) nor iron tools were in use during this period.

Bill Daly: Originally from Tallow in West Waterford, Bill spent 30 years in Cork as a Senior Manager in the Electronics Manufacturing industry with such companies as Apple, EMC and Logitech. He has been working on his own as a Consultant/ Contractor in Manufacturing Operations and Materials for the past 18 years.

He also attended UCC and has a BA Degree in Archaeology and Geography.

Bill is now resident in Connemara, Co. Galway since 2009.

‘Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better’ –Albert Einstein.

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BY LLOYD GORMAN

ISTEACH SA TEACH Did Australia’s Republican dream perish with Bob Hawke?

Australia’s chances of ever becoming a Republic slipped ever further away in June (election time). Despite widespread polling and a common consensus to the contrary, the Coalition Government (Australian Liberal Party/The National Party) strolled back into power. The Australian Labor Party had been anticipating a convincing win, but their ambitions fell far short of reality.

One of the (many) things Labor had promised if it got into power was a plebiscite - as was the case for same sex marriage - on Australia becoming a republic. It is a cause that Prime Minister Scott Morrisson and his political pals have very little appetite for and after their trouncing Labor may not have the stomach to pursue the idea further, leaving the Republican agenda in limbo.

Bob Hawke - who died just two days before the May federal election championed the republic model of government for Australia. It was under his Prime Ministership that the ALP first made republicanism its official policy in 1991. Hawke himself is said to have described a republic as being “inevitable”. Hawke’s successor to the top job Paul Keating took the cause even further, which would lead to a Republican referendum in 1999. More than half of all voters and states voted no to replacing the Queen and governor general with the office of the President of the Commonwealth of Australia. The idea was not killed off entirely but it was left in such a weakened state that it has struggled to put up a spirited argument since. Hawke - who spent his early life and education in Perth - was a strong advocate for the cause but even someone of his stature and

ability could not bring the country along with him. In his absence, and without anyone on the political landscape to carry on the campaign it is hard to foresee how that situation will change now or into Irish Ambassador Breandán Ó Caollaí enjoying the company of the future. I am reminded Bob Hawke of the line from WB Yeats’s a republic that shuts out some of its poem September 1913 - “Romantic own citizens, but that may finally be Ireland is dead and gone, it’s with about to change. In March 2017 the O’Leary in the grave”. Is Republican Irish government promised to hold a Australia dead and gone and with referendum (of Irish voters) to ask if Hawke in the grave? Hopefully not! the constitution should be changed With all that said Ireland might well to allow Irish citizens overseas to be a republic but in some ways it take part in the Irish presidential ain’t a patch on the constitutional election. That ballot was originally monarchy system that Australia uses. meant to take place in June, but has Take the federal election for example. been moved to October. There are The Australian Ambassador in some arguments against why the Ireland enthusiastically tweeted vote should be extended, but there messages with photos about how are plenty of good reasons why the he and his staff had turned the 2025 presidential election should be diplomatic outpost beside St. opened up to the Diaspora.

Stephen’s Green into a ballot centre “I sometimes feel people abroad are where Australian citizens living in better attuned to what’s happening Ireland could go to do their cast their on the ground than perhaps some vote to help pick the next national of those living in Ireland, so I think administration. “The team and the they have a legitimate viewpoint chancery is ready for next Tuesday as anybody else and they do have when early #voting commences in that right, that entitlement,” #Dublin for #FederalElection2019 junior minister for the Diaspora - looking forward to seeing and International Development #democracy in action over the next Ciarán Cannon told SBS News in an 2 weeks #Elections,” Ambassador interview in late June, during a visit to Richard Andrews Tweeted on May Australia.

3. Four days later he tweeted again: “Voting now under way in #Dublin “We think it’s perfectly appropriate treat to see so many #Aussies coming and indeed desirable that those 3.6 in to exercise their democratic right!”. million citizens who live outside the republic should have a role to play For too long now Irish people in deciding who is our first citizen.” living in Australia (and elsewhere Now its up to our brothers and sisters, abroad) have been denied the same cousins and friends in Ireland to access to their electoral system ‘at decide if we get that vote! home’? What we have at present is

THE IRISH SCENE | 36

Hawke was ‘a little bit Irish’ Hawke was for many an Australian legend, but there was also a special regard for him in Ireland.

my intention that due recognition be paid to the obligation Australians owe to the original Australians."

"When I arrived at Dublin Airport on Sunday, I told the Taoiseach that I felt as if I had arrived home," were the opening words of Hawke's address to Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, on his state visit to Ireland in October 1987.

Hawke was greeted like a rock star by the Irish public, and political classes alike. He became close with then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and returned the favour with an invite to come Down Under in the following year, to help mark the Bicentennial celebrations.

"The friendly welcome you extended to me then has been borne out in all that I have been shown by all whom I have met over the past few days. I have seen the beauty of your country and felt the spontaneous warmth of your people. Indeed, I do feel at home."

He spoke at length about the relationship between Ireland and Australia, the fourth head of a foreign country to ever address the Irish assembly.

"Australia is very much the richer for having been able to draw on the generous influx of Irish aspirations, Irish traditions, and Irish spirit," he added. "We would not be the country we are today were it not for you. It is those bequests which are the durable and over-arching bicentennial gifts from Ireland to Australia. They are the debts Australians for their part owe to the Irish."

The Irish capital and Australia were on the brink of celebrating two major milestones he pointed out.

"Next year Australia is to celebrate the bicentenary of the arrival of the First Fleet on Australian shores on 26 January 1788. Dublin, this great seat of European civilisation, will celebrate its millennium in 1988. It is appropriate to recall here that before the First Fleet was ever conceived of, and before even the foundation of Dublin itself, there was a living civilisation in Australia that of the Aboriginal people a civilisation which stretches back at least 40,000 years. For all that our bicentenary celebrations must focus on the achievements of the last 200 years, it will be

The PM's close relationship with Ireland also came into play in that year in another way. Hawke was born in South Australia, but was raised in Perth, Western Australia and was a fondly adopted son of the western state. It also meant he had close links with WA's Labor party and government figures. Former WA Premier Brian Burke in particular was a staunch supporter of the former trade union leader on his ascent to the top office. Burke's premiership ended as Hawke was in power in Canberra.

"Before stepping down, I flew to Canberra to tell the Prime Minister of my plans," Brian Burke wrote in his 2017 autobiography A Tumultuous Life. "When I arrived at The Lodge I don't think Hawke had any idea of the reason for my visit.

He was very surprised.

I told Hawke I would be leaving Parliament on 25 February 1988, my 41st birthday. He tried hard to dissuade me from going. He said I was young enough to have a good career in federal politics, where I would be a senior minister and might even be prime minister. Hawke knew I hated flying and said a safe seat could easily be found in Melbourne or Sydney. But my mind was made up. Hawke didn't miss a beat when I told him I wanted to be Australia's Ambassador to Ireland. Without asking why, he said he would make sure I was appointed. He didn't say it would be hard and he didn't make me think I was asking for a lot. He simply said "Yes".

On July 24, 1988 the entire Burke family left Perth, destined for Ireland.

Burke's appointment as Ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See (Vatican) lasted just over a year because of growing domestic political pressure at home in WA. Some of the Burke family stayed on in Ireland and are there today, with Brian Burke and his wife Sue visiting every year."

Above: Hawke is pictured here with Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and racehorse trainer William O’Brien during his trip to Ireland. Left of Haughey is O’Brien’s wife, Jacqueline. She was from a famous WA pioneer family (Wittenoom) and the couple spent their time living between Ireland and WA. They had five children. Jacqueline was also a prolific author having published several beautifully illustrated books on Irish heritage and a history of the Wittenoom family (On We Go The Wittenoom Way) by way of a family tree to pass onto her Irish and Australian offspring and descendants.

Left: Jacqueline O’Brien THE IRISH SCENE | 37

ISTEACH SA TEACH Parliamentary salute to Irish ANZAC’s John Dwyer and Martin O’Meara “I recently had the great pleasure of attending a very moving ceremony at Karrakatta Cemetery.

It was a headstone dedication for Lance Corporal John Dwyer. Lance Corporal Dwyer was an Irishman who came to Australia in the late 1890s,” Stephen Dawson, the Irish born member of parliament for the Mining and Pastoral region and serving Minister for Environment told the Legislative Council on May 15, 2019.

“Before he came to Australia, at the age of 18, John was conscripted into the British Royal Irish Regiment in 1896, in which he served for 12 years. Upon moving to Australia, he spent a few years in Western Australia before World War I began. At that time, John joined the 11th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force, which was the first battalion to land at Gallipoli on what is now known as Anzac Day. John suffered multiple injuries, including bullet and bomb wounds.

He then went on to fight in France for two years before returning to Australia. John led a very lonely life in Australia and died alone of cancer, aged 71, after suffering from his wounds all his life.

“Lance Corporal Dwyer had lain buried in an unmarked grave in Karrakatta cemetery for over 70 years.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Ashayla Ramsay, who works for the Returned and Services League of Australia in Western Australia and brought Lance Corporal Dwyer’s story to my attention. It was very moving to attend the ceremony a few weeks ago. Lance Corporal Dwyer’s great grandnephew, Peter Dwyer, made the trek over from Kilkenny in Ireland.

Top right: L-R Stephen Dawson, Peter Dwyer and Marty Kavanagh.

Above: Graveside ceremony for John Dywer THE IRISH SCENE | 38

“It was Peter who had brought Lance Corporal Dwyer’s life and the fact that they did not know where his grave was to the RSL’s attention.

“The ceremony was very moving. It was attended by representatives of his family and Ireland’s Honorary Consul to Western Australia, Mr Marty Kavanagh, who read the poem An Irish Airman Foresees His Death. Representatives of the RSL and the Western Australian community were also in attendance.

“It is very important we acknowledge those people who have given up their lives to keep us safe—in this case Lance Corporal Dwyer, an Irishman who came to his adopted country and fought to keep his fellow citizens safe.”

“I congratulate Shay Ramsay on her work to ensure that Lance Corporal Dwyer was finally acknowledged and recognised. I also thank Peter Dwyer from Kilkenny, who flew to Western Australia to be part of the ceremony and whose work resulted in his great granduncle’s life being acknowledged in Western Australia.”

trenches. It is reported that O’Meara saved the lives of more than 25 men during those four days, leading one of his officers to describe him as the most fearless and gallant soldier he MP Peter Tinley had ever seen. His Victoria Cross was gazetted less than 30 days after the battle, the citation reading that Private O’Meara had showed throughout an utter contempt of danger, and undoubtedly saved many lives. By the end of the Great War, O’Meara had been promoted to sergeant and had himself been wounded three times. Sadly, Martin O’Meara was institutionalised almost immediately on his return to Western Australia, suffering from what we today call post-traumatic stress disorder—a condition very little understood at the time, and a vivid reminder of the other side of the human cost of war.

Last month, Irish Minister for Justice and Equality, Charles Flanagan, TD, announced that Martin O’Meara’s Victoria Informal outdoor portrait of 3970 Private (Pte) Martin O’Meara being congratulated Cross, held at the Meanwhile, another Irish born by fellow hospital patients, all wearing ‘hospital blues’, following the announcement Army Museum of man who served in the AIF in of his Victoria Cross award in the London Gazette on 9 September 1916.- Australian Western Australia World War I was also honoured War Memorial in Fremantle, will in state parliament recently. be sent to Ireland for 12 months and placed on display Mr Peter Tinley, the Minister for Veterans Issues, made at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. This is the a statement to the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday June 26.”I rise today to tell a story more than 130 years in first time in more than four decades that an Australian the making—the story of Private Martin O’Meara, VC - an Victoria Cross has left our shores, and I applaud all those Irish-born immigrant who more than a century after who helped make this happen. More than a century on, his birth is helping strengthen the cultural ties between we remember the feats of this great Irish–Australian, and Australia and Ireland,” Mr Tinley, who is also the member this exchange reminds us of the legacy of the Anzacs for Willagee said. and is another chapter in ensuring they will always be “As what would be described today as a mature-age remembered. Lest we forget.” recruit, Martin O’Meara enlisted in the Australian Ian Loftus, author of ‘The most fearless and gallant Imperial Force in 1915 at age 30. Within a year, as a soldier I have ever seen’, about O’Meara, tweeted the stretcher-bearer in Western Australia’s own 16th Battalion, next day: “Great to see Minister@Tinley MLA mention he found himself at the battle of Mouquet Farm, part of Martin O’Meara VC in the Legislative Assembly yesterday. the larger Pozières battle. Across the four days of battle, @VCGCOnline@irlembaustralia@DawsoMLC@ during which 16th Battalion suffered extremely heavy IRMilitaryStory@irlwa” casualties, O’Meara repeatedly ventured out into noRead more about O’Meara and his Victoria Cross Medal man’s-land, including during barrages from the enemy, to going to Ireland on page 48. carry and drag the wounded Anzac soldiers back to Allied

THE IRISH SCENE | 39

Irish medical students get a taste of

a Country Practice...

WA style As this edition of Irish Scene hits the streets four medical students from NUI Galway will just have completed a six week stint in Western Australia as part of an exchange programme with the University of Western Australia, which would have seen four of its students travel to Ireland for a similar experience.

“Each June four students from each university swap continents and experience life and a different healthcare environment,” the Irish university states on its website.

Galway students initially spend three weeks in Fremantle A&E department followed by three weeks in a rural and remote general practice at Narrogin in the Wheatbelt region.

NUI Galway student Orla Fitzpatrick took part in the scheme and shared some of her work place experiences in Fremantle Hospital and Narrogin Hospital and of WA generally.

“During our three week attachment to the Fremantle ED we were fully encouraged to become part of the team, seeing patients and presenting them to the team with our management plan in place, cannulating, taking bloods and assisting in suturing and plaster casting were all everyday occurrences,” she said.

“The team at Fremantle ED is made up of doctors from all over the world including Ireland and the UK and made us feel very welcome during our time both inside and outside the hospital. Also the students from local universities were also there at

Australian medical students enjoying their time in Ireland the same time so we got to see what life is like as a med student in Oz. We were lucky enough to visit the Royal Flying Doctors Base just outside Perth where we were given an overview of the organisation and a tour of the base including the planes.

“Fremantle itself is a great place to spend time with great bars and restaurants. A trip to Rottnest Island is a must as is the maritime museum; no really it’s that good! This is a really safe suburb of Perth but within easy reach of the city and some fantastic beaches, better than anything we saw on the east coast. If you want to cuddle a koala and feed the ‘roos’ head to Caversham in the outskirts of Perth for an afternoon.”

Narrogin - which is a 50 bed public hospital - was bigger and better than many might think, she added. “The hospital has more to offer than any of us were expecting and the staff were very welcoming. It’s the kind of place you have to make your own fun but with the help of a car (an absolute must in my opinion) you can see a lot of the south, of Western Australia from Narrogin. We used two of our weekends to take road trips, the first to Albany where we got to experience the migration of the humpback whales and the second to Margaret River, 365 vineyards in total – need I say more.

“One of the GPs in Narrogin lives with her husband and family on a sheep station about 40 minutes away and invited us out for a day to see how they “do” farming in Australia, a real eye opener and an unexpected highlight. During our visit, the Nurses’ home was unable to accommodate us; so, two of the local GPs opened their homes to us and made us feel very welcome. Clare, who is the administrator in the medical schools base in Narrogin, was great for helping us out with anything we needed.

“This six week elective is a fantastic opportunity to experience both life as a busy ED doctor and also the challenges of practicing medicine in rural Australia. For anyone considering a move to Australia after graduation in would be an invaluable experience both personally and professionally.”

NUI Galway says notices inviting submissions are posted at the beginning of September every year with interested students required to submit an essay with the heading “Why I want to go to Australia”, before the end of October.

A 2015 blog by an unnamed Narrogin Medical Student offers a glimpse

THE IRISH SCENE | 40

into the Irish experience of some Australian students on their exchange. “In 2015 as part of our RCS (rural clinical school) year in Narrogin, we had the priviliage of going to the west coast of Ireland for our four week medical option period. The Narrogin medical students have been given this opportunity for a number of years now, with the travel expenses supported jointly by the Town of Narrogin and the Rural Clinical School. To complete the exchange, four Irish medical students travel to Narrogin during their summer exchange period. Our clinical rotations included two weeks of rural general practice in County Clare and two weeks in a specialist unit of choice in Galway University Hospital.

“Our trip was a fabulous experience with regard to both medical teaching as well as being immersed in the lifestyle of west Ireland. We are all extremely grateful to the Town of Narrogin and the Rural Clinical School for making this trip possible. The Town of Narrogin is very proud to host a RCS site. As students in the town we have always felt welcome and trusted by the local people to be part of their health care…this is one of the joys of being part of a small RCS site. If this is something that appeals to you, we hope you strongly consider applying for Narrogin!”

Top: Fremantle Hospital Above: Narrogin Regional Hospital

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COLONEL JOHN BRUCE His life & career - Part 2

BY PETER CONOLE As discussed in the first part of this series, by mid-June of 1849 John Bruce, lately bothered by unspecified health problems and being only a brevet major in rank, was having trouble with finance. He was in the process of raising a largish family and that cost more money than his income as a staff captain could bear. By January 1850 his family had moved to the port of St Omer in France, where living costs were much more tolerable. Bruce probably joined them there during a period of leave he took for Christmas. It is quite possible he sent his family to St Omer while he continued work at Tilbury, for Bruce will not have been in a position to take extended leave on half-pay.

Something had to give. By early 1850 he was already in discussion with the War Office in London. On January 4 he received a letter explaining the time factor for departure if he was appointed a Staff Officer of Pensioners in Western Australia.

That is, military pensioners. The army officials were discussing what became known as the Enrolled Pensioner Force, a key element in the history of Western Australia during the period 1850 to 1880.

Bruce was required to apply for the position and did so on January 16, with solid support from his appreciative former commander General Sir George D’Aguilar who wrote that Bruce was “an officer who is likely to prove exceedingly useful in such a colony as Western Australia”. In other words he thought Bruce was a good organiser, able to act on his own initiative and ready to take responsibility in an isolated province. The War Office said yes and promptly wrote to Bruce explaining the conditions of his appointment.

In a rather generous move, Bruce

had already been informed that he could take time to settle his affairs and leave for the colony on the second ship with a complement of pensioners and convicts. He was duly gazetted in his position on January 23, 1850.

At this point is essential to explain a few things about the British military pensioner system, because it had a considerable impact around the globe. The beginnings are to some extent lost in the dim, dark past.

F.H.Broomhall wrote back in 1985: “the concept of granting pensions to British soldiers on completion of specified periods of service or where wounds or disabilities were contracted in military service originated so far back in history that its precise beginnings are unknown”.

That is not entirely true, even though there is precious little evidence of a ‘duty of care’ for old soldiers before the 1600s. The balance of probabilities indicate that a military pensioner system in Britain evolved as a direct result of the forming of a regular army after the horrendous sequence of civil wars in England, Ireland and Scotland from about 1640 until the James Butler Restoration of 1660.

It began with the idea of decent health care for battered veterans.

Ireland enters the picture at this stage and in the historical sense

THE IRISH SCENE | 42

Ireland remained very much in the picture for centuries because, to put it bluntly, it was always a first class recruiting ground for soldiers. A solid number of regiments were raised on the ‘Irish Establishment’ but other regiments from all over the British Isles, especially when stationed in Ireland, could set up shop and be sure of signing up sturdy and willing recruits. Religious denomination was not looked at too closely and from 1793 Catholics could also obtain commissions as officers.

To take the issue a step further, it seems that Ireland can take pride of place in the British Isles a la the care of old soldiers. After the overthrow of the brutal Cromwellian Dictatorship and the Restoration King Charles II got the idea that aged, worn out, infirm or crippled soldiers were entitled to care and consideration.

Officers were eligible for pensions from a contingency fund established in 1661, which meant they could go on ‘half pay’ whilst not in actual service.

Common soldiers were left out, though some veterans were retained on the muster rolls without being required to perform duties.

Lump sums were paid as a ‘Kings Bounty’ to widows and orphans. The King decided the system was still not good enough and was persuaded by his illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, to build

a hospital and refuge for deserving old warriors on the same lines as Les Invalides, the Paris hospital opened for aged, wounded and disabled soldiers in 1674.

Kilmainham Hospital In October 1679 King Charles issued a royal warrant to James Butler, Duke of Ormonde (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) for the building of a ‘Hospital for such aged and maimed officers and soldiers as might be discharged as unserviceable and to make a deduction of six pence in the pound from all military pay towards that project’.

The Butlers, one should note, could boast of a past history in Ireland extending back to the year 1185. They emerged as leading figures in the struggle against the Cromwellian regime in dark, difficult times.

Construction work began at Kilmainham near Dublin in April 1680 and in March 1684 the first pensioners were admitted - ten officers and 100 soldiers. The wars of the 1690s made it impossible to include all deserving cases as permanent in-house patients of the system. In 1698 most of the men on the rolls, depending on their health conditions, received pay of 18 pence per week as out-pensioners instead of being maintained in the hospital itself.

For all that, Kilmainham flourished over the next couple of centuries and was a huge boon for Irishmen who risked life and limb in the services.

A pattern became fairly apparent.

There were obvious indications that out-pensioners, those capable of

finding employment but entitled to medical care on a random or regular basis, settled around Dublin and neighbouring counties to marry, raise families and work. Pensions were still paid to the veterans if they found supplementary employment. When health issues began to pose problems the men were still ‘on the books’ and had somewhere to go.

A famous military hospital was soon established in England itself. On September 1681 King Charles ordered Sir Stephen Fox, Paymaster of the Forces, to build an appropriate institution close to the capital.

Fox found means to finance the project on Royal Society property or purchased land at Chelsea. The King generously endowed the project and laid the foundation stone in early 1682. From 1684 Chelsea Hospital was supported by a tax on the purchase price of army commissions and a 5% deduction from all military pay. Sir Christopher Wren’s work on the building and grounds was not completed until 1690. The first few hundred in-pensioners, soldiers

regular soldiers. They were mainly used to bolster defences on the home front in times of crisis, but their use as ‘garrison battalions’ eventually spread to other parts of the world.

Ordinary regiments of the army were hence more easily available for active service.

In 1843 the Government created another system. Pensioners fit enough for duty and ready to uphold the ‘civil power’ were (voluntarily) enrolled for service in various localities under the command of half-pay officers. Wherever they went such pensioners were free to live in their own homes and continue their normal working lives. However, the men were liable for inspection and military exercises eight days each year - extended to twelve days in distant colonies - and could be called upon to serve in emergencies which required military back-up.

By 1792 over 20, 000 pensioners were on duty: the number increased to 61,000 by 1815, then to 85,000 by 1828. Most of them served as garrison troops in England, Scotland and Ireland and, eventually, at Gibraltar and along the Canadian border. One might as well state the obvious - a high proportion of them were from old Ireland. The statistics for veterans

“The ‘Hashemy’ sailed from Portland July 22, 1850 with 100 male convicts, 32 pensioner guards and 72 of their family members. John Bruce was also on board with his wife and junior entourage...”

disabled by wounds or age, were admitted from February 1692.

They were balanced by outpensioners: four companies of invalids still capable of serving in some capacity and who were armed and quartered as garrison soldiers.

The same system was applied to Irish pensioners, either sooner or later. In times of crisis companies of pensioners - soon to become largish garrisons in various parts of the world - were organised and paid as

THE IRISH SCENE | 43

of the Crimean War (1854-1856) who turned up to serve as members in of the Enrolled Pensioner Force in Western Australia are a revelation about 53% of them were Irish. So was their commander, John Bruce, the central figure in this series. In closing, to demonstrate that the Western Australian experience was far from unique, after the above mentioned reform of 1843 detachments of military pensioners were sent continued on page 42

COLONEL JOHN BRUCE His life & career - Part 2

continued from page 41

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overseas to New Zealand in 1847, Tasmania in 1850 and Canada in 1851.

After it been agreed to establish a convict system in Western Australia the first ‘convict ship’, the ‘Scindian’, left Portsmouth in March 1850 with 75 convicts and a number of pensioner guards - the initial contingent of the Enrolled Pensioner Force - with their wives and families, 238 souls in all. The senior men on board were Edmund Henderson of the Royal Engineers, Comptroller General of Convicts, and Thomas Dixon, Superintendent of Convicts. The ship arrived in Fremantle on the first day of June.

There were initial difficulties because the London authorities had forgotten to provide funds for food and the like. Governor Charles Fitzgerald (Irish, of course) stepped in and provided all on board with forage allowances until the problem was sorted out. Henderson was placed in command of the pensioners until John Bruce arrived.

Back in Britain, Bruce was told on May 16 that a ship was going to be chartered to take him, his family, more pensioners and convicts in July. The vessel was the ‘Hashemy’, which under the command of Captain John Ross had taken convicts to New South Wales and Tasmania in 1849. Having a good eye for detail Bruce replied to the War Office on May 21, 1850 stating he “intended to move among the pensioners as an active commander” and therefore needed to be supplied with a horses for his duties. His superiors agreed to the request and, in another neat act of generosity, also told Bruce they would cover the entire cost of food and other essentials for all members of his now rather large family.

The ‘Hashemy’ sailed from Portland July 22, 1850 with 100 male convicts, 32 pensioner guards and 72 of their family members (wives and children). John Bruce was also on board with his wife and junior entourage, which now included five daughters and an infant son. The voyage of the ‘Hashemy’ was uneventful and the Bruce family and all other passengers disembarked at Fremantle on October 25, 1850.

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EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum is a museum located in Dublin’s Docklands which covers the history of the Irish diaspora and emigration to other countries. I visited it while in Dublin in 2017. It was voted as “Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction” at the World Travel Awards 2019. I recently voted in this and received this notification: “We are delighted to announce that EPIC museum has been voted Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the prestigious World Travel Awards 2019, beating the Cliffs of Moher, The Roman Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower. Thank you to all those who voted for us!”

This started me wondering about people I have known and thinking where are they now? Also this time of my life I am now remembering things of interest from the past.

your poor mother. Every time you commit a sin why don’t you put a stone in a sack, this will remind you of all your sins. On Saturday you can take the sack full of stones with you to confession”. Sad and despondent as I was about this attitude toward me, I quickly replied, “but I would need a truck to carry them”!

Another interesting experience was born from ignorance of Australian wild life. One of my neighbours brought home a baby bird he had been given. His wife and family lavished love and care on this little creature, informing me what a wonderful pet she was going to be for the family.

“Ethel” was delightful as she grew bigger and bigger, her neck and her legs getting longer day by day. She loved music so we would turn up the radio and open the window and watch her dance her way around the garden.

On the wings of a

BIRD

At times something will trigger a distant memory.

Listening to Handel’s Messiah on A Song for Ireland last Saturday transported me back to my school days in Dublin.

Among the meagre education available we gathered snippets of cultural history which we absorbed in simple childish language. While listening to that beautiful piece a phrase came into my head, “That fella that played music in Fishamble Street”.

Another incident makes me speculate about how children were admonished during my childhood. When I was about eight years old one of the other tenants in the house we lived in said to me, “Marie, you are such a trouble to

One day when I returned from work, Pam told me of the commotion that had occurred earlier in the day, Ethel had jumped the fence and chased the man next door around his garden, and apparently he was terrified. Soon after that Ethel disappeared again, this time she made her way down the street across the main road and into the playground of the local primary school. There was great excitement and concern until the ranger came and took Ethel away. “Ethel goes to School” was The Daily Mail Cartoon the following day. It was not until then that I became aware that she was an emu; I had never previously seen one.

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’ G da FROM MELBOURNE

BY MIKE BOWEN

y

As we are getting closer to the Rugby World Cup, due to start on September in Japan this year I’d like you know that I have written a song for the lead up to the event, for the traveling fans and also for those who will be celebrating in the many Irish bars around the world. This song has two versions, one that was recorded in Japan by Johnson’s Motorcar, called Over the Line. The other was recorded in Australia by Mike Bowen and called The Irish Rugby song for the World Cup in Japan. Over The Line will be released on iTunes on July 19th and both versions are being covered in a video documentary in Ireland, around the same time.

Downloads will cost you less than the price of a pint.

I urge you to subscribe and download both or either to support Ireland in what I believe will be their finest hour in rugby history. By doing so, you will be helping a great cause, as all income and 100% of royalties is being donated by the writer and the recording artist to the IRFU Charity.

This charity looks after the wellbeing of the players who were injured during their playing careers and also those who have other health issues from their playing days.

It is only fair for us to remember how the game of rugby is today, compared to how it was in days gone by. Those players suffering from the effects, of on and off the field in days gone

by and should never be forgotten for their contribution to today’s magnificent game that we all love.

By downloading the songs you will be paying homage to those players and recognising their part in giving us fans the joy of watching the game they play in heaven or here on earth.

There are two covers, a Japanese in English and an Australian. It would be an extra bonus if an Irish singer in the USA, also did a cover, the more the merrier for raising funds for a great cause. How good is it going to be in Japan before and also when the tournament starts, hearing all those Irish voices singing on the streets and in the many bars.

“We’re coming, we’re coming, we’re coming over mountains and the seas, We’re coming, we’re coming, we’re coming, over the line to make history.”

Who wouldn’t want to be there to see a spectacle like the green army in full voice? I’ll bet if J.C. could get a few days off from his heavy workload in heaven he would be at the bar shouting pints for all those in green.

THE IRISH SCENE | 48

Going to Japan for the tournament will give us Irish expats in Australia a nice relief from our winter. In saying that, I should remind you, if you are going to cheer on our heroes in the land of the rising sun, don’t be expecting to stick your ass in the fireplace of the many bars whilst you are downing your pint. Why? Because there are no fireplaces to accommodate or comfort your rear end.

I took a break for a cup of tea halfway through writing this article and was interrupted by a call from my son Jonathan, who is on assignment in New Zealand to interview Ronan O’Gara, one of Munsters and Ireland’s greatest rugby players. He had just stepped off the plane and gave me a call. The call came something like this: Hi Dad how are you? I thought this comment a little strange, considering we had spent most of the previous day together doing promos for the release of the Rugby songs. I replied fine, how was your flight, expecting his reply to be something like fine or, bloody awful.

His response was, who was one of the biggest bands in the world in 1967?

My reply, the Beatles. His reply, no The Monkees, I reply again no The Beatles, he replies, no it was the Monkees. Then I tell him to hold on while I check Mr Google on my iPad. Sure enough Mr Google tells me that The Monkees were one of the biggest

acts on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in the late 1960s and notched up a total of 20 singles on the Hot 100 in its career. I should have known because in my days, back in Ireland as a teenager I had to be home every Saturday before tea time to watch The Monkees. They were huge, a not to be missed TV show for every teenager then. Hit after hit like I’m A Believer, Daydream Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, and many

more. Ooops I nearly forgot to get back to Jonathan hanging on the line in New Zealand. Hi Jonathan are you still there? Oh sorry I got carried away singing Monkees songs. What’s this about all about , you and I having an international conversation of who was who of the biggest act in the 60s . He replies, I well remember you singing I’m A Believer and telling me, you were never a huge fan of The Beatles. Yeah, I respond, what

has all this got to do with you being over in New Zealand on your current assignment? Well dad you will never believe who was sitting next to me on the flight over. I reply who? Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz, they are on tour and doing some shows here and will be in Melbourne on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th. You and I are going to be showing the lads around Melbourne for the day on Friday and going to the show on the Saturday. They have also agreed to do an interview with me for this paper. His call finished with, sorry to steal your thunder see you soon.

When he hung up all the memories of my youth flooded back and now I am like a two year old child in a lolly shop, can’t wait to catch up with my childhood idols. Strange old world, how things come together sometimes.

UNTIL NEXT TIME, BE GOOD TO THOSE WHO LOVE YOU AND SLAINTE, FROM MELBOURNE

Jonathan Bowen and Monkee Mike Nesmith

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The homecoming story of

Martin o’meara’s VC

BY LLOYD GORMAN The month of July will see Western Australia and Ireland break the mold!

born men and women served in the Australian Imperial Forces during WWI, but O’Meara was the only one to win a VC. It will travel from Artillery Barracks in Fremantle to Collins Barracks, near Heuston Station, to be part of the “Cost of War - Costas Cogaidh” exhibition.

In an Australian first, the World War I Victoria Cross (VC) medal of Martin O’Meara is being transferred on loan from the Army Museum in Fremantle to the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

“The loan of a VC (classified as a national treasure) by the Australian government is so rare that it needed an act of parliament to allow the medal to temporarily leave the country,” the Army Museum of Western Australia said is a press release.

National Museum of Ireland director Lynn Scarff was quoted as saying she was “delighted” the medal was being loaned and would be displayed in Dublin. “We are especially honoured given that it is the first loan permitted under new Australian regulations. This loan will provide us with a new opportunity to strengthen the ongoing work and connection between our two countries’ histories and heritage.”

O’Meara’s Victoria Cross medal front & back (image courtesy of the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia)

O’Meara’s VC - the highest decoration that can be awarded to Australian or Commonwealth service personnel - has been held and displayed by the Fremantle facility for some years now, but for the next twelve months it will call Ireland home. A farewell function at the local Army Museum is planned for July 22. Almost precisely 102 years earlier, the VC was presented to O’Meara by King George V at Buckingham Palace, London on July 21, 1917. A similar reception is planned at the other end in Dublin.

He was recognised for the courage he showed over four days in August 1916, by pulling some 25 wounded Australian soldiers to safety from No Man’s Land on the Western Front in France. An estimated 6,600 Irish

The loan of the VC to the National Museum of Ireland will likely be the second time the medal has visited the shores of Ireland, according to a media release put out

THE IRISH SCENE | 50

by the Australian Embassy in Ireland in April. ”After receiving his VC medal from King George V, O’Meara later visited Ireland in October 1917,” the release stated. “It is highly likely that he took his medal with him when he visited family in Tipperary.”

It will also be the first time the VC will be reunited with another medal awarded to O’Meara, his World War I Victory medal, which has been cared for by a family member. “It is hoped that publicity in Ireland the recognition of O’Meara’s valour and suffering will lead to the whereabouts of his missing British War Medal.

The Australian Army Museum of Western Australia will be supporting this unique loan with sets of replica medals for the National Museum of Ireland and the O’Meara family case in specially engraved jarrah display boxes, together with cased copies of Michael Madden’s publication The Victoria Cross; Australia Remembers which features O’Meara’s VC on the cover, and signed copies of O’Meara’s biography by local author Ian Loftus.”

Ian Loftus, who lives in Perth, was not able to travel to Ireland for the event, but another Perth local who has a bit of history with O’Meara will happily be in Dublin for the occasion.

Leith Landauer is a volunteer guide at Kings Park and she learned about O’Meara - who has a plaque around the eternal flame as part of the state war memorial - in this role. His story struck a chord with her and Leith has been a constant champion of his memory. It was thanks to a phone call several years ago from Leith to her local paper (The POST and this writer) that a graveside service was organised at short notice at his grave in Karrakatta, which has in the intervening years been put on a heritage trail of the cemetery.

Newspaper and magazine stories, a play “Under Any Old Gumtree” and Ian Loftus’s book have all been written and produced since as a result. O’Meara’s legacy has also been recognised in state parliament in that same timeframe. More recently Leith also suggested erecting a memorial to him during consultation for a master plan for the park.

O’Meara receiving his Victoria Cross medal at Buckingham Palace in 1917

Leith is also well connected to the community in Ireland that preserves and promotes O’Meara’s story. These include her friend from Cork, Angela Gallagher, who has a blog A Silver Voice from Ireland. Angela has been out to Perth and visited some of the sites specific to O’Meara. Angela had been trying to get Leith to travel to Ireland for some time and when she did, it just so happened it was around the same time as the O’Meara medal was going to Ireland - a happy coincidence.

She also recognised Irish author Martin King who has researched and written about O’Meara.

Ultimately the loan of O’Meara’s VC can be traced back to the curatorial team at the Army Museum of WA itself. Richard Bennet from the museum told Irish Scene it was something they wanted to do about three years ago, to be in time for the commemorations to mark the centenary of WWI in Ireland. For various reasons it wasn’t possible to hit that deadline, but now O’Meara’s Victoria Cross is coming home to Ireland, if only for a short time.

THE IRISH SCENE | 51

Leith Landauer

O’Meara’s biography, written by Perth author Ian Loftus

Australian memoirs of an Irish patriot

held by Trinity College Dublin In what appears to be the worst outbreak in some time this years flu season has sadly claimed some 220 Australian lives and struck down another 100,000. Influenza has always been deadly - the so called “Spanish Flu” of 1918 killed more people than World War I - but in more modern times society seems to have become complacent about the threat it poses. An historic case of a flu fatality had the potential to alter the course of Irish Australian history.

In 1895 Michael Davitt - a towering figure in the causes of Irish nationalism and social justice - left Dublin to begin a tour of Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Hawaii and the United States.

“One of the aims of the tour was to reconnect with the Irish communities in Australia after Charles Stewart Parnell’s adulterous relationship with Kitty O’Shea became public knowledge and caused major damage to the Irish Parliamentary Party’s (IPP) reputation internationally,” the Manuscripts at Trinity (College Dublin) website states. “IrishAustralians had been major financial contributors to Irish famine relief, the IPP and the Land League throughout the nineteenth century. Their support was essential for continuing the campaign towards Irish Home Rule

in Westminster.

Other reasons for the tour were personal; including Davitt’s need to make money for his family by lecturing in Australia and New Zealand.”

Even before Davitt reached Australia his family suffered a terrible tragedy back in Ireland.

While in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he received a telegram from his wife Mary, Kathleen, their six-year old daughter had died suddenly from the flu. Despite what must have been an overwhelming desire to return home Mary urged him to continue with his ‘mission’. “Following his wife’s advice, Davitt continued on his voyage to Australia,” the TCD site continued.

he lists these as ‘any number of men with University training, pressmen, politicians, barristers, lawyers…all here on same gold hunting purpose’.

The independence of the miners from the Australian authorities is illustrated by his photographs of a fire on Bailey Street in Coolgardie, which he reports in his diary was caused by the burning of an effigy of the Mayor of the town.

Davitt includes an interview with Catholic bishop [of Perth] Matthew Gibney in his book. Gibney discusses the mistreatment of Aborigines, the privatisation of Aboriginal land and hunting grounds in Western Australia. In Life and Progress Davitt declares that ‘the white man’s law justifies him in stealing the black man’s country, his wife, and daughters whenever he wants them; but to take a sheep from this moral professor of the ten commandments is to earn the penalty of a bullet!’

“Following Davitt was a radical his tour of figure whose family Australia had suffered as a direct and New result of the Famine.

Zealand, He dedicated his life Davitt to the cause of land published reform, political and Life and social justice and Crowd of men at a sale of mining lots, Coolgardie human rights and he Progress in 1895 Australasia understood the value of in 1897. the Irish Diaspora.

His book focuses on the gold rush in David and his wife would be given a Western Australia and particularly house at Roselawn, in Ballybrack, Co. on the town of Coolgardie. Davitt Dublin, which became known as the describes Coolgardie as ‘full of the ‘Land League Cottage’ in thanks for gold-seeking fever’, with miners his life-long fight for tenants’ rights. from vastly different backgrounds.

He died on May 31, 1906, aged sixty.

In his diary for Western Australia…

Davitt’s papers and photographs are held by Trinity College Library and have been digitised and can be accessed for research purposes.

Go to www.tcd.ie/ library/manuscripts/ or email: mscripts@tcd.ie

THE IRISH SCENE | 52

Seán Doherty Branch

Page Sponsored by: Reid’s Bootmakers

BICKLEY MUSIC CAMP Our Camp in May was a great success and we are having another one in October the 18th to 20th. All are very welcome whether you play music or not! Look our for more details nearer the time.

Ceilidhi We are having our Ceilidhi on the 19th of July at the Irish Club. Starts at 7pm. Entrance is free for members and $5 for non members. All kids are free. If you play an instrument bring it along and you can join the Session! Looking forward to seeing you all there. PS. can you bring a plate to share?

If you need any information about the Camp or Ceilidhi you can contact Yvonne on 0488 149 382

WEEKLY SESSION

EVERY MONDAY @ THE IRISH CLUB

Come and learn a tune 7pm in the committee room or join in the session.

There is also set dancing most Mondays about 8.30 pm.

It’s great fun, beginners welcome.

For news updates visit: www.facebook.com/perthcomhaltas

THE IRISH SCENE | 53

Meet...

maureen trewin

WITH TONY SYNNOTT

1.

What county in Ireland did your dad come from?

7.

When did you decide to come to Perth and why?

I am led to believe my father came from the county of Laoise and was born in 1895.

2.

What was his full name and what was his schooling?

I decided to leave Moora. I felt it was time for me to venture out and I had been told a little about Perth, plus there were a number of my friends from the orphanage living there.

His full name was John Norton, he was also known as Jack. Now with regard to his schooling I know nothing about it.

8.

What is your opinion of the Irish Scene?

3.

How did you come to Australia?

I came out to Australia under the Child Migrant Scheme from England in 1953. We sailed on the HMS New Australian, which arrived into Fremantle, WA on February 22, 1953.

I have been reading the Irish Scene for a number of years now. I wish I had known about it earlier. I find it so interesting and informative and it has brought out the Irish in me after years of being dormant.

Love it and the the Irish Scene in general.

9.

You come to the Irish seniors with your friends and on St. Patrick’s Day. Do you enjoy yourself ?

Yes I go to the Irish Seniors monthly lunch at the Irish Club. Of course I enjoy myself, the food, entertainment and meeting new friends and a Guinness or two makes it a wonderful few hours to enjoy yourself with all your friends and the same goes for St. Patrick’s Day.

4.

How old were you when you came here and did you feel at home?

I was 10 years of age when I arrived here. At that point in time I did not feel at home. Six weeks on a ship and not really knowing why and where I was going. I remember getting off the ship in a daze of confusion.

10. Have you got any hobbies or how do you pass your days?

5.

How long did you stay in Geraldton and how did you kill your time?

I stayed in Geraldton at an orphanage for six years. I killed my time there getting used to my new surroundings and constantly asking questions whey I was here. But it did not take me long to learn that all the other girls there came out to Australia under the Child Migrant Scheme. And in answer to your question. I did as I was told.

11. As you live in the Hills, do you find it hard to get around?

6.

At what age did you go to work?

I was 16 years of age when I went to work. I was sent to work on a farm in Moora, WA. My duties were domestic, cooking, cleaning and looking after three young children for board and keep.

My hobbies are too many! but here are a few of them. Cooking, sewing, quilting, sharing and caring, singing, dancing, reaching, researching and of course talking on all sorts of subjects. This is how I pass my days.

No, I don’t find it hard to get around in “The Hills”, which have access to public transport but I’m not to sure what it it would be like to use it if I did not drive.

12. Last of all, what do you think of the way women today are portraying themselves, young and old?

Wow, what a question! “Political correctness” comes to the forefront of my mind. So I think I will keep my opinions to myself for fear of litigation.

THE IRISH SCENE | 54

“Da”

BY CLAIRE WYNNE Well what a great show that was! Irish Theatre Players were faced with a double challenge this season – firstly find a new venue to perform in, and secondly to stage a well-known, muchloved play such as “Da” by Hugh Leonard.

And safe to say, we did it! We’re so grateful to our patient supporters who stuck with us while we searched for new premises, and we’re thankful to the Leederville Sporting who offered us to hire out their function room, just as time was running out! We set about the epic task of building a credible theatre from scratch – raised seating, staging, props, sound & lighting rig, back stage area, the lot! We’d like to sincerely thank our amazing volunteers who made it all possible! And thanks to you, our audiences, who came along and laughed and cried in all the right places, and made it all worthwhile.

The next item in the ITP diary is our Reading Night on July 2nd (7pm at Leederville Sporting Club), where we invite anyone to come along and sit with us as we read aloud our short-listed plays for the One Act Season 2019. This helps us to hear how the plays might work, and to choose the final 3 that will be performed later in the year. If you’ve ever thought about getting involved, the Reading Night is a great, informal, casual night and a great way to meet new people. Come along and give it a go!

We will be holding auditions for the One Act Season in early July – with a season planned for September 2019 - and then it’s straight into preparations for our late-year performance, “Little Gem” by Dublin Playwright Elaine Murphy. Make sure to keep an eye on our facebook page for regular updates, or email itp@irishtheatreplayers.com.au if you’d like to join our email database.

Many thanks again to the committee, cast, crew, volunteers and sponsors who made “Da” by Hugh Leonard such a great success, and congratulations to director Denice Byrne on a great result. Of course, all of it would be pointless without our audience members and we sincerely thank you for your patience, loyalty and support and we look forward to entertaining you for many more plays to come.

THE IRISH SCENE | 55

WRITTEN BY HUGH LEONARD DIRECTED BY DENICE BYRNE LEEDERVILLE SPORTING CLUB CAMBRIDGE STREET, WEST LEEDERVILLE.

It’s Oval and out for Subi

BY LLOYD GORMAN It isn’t every day you witness a giant being slain.

But starting in a matter of just weeks, and then over the course of several months, a Perth colossus is about to be destroyed and wiped from the face of the earth.

Several years ago, while flying old school as a passenger in a Tiger Moth plane I saw it from afar, glimmering in the near distance, I fantasied it to be a Celtic brooch torn from the battle dress of some ancient warrior god.

The legendary landmark was Subiaco Oval.

Now the imagined symbol of power is slated for demolition, starting at the end of July.

In what will be a $33 million exercise everything that stands there now - with the exception of the historic ticket gates on the corner of Haydn Bunton Drive and Roberts Road and the oval area itself, will be knocked down and removed. The entire precinct - and the nearby former Princess Margaret Hospital site are slated for major redevelopment.

Subiaco Oval (and PMH as it happens) was 109 years old when it officially ceased to be the state’s main footy venue in 2017 - just after the clash between Ireland and Australia in that year’s Compromise Rules game, the final sporting challenge that played out on the historic turfed area. Ireland didn’t win the scoreboard that November day, but they played well and did us proud. During half time of that international game the children from the Gaelic Games Junior Academy also got a chance to play Gaelic football on the grounds. It was a great day for the kids, and the Irish community.

Some life remained in the 43,500 seat stadium after the Irish Australia game. The WA Football Commission still used the oval as their head office until recently when they relocated to Tuart Hill College. The oval itself was reconfigured to make it more like the pitch at Optus Stadium, so that the West Coast Eagles - who had called Subiaco Oval home since 1987 - could train on it for upcoming games at the new stadium. Some of those training sessions were open to the public, but the Eagles left their traditional eyrie in late May for Lathlain Park, which like Optus Stadium, is brand new and purpose built for their future needs. Some other smaller tenants and users of the facility also lost their connection with the place.

Over the last couple of years Subiaco Oval has been slowly shutting down, grinding to an inevitable terminal point D-Day, demolition day.

Before the wreckers move in the public and football community were given one last chance to say goodbye. Sunday June 30 was Final Siren Fun day, a free family friendly open day (11am-2pm) which was promoted as “an opportunity for anyone who has created memories at Subi Oval to come and walk on the turf, kick a footy and create your own mark in history at this milestone stage”.

Despite the grisly - what you might even call Irish weather - wet conditions there was a good turnout on the day. There were plenty of families of all different ethnic backgrounds with parents throwing and catching ball with their kids on the hallowed turf. The new Bob Hawke High School and MRA had information stands too but there were also food trucks, face painting, a lost children’s tent and of course plenty of sporting activities for the children, all over a carnival atmosphere. [A special shout out to Catherine who was working there on the day, her mum is Irish and she has spent a year living and working in Ireland but couldn’t be coaxed into a photograph.]

Over the years Aussie rules football has been the lifeblood of Subiaco Oval, but it has been nourished by other cultural events, such as concerts, U2’s 360° Tour in 2010 for example, Monster Truck rallies and charity fundraisers. The oval also has a strong historical ‘Irish’ connection. It has been many years now since St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated there, but

THE IRISH SCENE | 56

at one point in the past the football grounds were a major centre of activity for the special occasion. Children from all the surrounding Catholic schools and convents were marched there in columns, led by the Christian brothers and sisters who taught them. Thousands of children were assembled on the grassed area for mass and other activities, including Irish dancing and sports. All now a faint memory in a long history.

attractions and the subsequent drop off in traffic for pubs and restaurants has been well documented elsewhere.

But one side effect of the stadium making its exit that hasn’t been apparent is how the removal of the super structure of the grandstands will have on the neighboring area. Back in April some 40 immediate neighbours of the Irish Club received a letter from consultants on behalf of Telstra. Telstra had identified the rooftop of the Club as a location where it wanted to build a mobile phone base station. “The purpose of this base station is required to replace an existing installation on a grandstand proposed to be demolished at Domain Stadium to provide a continuity of and improved coverage for the Subiaco locality,” the consultation letter stated (Subiaco Oval was for a time called Domain Stadium under a naming rights deal but reverted back to being Subiaco Oval some time ago).

The location of Subiaco Oval itself may owe something to an Irishman. On page 60 there is a story about the Subiaco Hotel and its Irish history. The first licensee of the hotel when it opened in 1896/97 was one Frank Murphy, a larger than life Irishman. In fact Murphy ran the joint for the first ten years or so and the hotel was known as Murphy’s Hotel after him. Murphy was also a patron of the Subiaco Football Club and hosted many of its events and functions in his establishment. A Daily New story from that period hints at the influence Murphy may have had in choosing the location of the oval for the club, which originally played its games in Shenton Park.

“Depending on the outcome of the consultation process, it is our intention to begin construction of the telecommunications facility from August 2019.”

The letter also said that: “The Carrier considers that this proposed facility does not require council approval because it is a low impact facility or complies with relevant State planning legislation.”

“They [SFC] should endeavor to get a good recreation ground,” Murphy was reported as saying. “There was the old sand patch, which was central and of large are and could be made suitable to the purpose. The question would have to be faced sometime and the sooner they took it in hand the better [cheer]. He would do his utmost to further the interests of the Subiaco Club [cheers]”.

There were three queries in relation to the public health risk of having the base station there while another proposed an alternative rooftop location. There was one submission about the Radio Frequency and two about its compliance with the telecommunications code of practice.

Today, at the opposite end of the oval’s century plus long history, another Irish born Australian is deeply involved in its heritage. Tony Costa, a former child migrant and “On the basis of consultation undertaken, Telstra intends ex-mayor of Subiaco, heads up a group of interested to proceed with community installation of the individuals who mobile phone base want to protect station facility,” the and preserve consultants said in the places’ long their May 13 report. association with Indeed, Irish Scene Aussie rules understands that the football. This decommissioning voluntary group of Subiaco Oval will (the Subiaco happen on July 31 Oval Community and that this is the Action Group) same date the base is pushing the station on top of the various state and Irish Club is expected local agencies to be commissioned involved in the SITE ELEVATION as well. Apparently, redevelopment of Schematic of the proposed base station for the rooftop of the Irish Club NOTES : PRELIMINARY the Club stands to the area to carry make in the order of $17,000 to $18,000 per annum from the football and aboriginal tradition and values that have MOBILE NETWORK SITE 327689 the telco paying rent for the use of the been nurtured there into the future of the area.

SUBIACO TOWNSHEND RD roof. So don’t be surprised if you see something sticking out of the top of The Irish Club has always been a close neighbour of ERICSSON W109200 the Club next time you go there.

Subiaco Oval and to some extent its fortunes - like that 1

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E.L. 15.5m C/L PROPOSED TELATRA 3-OFF RV4PX310R-V2 PANEL ANTENNAS (A1, A2 & A3) IN POD E.L. 14.0m BASE OF TELSTRA ANTENNA

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3000 MAX

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PROPOSED TELSTRA (3-OFF) RADIO4415-B1 PROPOSED TELSTRA (3-OFF) RADIO4415-B7 PROPOSED TELSTRA (3-OFF) RADIO4415-B3 WALL MOUNTED BEHIND PARAPET WALL

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PROPOSED 1- OFF ELTEK EBE TYPE 2 TO BE INSTALLED ON STANDING PLINTH, PROPOSED 1-OFF ICS TWO BAY SCM3001 RACK TO BE INSTALLED ON ICS PLINTH. PROPOSED ERICSSON RBS6102 CABINETS TO BE INSTALLED ON PROPOSED ICS HEAVY DUTY PLINTH.

Telstra Wireless Operations Template - 017866P02 issued Feb 2009

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THIS DRAWING SET IS A CONCEPT ONLY AND IS ISSUED FOR COMMENT. IT IS NOT A DETAILED SURVEY / STRUCTURAL DRAWING AND THEREFORE COULD BE SUBJECTED TO CHANGE. FOR EME SIGNS NOTED AS #X REFER TO 005486 DOCUMENTS FOR DETAILS. #2 EME SIGN SECURED TO THE REAR OF EACH ANTENNA.

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SITE ELEVATION 61 TOWNSHEND ROAD SUBIACO, WA 6008

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of many other pubs and premises in the locality - have been tied to the sporting arena. Many Eagles and Dockers followers have also held membership of the Townshend Road club. When AFL was still being played at Subiaco the club would have been a popular stopping point before and after games at the nearby stadium, and the same for concert goers and the like. The absence of big events and

SHT NO.

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C Telstra Corporation Limited ABN 33 051 775 556 All rights reserved.

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After the Final Siren Fun Day the next people to get inside the grandstand will be the demolition crews. The end is nigh for Subiaco oval but the circle of life will keep going around as the area is redeveloped as ‘Subiaco East’, which will be home to thousands of new residents and possibly a museum to honour the areas football, indigenous and other cultural qualities.

THE IRISH SCENE | 57

fresh frontier co.

THE STORY OF FRESH FRONTIER IN AUSTRALIA...

FROM IRELAND In 1984 in a small rural town in Ireland (Ash Hill, Tralee), Michael Leen Snr had just sold his lunch bar business. Recalling how popular his wife’s potato salad and coleslaw were, he promptly went out and bought a slicer, large knife and a cutting board.

using remarkably similar recipes and procedures created 35 years ago in Ireland by his parents, and with the support of his family and friends, he is making and distributing his world famous salads again through his company, Fresh Frontier.

With the help of Michael Jr, they started producing what were to become county Kerry’s favourite salads, sold in Tescos, Supa Valu, Spar and many smaller independent outlets throughout Kerry, Cork and Limerick.

Michaels Fresh Frontier salad range includes all the traditional favourites and a range of new salads, conveniently packaged for sale at leading retailers, as well as bulk sale to Perth’s best deli’s. With an aim to be inclusive to all dietary requirements and provide quality and on trend produce at affordable prices, Fresh Frontier has extended the salad range to include soups, krauts, sauces and much more within a range of clean living, gut friendly products.

Michael Leen Snr died suddenly and Michael Jr, heartbroken at the loss of his beloved dad, decided to follow his childhood dream and migrate to Australia.

Settling in Western Australia, Business Visa in hand and with 17 years experience in the industry, Michael met and married an Australian girl and started a family of his own. Being a man of good cheer, Michael always took a large plate of assorted salads when invited to BBQ’s and gatherings.

In no time word had spread and once again his salads became well known.

Michael could see there was a real need for high quality salads in the West Australian market, so

An extensive list of stockists and product range is available via the website and social media pages (Facebook and Instagram).

Fresh Frontier are very proud supporters of the community they live in and as such regularly sponsor community groups, including but not limited to schools, local football and surf life saving clubs, Heartkids Australia, Paint Me A Rainbow Autism Awareness and Oz Harvest.

THE IRISH SCENE | 58

Who would have thought?

Super Healthy & Great Tasting Food!

Wide range of foods to choose from : Traditional Salads Super foods Naked Salads Clean Living Soups Happy Gut Co. Blend Me Smoothies Salad Solutions Please see our website for more details and for a list of stockists near you

www.freshfrontier.co Phone 08 6162 9958 | 20 Hanwell Way, Bassendean WA 6054

THE IRISH SCENE | 59

ULSTER RAMBLES WITH DAVID

I have been playing flog backwards (oops sorry) golf off and on for over sixty years despite having had a bad introduction to the game. Both my father and mother played and at the age of five and upwards, I was dragged around Downpatrick golf course. I had flat feet and the walk was not helping in that direction. My older sister was always able to cry off from attending these weekly events. When my father passed away to try his luck in more spiritual golf courses, I inherited his clubs a few years later when I was old enough to hold them. They were already over twenty years old. I suppose a good golfer could have handled them but I did get down to a reasonable handicap using brassies and spoons and wooden putters.

By the age of eighteen, I had played quite a few courses in the Ulster area. All of them were more than interesting as I have reported in previous articles of The Irish Scene.

closer to one of golf’s most historic tournaments. For example with a victory at the British Open 2019, Tiger Woods would tie Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour victories. Woods, who was victorious earlier this season at THE MASTERS, enters the Open Championship 2019 among the favourites to finish on top of the leader board at 12-1.

However, it appears Tiger will not play in a competitive tournament leading up to the 2019 Open Championship. If those reports are true, this will be the second time this season Tiger has sat out every event between two majors. Following his victory at Augusta, Woods didn’t play again until the PGA Championship, where he missed the cut after shooting backto-back rounds over par. Another player who might surprise all the aficionados is Tommy Fleetwood, a 25-1 long shot, who should make a strong run at his first major championship title. He’s a target for anyone stupid enough to look for a huge payday. Well that is if you are of the betting kind. Fleetwood is an emerging star who divides his time between the European and PGA Tour. He has yet to win a tournament on the PGA Tour, but has five inMax Faulkner won The Open at Royal Portrush in 1951 ternational victories under his belt. He’s also repeatedly proven he can play with the top golfers in the world, finishing in the top five at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. In May, he finished in the top 10 at the British Masters and he was also the runner-up in last year’s U.S. Open. Of course he was the top performer in the recent European Ryder Cup win.

Ulster natives Rory Mcilroy and Graeme McDowell will undoubtedly enjoy fan-favourite status in the galleries. It is Graeme’s home course and he very nearly missed an entry to the competition. Fortunately he was able to make a twenty foot putt at the last hole in the Canadian Open to gain entry. He would have been heart-broken not to play on his home course.

Rory is now gaining favour as he has been hitting the ball well in recent times. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka, who’s looking to win his fifth major championship, enters the Open Championship as the betting favourite with odds at 6-1. But a star-studded field that includes past champions like Jordan Spieth (201), Francesco Molinari (20-1) and of course Rory (10-1) will all be in heavy pursuit. McDowell is holding as a 50-1 shot on his home course and I do believe Darren Clarke will make an appearance. Admittedly he has little chance of winning but a better one than you or Now Portrush is a small seaside resort on the North coast. me.

I went there once for a week’s summer holiday once upon Lastly, I have to report than a time. I cannot imagine how the world’s press is going although technology has adto survive there but I suppose some farmer has given vanced both the clubs and up a field or two to accommodate them. How time has golf balls, my handicap is still changed from 1951. approximately the same as it By the time you are reading this, The Open Championship as it is called or to be more precise the British Open will have taken place. It will be the 148th time that this event has taken place. Believe it or not, yes, it will be held in my own province of Ulster; in the seaside town of Portrush.

The last time it was held here was in 1951. I confess I have no memory of that fact. I doubt very much that my father attended it. He was the first person in our village to operate a television but that was in 1953. I distinctly remember the house being full of people at that time as we watched black and white balls shimmer across a very small screen perched high up on a wall. Even from my height (I was six years old) I could see some of the screen. Communications in those days was almost non-existent. Of course there were newspapers but simply put, there was no time to read them or I assume that is why I never saw anyone ever read one!

So we get underway on Thursday, July 18. The 2019 British was sixty years ago. Perhaps Open is the fourth and final major of the PGA Tour season my father’s clubs were not so and there are plenty of storylines unfolding as we inch bad after all.

THE IRISH SCENE | 60

Rory McIlroy holds the Portrush Claret Jug

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$15 ROAST at The Irish Club 4-7pm The Irish Club A GREAT PLACE FOR A PARTY Functions & Fundraisers Contact Club:

Tel: 93815213

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Lunch at 1pm.

Bookings 9381 5213

EVERY MONDAY Trad Music & Irish Classes

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61 Townshend Rd, Subiaco Western Australia 6008 Phone: 9381 5213 • info@irishclubofwa.com.au • www.irishclubofwa.com.au THE IRISH SCENE | 61

Matters of

PUB-LICinterest!

BY LLOYD GORMAN

A Subi icon with good Irish credentials

simply there as a licensee because Daniel Connor never admitted to the ownership of anything."

The Subiaco Hotel is a Perth institution, so news it would be put on the open market was a big deal.

Particularly significant was the fact that it is the first time the well known watering hole will have changed hands since the hotel was built in 1897, apparently the first permanent and most architecturally elaborate building in the fledgling suburb.

Connor was involved with the Stanley Brewery - which would become the Emu Brewery - which took over the ownership of the Subiaco Hotel and a number of other hotels.

"Something went wrong with the Stanley Brewery and the fellow who was running it, either through misfortune or whatever, they sold out to the Emu Brewery and part of the settlement was that the [Connor] family keep the Subiaco Hotel, the Savoy Hotel, which was the Shamrock Hotel originally, the Perth Hotel, the Newcastle Hotel in Fremantle and P&O Hotel and maybe some others," added Prudence. "Documentation shows the family took the Subi as part of the deal and promises to buy Emu Beer. So the family retained their ownership of it and has done since then."Prudence and her siblings, two of whom have passed, own a share of the historic building on the corner of Rokeby Road and Hay Street. Another set of cousins in the UK have another

The first licensee of the place was a flamboyant Irish man (John Murphy) and for about the first ten years of its existence the pub was known as Murphy’s hotel after the gregarious publican. Its location at the junction of two main streets and big windows made it easy for gamblers in the pubs corner room to spot approaching police officers and break up the game before anyone could get busted.

But the ownership of the pub and property belonged to another Irishman, who liked to keep a low profile. Dan Connor was transported to Australia for apparently stealing a sheep. He was given his ticket of leave in the WA colony and a landholding and quickly prospered to become one of the largest landholders in the west ever.

share. Prudence said that she was always told they could only sell their interest to another family member but some ownership has passed out of the family circle. A relative who was a priest bequeathed his share to St. Thomas More College in Crawley while the rest is owned by Michael and Judy Monaghan, who have operated and transformed the place since 1971, and in 1990 they bought a 27% share of the building from a member of the family.

The Monaghans brought their own Irish influence to the hotel business.

The hotel's tavern licence is held by Ballingarry Pty Ltd, with that name spelt out above the doorway of the venue. Ireland has a few Ballingarry's so Michael Monaghan explained the origins back in 2016. "I was sitting with my friend Joe O'Halloran, a lawyer when I made it a company," he said. "Joe asked me what I wanted to call it and I said get me a map of Ireland and I put a pin in it and it landed on Ballingarry, and that's what it was."

The ownership of the Subiaco hotel passed to Connor early as descendant Prudence Sheldrick (nĂŠe O'Connor) explained to Irish Scene in a previous story (The Secret Irish Life of the Subiaco Hotel, March April 2016 edition).

"I don't know anything about him (John Murphy) at all, not a single thing" she said. "All I know is that behind him was Daniel Connor.

Daniel was the owner, he had a number of hotels. (Murphy) was there

Judy and Michael Monaghan toast a long career at the Subi Hotel.

Photo courtesy of Post Newspapers, photographer Billie Fairclough THE IRISH SCENE | 62

Michael's grandfather was a publican who came out from Ireland during the gold rush era and ended up in WA where being a hotelier would become a family tradition. The Monaghans have decided it is time to retire but all the current owners agreed it was time to sell up shop before the already complicated ownership structure of the Subi Hotel became even more convoluted.

It is anybody's guess who will become the new owner of the Subiaco Hotel but a bit like the hotel's original spire that was damaged as a result of the 1968 Meckering earthquake and later removed but never replaced, a little bit of the place's history and glory will be lost and gone forever.

Other stirrings in Subi Staying in Subi there appear to be changes afoot for another local Irish landmark. As regular readers might remember that former Irish bar Paddy Maguire's on Barker Road was taken over earlier this year by Brian Mooney of Ma Mooney’s Osborne Park fame. For reasons that are still not clear the venture that saw the Irish bar become even more Irish and interesting under the Dubliner was unfortunately short-lived.

Brian had big plans for the business and would have made it one of the best Irish pubs in Australia.

In recent weeks there has been some activity at the premises and apparently the original owners (Maher family) are back in control of the venue which Matters of Public Interest understands will reopen again in about mid August.

But quite what that means for the watering hole is still unclear. The decor of the place lends itself comfortably to begin an Irish pub but the Maher’s also operate the American themed sports bar chain Varsity Bar & Burgers. They have outlets in Nedlands, Joondalup, Waterford and Morley. Is Subiaco going to be added to that list? Or maybe it will become something else entirely.

Watch this space!

G.O.T. to get to the pub!

Pull the other one!

On the subject of pulling pints of porter the sons of US President Donald Trump, Eric (35) and (41) tagged along with him on his two day visit to Ireland at the start of June and had a go at the Guinness gimmick for themselves. On the first day of the trip the brothers went on a mini pub crawl in Doonbeg, Co. Clare and apparently bought drink for the whole town! This included them pulling and serving pints of the stuff up to punters Trump brothers pull pints and joining in the craic and having the banter. If the two boys blended in like long lost relatives then a question mark did pop up about who or how the free flowing booze would be paid for. The Trumps did not have cash on them and there were some assurances that the tab would be taken care off.

But a month on it is still not entirely clear if the bill was ever settled, with competing reports and accounts of what was or wasn't paid. Even the suggestion of not paying one's bar bill is enough to leave a bad taste.

Not so much a TV show as a cultural phenomenon Game of Thrones is celebrated and enjoyed by all sorts of people in all sorts of ways. Going to the pub is one of them.

Some Perth pubs gave punters a good reason to frequent their establishments with the finale of the highly anticipated last season - which was filmed in Northern Ireland - back in May. Fenian's Irish pub dished up a themed fare for the occasion, with Viserion's Wings, Theon Greyjoy Schnitzel, Unsullied Balls and The Dracarys on the menu.

A good sized Irish pork sausage was added to the Theon Greyjoy Schnitzel in honour of the famous pork sausage scene in Season 3, Episode 10.

"They are very tasty, we've got a very talented head chef," said Johnathan Kunz, Novotel Food and Beverage Manager. "We planned this over a month ago and we did a couple of tastings and obviously being an Irish pub we went with the Irish sausage, which the butcher prepares especially for us."

The G.O.T. quiz was staged at Paddy Malone's in Joondalup on May 7 with customers encouraged to come down with their friends for a fun night out and a pre-quiz parmi and a pint (or wine).

The city based Badlands Bar – where many visiting Irish acts and performers play – held a similar event - "a battle as your knowledge is tested" - at the end of May, to support the Colosoul Group Inc, a not for profit arts organisation giving young people hands on experience in various creative industries.

THE IRISH SCENE | 63

A pub with no beer?

It might have been impossible to even contemplate the possibility of it ten years ago but Ireland now has a booze free bar. Maybe after the shift in the way people frequented pubs triggered by the smoking ban (15 years ago) it was inevitable that it would happen. A former furniture shop in Capel Street Dublin became The Virgin Mary in May, Ireland’s first alcohol free bar.

Cocktails, beers and wines are all available to punters, in non-alcoholic versions. The owners said they saw a gap in the market for a venue of this kind. It will be interesting to see how it goes and if other similar pubs open up elsewhere.

As it happens the world famous song A Pub With No Beer was inspired by a poem written here in Australia by an Irishman. Dusty Slim's song of the same name was the first single by an Australian artist to enter the British charts, climbing to number three and number one in other parts of the world. Legions of singers including Johnny Cash, Foster and Allen, the Clancy Brothers to name a few - have covered the song, which the Australasian Performing Rights Association named as the best Australian Song of all time in 2001.

The 1957 Slim Dusty song was a big hit, but it was closely based on the poem written by one Dan Sheahan. Sheahan, a native of Newmarket, Ireland, was on his way to his local (the Day Dawn Hotel) in Ingham (North QLD) in 1943 for a cold beer only to discover that a troop of American servicemen had passed through the previous day and drank the place dry. A frustrated Sheahan retaliated by writing the poem that would eventually provide the lyrics for the song.

Bob Hawke gets to the pint Pulling a pint of Guinness in front of the world's media is a photo opportunity now rolled out on a regular basis when visiting heads of state or other senior dignitaries come to Ireland. US Presidents Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton spring to mind as examples.

But it wasn't always a carefully stage managed publicity stunt. The late Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke visited Ireland in October 1987 and during a reception in a pub in his honour the larrikin leader got behind the counter and pulled himself a pint of the black stuff, a great moment captured in this snap.

THE ORIGINAL POEM OF DAN SHEAHAN

“A PUB WITHOUT BEER” It is lonely away from your kindred and all In the bushland at night when Dan Sheahan the warrigals call, It is sad by the sea where the wild breakers boom, Or to look on a grave and contemplate doom, But there's nothing on earth half as lonely and drear As to stand in the bar of a pub without beer Madam with her needles sits still by the door, The boss smokes in silence, he is joking no more, There's a faraway look on the face of the bum, While the barmaid looks down at the paint on her thumb, The cook has gone cranky and the yardman is queer, Oh, a terrible place is a pub without beer.

Once it stood by the wayside all stately and proud, 'Twas a home to the loafer a joy to the crowd, Now all silent the rooftree that often times rang When the navvys were paid and the cane cutters sang, Some are sleeping their last in a land far from here.

Oh, a terrible place is a pub without beer.

They can hang to their coupons for sugar and tea, And the shortage of sandshoes does not worry me, And though benzine and razors be both frozen stiff, What is wrong with the horse and the old fashioned ziff, ‘Mid the worries of war there's but one thing I fear, ‘Tis to stand in the bar of a pub without beer.

Oh, you brew of brown barley, what charm is shine, ‘Neath thy spell men grow happy and cease to repine, The cowards become brave and the weak become strong The dour and the grumpy burst forth into song, If there's aught to resemble high heaven down here, 'Tis the place of joy where they ladle out beer.

But long before this encounter with the world famous stout, Hawke had another claim to fame with the brand. In 1954, as a student at Oxford, the 25 year old downed a yard of ale - 2.5 pints of beer - in 11 seconds flat. This feat earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. While the record would go on to be broken this never dampened the prestige of having set and held such a title.

In 2013 Mr Hawke visited Perth Modern School in Subiaco, where he himself had been a student. He talked to the students about his life, including about the well known accomplishment. During a Q&A session at the end of his talk a student asked the strange question "what's a pint?". Having taken a second to hear and take in the question Mr Hawke shook his head and muttered something along the lines of how much the world had changed, before giving the answer: "Do you know what a gallon is? Well there's eight pints in a gallon!"

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Mr Hawke pulling a pint in Ireland, 1987

VIBE LEGAL

LEO GIVES OFF GOOD VIBES

Waterford native Leo Barry might be Perth law firm Vibe Legal’s newest man but he is no newcomer to the legal sector.

“My role as the practice director here at Vibe Legal is to ensure that all of our clients receive a professional service and a positive experience when interacting with the legal process, whether that’s in relation to wills and estates or general commercial law,” said Leo who came on board with Vibe late last year.

“Before joining Vibe, I worked to senior associate level with Kavanagh Lawyers and also took a short six-month career detour, to take up a role as a banking and finance lawyer with a national top tier firm, which was an invaluable experience and helped me re-discover my passion for commercial law. Over the last 10 years, I have developed a collaborative approach to law (where possible), and at Vibe, our clients can expect practical, commercially focused advice and a professional service at all times.”

He is also mindful of the particular legal needs of the Irish community in Perth and has published a helpful and free FAQ for Irish Expats Living in WA on the Vibe Legal website. “Most of the enquires we receive are about wills for Irish property and appointing guardians for children” said Leo.

Leo studied at Waterford Institute of Technology before going on to University College Cork where he obtained a post graduate law degree.

Leo was admitted as a lawyer in Ireland in 2009 and he previously worked at Joseph P. Gordon & Co. Solicitors, in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford as a commercial lawyer.

The decision to come to Perth came about as a result of a meeting with Marty Kavanagh in Ireland [Honorary Consul of Ireland in Perth and Kavanagh Lawyers Principal]. “I met Marty in a pub in Waterford, and after a bit of a chat and the shortest interview ever, he offered me a job, and that’s how I came to Perth,” said Leo. He made the move with his wife Lindsay, another commercial lawyer who hails from Limerick, in 2012 via a pit stop in Las Vegas where they got married. They now have three young children who keep them busy out of the office. Leo is also a keen sports man and regularly plays 5 a-side football and golf (not so regularly!)

Leo and the team at Vibe are just a call away!

Is your child’s future secured?

For members of the Irish community in WA, we know a common worry is, how can we ensure our children are cared for if something happens to us?

Did you know... in most cases appointing a guardian for your children is as simple as including it in your Will.

The team at Vibe Legal are happy to assist you in preparing a comprehensive Will to address all your concerns regarding your children’s future.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it” Abraham Lincoln

Contact Leo on (08) 6111 4890 or email leo.barry@vibelegal.com.au for further advice.

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AIDA WA EXECUTIVE 2019 President: Caroline McCarthy TCRG Vice Presidents: Melissa Kennedy TCRG and Samantha McAleer TCRG Secretary: Katherine Travers TCRG Treasurer: Martina O’Brien TCRG Registrar: Jenny O’Hare TCRG National Delegate: Eileen Ashley SCHOOL CONTACTS: Celtic Academy East Victoria Park & Karragullen www.celticacademyperth.com Siobhan Collis TCRG 0403 211 941 Kavanagh Studio of Irish Dance Maylands www.kavanaghirishdance.com.au Teresa Fenton TCRG 0412 155 318 Deirdre McGorry TCRG Caroline McCarthy TCRG Melissa Kennedy TCRG Avril Grealish TCRG The Academy/Keady Upton Subiaco, Wangara & Pearsall Samantha McAleer TCRG Kalamunda Lara Upton ADCRG 0409 474 557

Australian Irish Dancing Association Inc. AIDA WA HAD A FEW ACHIEVEMENTS TO CELEBRATE OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS!

☘

Firstly, huge congratulations to HILARY MCKENNA (right) who was recently elected to the role of Leas-UachtarĂĄn (Vice President) of An CoimisiĂşn for Australia at a recent meeting in Dublin

Secondly, we had some fantastic achievements this year at the World Irish Dancing Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

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O’Brien Academy Butler, Mindarie/Quinn’s Rock, Ocean Reef, Connolly, Duncraig www.obrienacademy.com Rose O’Brien ADCRG 0437 002 355 Martina O’Brien TCRG 0423 932 866

Massive congratulations to DAKOTA COURTNEY (left) from O’Brien Academy on an amazing result at the World Championships! 4th place and bringing home one of the first ever globes to Western Australia

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

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Huge congratulations to DARA McALEER (right) from The Academy on an amazing result at the World Championships! 2nd place and bringing home one of the first ever globes to Western Australia

Sr Brendan is Minister for Environment; Disability Services congratulated Deputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council by the Italian PO Box 2440, SOUTH HEDLAND WA 6722 members of the stephen.dawsonmp@mp.wa.gov.au community (08) 9172 2648 • 1800 199 344 (toll free)

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SUPPORT IN THE WA G

IRISH COMMUM

ITY

Congratulations to all the dancers who competed at the AIDA WA June Feis

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@ YMCA Morley Sport and Recreation Centre

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The Unknowing - A SHORT STORY

BY EMMETT When I was a boy. I would walk for miles through the fields never knowing what I was going to find.

Old ruins, castles, farm houses inhabited and uninhabited. Cows, sows sometimes bulls, hare’s rabbits, pheasants.

CREATIVE

JUICES

I would see people living in isolated farm houses doing their chores, totally unaware of another human being’s presence. Wildflowers and streams, rivers babbling brooks. Quaint old bridges. Sometimes people in balloons would pass overhead and wave to me “Bonjour”.

Scríbhneoireacht

BY CIARAIN HOEY In primary school the thought and task of having to write a story or response to a question was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. Unless it was about a sport or a movie I enjoyed. This was a common theme for me too across high school. A dazzling moment occurred in my existence during my final year of University when of one of the tutors recommended everyone to purchase a diary for organisation and productivity. At the time I thought why not it can’t hurt and it’s not going to break the bank.

Rolling on to the second quarter of 2019. I have discovered that writing things down on a daily, monthly or weekly basis is a great way to identify, separate and prioritise what is important to complete throughout the day. This in turn can develop skills in time management; I have found that when I write something down there is a quicker response rate and provides a sharp trigger in finishing the desired, task, or behaviour to accommodate for my early onset of Alzheimer’s! If you don’t complete it on that moment, you may come back to it at a later point increasing the likelihood.

Furthermore, when a major life event or huge decision is required a good al pro’s and cons list is a phenomenal way to evaluate the big moment occurring in your life. From a personal perspective when going through hardship, it is a great way to offload thoughts and emotions in your brain to de-clutter your mind when going through personal or inner struggle. I have further found it a great way to capture ideas and assess your current functioning and desired behaviour which paves the way for further innovation and development of character.

The Irish population have produced some fine writers in their time: with James Joyce’s Ulysses, Bram Stoker the author of the worldwide acclaimed Dracula, and not to forget the wit, wisdom and perspective of the poet Oscar Wilde provided on human behaviour and interaction intersecting with the world.

Writing can be used as an informal but consistent basis to track emerging thoughts, again with most things it must have meaning and context to write, for me it was organisation, productivity and personal evaluation, which is an ongoing process! What is yours?

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I was a knight and I had my own forest where I could hide and see anyone approaching from miles away.

Old haystacks, great oak and beech trees with the Autumn sun shining through their yellow leaves. Bogs full of purple heather covered with bees. Furze bushes showing off their bright yellow flowers and knowing somewhere in there lay that sly old fox (An Shionnach) who had led his hunters on another wild goose chase. I could almost see the smirk on his face.

A desolate quarry devoid of sand replaced with water now a man -made lake, with a shearing rock face which my sister would try and scale. How we never slipped in and drowned I will never know.

The sound of birds, the curlew and the cuckoo.

Tit wrens busy making their nests in the hedge grove. Robins, thrushes, mother nature was always so busy. Cowslips, primroses, buttercups, daffodils, blue bells. Snow drops in February announcing the coming of spring and the thaw.

The dark red and green of the holly bush. The exploding purples and crimsons of the fuchsia with its dropping flowers looking like the earrings on an elegant lady. I would pull the ends off and suck out the sweetness from the flower. There was other food here too for this “fearless” knight.

Blackberries, blackcurrants, Raspberries, wild strawberries.

Great big mushrooms if they hadn’t been trod on by the cows on their way home to get milked.

Later mother would cook these mushrooms on the range with a little salt and butter on them. It was our special treat.

Fishing in rivers for trout or on the banks of the Canal. The first fish I ever caught was in the Royal Canal. It was a perch. I thought it was huge. I raced all the way back on my bike to the little school that my mother was cleaning. Mom said that “We could have it for tea” and she finished early.

POETRY

BY KEITH HENDERSON Keith Henderson and his wife, originally from Lisburn in Northern Ireland but living in Perth 23 years now, were snacking in Mooneys in Osborne Park earlier this year when they picked up a copy of The Irish Scene. They enjoyed many of the stories in it and Keith even spotted some poetry in that issue and was inspired to send in some of his own verse. Here is a small example:

Stone Stone-faced love Stares to the virgin coffee of freedom Revealing morning truths That cannot be spoken She smiles With a tinge of Irish romance He Laughs And walks to the death of many

Listen to the Walls Fall Brick by brick we have built our history With dolmens of belief and heritage Watch the children play On a busy Belfast Street When father works in the shipyard And schooldays drag Like the Protestant Sunday But listen I can hear the walls fall

Walk in the steps of a lonely man Walk in the steps of a lonely man For just a little while Feel the twisted thorns pierce skin to skull Mockery torments deep To the soul washed over in sorrow Patriotism stands cold, stands empty Rejected for a season To rise Cuchulain like A warrior ready with battle breath Eyes wander to beyond in haste Beating heart pumps with a belief of life Martyrs, how we need them Those who have not clung to the fleeting Privilege with your mantle For what we are hungry dreamers With a freshened hope in tomorrow Let us call ourselves patriots In this new day As dew farewells solstice to a Newgrange

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CLADDAGH REPORT

13/15 Bonner Drive Malaga 6090 Crisis support: 0403 972 265 All other enquiries: 08 9249 9213

Darkness into Light An increasing number of people who access Claddagh’s services need mental health support. So, we were really pleased to bring a group of Claddagh volunteers to join many others from the Irish community who helped out at the Darkness into Light walk. It was a beautiful morning, we had great craic with the walkers and there was a wonderful sense of shared purpose and commitment. We look forward to supporting Darkness into Light at next year’s walk as they work to create a world where suicide, self-harm and stigma have been replaced by hope, selfcare and acceptance.

Thank you to all who helped out at the Darkness into Light walk

Returning to Ireland seminars Our Returning to Ireland project responds to the needs of those trying to decide whether to go home to Ireland.

At our seminars we’ve been sharing information on things like getting immigration permission for Australian partners, what to do with your superannuation and how to access healthcare, schools and childcare in Ireland. We held face to face seminars north and south of the river and got great attendance at an online webinar. This gave access to the Irish community outside the metro area and to parents with young kids. Participants said it was great to be clear about how to make the move successfully.

They were also glad to meet and share experiences with others making this difficult decision. We’ll be sharing all we’ve learnt with other Irish community groups at one last seminar before we produce a webcast, landing page and brochure as an ongoing resource for anyone trying to decide #shouldistayorshouldigo

www.claddagh.org.au Seniors events Claddagh’s Seniors committee hosted a great lunch at the Greenwood Hotel on the 10th June. The guests really enjoyed the lovely selection of meals and the opportunity to relax and chat with friends. Afterwards everyone had a laugh trying to win Irish bingo. Some great prizes were on offer and the competition was fierce!

GAA in WA have invited Claddagh’s Seniors to come on down to have lunch and watch the matches at the Tom Bateman Sporting Complex on the 30th June. If you or someone you know is an Irish Senior who would like to join us then, or at any of our monthly activities please contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on 08 9249 9213 or admin@ claddagh.org. au so she can pass your details to the Seniors Seniors Lunch at the Greenwood Hotel Committee.

GAA in WA Day Claddagh volunteers had a great time at the GAA in WA day in June. We watched some exciting matches and staffed an information stall to raise awareness of the work of Claddagh and sign up new members. Members get access to regular communications and are eligible to volunteer with Claddagh at one-off events or with the long-term Seniors project or the new Claddagh Outreach Visiting project. You can join via our website: www.

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claddagh.org.au or by contacting contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on 08 9249 9213 or email admin@claddagh.org.au for membership forms.

Bunnings Malaga Sausage Sizzle Come along to Claddagh’s sausage sizzle on Sunday the 7th July at Bunnings in Malaga. Claddagh’s volunteers will be working hard from 8am to 4pm, BBQing to raise essential funds for our work. Let us know if you’d like to volunteer to BBQ with us by calling Anne at the office on 9249 9213.

If you can’t make it on the day but want to donate to support Claddagh’s work, you can do so here: www.givenow.com.au/thecladdaghassociation.

If you want to make a recurring donation through a payroll deduction from your wages, contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on 08 9249 9213 or admin@claddagh.org.au. Claddagh is a not for profit organisation with gift recipient status. Any funds donated over $2 can be claimed as a tax deduction at the end of the financial year. Claddagh will email you your donations summary for inclusion in your tax return.

Volunteer Breakfast A big shout out to all our members, volunteers and supporters who came along to our National Volunteer week breakfast. We celebrated the volunteers who are the backbone of our organisation and shared our new strategic plan 2018-2021.

This year we are focussing on fundraising, enhancing work with volunteers and communications. We are so grateful to our wonderful volunteers who are so committed to our cause of providing care and support to members of the Irish community in Western Australia in times of need. If you’re interested in volunteering with Claddagh please call Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on 08 9249 9213 or email admin@claddagh.org.au.

Volunteers and friends attend the breakfast meeting

The symbol of the Claddagh is of a pair of hands cupping a crowned heart. The more hands that reach out the greater that embrace and effect can be.

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Crisis support:

0403 972 265

interesting facts about IRELAND THE EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF HUMAN PRESENCE IN IRELAND IS DATED AT 12,800 BC

ENGLISH WAS FIRST INTRODUCED THERE IN THE 12TH CENTURY

A bear bone was found in a cave and had clear cut marks from stone tools. The bone was radiocarbon dated to 12,800 B.C. The bone was found already in 1903 but wasn’t examined with new technology until 2010. This means that Ireland was inhabited already in the Palaeolithic era. Previously, the earliest evidence was dated 8000 years old.

Today, most people speak English, but that was not always the case, and even today, the native language Irish is still being spoken and taught in school.

Irish is a Gaelic language belonging to the Celtic side of the Indo-European language tree, and not much alike English at all. It’s still the first spoken language in Galway, Kerry, Cork, and Donegal, smaller areas of Waterford, Mayo, and Meath.

THERE ARE MORE THAN 30.000 cASTLES AND RUINS ON THE ISLAND Castles are scattered across the island in vast amounts, and numbers point to a total of 30.000 castles and ruin. Some of the castles are open for tourists to stay in, and in some cases, it’s even possible to rent the whole castle!

THE OLDEST PUB OPENED IN 900 A.D.

HALLOWEEN COMES FROM THE CELTIC HARVEST FESTIVAL OF SAMHAIN Do you celebrate Halloween?

Then you should say thanks to the Irish, and especially the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain, where Halloween is supposed to have originated from.

Seans Bar in the town of Athlone is considered as the oldest pub in Ireland that is still operational. In 2004, it was also listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest pub in Europe!

ST. PATRICK WASN’T IRISH Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland was not Irish as many might believe. He was in fact born somewhere in Great Britain, most likely in a town in modern day Wales.

St Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and was brought to Ireland. He was sold into slavery and was there for 6 years before he heard a voice saying that he was supposed to return home.

So he did, and when he got back to Great Britain he became a cleric, and later returned to Ireland as a missionary. St Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated today each year on the 17th of March.

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Irish Recipes from Marguerite O’ Dwyer’s MARGUERITE O’ DWYER PANTRY DOLLS - 0405 680 480

www.facebook.com/pantrydolls/

Shepherd’s Pie with Champ Mash Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp olive oil 1 large onion, diced 3 medium carrots, sliced 700g lamb mince 2 tbsp of thyme, chopped 400ml beef stock

2 tbsp tomato puree 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 800g peeled royal blue potatoes 75g butter 100ml milk 5 spring onions, finely sliced

METHOD 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat and soften the onion and carrots for 5-6 minutes. Turn up the heat and allow the pan to get hot before you add the minced lamb and thyme. Using a fork or wooden spoon break up the meat and allow to brown and cook through for 3-4 minutes.

2. Pour over the beef stock and stir through the tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce until combined. Bring to a steady simmer, then partially cover and cook for 45 mins.

3. For the mash topping, add the potatoes to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork.

4. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat and drain into a colander. Place them back into the pot with the butter & milk.

Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth & creamy.

5. Add in the spring onions and season with sea salt and ground black pepper, stirring to combine.

6. When the lamb mix is ready, season with sea salt and black pepper and transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. Top with the champ mash. Give the topping an extra sprinkle of ground black pepper and bake in the oven for 25 mins until the top is starting to brown and the mince is bubbling up around the edges.

THE IRISH SCENE | 73

Chocolate & Coconut Banana Bread INGREDIENTS

4 medium overripe bananas, mashed 50g melted coconut oil 90g honey 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 185g whole wheat flour 1 ½ tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp kosher salt 50g dark chocolate chunks

METHOD 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 9x5 inch bread pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, coconut oil, honey, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the centre is just set.

Remove and let cool before cutting.

IRiSh screen & stage Irish film fans will be spoilt for choice over July The Revelation Perth International Film Festival kicked off its 22nd event in early July. Over two weeks more than 200 screenings, workshops, panel discussions and demonstrations form part of the festival, including a program from the Irish Film Festival.

The Irish films to be screened - Black’47, Metal Heart and Unquiet Graves - will be introduced by Dr Enda Murray, the founder and director of Irish Film Festival Australia who curated the choice of films for the event. He will also host a presentation about Irish film on Saturday July 6, at 2pm. A film maker in his own right Enda has written, produced and directed TV and radio content for RTE, BBC, ABC, SBS, NITV and Maori TV. His work has been screened at international film festivals including Mumbai, Dublin, Rotterdam, Galway, Cork and Berlin Ethnofest.

METAL HEART Screening as part of the Irish Film Festival Australia Fraternal twin sisters Emma and Chantal are worlds apart. Emma is self-conscious and unsure of which path to take in life - she dreams of starting a band (they have a pie-chart) with her best friend Gary, who secretly has a crush on her. Chantal, meanwhile, is beautiful, confident, and knows exactly where her life is headed.

Director: Hugh O’Conor Year: 2018 Country: Ireland Duration: 90 mins Rated: Unclassified 15

When their parents go away for the summer, their simmering sibling rivalry threatens to boil over, especially when the mysterious boy next door moves back in.

Metal Heart is a laugh-out-loud coming of age comedy-drama about family and growing up, while also being poignant, sophisticated and wise.

Screens at Luna Leederville Friday July 5th at 4.30pm and Sunday July 7th at 2pm.

BLACK ‘47 Given the number of films which have taken their inspiration from Ireland’s troubled history, the lack of those that depict the events of the Great Famine is all the more noticeable, and so credit is due to director Lance Daly (Kisses) for tackling a subject whose tragic scale seems to have proved overly daunting to previous filmmakers.

Director: Lance Daly Year: 2018 Country: Ireland Duration: 100 mins Rated: Unclassified 15

When the taciturn Feeney (James Frecheville) deserts from fighting for the British Army in Afghanistan, he returns to a country ravaged and starving, with many of his own family among the dead. Outraged at the injustices he sees perpetrated by rent collectors, law enforcement, and English landowners, he seeks vengeance, pursued by former comrade Hannah (Hugo Weaving).

Mixing history with the tropes of Westerns and revenge thrillers, Daly has created a significant and long overdue addition to the Irish canon.

Described by one journo as an Irish revenge Western with more rain and less Comanche, Black ‘47 has broken box office records in Ireland.

Screens Luna Leederville on Sunday July 7th at 8.15pm, Monday 8th at 8pm and Wednesday 10th at 4.20pm.

UNQUIET GRAVES Unquiet Graves is the story of the Glenanne Gang and details how members of the RUC and UDR, (a British Army regiment) were centrally involved in the murder of over 120 innocent civilians during the recent conflict in Ireland.

Director: Seán Murray Year: 2018 Country: Ireland Duration: 75 mins Rated: Unclassified 18

Members worked hand in hand with known sectarian murderers in the targeted assassinations of farmers, shopkeepers, publicans and other civilians in a campaign aimed at terrorising the most vulnerable in society.

Now known as the Glenanne Gang, the group of killers rampaged through Counties Tyrone and Armagh and across into the Irish Republic in a campaign that lasted from July 1972 to the end of 1978.

Screens Luna Leederville Sunday July 7th at 10.45pm and Wednesday 10th at 4.40pm.

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TALK - “IRISH FILM: A SUCCESS STORY” Free event Saturday 6 July at 2pm SAE Creative Media Institute 116 Roe Street, Northbridge Last year, seven titles with Irish connections were nominated for Oscars.

This is a remarkable feat for a country of five million people. Ireland is currently reaping the reward of government policies that support arts businesses and nurture the storytelling skills that our country is known for.

Join Dr Enda Murray to discuss the three films he is introducing at Revelation, films that are quite representative of where Irish film is at, at the moment.

Black ‘47 looks at Irish history and tells a uniquely Irish story about our past. Unquiet Graves is a hardhitting documentary which unpicks the horrific narrative of our recent politics and the third, Metal Heart, is a commercial comedy which could be located anywhere on the planet but it’s set in Dublin and told in a uniquely Irish way using Irish craft and skill.

This presentation looks at the recent successes in Irish cinema and the strategies and policies that have enabled these to happen.

Also showing... at the Revelation Film Festival is the Australian premier of Irish Belgium made movie Extra Ordinary.

Rose (Maeve Higgins) is a lonely, small town driving instructor who possesses strange supernatural abilities. The locals regularly need her assistance with hauntings and other supernatural phenomena.

She meets Martin Martin (Barry Ward), a widower whose dead wife still makes her presence very much known, and whose daughter, Sarah, is in extreme danger.

Comedian Maeve Higgins (author of Maeve In America, familiar to Australian audiences from her appearance on Spicks and Specks and at the Melbourne Comedy Festival) delivers a perfectly realised performance in a horror comedy with the emphasis very much on the comedy, which becomes increasingly absurd as the film progresses.

“A kind of tea-cosy “Ghostbusters” that’s consistently funny in a pleasingly off-kilter way.“ – Variety “Thanks to its nonstop jokes, strong, likeable characters, and marvellous cast, the movie is hysterical.” Film Threat Screens at Luna Leederville on Monday 8th July at 1.15pm and Friday 12th at 8.45pm, with the short film The Granny Flat.

Sponsors of the Revelation Film Festival include: Irish Film Festival, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Embassy of Ireland and SAE Qantm Creative Media Institute.

The Camino Voyage (Iomramh An Chamino) Director: Donal O’Ceilleachair Year: 2018 Country: Ireland Duration: 97 mins The Camino Voyage (Iomramh An Chamino) is an inspiring documentary film inspired by written accounts of Irish Writer and Poet Danny Sheehy and his crew that embarked on a 500km journey in 2012 to the Abbey of Saint Comcille in Iona, Scotland. In this film the crew of Oscar-winning singersongwriter Glen Hansard (Once); painter and naomhóg builder Liam Holden; traditional Irish musician Brendan Begley and folklorist and stonemason Breandan Moriarty set off on their own 2,500 Celtic Odyssey from Dublin to Santiago in northern Spain in a traditional currach style boat they made themselves.

It is an amazing voyage, shot beautifully and told through Irish and English.

It is also a story that Glen Hansard gave Perth radio listeners some deep insights into that experience back in 2016 (October 7) when he was interviewed live on ABC 720 by Irish born presenter Sinéad Mangan. Sinéad said he was always looking for inspiration for his music and had just done “a crazy thing”, “You’re re-enacted an Irish pilgrimage from 800 years ago, you get into a rowing boat in Dublin and go to Spain, who had that idea?,” she said.

Hansard spoke yards about the adventure and its impact on him.

“It was a crazy thing to do,” he admitted. “Brendan Begley from West Kerry, Danny Sheehy from West Kerry and Liam Holden from Kilkenny, all three built a naomhóg, a naomhóg is a south west cousin of the currach, which is from Galway and Clare. It was built for big Atlantic seas, it was essentially a canoe, our one was a 20 foot - basically a wicker basket with a pair of jeans pulled over it essentially and painted with tar - and headed off, I was invited for one leg of the trip, which was 600km final stretch from Basque Country to Galicia…It was really really powerful, it was something I’ll never forget as long as I live. I had no experience with boats, I had no experience with rowing.

It was very interesting the lads were pointing out that a young man could do this but maybe an older man is better suited to it, because you head out and don’t know when you’re coming back, everything is weather dependent. So we went out, there were two rules on boat - no complaining and no beds - so thankfully I was able to hold up my end.” continued on page 74

THE IRISH SCENE | 75

IRiSh screen & stage continued from page 73 The never ending routine of rowing actually had a transcendental quality he added. “Your brain just wants to sing, so we were making up all these songs on the boat, so the creative mind is allowed to be free. I heard someone say a few years ago if you want to write a song just go paint a wall because you are dragging the brush up and down the wall and filling the wall with paint, but actually what’s happening is your imagination is being given free reign because your body is actually busy doing something monotonous. I came off that boat Sinéad and I felt kinda dumb, stupid for the first few weeks after the trip, I think I tuned into something I was so spaced out.

I think a combination of being out on the water and the physical monotony of the rowing meant my brain had checked out and tuned into this other place so that when I had to re-engage with being on tour and remembering my lyrics and remembering the chords for each song

my brain wasn’t quite ready for that and I felt dumb, but actually it had nothing to do with stupidity, it was being tuned out into a different place. I guess it was like doing a meditation, but this was a physical mediation.

When she asked him if he would do it again he said he would, in a heartbeat. “After the boat trip I became more aware of plugging into something natural, when I talk to someone looking at them, if I’m going to communicate with someone back home maybe I’ll write it on paper in a letter and its not to get into some idolised version of life but its to get into something that actually feels like this letter will cross oceans, even though electronic mail does too, it does it in a different way, it goes into space, which is also fantastic, but its a different rhythmic a different place with the music and with the my connection to the earth I’m walking on.”

The Torrents: as much Irish as it was Australian The Torrents is a classic Australian stage play, but it feels distinctly West Australian and more than a little bit Irish as well.

All the action of this approximately 100 minute long production happens in the offices of a local newspaper (Argus) in an 1890’s goldfields town called Koolgalla and the space of one sitting, with no intermission.

The precise location of Koolgalla is never explored and it could be one of any number of Australian gold field towns. Perhaps the town’s fictitious name is overly suggestive of Kalgoorlie-Coolgardie as the site of the action, but there are other hints it is set in the west. One of the characters Kingsley is a young and enthusiastic engineer ‘who dreams of building a major water scheme to keep the town alive and give it a new future, one that

will replace the gold in the ground with gold in the sky (ripe crops of fruit). This ambitious vision informs the main plot of the play and talk of the project hints at the story of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme - the longest freshwater pipeline in the world at the time - commissioned in 1896 (around the same time as The Torrents is set) and which was completed 1903, and the Irish born engineer Charles Yelverton O’Connor - who made this remarkable feat possible, at a terrible personal cost.

The Torrents, which could be a play on words, takes its name from one of the main characters Ruffus Torrent.

Torrent is the editor of the Argus newspaper, which has a critical part to play for the personalities and place in the drama.

Musical Entertainer / Teacher

David MacConnell

0413 259 547 0doublexx7@gmail.com www.maccdouble.com THE IRISH SCENE | 76

Ruffus Torrent’s is not an Irish name but the character is a Dublin man who has quite literally made his imprimatur in Australia. There are a few nice “Irish” lines and references throughout the play.

These quips and quotes were well delivered by actor Tony Cogin. So well delivered that I was almost certain he was a native of Dublin and I’m a Dub myself.

The Torrents - which was written in 1955 by Oriel Grey - explores other themes as diverse as feminism, family bonds and freedom of the press. The set is convincingly authentic and makes a great backdrop for the

action and even lends itself to some humour for the play’s tallest actor. The most ‘high profile’ presence on stage is that of Jenny (J G) Millford, the female journalist whose arrival shakes things up more than anyone can realise, played by on screen (“Utopia” and “CrossHaven”) comic Celia Pacquola. Indeed, all the actors play their parts well, with each given a certain amount of humour to play with.

The Torrents was 100 minutes (approx) of solid, old fashioned theatre which went down very well with the audience, that consisted of some high school students and many older theatre goers alike. Veteran thespians will enjoy this show as much as the new comer or irregular visitor to the theatre.

The Torrents by Oriel Gray played at the Heath Ledger Theatre in Perth from June 15 to 30.

Celia Pacquola as JG Milford in The Torrents

The Trials of John Boyle O’Reilly

BY FRED REA 2019 marks the 150th Anniversary of a significant piece of Western Australian history that began in the 1860s: escape of Irish political prisoner John Boyle O’Reilly from a convict road camp near Bunbury.

O’Reilly made his way to Boston, USA where he was instrumental in a subsequent international incident involving Australia, England and USA, the “Catalpa Rescue”. This incredible story of survival, courage and hope is brilliantly and passionately brought to life by actor Mike Anthony Sheehy who plays O’Reilly, and who takes us on a poetic roller coaster ride as O’Reilly battles the brutality of convict transportation and imprisonment in the Swan River Penal Colony.

Written and directed by award winning playwright/actor Noel O’Neill (ABC: The Heights), and presented by Maverick Theatre Productions, The Trials of John Boyle O’Reilly was performed at Bunbury Museum + Heritage Centre, Fri June 28th.

“Bunbuy Museum was packed to the rafters (last night) as an enthralled audience was taken back to the harsh realities of Ireland in 1845,” Murray Cook, who saw it, wrote on social media. “The play so brilliantly written by Noel O’Neill and portrayed as live theatre by Mike Anthony Sheehy took us on the journey of life for JBO. The creative genius of O’Neill was brought to life by Sheehy that left the audience spellbound. I still am,” he wrote three hours later. “The way O’Neill managed to thread the brilliant poetry of JBO into a dazzling display of this tormented but inspiring life, was astounding. Thank you so much to Peter Murphy for bringing the show to Bunbury.”Also writing online, Dee Tucker said she ‘totally agreed’ with Murray: “a wonderful evening last night at the Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre”.

THE IRISH SCENE | 77

Mike Anthony Sheehy as John Boyle O’Reilly

PAULA XIBERRAS

FROM TASMANIA Truth with a twist I chatted to author Mary-Rose MacColl earlier this year about her new novel ‘The True History of Maddie Bright’.

When I tell Mary-Rose that I want to include our chat in ‘The Irish Scene’ magazine she tells me that although she is Scottish on her father’s side she is Irish from her mother’s side.

She adds with a laugh that ’we are all Celts anyway! ‘ Mary-Rose is no stranger to Tasmania having visited to do some corporate work in maternal care at the university medical school in 2009.

In Mary Rose’s novel her 17 year old heroine Maddie Bright accepts a job as a serving girl on Prince Edward’s royal tour of Australia.

It’s a time when many families have lost sons to war including Maddie’s own and the commiseration of the Prince is greatly appreciated.

As Maddie’s surname suggests she is very bright and is quickly assigned to the job of composing replies to letters sent to Prince Edward, many heartfelt, sharing their stories of war time with the caring Prince. This brings her closer to Prince Edward’s secretary Helen Burns whom Maddie admires greatly and is in a

role Maddie herself would like to aspire too. Still a young girl both at heart and in reality, she enjoys speculating on Helen’s possible romance with the Prince’s attendant.

A key incident is a scene when the train the royal entourage is travelling on crashes, a metaphor for the crash in relationships that is to follow.

Switch train tracks to about 60 years into the future where Maddie is now a mature lady befriended by neighbours, living a quiet life in Sydney, until she becomes the unlikely focus of UK journalist Victoria Byrd, hoping to get an interview coup as she has heard Maddie or M. A. Bright, as she is known now has written a sequel to her first successful novel of some years ago.

Victoria and Maddie have some things in common, one being not treated as well as they should have been by men. The novel explores the difficulty of living with fame and its trappings and still connecting with the vast audience of humanity. It also deals with gender and the morality of the time and how Maddie’s life might have been different in another era. There is also an excellent twist ending to the story.

Mary-Rose says ultimately people are the same minus the moral constraints of the time and that all

THE IRISH SCENE | 78

that has changed in the concerns of the 1920’s women and those of the nineties is the frocks!

As for writing Mary-Rose says being a novelist is ‘like driving a car in the dark, you can’t see the road your novel Is going down until the destination comes into view.’

‘The True Story of Maddie Bright’ by Mary-Rose McColl out now published

by Allen and Unwin.

Boyzone’s Shane Lynch racing to Australia

I recently caught up with Irish Boyzone singer Shane Lynch when the boys were in Australia for their first and final Boyzone concert appearance in which they performed at HBF Stadium WA, and other Australian venues.

Boyzone have, however visited Australia on a number of occasions for promotional tours Shane tells me he has happy memories of past visits including seven years ago when he received one of his signature tattoos at ‘Bondi Ink’. This particular arty acquisition was on his right arm and depicted a skull highway man wearing a bandana.

Talking of draw-ings, Shane tells me a big draw in being part of Boyzone and for fans is the music that has created memories at significant times in people’s lives and with twenty five years of back catalogue the group has impacted generationally on many lives.

The concerts included lots of visual memories displayed on the big screens.

With music playing such a large part of Shane’s life you would be forgiven in thinking the band and music have the

most important career highlights of Shane’s life, however Shane tell me that his great love and his last thought at night before falling asleep is motor sport and car racing.

In fact Shane had to put his car racing career on hold when touring with Boyzone. Shane tells me he has cars in his bloodline with his father a mechanic.

massive fan ever since’. James has been performing in ‘Bon But Not Forgotten’ for nine years now, and though the band have performed over quite a bit of Australia they still need to do Darwin, and it’s the band first time in Tassie which all going well, may turn into an annual event!

For now Shane is travelling with Boyzone on a mission to perform one last time and thank everyone for their support over the years.

Since ‘Bon But Not Forgotten’ is made up of exceptionally talented artists, it’s often the case the audience that rock along to their gigs are a combination of fans of AC/DC, fans of individual band members and fans of both!

James says the audience has a very diverse age range from mid- thirties to the seventy plus year olds.

Former Angelic Choirboy rocking to AC/DC This week I spoke to James Morley, former bassist with the Angels and guitarist with the Choirboys about ‘Bon But Not Forgotten’, an AC/DC tribute show.

One member of the band, who James says is the best female vocalist he has heard and who is getting rave reviews on social media is vocalist Cynthia Gallie, who has blown away audiences with her singing of the album ‘Back to Black’ Brian Johnson’s ode to Bon Scott.

James and other talented musicians from bands such as The Baby Animals and Australia’s premier female rock vocalist Cynthia Gallie will be on the Tasmanian leg of their tour on Friday July 5th at Hobart’s Granada Tavern.

James tells me he loves Tassie and has been here 3 times in the past 12 months taking in both Launceston and Hobart.

‘Bon But Not Forgotten’ says James, honours AC/DC by ‘honouring the music as closely as possible’. It’s the sound the band are intent on reproducing and although it’s a very visual show, it’s not a dress up tribute act because James says ‘there just aren’t ‘the legs’ in the ‘Bon But Not Forgotten’ band to do that.

James himself is a big fan of AC/DC, first experiencing them in 1978 in England and he’s been ‘hooked and a

As AC/DC have such an extensive catalogue of songs the guys mix it up a bit, but you can be sure all the hit tracks will be represented with some surprises thrown in. James jokes he ‘wouldn’t want to be lynched in the car park for leaving any out!

You can see ‘Bon But Not Forgotten’ on: Friday June 28, Charles Hotel, Perth WA Saturday June 29, This Life Music Festival, Carnarvon WA Friday July 5, Granada Tavern Hobart TAS

McLoughlin Butchers Malaga

Drop in and see our range of Irish prepared meats 58 Westchester Rd, Malaga WA 6090

mcloughlinbutchers.com.au Like us on facebook THE IRISH SCENE | 79

Below: A little birdie tells us that Michael Malone is turning 50 soon, Happy Birthday Michael!

Around the

irish scene

Have you heard some news lately?

Let us know and you might be seen in the next issue!

Email irishsceneperth@gmail.com

Above: Regina McFadden lived in Perth some years ago and was involved in a bicycle accident which hospitalised her for many months. She is much better now and Simon and Regina are marrying in August this year. Regina asked to be remembered to her many friends in Perth. Congrats Regina!

Above: Going away party for Lisa Lynch (centre) who is heading back to Ireland after 7 years in Perth Above left: Congrats to Robert O’Connor & Flora Lin who were recently married by Fr Laurence Murphy at St. Michaels The Archange Chapel.

Above right: A big congrats to Fred & Lilly who recently celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary!

Above: Doireann, Hugh & Orlagh who recently made their Confirmation.

Left: Pat Maloney with Chelsea FC. It will be a good season with Pat up front.

Above: On a pub crawl at JB O’Reillys

THE IRISH SCENE | 80

€10,000 potentially up for grabs if you want to study in Ireland?

Applications for the Government of Ireland International Education Scholarship scheme opened on February 8 and were announced at the end of May, with successful scholars expected to start their studies in September/October 2019. While this means it is now too late for 2019, interested students and academics could pencil it into their diaries for next year’s round of funding. All up there is a €2 million pot of money for the scheme, with about sixty scholarships expected to be supported to the tune of $10,000 each, and with fees waived.

“Scholarships will be branded as prestigious awards reflecting the core messages about Ireland as a centre of international education,” supporting documentation for the scholarship scheme states.

“It is expected that for every scholarship winner, awareness of Ireland will be raised among many more potential students.

Scholarships must be regarded as highly desirable and value- adding to individuals’ subsequent lives and careers… [as such will be awarded] to high calibre education students from non-EU/EEA countries - which includes Australia - to study in Ireland for a period of one year”.

The fund is directed at covering student costs and living expenses. The scholarship may be used for the final year of an undergraduate programme; one year of a taught master’s degree programme or; one year of a research programme (i.e. one year of a 2-year research masters or a 3-4-year PhD programme).

All disciplines - subject to availability of places - are eligible for the funding.

MARN 0320658

Carol-Ann P. Lynch (MARN 0320658) LLB MMIA Principal Registered Migration Agent O: +61 8 9429 8860 E: carol-ann@easivisa.com A: 803A Wellington Street, West Perth WA 6005

Consultations - $195 (Written advice provided)

Book online or call 9429 8860 www.easivisa.com

THE IRISH SCENE | 81

There are quite a few conditions and criteria attached to applying for the college cash so check it out in plenty of time for next year’s round. The scheme is managed by the Higher Education Authority (of Ireland) on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills.

When she heard the word “heirloom” Chris Timoney’s thoughts travelled immediately to an intangible heirloom, an idea expressed in two words. This idea has fuelled her passion for the family’s history and it’s drawn her to Ireland repeatedly over the past seven years.

Devil’s Bit - The Lure of the Mountain

from his mountainside farmyard at the strangely shaped peak with the missing chunk.

BY CHRISTINE TIMONEY

Yes, an old man who, in the misty past of the nineteenth century left the lush, green homeland we referred to as the Emerald Isle, never to return.

The detail that he was only nineteen when he saw his childhood home for the last time must have escaped me.

Do you have precious heirlooms in your family? Treasured possessions that are lovingly preserved and passed from generation to generation? Grandfather’s shillelagh, Grandmother’s Irish linen handkerchief, a wedding band or something grander, a family crest or Bible?

My treasured heirloom came down to me in the form of words. Two words: Devil’s Bit. That mountain in Tipperary North has been an invisible presence in my life since childhood.

“Your grandfather used to say that he could stand in his backyard and see the Devil’s Bit.” I may have been only seven or eight, but the image of Grandfather John that I conjured then is still vivid in my mind. An old man – well, grandfathers are old, aren’t they, especially grandfathers who died twenty-five years before you were born?

In my mind’s eye I saw him tall, thin and slightly stooped, like an aged version of his Australian-born son, my uncle John, then in his fifties. I dressed this image in a blue and grey flannelette shirt and tan-coloured overalls, garden-stained like those worn by our 80-year-old neighbour.

I stood my imaginary grandfather by a low hedge, gazing up wistfully

Since the 1950s I longed to stand in my grandfather’s Borrisnoe back yard and see the Devil’s Bit in my lifetime. As a child of a working-class family in the suburbs of Brisbane the notion that I could ever achieve this was fanciful, far-fetched, a mere pipe-dream.

But is it really true that what we think about most of the time eventually becomes our reality?

On my first visit to Ireland in 2012 I found my way to Devil’s Bit Mountain with the help of a road map and the friendly encouragement of a stranger, an elderly man with a smiling face weathered by decades of hard physical labour in the outdoors. I had singled him out and quizzed him in the Centra car park in Borrisoleigh.

“That mountain ahead, is that the Devil’s Bit? I’m looking for the place my grandfather emigrated from.”

With his encouragement and directions I spent that solitary summer afternoon driving towards, around and behind the Devil’s Bit Mountain. On a whim I turned into a side track that wound uphill for a couple of miles, guiding me past

THE IRISH SCENE | 82

occasional farm gates and hemming me in with dense green hedges that threatened to dislodge the car’s wing mirrors.

At last I found myself in a clearing with a fenced parking lot, halfway up the mountain.

Stepping out of the hire car to face the mountain was like crossing the threshold of a magnificent cathedral.

I could almost hear the triumphant strains of Bach’s famous Toccata somewhere in the distance.

Time stood still. I stood still. Mouth open and eyes unblinking, I hardly dared to breathe. Was I really here at last?

That long-imagined cleft in the mountain seemed so close I wanted to reach out my hand to touch it. I wished desperately that there were daylight hours enough left to walk the inviting path to the white cross at the summit. It was as if an invisible hand had been beckoning me to this place and this moment of destiny for more than half a century.

There were still many miles to cover and family haunts to see before re-joining my travelling companion for dinner in Limerick. I turned away with regret, but in that moment I knew that one day I would return to these mountains and spend time, real time, in this place my spirit knows as home.

That moment on Devil’s Bit Mountain changed the direction of my life and quickened the pace of my family history quest. And yes, over the past seven years I have returned, many times. In fact I can’t keep away from the place.

I have climbed the Devil’s Bit many times now. I have followed the path past Carden’s Folly and attended outdoor Mass on a July summer’s day beneath the white cross and before the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Looking around me, I have imagined fifty thousand people on the rock in the 1832 anti-tithe protest and wondered if Great-Great-Grandfather John and his brothers and cousins were among the crowd.

Gazing out over the sweeping views from the summit I discovered I could take in all at once Grandfather John’s mountain, Grandmother Honorah’s Lough Derg and River Shannon to the west and my late husband Mike’s roots by the Glen of Aherlow to the south.

At nearby Borrisnoe I have stood in the very farm that was Grandfather John’s nineteenth-century childhood home and is still in his older brother’s family today. I have sat with my cousins around the ample farmhouse table after Sunday Mass, nibbling warm soda bread, breathing in the spicy aroma of sausages and bacon sizzling in the pan, sharing stories and exclaiming over family resemblances in photos we shared.

I have learned that words can be misquoted and maybe you can’t “see” the summit from here, but the reality is even better – my grandfather lived in the shadow of the Bit because his home farm is part of that mountainside. The Devil’s Bit Mountain will always be a living presence in my life, my treasured heirloom.

irish special interest group

BY JENNI IBRAHIM

The Irish Special Interest Group (Irish SIG) of FamilyHistoryWA meets every quarter and the next will be on Sunday 21 July at 2pm when convenor Robyn O’Brien will explain the unique way land is administered in Ireland.

This subject may sound a little dry, but Robyn will bring it alive. You will need to understand land governance to tracking down where your Irish ancestors came from, especially when there are many place names are repeated. The terms townland (unique to Ireland), parish (Catholic and civil), barony, and Poor Law Union will then all become clear.

On Friday 28 June we gathered for our annual Four Courts Memorial Lunch commemorating 97 years since the fire and explosion in the Public Records Office in the Four Courts Building Dublin destroyed many (but not all) genealogical records. The Four Courts fire is significant to family historians as it makes our family history research just so much more difficult.

The final part of our 2019 Back to Basics sessions will be on Sunday 20 October, when there will be an opportunity to put into practice all that we’ve learned over the year: looking for Australian clues, Irish history and land administration. There will be a live research session using the Family History Resource Centre facilities including subscription access to RootsIreland, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Experienced members will be on hand to help new researchers.

New members and visitors are always welcome. Gold coin donation is appreciated. If you’d like to come along -and are not yet a member of FamilyHistoryWA (the business name of WA Genealogical Society) do drop a line to the convenor Robyn O’Brien. Please book a free place using the online booking site TryBooking, details below.

MORE...

ROBYN O’BRIEN Convenor Irish Special Interest Group E. irish.sig@fhwa.org.au

FOUR COURTS RECORDS What was lost, what was not

tinyurl.com/FourCourtsRecords

FAMILYHISTORYWA (FHWA) membership.wags.org.au T. 9271 4311

IRISH SIG WEBPAGE AT FAMILYHISTORYWA

tinyurl.com/irishsig

BOOK A FREE PLACE FOR SUN 21 JULY MEETING AT TRYBOOKING tinyurl.com/irish-july2019

Join FAMILYHISTORYWA Facebook group Researching family worldwide, open to all

Christine is a member of the Irish Special Interest Group committee.

She also volunteers for local history projects in Ireland on her regular visits to meet family and friends.

THE IRISH SCENE | 83

with attacking runs delivering accurate crosses and linking movements with attacking players.

In the midfield the combative and aggressive leadership from Neil Kilkenny in conjunction with the creativity, flair, ball control and dribbling aptitude of Diego Castro who stepped up in the big moments scoring two goals in the semi-final at home against Adelaide United. The grand final was disappointing after losing the penalty shoot-out. If the game had been played at HBF park it would have provided greater familiarity and advantage for the Glory.

GLORY DAYS

BY CIARAIN HOEY At the age of 6 I started heading to the Glory games with my father, during the days of NSL (National Soccer League). I used to always enjoy the pre-match activities on the pitch: the favourite was lining up for a shot aiming to hit the target of a Velcro goal against a keeper on a bouncy castle. Prior to the game the entertaining and charismatic Steve Armstrong would provide a stellar rendition of Saturday Night’s Alright by Elton John to get the crowd going before kick-off. This was during the era of great players like Damian Mori and Bobby Despotovski. One year I made a cheeky appearance into the Glory issue magazine.

Since the club’s establishment in 1995, the Glory have had a contingent of Irish internationals and players of Irish-Australian heritage. The standout would be the sharpshooter Andy Keogh, being the club record goal scorer with 34 goals in addition to 30 caps and 2 goals for the Republic of Ireland. Along side him would be the late Liam Miller; a composed, skilful player who controlled and dictated play with his range of passing and neat touch earning 49 appearances for the Glory and scoring 2 goals.

Liam played for Celtic in Scotland and some notable clubs in England: Leeds United, Sunderland and Manchester United.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for club owner Tony Sage, several seasons back at one home game with coach Ian Ferguson at the helm; the Glory were struggling and close to rock bottom.

Resulting in the fans in the “The Shed” sitting down in a standing area chanting “Bring on the Youths”. Tony Sage could have pulled the plug but decided to persevere and maintain a profile for professional football in Perth and is starting to reap the rewards for his financial investment and hard work off the pitch.

If Perth Glory FC want to attract families, new fans and maximising attendance at home games; one way would be to lower and match the ticket prices for attending a match game compared to the Eastern States. Over east to watch Melbourne Victory or Melbourne City at AAMI Park, its $28 for an adult general admission ticket compared to a $39 for the same ticket entry into HBF Park here.

Why can’t we match this?

Particularly with next season looking promising to defend their league title and its inauguration into the ACL (Asian Champions League). Fans will be exciting with the signing of Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli from Melbourne City. C’mon Glory, twist and shout!!

In Glory’s current squad Shane Lowry’s parents originate from Dublin. Shane has been a brave, reliable and consistent centre back this season. A few seasons back Brandon O’Neill was at the Glory whose parents are also too from Dublin; Brandon applies his trade at Sydney FC who plays well with both feet, has excellent discipline and focus in the defensive midfield role recently making his international debut for the Socceroos.

Glory fans would be familiar with the heartbreak of the 2012 Grand Final with referee Jarrad Gillett awarding a shocking penalty decision with a blatant dive from Besart Berisha in the final stages of the game. The Glory made history this season by winning the minor premier’s plate by 8 points in for the first time in the A-League format. The standout players this season were Shane Lowry at the centre of defence, Jason Davidson at left back providing solid speed and defensive work in combination

‘No nonsense’ Perth Glory centre-back defender Dino Djulbic celebrated his 115th appearance with Perth Glory holding the club’s first A-League Premiers Plate. Also pictured are John Flood and Phyllis Graham who savoured their first time seeing silver at HBF Park, formerly nib Stadium. Both John, from Athlone, and Phyllis, from Dublin, have worked as Spruiker and Usher respectively at the stadium since 2010. Phyllis has another football link as her cousin is the legendary GAA Kerry footballer Mick O’Connell.

THE IRISH SCENE | 84

Chance meeting in

DARWIN

BY GERRY CROWLEY Lois and myself visited Darwin recently, well, Saturday April 20 to be exact. We were in a pub called the Precinct on the Water Front Bar, on the day before Anzac day and out of the blue a young man said hello from afar and I was sure he was smiling at someone else.

He walked over to me and said, “Hello Gerry”.

My old brain was trying to kick in and remember who it was.

Sean Cassidy was his name and I had coached him in 2006 at the Australasian Football and Hurling Championship held in Perth.

Sean was a talented footballer who played Minor football for Western Australia.

I first met Sean around 2004 at Grand Prom oval in Bedford where

there was some minors talent but numbers were slim to send away a team. He would have only weighed 50kg and no taller than 5ft but it was those cold sometimes wet nights where he was going to learn the art of GAA.

how this photo occurred. We had a great auld time chatting about the minor championship while a game of two up was going on in the background. Sean has promised to drop in on our junior Academy the next time he is in Perth. The GAA is one big family where everyone belongs.

2006 was the 32nd Australasian Championships and it was held at what was then called EFTel Oval (formerly Lathlain Oval). Damian McCague was our president and Nicky Brenann was Uachtaran C.L.G. Michael Nolan was Hon. Consul-General. Seamus Sullivan was the Australasian GAA President.

The state Guernsey isn’t one that gets given to you, its earned from talent, skill, mental focus but most importantly a team performance, as Sean says: “I was lucky enough to finally earn one to keep. 2008 saw a team coached by John Lehane take a talented squad over to SA. Numbers were plentiful and a selected squad would travel to represent WA. For some, they had already earnt a minor championship under John. For me this was my last year, from 2004 at Grand Prom oval on that wet muddy oval.”

That year Perth put in two teams to make up for South Australia who were unable to field a team for whatever reason. The Black Swans and WA Gold. John Collins who hailed from Tyrone coached the Black Swans and I gave him a hand (unofficially). John Lehane took charge of Swan Gold and Jarlath Sweeney was the assistant coach.

As far as I know this was the first time that two teams from the same State ended up in the final.

From memory there was some checking of the rule books before this game went ahead. WA Gold won of course as they were the favourites, but our lads gave a great account of themselves, defeating teams from the Eastern States which were twice their size in some cases.

Anyway Sean and myself caught up in the Hotel Darwin the next day Anzac Day and he very kindly wore his WA guernsey which was

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He continues: “Learning how much the ball skidded, how heavy it got and the art of a solo and kick around the body, it all came down to one last shot at it. Previous to 2008, I had represent WA twice, and both was unsuccessful.

In summary 2008, we won! For me, finally!

“Not often I wear the guernsey, its tucked away in the wardrobe. I promised to wear it meeting Gerry for a beer after seeing him the day before. But every time I see the Guernsey it triggers the memory of ‘that time in SA, 2008’.

“Over 10 years on, there’s people that impact this kind of success, guys like Gerry Crowley, Gerry McGoegh, Marty Greene, Rob O’Callaghan, John Lehane, Sean O’Casey, just to name a few. I look back now and think sometimes I didn’t think I listened, instead played on instinct, failed a lot, but these guys guided me to taste team success.

“Unfortunately with life changes, Darwin is currently my home. The laid back lifestyle suits me. The GAA family still remain strong from all accounts and gets bigger every year.

GAAWA continue to grow with its junior academy for grass roots. Hopefully one day we can see a junior league with all clubs having at least one or two teams.”

Can Ireland win

places I needed to come to learn my trade if I wanted to be a serious coach was New Zealand.

You don’t gain experience by doing personal development sessions here, you need to come and live the experience wart’s and all. That is what I have done. It has been a really fulfilling two years so far and I believe both myself and the BNZ Crusaders have gained a lot from my coaching time so far. I have made friends at the BNZ Crusaders for life and the clubs focus, which is not just about rugby, but on family and community is very important.

THE WORLD CUP? Irish Scene asks Ronan O’Gara

BY JONATHAN BOWEN I recently made the trip across the ditch (As they say in New Zealand and Australia) to Christchurch. While I was there, I had the honour and privilege of sitting down and interviewing the legendary Irish rugby player Ronan O’Gara. Ronan has been the Backs Coach for the past two years at the BNZ Crusaders. The BNZ Crusaders are the most successful provincial rugby team in the world. The BNZ Crusaders has won a record nine super rugby titles. They are the current super rugby champions and currently sit atop of the super rugby table. In my humble opinion are almost certain to win the title again this year.

JB: Thank you, Ronan, for making the time to sit down and talk with us. It has been well documented about the who influenced you and how you came to the BNZ Crusaders, but why did you make the decision to leave France and come to the BNZ Crusaders?

ROG: It was an easy decision to leave France when you consider the opportunity that was on offer at the BNZ Crusaders. Super Rugby is a very popular competition in Europe and there is a lot of similarities between Munster and the BNZ Crusaders. When I used to watch the games in Ireland there was a belief that players in New Zealand had four arms and four legs and a lot of teams were beaten before they turned up on the pitch. One of the

JB: The BNZ Crusaders are the most successful super rugby club of all time.

They have always seemed to have a mental edge over the rest of the competition, what is the magic behind the club that gives the BNZ Crusaders that edge?

ROG: I think you can look at that question another way as from 2008 to 2017 the club didn’t win a super rugby title.

It has a very barren period and I think it is important to analyse that in the contexts of the club’s success. You must remember you can’t always define success by lifting the cup, there was one year when the BNZ Crusaders lost the title and the referee admitted to making errors after the match which cost us the game, but it is too late it doesn’t change anything. Now in Scott Robertson’s first year as coach with the BNZ Crusaders the club won the title and then won it again last year. I think in sport it is an error to compare one team with another at the same club.

Each year’s team is completely different. People outside the game make assumptions and it is dangerous to do that. We have a great saying at the BNZ Crusaders we get better or we get beaten so the team must always strive

THE IRISH SCENE | 86

to get better and so must I, otherwise we are going to get caught. It doesn’t create any more personal pressure to keep the team at the top of its game it is a challenge and it is exciting.

JB: Given you have tasted success in France and in New Zealand, what is it that the BNZ Crusaders do that sets them apart from what the teams in the Northern Hemisphere?

ROG: It is very different. There is such a fabulous support structure and culture around the BNZ Crusaders when it comes to preparing players to perform at their best. When I coached in France and remember I was only at one club, so my comment is restricted to that experience the mentality was, sign a big contract and then play well.

They were not worried about what you did on a Monday to Friday, you just needed to perform on match day. At the BNZ Crusaders the players week is carefully mapped out. The players go through a routine which includes time for personal development, mental work skills, gym sessions, fitness sessions, rugby training, dietitian and nutritionist appointments, so everything is run like a well-oiled machine. Scott Robertson has made sure he has put the best people into the various roles to make the players reach their optimum level for match days. It also helps when you have senior players that are well driven to succeed.

JB: How do the BNZ Crusaders make sure that they keep churning out the best talent year after year?

ROG: A lot of credit for this needs to go to Aaron Webb and the set-up he has created with the academy team.

There is a great saying by Alex Ferguson “If you look after your academy, your academy will look after you”. I think that is what they do here, and they do it very well. Each member of the academy coaching set up nail their role and they do it perfectly. Just remember there were eight players from the BNZ Crusaders academy that got picked by the Under 20s All Blacks Team which is quite amazing when you think about it. That doesn’t happen by luck, that happens by expert training and having a trained eye for spotting talent. That is why skilled people like Angus Gardiner (General Manager Professional Rugby of the

BNZ Crusaders) who are experts in their field make sure all the pieces of the puzzle fit together correctly. Angus puts a very big importance around things like succession planning and identifying people and players who can potentially replace others.

JB: You were quoted in a newspaper recently as saying to take another position outside the BNZ Crusaders or the All Blacks would be like taking a side step in your career rather than making progression in your coaching career, do you still feel that is the case?

ROG: When I made this quote, I was trying to show how important the opportunity was that the BNZ Crusaders gave me to launch myself as a coach.

There are not many rugby clubs in the world like the BNZ Crusaders, Test rugby and coaching a national side is very different however when weighing what happens next there is a rugby decision and a family decision. The challenge for me is when it comes to making a rugby decision you must be very selfish, and that sometimes means that the decision you make comes at a sacrifice to your family.

Nothing makes me happier than to come into this rugby club from eight to eight each day but that doesn’t always work for my wife and family.

There is a whole other life outside my selfish bubble but to be the best I can be I must be selfish and ruthless but like everything in coaching life there must be compromises. I think over the last two years the back players have enjoyed and respected me being here. I wanted the players to feel like I was getting the best out of them, there is always room for improvement, but they are doing extremely well so far.

JB: Can you see a time when a World Club Championship would be held between the European Cup Champions and the Super Rugby Champions?

JB: Are you confident the BNZ Crusaders will make a serious challenge towards the Super Rugby finals if not make the actual Super rugby final?

ROG: For the first time in world cup history the tournament is so open. You look at the six nations tournament this year and I don’t think anyone would have predicted Wales winning it. New Zealand will be the favourites to win it with their history and pedigree. The tournament will be all about momentum get the early wins on the board and see where it takes you.

ROG: You have to be, I am not going to dilute my belief in my team over one sub performance in Suva against the Chiefs. If you are two percent off, you get caught out in this competition so let’s not be two percent off, let’s be two percent better. If you are not good enough you put your hands up, there is no harm in failing there is a serious harm in not trying.

Join the Irish Golf Club

ROG: I think it would be a fantastic occasion for the winners of both tournaments to play each other but with the potential new rugby calendar coming in soon, you never what the IRB might decide?

JB: One last question Ronan, who is going to win the Rugby World Cup this Year? Can Ireland finally win it?

JB: Ronan O’Gara Thanks for your time.

Special thanks to Chantelle Te Haara for arranging this interview.

THE IRISH GOLF CLUB OF WA

Based in Perth, Western Australia we are a Golf Club that meet for a stableford tournament on the third Sunday of every month. Once a year we host our stroke play club championship tournament, which is played over two consecutive Sundays.

We play on different golf courses each month, and try to balance these between courses North and South of the Swan River. Being a non-profit organisation we aim for green fees of $35 for members and $40 for visitors where possible. This typically covers the prizes of the day as well as the green fees. Any surplus money we accumulate is usually donated to charity and/or used to subsidise a round of gold at a more expensive course such as Secret Harbour. The number of players usually range from 24 to 40, depending on the time of the year.

As a member who has played and handed in at least two score cards, you then get to enter into the competition and become eligible for prizes. There are prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the lowest gross score on the day but more importantly

May results at Gosnells Golf Course WINNER: PJ Kenny on 32 points SECOND (on a count back:) Mick Connelly THIRD: Brendan Flanagan both on 29 pts.

The course was set up for pennants following behind us so it was tough, as seen in our low scores. the winner gets their name engraved on the monthly trophy. Other prizes are also provided for nearest to the pin and longest drive.

We have twelve trophies, one for each month of the year with the addition of a ladies and men’s club championship trophy and a player of the year trophy.

THE IRISH SCENE | 87

Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia Western Australia 2019 Football League The 2019 Football League commenced on Sunday 14 April at Tom Bateman Reserve and continues every Sunday.

The competition is nearing its conclusion and weekly fixtures are advertised on www.facebook.com/gaainwa while a full list of fixtures for the season is available on www.gaawa.com.au/resources

2019 Hurling League The 2019 Hurling & Camogie League returned May 4th at RA Cooke Reserve in Morley. Weekly fixtures are advertised on www.facebook.com/gaainwa while a full list of fixtures are available on www.gaawa.com.au/resources

GAAWA CLUB DETAILS Football Clubs Greenwood Mens Senior Football greenwoodgfc@hotmail.com Morley Gaels Mens & Ladies Senior Football morleygaelsgfc@hotmail.com Southern Districts Mens & Ladies Senior Football southerndistrictsgaa@gmail.com St. Finbarr’s Mens & Ladies Senior Football stfinbarrsgfc@outlook.com Western Shamrocks Mens & Ladies Senior Football westernshamrocks@hotmail.com

Hurling Clubs St. Gabriel’s Mens & Ladies Senior Hurling & Camogie stgabrielsperth@gmail.com Western Swans Mens & Ladies Senior Hurling & Camogie westernswansgaa@gmail.com Perth Shamrocks Mens Senior Hurling perthshamrocks@gmail.com Sarsfields Mens Senior Hurling sarshurlingperth@gmail.com

2019 Feile Peil na nOG The Western Australia Squad taking part in Feile Peil are travelling to Ireland on Sunday June 23rd and due to land in Dublin on the 24th. When the squad are in Dublin, they will be based in DCU and train at Erin’s Isle GAA Club.

They are also due to meet the Australian Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Richard Andrews & visit Croke Park before travelling to Aghada GAA Club where they will play a challenge match on June 25th at 7pm in honour of Charlie McCarthy. On June 26th, the squad will travel to Bunratty Castle in Co Clare before they arrive at Delvin GAA Club in Co Westmeath where they will play a challenge match at 7pm in honour of Dermot Kenny.

On June 27th the squad will travel to their base in Co Leitrim where they are being hosted by St Brigid’s who are an amalgamation of Aughawillian, Aughnasheelin & Drumrielly GAA Clubs.

For Feile itself, the squad have been placed in the boys Division 12 along with St Brigid’s, Oran GAA from Co Roscommon & Bective GAA from Co Meath. On Friday June 28 Western Australia play Oran GAA & Bective GAA at Kilmore GAA Club grounds outside Carrick on Shannon. On Saturday June 30 WA meet St Brigid’s at Aughnasheelin GAA Club grounds and we will have a quarter final that afternoon. We are hoping to have a semi final and final on the Sunday. Updates will be posted across GAAWA social media platforms and sincere thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, Jersey sponsors FT Workforce, Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia, Croke Park, Embassy of Ireland, Canberra and all our other sponsors, both individuals and companies who have already donated.

THE IRISH SCENE | 88

Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia Western Australia 2019 Renault GAA World Games The 2019 edition of the GAA World Games will be hosted by Waterford Institute of Technology and Croke Park on the last week in July.

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Western Australia will be sending 7 Ladies players to compete with 4 Irish born and 3 Australian born players representing Australasia at the games.

Football: BGC Grounds, Tom Bateman Reserve Cnr Bannister & Nicholson Rds, Canning Vale Hurling: RA Cook Reserve, Coode St. Morley Rd

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2nd Annual WAIFC Famine Commeration Day GAAWA took part in the 2019 Western Australia Irish Famine Commemoration held on Sunday May 19th at the Famine Memorial in Subiaco. President of GAAWA, Gerry McGough laid a wreath at the memorial on behalf of the Association in Western Australia.

GAA in WA Day The Tim Hickey & Perth 7’s Hurling & Football competitions were held on 8 June at Tom Bateman Reserve.

After intense competition on the day Sarsfields were crowned Tim Hickey Hurling 7’s champions while St Finbarrs won the Neil McCague Football 7’s trophy. On the ladies’ side of the competition, Western Swans won the camogie while Western Shamrocks triumphed in the football.

The day also featured a jersey presentation to the Western Australia squad travelling to Feile Peil na nOG in Ireland by jersey sponsor Thomas Dunne, Jessica Stojkovski MLA & Ciaran Gallagher, Chairman of the WA Minor Board. Music was provided

by Prohibition and sincere thanks to everyone who made the day such a success.

THE IRISH SCENE | 89

JUNIOR ACADEMY 2019 Season Commenced Despite heavy downpours and wintery drizzle over the last few weeks Academy students have been turning out for training at HBF Arena’s western oval on Sunday’s. Some of the ladies from Southern Districts came along to a session in late June and made a terrific difference to the children by sharing with them their skills and experiences and by showing an interest in the youngsters. The presence of experienced players gave the whole academy - kids and coaches alike - a lift. Thank you very much ladies.

Some of the children and parents also turned out to take part in the Tim Hickey & Perth 7’s at Tom Bateman Reserve in Thornlie on Saturday June 8.The Academy players held their own in the annual event and put into play some of the skills they have been learning along the way. After their game the children were treated to a sausage sizzle and drink courtesy of GAAWA. Four tickets gifted to the Academy by HBF Arena for the June 30 clash between Fremantle and Carlton at Optus Stadium were also won on the day.

It has also been a busy time for the Academy’s committee and coaches.

Some of the Academy leadership group and a small number of supporters put in a long day on Saturday May 18, starting early and in the dark, to set up and man a sausage sizzle outside Aldi Currambine as a fundraiser for the Academy.

The sizzle was made possible thanks to Lisa Lynch, who was with the German supermarket chain. Lisa and hubby Ray’s son Fionn was with the Academy for some time. They recently returned to Ireland, and will be missed.

Several coaches and committee members also undertook an online and then day long practical first aid training course with Royal LifeSaving WA to learn or refresh their first aid skills and have received their certificates. Like last year, a table quiz for the Academy, as much an opportunity for the members to meet each other in a relaxed social setting as it is a fundraiser, is also in the pipeline but no details have been confirmed just yet. Keep an eye on Team App for news of the quiz and any other developments and activities associated with the Academy.

The Equipment (goal posts/helmets/balls/hurls) required for training sessions is stored some distance away in Karrinyup and needs to be picked up and dropped off every week, which involves a big time commitment by one of our coaches in particular. The Academy is on the lookout for more local storage solutions in or around Joondalup that would help take the pressure off. If you have or know of a large garage or secure space where the Academy’s trailer could be kept during the week please get in touch.

Finally, training will have stopped for the July school holiday but sessions will resume on July 28. There is always room for more players, and ways to get involved. We look forward to seeing you soon.

THE IRISH SCENE | 90

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update on the rovers season so far We are just halfway through the season. Although results haven’t been going our way, we’ve had a couple of wins over the last few weeks, to the credit of the players and the coaching staff who are putting in the hard yards. We are improving week by week with quite a young side, but it must be said we do miss the settling effect our club captain Peter Smith has on the team. Peter is out with a long term injury, but hopefully we will have him back playing soon.

Head coach Gerry McEwan is ably assisted by his coaching staff Adam Walsh, Gary Delaney, Keith Traynor and goalkeeping coach Gordon Webster. This coaching team drives the players to be better while developing a great club spirit. Many thanks lads!

Off the pitch, we are a very small committee striving to improve and grow the club. If you are interested in getting involved in any way, no matter how small, please give us a call.

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Once again a big thank you to our sponsors: Pipeline Technics; Integrity Property Solutions; Killarney Autos; McLoughlin Butchers; Express Bins; and Bendigo Bank.

Special mention and thanks to Nicky Edwards who has helped us to access additional sponsorship and donations.

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