The Irish Scene January/February 2022 Edition

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High flyer

Dublin born Qantas CEO Alan Joyce chats exclusively with Irish Scene

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Contents

ACCOUNTANTS & TAX AGENTS 9 DJ Gordon & Associates................... 9321 2266 BEAUTICIAN 92 Sharon Nolan Brows & Beauty....... 0498 980 987 BUTCHERS 96 McLoughlin’s Meats........................... 9249 8039 47 Meat Connoisseur............................... 9309 9992 ELECTRICAL 11 Powerbiz Electrical............................. 045 12 555 13 EVENTS, ENTERTAINMENT & 65 Frank Murphy Celtic Rambles......... 107.9fm RADIO 30 Fiddlestick ................................David 0413 259 547 21 Torc Ceili Club 63 St Brigid’s Festival Imbolc Feast 93 St Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival FUNERALS 76 McKee Funerals.................................. 9401 1900 IMMIGRATION & TOURISM 7 EasiVisa ............... Carol-Ann Lynch 9429 8860 IRISH COMMUNITY GROUPS 57 Aust Irish Heritage Assoc................ 9345 3530 67 Bodhran Group Lessons................... 0457 362 338 39 IACC ..................................................... 1300 513 633 77 Irish Families in Perth 68 The Claddagh Assoc.......................... 9249 9213 IRISH FOOD & CAFES 17 Clonakilty MECHANICS 1 Killarney Autos .......................... Neil 0439 996 764 MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 87 Stephen Dawson................................. 9172 2648 PROPERTY MAINTENANCE 13 Housemaster Building Inspections. 0405 632 391 89 Integrity Property Solutions............. 0423 618 506 PUBS, CLUBS & RESTAURANTS 15 Durty Nelly’s, Perth............................ 9226 0233 15 Galway Hooker, Scarborough 49 Irish Club of WA, Subiaco................ 9381 5213 34 Jarrah Bar, Hillarys............................. 9246 4112 27 JB O’Reillys, West Leederville........ 9382 4555 2 Paddy Malone’s, Joondalup............. 9300 9966 31 Ric O’Shea’s @ The Beaconsfield 6226 9240 53 The National Hotel, Fremantle........ 9335 6688 48 Woodbridge Hotel, Guildford.......... 9377 1199 SOLICITORS & LEGAL 61 Kavanagh Lawyers............................. 9218 8422 14 Vibe Legal............................................ 6111 4890 SPORT & SPORTING CLUBS 92 GAA ..................................................... 0458 954 052 90 Shamrock Rovers................................ 0410 081 386 TRANSPORT & FREIGHT 30 AI Express............................................ 9243 0808 TRAVEL & TOURISM 67 British Travel........................................ 9433 3288 TYRES, BATTERIES, BRAKES ETC 13 Tyrepower Perth City ...............Fiona 9322 2214

An Irish Christmas in Bunbury........ 64 Around the Irish Scene..................... 50 Australian Irish Heritage Assoc.......57 Australian Irish Dancing Association WA................................ 86 Been There, Got The Tee-Shirt!........ 18 Bill Daly - Time.................................. 54 Book Reviews.....................................78 Claddagh Report............................... 68 Craic, Ceol and Ceilidh at Torc Irish Dancing Christmas Party......... 60 Family History WA.............................74 Free Spirits and Fugitive Folk!..........22 From Home to Home: Oral Histories of Irish Seniors in Western Australia..........................72 GAAWA............................................. 90 GAA Junior Academy........................94 G’day from Gary Gray........................32 Geraldton & Midwest Irish Club...... 84 Going Straight to the Top to Get Answers.....................................6 Home Thoughts From Abroad..........42 I’d Much Rather Wear Out Than Rust Out!.................................. 36 Irish Golf Club Of WA....................... 88 Irish Theatre Players......................... 85 Isteach Sa Teach................................ 28 Love in Ireland and the Time of Covid................................................ 16 Matters of Public Interest................. 44 Nollaig na Mban (Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas)..........62 One Step Beyond!................................4 Old Boys Blackrock College Gathering.............................................21 Paula From Tasmania........................ 82 Shamrock Rovers.............................. 89 Trioblóid i bPáirc an Aoibhnis......... 66 Ulster Rambles.................................. 58

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One Step Beyond!

BY GERRY COLEMAN

IT ALL STARTED AS A SIMPLE PHONE CALL ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO WHEN OUR FAMILY FRIEND KATE, WHO SUFFERS FROM THE INSIDIOUS AND DEBILITATING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS CONDITION, SAID SHE WAS CONSIDERING DOING THE ANNUAL ‘CENTRAL PARK PLUNGE’ ON NOVEMBER 14, 2021.

4 | THE IRISH SCENE

The Plunge is a fundraising event event run by Zenith Promotions and Multiple Sclerosis Western Australia (MSWA) and sees participants abseil from the top of Perth’s tallest building, Central Park, which stands at a frightening 52 floors or 220 metres high. This is a fundraising charity event with limited spots, whereby you pay a $100 registration fee and sign up to raise a minimum $1,100 for your nominated charity out of a choice of nine.

The phone call was to my wife Julie and Kate asked if she would be interested in partnering up with her and taking the plunge! As Julie couldn’t do it, she asked me if I would be interested and it was a flat NO, as I’m scared of heights and have never abseiled before. However over the course of a few days I thought more and more about it, and thought that if Kate was considering doing it, who am I to wimp out considering that I’m a fairly fit and healthy sexagenarian, and even though this challenge would take me well and truly out of my comfort zone I agreed!

Over the next few days we were trying desperately to rope in others to join our team of four for MSWA as registered spots were running out quickly.

Then unfortunately Kate was unable to commit to the Plunge. So this let me off the hook but burning in my mind was the challenge and having already committed mentally I decided to ask my 28 year old son Ben if he would be interested in partnering up with me and join two others on the day to make up a team of four. “But you know dad I’m absolutely petrified of heights – I did this once in a Year 9 school gym and what a horrible feeling taking that step off the edge and putting your whole weight and trust in a harness and rope”.

Over a couple of days I badgered Ben and he thought about it a little more and said if you’re mad enough to do it dad then I’ll have a go. We both signed up. Over the next few months Ben kept saying, I don’t know how you talked

ONE STEP BEYOND!

Left: Gerry & Ben during their big drop down Central Park tower in Perth, raising funds for MSWA

me into this and just the thought of it gives me sweaty palms. We tried our best to raise funds and a week prior to the event we had only raised $700 and $600 respectively and not the target amount each, so we were advised we could not participate, but organisers would compromise and combine both amounts and let only one of us have a spot. This was not an option as I was most certainly not doing it without Ben and Ben not without me! Two days before the event and much pleading and many phone calls we were both allocated a spot, second last and last. We were so delighted and relieved not to let all our sponsors down, family, friends, workmates and total strangers, and I naively thought that was the hard work done.

My way of coping with nerves was to not think about it and just block it out until the day itself, whereas Ben was quite anxious just thinking about it all the while. On the morning of the event for I watched a Youtube video of a previous Central Park abseil from a participants view and that was the “WOW what have we got ourselves into” moment.

When we arrived at the venue to register I looked up to the top of the building from the grassed area and broke out into convulsions of laughter, saying “you have got to be kidding”, with a lady standing beside me saying “are you doing it YES?”, which triggered her hysterical laughter! It was only when we got to the 50th floor for our induction that I truly realised how petrified Ben was. Our chaperone who brought us up in the lift beckoned us to the window to check out the amazing view, when Ben retreated to the middle of the room and sat down with his profusely sweating palms. We watched a motivational video which amongst other things was designed to encourage each other on the way down like ‘you’ve got this, you can do it, girl power’! We found this video to be more scary than anything else and found ourselves staring at each other aghast with mouths open, and then on to the next harness induction and weight bearing practice.

The abseil itself was nerve-racking, but the fantastic trained Zenith professionals helped us take that fearful step off the building not once but twice, as it was in two stages. As we were the last two participants after three days, my mind was racing with anticipation and I was wondering if they were in a rush to get home for a beer, why did they pack away the safety ropes, hopefully they are not too distracted and fatigued and forget to lock off the shackles and kabana’s which hopefully were not manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop and should I have wore my heavy boots as I’m a lightweight leprechaun about to traverse this thing like a flea on a gorilla at the top of a blustery New York landmark!

Ben who is a muay thai martial arts fighter said the whole experience of stepping off a 52 storey building is mind blowing and was more daunting than stepping into the ring with someone who wants to kick you in the head. I have come to the conclusion that I have a normal healthy fear of heights whereas Ben is bordering on acrophobic, which made his effort even more phenomenal.

What a father/son bonding experience and I have nothing but immense pride for Ben taking that leap of faith over the edge and into the unknown. What did you do on the weekend?

☘

THE IRISH SCENE | 5

Going straight to the top TO GET ANSWERS

BY MIKE BOWEN

QANTAS BOSS WANTS PERTH TO LONDON FLIGHTS BACK On Monday 13th of December 2021, West Australian Premier Mark McGowan announced WA’s hard border – which has shuttered most of the population, cut off from the rest of Australia and the world with good and bad consequences – would finally come down on February 5, 2022.

While almost nothing can be certain in these times, Mr McGowan has signalled that only an “unforeseen emergency” could change this timeframe. Like millions of other Australians, it is a date that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been waiting eagerly to hear. While international flights had resumed in other Australian capitals from about mid-December, Perth will be the last to allow in overseas flights.

In a one-on-one interview with regular Irish Scene contributer Mike Bowen in late November 2021, Mr Joyce said he hoped to be able to resume their 6 | THE IRISH SCENE

once highly successful Perth to London route by April. As well as the busy Dublin route, London offers direct flights into many other regional Irish airports. It will be an option that will appeal to the Irish community in WA and Australia as well as the general travelling public when making their plans to get back to Ireland to see family, friends and loved ones who they have been separated from now for two long and difficult years. – Editor I was totally confused and frustrated after receiving hundreds of phone calls and emails, all looking for clarification on the rules in travelling home, to and from Ireland. Almost everyone said they were too scared to plan or book flights because the media were sending out constant negative messages regarding flight availability due to lockdowns and lock-out laws.

This overdose of negativity that was being pumped out by the print and social media was enough to send any sane person into convulsions.

GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP TO GET ANSWERS

Left: Mike Bowen met with Qantas CEO, Irishman Alan Joyce to discuss international flights to and from Australia To get clarity for all those who were also lost in the confusion of the negative mixed messages, I decided to ask Qantas CEO, Dubliner Alan Joyce, who is no doubt one of the busiest Australians around, for an interview for Irish Scene. Having met and interviewed him a number of times over the past twelve years, I know he’s a no-nonsense person and I will get straight answers to my questions.

I was heading to Sydney – get answers and some assurance from Mr Joyce for all those seeking clarity and who were anxious to travel again. I’m sure the receptionist at Qantas HQ must have thought this figure that arrived in layers of clothing to fend off the torrential rains that followed me from Melbourne must have been a wayward Arctic explorer.

Despite the enormous pressures he faces in getting the ‘Flying Kangaroo’ back into the skies after the devastation and damage caused by the pandemic, I get a reply within 24 hours that Mr Joyce would like to meet. His office at Qantas headquarters in Mascot was to be the venue for our interview.

So I was surprised when I was greeted with “Welcome Mr Bowen, one of our senior managers from Corporate Affairs will be with you in a few minutes”.

I was happy to hand over my overnight baggage and dislodge my Uggie bear clothing to show a more formal business attire. A warm welcome, a coffee and a briefing before our meeting.

I set off early and headed to the airport in torrential rain for my 9am flight and midday meeting in Sydney.

The sad sight of seeing the empty Qantas check in hall in Tullamarine was scary and reminded me of the devastating effect Covid-19 and the lockdowns have had on the aviation industry. Empty check in halls equates to empty flights, and empty flights equates to vanishing airlines, giving me a stark reminder why

I was shown into the boardroom to be greeted with a firm warm Irish handshake. “Welcome Mike,” said Mr Joyce in a typical Dublin accent as he shook my hand. “I see you brought the good weather with you.

I replied yes I did, I thought you might have missed the rain. After the pleasantries and a few laughs, we settle at the table to go through some of the readers concerns.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 7

Right: Introducing Alan Joyce to the Irish Scene.

MB

Thank you Alan for taking time out of your very busy schedule to clarify some of the unclear messages that are clouding air travellers fear to travel. I have a short list of questions, from some of the hundreds of enquiries I received.

AJ

I’m more than happy to give clarity to those concerns.

MB

Is full vax required to fly Qantas International?

AJ

Yes there is, we do have medical exceptions, defined by a target. You can apply to our medical team to get an exemption and we have a requirement of a double dose full vax, before you travel. The policy for children is the same as the Australian Government, in some cases they recognize a single dose and we will do the same.

MB

Will passenger numbers be limited on international flights, and if so, how will that impact on the price of airfares?

AJ

We’re selling the full capacity on the aircraft and it actually turns out to be a very safe environment for people to travel in. We have only had one known case of Covid transmitted on an aircraft and that was back when the Ruby Princess happened. As you are probably aware, an aircraft does have operating air filters that circulates from top down, which helps to push the air flow down further and everybody is facing in the same direction while the seats acts as a natural barrier. We are comfortable that there will be requirements to wear masks. We’re also comfortable that we can safely sell all the seats on board the aircraft.

In terms of the airfares, what we’re doing now is trying to put as many of the aircraft back in the air as we can to get our people back to work. I’ve said repeatedly over the last year, that our major objective is not to make money in the short term but to generate cash and that means that airfares are going to be very attractive.

Domestically we have Jetstar selling tens of thousands of $22 airfares and those are the lowest airfares that we have ever had, to get our people back to work. We have also did the same internationally, Jetstar had a sale for international flights and sold out 75,000 airfares, starting from $100 and they sold out over 24 hours. Qantas did the same, the airfares we’ve been selling to L.A. and London are equivalent price and in some cases less than they were before Covid, just to get

8 | THE IRISH SCENE

our flights up and running. At peak periods, if you’re trying to travel over Christmas and you’re travelling in a certain direction, there is huge demand and all seats sell very fast, so airfares do go up and you can expect that. For example if you’re leaving Australia going to London, the flights are very light in that direction and very full in the other, so you can get some very attractive fares if you keep to the right direction.

MB

How will be meals be served on international flights?

AJ

Very similar to prior to Covid. We will be opening up all the lounges. For example, I’ll go through the entire situation with you, at Sydney first class lounge has opened up and Melbourne the same. All of our Platinum and Gold members and anyone that qualifies for lounge access gets into that lounge. They will have to wear a mask at the airport and you have to wear a mask when you go into the lounge. When you sit down and to be served food and drinks, you can take the mask off.

Once you board the aircraft, you have to continue wearing your mask on board.

We had Neil Perry in here yesterday picking some new wines for service and we have added some new vegan meals on board. People will see a very similar service that they had before Covid, we will be serving the same range of alcohol and meals We are also in the process of opening up lounges around the world. In Darwin there was a new pop up lounge, it was set up in a few weeks and that’s your transit lounge to get to between the U.K. and here. Just before Christmas we’re opening up the Qantas lounge in London, at the moment we use the British Airways lounge there. We’re also opening the Qantas first class lounge in L.A. – at the moment we use the New Zealand star lounge there. When we start flying back to Singapore,

GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP TO GET ANSWERS

we will be opening a business class lounge there, you’ll gradually start to see everything feeling like it was before Covid.

MB

AJ

I downloaded my vaccination certificate from the Victoria Health site and put a copy in each of my Irish and Australian passports, is that right or will we have to have a government stamp showing we have been vaccinated?

What will be a requirement in a lot of countries is, you will have to show that you are fully vaccinated. We’re trying to make it easier with the IATA digital pass that we will be launching before Christmas. It will allow you to upload the needed documents each of the governments that you’re going to require, it will make it clear what they are. The normal passport system will work, at the moment it’s a bit more manual. The vaccination system that we’re making is as automated as we can. With the new system, we will let you know a week before you travel what the requirements are, and again four days, also seventy four hours before you travel. We hold your hand through the process as you’re travelling to tell you what you need to do for the various countries that you’re travelling to.

MB

I assume there will be exemptions for the young and elderly travelling internationally?

AJ

There will be an exemption, as long as there is a supportive information that the elder’s health needs are different. With the young children, if they are under twelve, they can’t have a vaccine at the moment, they obviously have an exemption.

With children from the U.K and other countries where one dose is regarded as fully vaccinated, we recognize that.

MB

Will the Melbourne/Perth to London flights be reinstated?

AJ

Yes when the West Australian state opens up again. The Darwin service will remain in service until at least April. When Perth opens up, I intend to have that service back because that service works really well there. Hopefully by April we can start that service again, but that depends on the West Australian government. The Premier said they will open up again when they get to 90% vax, so we expect that it will be open in February.

MB

Will the Emirates/ Qantas venture agreement continue?

AJ

Yes, we just signed the agreement to extend for at least another five years to March 2028, with a further five years extension on top of that and that

should take us to March 2033. We will need triple C approval and we are very keen – it’s worked very well for our customers.

MB

Will I be able to fly direct to New York from Melbourne on Qantas as I did before Covid?

AJ

Yes we will be re-entering New York in early 2022, it may be late 2022. New York is very important so our intent is get New York back because our customers love it and we have a huge amount of traffic out of New York. Before Covid, Qantas put a 787 service on from L.A to New York, and it was always full. We can only pick up people coming and going to Australia. I often think Mike, if we could pick up local traffic we could kill it but local traffic is a lockout for us.

MB

I well remember flying to New York back in May 2010 for the tenth year anniversary edition of The Irish Connections Magazine that had published the story/interview I did of yourself at the Irish Embassy there. I think that, that was the second A380 flight to the U.S. at the time. That was so exciting and easy, almost door to door.

AJ

The other exciting thing is we had just announced before Covid is that we were going to start Chicago, which was due to start in March 2020.

Our intent now is to restart at the earliest end of 2022 or start of 2023, pending how the market recovers. That will be quite exciting for our American customers.

MB

You told me back in 2013 that the Asian Pacific market would grow to be the largest in the world.

How do you see that now?

AJ

I think the big question post Covid will be the recovery in this region of the Chinese market, as the borders are still closed, so the Chinese can’t leave to go anywhere. The question is, when

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THE IRISH SCENE | 9

Below: Masks will be mandatory in the airport, the guest lounges and on board the aircraft will they open up and then, given the political tensions between China and Australia, will we get the same number of Chinese visitors as before Covid. It was the largest coming in here, bigger that the New Zealanders coming here, so a lot of markets depend on it.

For us it was relatively small before Covid – we had Beijing and Shanghai, we had made a decision to exit Beijing before Covid and we will only come back to Shanghai. It’s a small market for Qantas but a big market for tourism into Australia, and I think everyone is just having to suck it up and see how the market comes back, because I don’t think anyone is sure when it will open and how it will recover. Also, will tourism have the same tension from the Chinese as other sectors, like the wine and fresh food industry?

MB

No doubt you will be sourcing other markets to fill that void. Is Japan high on the agenda?

AJ

One of the major things we’re doing is to make sure that we have other tourism markets. We are still working on having a Japanese operation up and running before Christmas and potentially building up further from there. We are very keen to grow our Japanese operations, I think the Japanese opportunities are enormous. Qantas will be restarting the Melbourne–Narita and the Sydney–Narita service again. We had a great Brisbane–Narita service that brought thousands of Japanese tourists to Cairns and the Gold Coast.

So we’ll rapidly try to get back to those services that we had before Covid. We were trying to get a partnership approved with JAL but that didn’t happen, unfortunately the ACCC knocked us back which was disappointing. If that had happened Qantas would have reset the Cairns–Tokyo service as JAL would have helped us sell that service.

Recently while in the US we talked about Chicago/ New York. Qantas sees huge potential in the American tourist returning to our shores, as that would be very helpful in rebalancing whatever losses we might have from the Chinese fallout.

The Americans see us as one of the safest countries in the world to visit, so we are keen to break back into the US tourism market, starting in April. We think it will be very big here, much as it was before Covid.

MB

Will there be any changes in the Frequent Flyer program?

10 | THE IRISH SCENE

AJ

The big changes that we made is there is 50% more Reward seats available on international and domestic flights. Then we had this big sale a couple of weeks ago of Frequent Flyer points and there was half a billion points redeemed in one day. On the first two weeks in October, we 2.7 billion points redeemed. One chap, a fairly industrious individual, booked 38 flights in the one day using his Frequent Flyer points. We will be making a lot more available and that’s one of the reasons why we brought back our A380 to make more premium seats available for people to upgrade going to L.A. and London.

MB

Alan, as we were speaking about the U.S.A., Paddy McCarthy, the publisher of the Irish Examiner USA, who is also on the New York St Patrick’s Day parade committee, asked me to ask you would you ever consider attending the parade there?

AJ

Yes there is a possibility that I might be there. I’ve never seen the St Patrick’s Day parade. If all the planets can line up for it, that would be on the cards. I’ll let you know.

MB

If the travelling public seek further information, can they access it from the Qantas website?

AJ

Qantas have a very informative website that is regularly updated.

MB

Thank you again Alan for taking time out of your frantic schedule to meet with me. I wish you and your Qantas family all the very best and safe flying.

AJ

You’re always welcome Mike, you do a great job for the travelling public and Qantas!

GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP TO GET ANSWERS

CORK WOMAN FIONA MAYERS IN PERTH: WHAT’S KEPT ME UP AT NIGHT IS NOT KNOWING WHEN – OR IF – I’D BE BACK For the first time since arriving here, in 2011, Co Cork felt a long, long way away.

There’s one image from the pandemic that haunts me. It’s a Google Earth photo of Qantas planes in the Mojave Desert, parked up on the compressed sand, precise in formation, sun glinting off their bright white fuselages.

When the Australian borders closed in 2020, Qantas’s fleet of super jumbos departed en masse, bound for the Mojave aircraft boneyard, where they would enter a deep sleep. Return date? The chief executive of Qantas, Alan Joyce, estimated 2023, but the truth was that no one really knew. We were entering uncharted territory, after all.

There was something so final about it. The planes that would transport me from Perth, in Western Australia, to my home town of Clonakilty, in Co Cork, for weddings and Christmases were now gathering dust in an eerie desert wasteland. I imagined the rows of empty seats in the darkened cabins, the deserted cockpits, the electric hiss of rattlesnakes outside. It could have been the set of a dystopian movie. Except it wasn’t.

And from there my mind wandered further. What if all the commercial airlines servicing Australia went bust? It didn’t seem so far-fetched, not when businesses were haemorrhaging jobs and there was talk of a depression so deep, so dark that it would make the Great Depression look like the Celtic Tiger years. It’s basic economics, after all. Businesses need to make money. Fleets need to be maintained.

Australia is only a day away. That’s the reassuring line everyone trots out when you’re moving here.

True, you can be home in less than 24 hours by commercial airliner, but it’s more than 15,000km. As I watched the infrastructure we rely on so heavily fall away, it was like a drawbridge coming up between Australia and home. Every one of those kilometres stretched out in front of me, and for the first time since arriving here, in 2011, home felt a long, long way away.

As a citizen here, border closures meant that even in the event of an emergency I could not leave without a special exemption. They were hard to come by; expat social-media groups are littered with horror stories of

Above: Fiona Mayers says ‘Australia is only a day away. That’s the reassuring line everyone trots out when you’re moving here’. Photo credit: Corey James

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THE IRISH SCENE | 11

Qantas Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft in storage at Southern California Logistics Airport, in the Mojave Desert. Photograph: Google Earth

people unable to depart, even on compassionate grounds. The lack of flights and strict caps on the number of people allowed entry to Australia meant that even if you could leave, there was no guarantee of getting back in.

Over FaceTime, I reassured my mum that the borders wouldn’t be closed for too long, that I’d be home before she knew it. Relax. They’re hardly going to close a country for years... Everything would be normal soon, I told her. Normal. Normal. Normal.

But I wasn’t so sure. One night, at the height of peak Covid mania – in the banana-bread-and-Zoom-quiz phase – I Googled sailing courses. It might be the only way out of here if everyone goes bust, I told my sister.

We had a laugh, but I was only half-joking.

But this month things changed. I woke up a few days ago, made a coffee and checked the news like I do every morning. And there it was: a video of the first Qantas A380 to return to Australia from hibernation.

I watched as the giant of the skies cut through the fluffy white clouds and soared over the city skyline before touching down at Sydney Airport.

After 593 days in the desert, and a stop in Germany for maintenance work, the planes were coming back. The hinges of that metaphorical drawbridge were being oiled. Cheers erupted on the news video as the pilots emerged to a hero’s welcome. Staff lined the hanger and waved little red flags. One pilot even revealed that he’d been working as a painter and decorator during the pandemic.

It was a moving sight. For the first time in a while I dared to imagine landing at Cork Airport again, getting battered by the wind on the way to collect a rental car, and driving those narrow, twisty roads home. No need for sailing, then.

There’s no doubt about it: we’ve been lucky here in Australia, especially in Western Australia. Our 12 | THE IRISH SCENE

experience of the pandemic has been very different from the rest of the world’s; we escaped largely unscathed. What kept us up at night wasn’t the virus, it was the not knowing. Not knowing when – or if – we’d be back.

Things are starting to feel different now. The return of the Qantas A380 fleet is the second bit of good news in as many weeks. In late October the Australian government announced that the parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents are now exempt from border restrictions. They’re still subject to the individual quarantine requirements of the state or territory they’re visiting, but it’s a start. If push comes to shove, they can get here.

Australians can also depart now without an exemption, and some states have eased their quarantine requirements for inbound, doublevaccinated travellers. It’s important to add, though, that this easing of restrictions doesn’t apply to most temporary visa holders in Australia. There are tens of thousands of Irish people who have worked hard here during the pandemic, many of whom aren’t citizens or permanent residents. For the time being they don’t have the luxury of leaving and returning easily, and their parents aren’t exempt from border restrictions.

But there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon now.

Let’s hope it’s not too much longer before Australia really is just 24 hours away again – for all of us. It feels like the time is coming.

Fiona Mayers is a marketing communications manager, writer and radio producer. This article was first published by the Irish Times on November 18, 2021 and is reproduced here with the permission of the author and newspaper.

GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP TO GET ANSWERS

OLD SCHOOL IS THE BEST! Carl Holmes, the owner of Masonmill Cafe and Beer Garden in the Perth Hills (pictured right), revealed a connection with the Qantas boss during an interview with Frank Murphy on the Celtic Rambles show, on Radio Fremantle, in November.

“I went to St. Mark’s School, it was great, actually I went to school with Alan Joyce,” Carl revealed. “We were in school together at St Marks Secondary School Tallaght, he was good. He was in a couple of classes higher than me, not from an age point of view, he obviously had a higher IQ than I did, he went on to head up Qantas, I went on to become an electrician. Its a great place, its turned out some great people over the years.”

Alan Joyce revealed the importance of his schooling and education during a speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce back in October 2019, not long before the Covid pandemic started. He said his grandfather grew up in a tenement house with 30 people in the Liberties in Dublin. His father was good at school but had to finish when he was aged just twelve. His mum – who had TB – also left school at the same age to take care of her family.

“That was that generation,” Joyce said. “They have, and always are, my inspiration. They were hardworking. My father had three jobs and my mother worked in a sport complex in Tallaght. They worked hard to make sure their sons got the education they couldn’t have.”

Joyce said he was also unbelievably grateful to the Irish state for how it allowed him to continue to get an education. “If tertiary education hadn’t been free, my family couldn’t have afforded to put me through Dublin City University, the Dublin Institute of Technology and then Trinity College,” he said. “Its an amazing education you get in Ireland and its recognised around the globe. Thanks to the hard work of my parents and thanks to the education system, I had a massive advantage when I left college. Not only was I the first in my family to to finish tertiary education, I was the first to finish secondary school.”

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The same applied to his three brothers, Joyce told the event. His brother Maurice was an animator and director with Disney while his brother Paul was a graphic designer. “So they both use the right side of their brain, while I and my brother in Melbourne who is an actuary, use the left side of our brains. So between the four of us we’ve got two good brains,” he joked.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 13

GOING STRAIGHT TO THE TOP TO GET ANSWERS

MATILDAS MAULED BY ‘TIGERS’ IN TALLAGHT Tallaght Stadium was the venue and setting for a contest between the national women’s soccer teams of Ireland and Australia back in September last year. It was the first game for the Matildas since taking part in the Olympics and the first time the two sides had met on the pitch. The 25 player Aussie squad were the favourites, with the Republic of Ireland’s women’s team coming straight out of a “horror streak” of seven defeats in a row. The Matildas arrived a couple of weeks earlier and during at least one of their training sessions in the run up to the game they were visited by the Australian Ambassador Gary Gray and his dog Ted. The September 22 international friendly game ended in a 3-2 scoreline for the visitors, who spectators said were “outfought” by their Irish counterparts.

“It felt that they wanted it more than us, that’s not okay,” Tony Gustafson, the Matildas’ head coach said straight after the match.

“We’re the Matildas, it’s in our DNA to always give 100 [per cent], to play the physical game, to be aggressive, to wear the crest on our chest and always play our best and it felt like Ireland wanted it more.

I guess there’s a lot of learning from this, and when I get distance emotionally I’m going to have a lot of learnings, but right now it’s a big disappointment.”

The headlines in the Australian media too made for unhappy reading.

“Sam Kerr’s supermilestone ends in defeat as Matildas go down to Republic of Ireland” was a headline on Nine, while ABC News described the Matildas as “Defensively frail”. The game was aired on Ten. Vera Pauw, Ireland coach, was as proud of her girls as Gustafson was disappointed in his. “You cannot believe how strong Ireland is, what a fantastic mentality and a fantastic bunch of tigers we have,” Pauw told RTE after the final whistle.

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Love in Ireland and in the time of Covid PART 2

WHAT A WHIRLWIND. 2021 WAS ANYTHING BUT PREDICTABLE. I flew into lockdown in Ireland to be with my partner and we weren’t allowed to dine indoors for eight months. Outdoor dining does not sit well with Ireland’s climate!

This meant we spent a significant amount of time just the two of us at home. It definitely was a test for us and one we passed with flying colours.

We got engaged and married this year. As anyone who has planned a wedding during a pandemic will tell you, flexibility and expecting the unexpected is the key.

We decided we didn’t want a long engagement and booked to have our wedding in September, while the weather was still reasonably ok. As I’m a foreigner, there were extra hurdles to go through to get our marriage licence. The Health Service Executive (HSE) had also been hacked and the community 16 | THE IRISH SCENE

BY SANDRA BAHBAH

services department was inundated with couples trying to reschedule their weddings, once more restrictions began to lift. Everything was down to the wire and we knew, even to the day of the wedding, anything could happen. Our biggest concern, some may say oddly, was not being able to have our first dance. It was only a week before our wedding that it was announced people could dance at ceremonies. We were overjoyed, having opted for a smaller wedding due to potential capacity limits and not having my family in attendance. We felt that a wedding with no dancing allowed would just ruin the atmosphere of the event.

Our (small) big day came fast and despite some people commenting that it could rain, there was a slight sunny shower in the morning and then it was as sunny as a spring day in Perth when I arrived at the ceremony venue. Some remarked that I had brought a bit of the sun from Australia.

It did feel like a miracle. We wanted to make our day as intimate and interactive as possible, so many of our guests had a role to play. Since my family couldn’t be there in person, we set up a live web feed so they could watch the ceremony and comment in real time. I highly recommend doing this as you get to read all the comments back the next day and some were truly hilarious.

We went for a Celtic ceremony and handfasting ritual at Brigit’s Garden, surrounded by ancient stones, and a reception at The Boat Inn in Oughterard after. We couldn’t have asked for a better wedding even with all the Covid restrictions. The next day, we had a gathering at our house, with traditional Irish music, song and dance. I’d never experienced this before and it was a such a gorgeous continuation of the prior evening.

After the wedding, we really wanted to go somewhere overseas for our honeymoon, but the risk of quarantining was just too great. Instead, we ventured to Kinsale. What an amazing decision it was. If you’ve never

LOVE IN IRELAND AND IN THE TIME OF COVID – PART 2

Left: Sandra & Liam held a Celtic ceremony and handfasting ritual at Brigit’s Garden. Right: Congratulations to the happy couple! been to Kinsale, it is an absolute must. Seafood is plentiful with exceptional restaurants, beautiful streets lined with colourful homes, a relaxed and welcoming community and a diverse mix of cultures.

It was the perfect place for our ‘mini-moon’.

If you are planning a wedding and then a move, I would advise against it, especially during a global pandemic. Since the beautiful trip to Kinsale, stress has been plentiful. As the rules kept changing for entry into Australia, our minds have been cluttered with confusion. We had a direct flight to Perth, until the flight caps were introduced and our flight was cancelled. The new plan is now to get as far as Singapore and then switch airlines and fly into Northern Territory. We will have to stay for 14 days before being allowed into Perth. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure another direct flight into Perth that wasn’t going to cost us a small fortune.

We plan to have a very small party when we eventually make it back. After living with lockdowns this past year, being around crowds isn’t something we’re familiar or comfortable with anymore. A feeling of anxiety comes and goes at the idea of returning to Perth, where people don’t need to show Covid certs to dine indoors or wear masks everywhere they go. We are aware this may change, but we feel the people of WA have been blessed in comparison to Ireland and other areas of Europe. Face masks, social distancing and small gatherings are what we’re now used to.

Getting a hug or a kiss on the cheek from someone I don’t live with is something I’ll never take for granted again. We’re so excited for the journey though, even with the mountain of hurdles that we need to jump in order to get back.

It’s going to be really hard to leave my husband’s family. They have truly become my support system and family while I have been in Ireland. Not seeing them regularly is going to be a huge adjustment for me and of course for my husband. I will especially miss my mother-in-law and sister-in-law who got me through the sometimes lonely stints when my husband was working. For the first part of my life in Ireland, there was a 5km limit to where we could go, much of this time was spent interacting with my husband and these two family members. They kept me sane and I’ll be forever grateful to them for that.

Ireland has been such a magical place for me to live, even with limitations in place. It will always be my second home, no matter where life takes us next.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 17

Been there, got the tee-shirt!

BY LLOYD GORMAN

MOST PEOPLE DREAM OF WINNING THE LOTTO, BUT ONLY A LUCKY FEW EVER EXPERIENCE THE HIGH OF BECOMING AN INSTANT MILLIONAIRE. So when the news broke (on 6PR’s Rumour File) that a large group of women who all went to the same gym had won the $80million Powerball prize in the Thursday night draw after putting in $5 a head into a last minute syndicate, there was a swell of excitement. The story was quickly picked up and followed by every other local radio stations and media outlet, with everyone keen to speak to a winner. Even better again, they were all battlers for whom their $1.5m windfall just before Christmas would touch a lot of lives.

They were only too happy to celebrate and cheer on demand for the cameras and speak to journalists hungry to find out more about them.

Reporters swarmed around Curves Gym in Beldon like flies around a picnic. One of the women said on live radio that they would be going into the Lotterywest HQ in Subiaco to register and claim the win! As the Subiaco reporter for the POST newspaper I knew I needed to get to the Lotterywest offices to cover the story. By the time I got there on Friday morning (December 3) there were of course other media (mainly TV crews) already waiting outside the Station Street entrance to the Lotterywest offices.

Lotterywest Acting CEO Jeremy Hubble said it was a history-making moment with the largest win ever experienced in WA.

While the media were hanging around, the women were escorted into the offices through a carpark entrance at the back. But the patience of the press pack was rewarded. One couple emerged first and were happy to talk to the media. One of their sons had gone to school that morning with holes in his shoes, they said. Before long, a big group of the women and some of their partners emerged from the offices.

18 | THE IRISH SCENE

In the throng I noticed a happy looking lady wearing a black Guinness top. “As an Irishman I love your tee-shirt,” I said over the noise and confusion.

She mentioned something about her dad and then “Paddy’s” in Joondalup and that her name was Linda.

“It’s a good pub, I drink there,” she told me. “We’ll (Linda and her husband Darryl) be there tonight and Sunday celebrating,” she said.

“It’s always incredible to meet our winners and to meet such a large group of syndicate winners, who can all share in the magic and joy, is just wonderful,” he said in a media release issued that day.

“This record-breaking win for WA shares the title of third highest on a national level.”

There was the light touch of Irish fingerprints on the Lotterywest press release. Media enquiries were directed to one James Mooney, whose family are originally from Dublin.

It was a great day for Lotto watchers. Indeed, on my way into Subiaco that morning, I got a whisper of another even more heart warming Lottery jackpot involving an Irish couple in Perth, ordinary people

BEEN THERE, GOT THE TEE-SHIRT!

Opposite: Winner Linda in her Guinness tee-shirt Left: 55 women aged between 17 and 84 each contributed $5 to the Powerball ticket (Photo source: Lotterywest/Powerball)

When the Lottery started in Ireland in 1988, players picked their numbers from 36 balls but since 1988 that has increased to 47 balls.

with a large family, for whom the windfall would make profound difference. I won’t say more than that for now as I am hoping to convince them to share their story (anonymously if they like) with Irish Scene readers. Watch this space!

IS THE IRISH LOTTO BROKEN? The Irish Lotto has been going through the worst streak of bad luck imaginable.

A $19m jackpot – the biggest in the history of the Irish state – has not been won since June 6th 2021. The drought continued through to the Christmas day draw and beyond (at time of writing).

In at least 62 televised bi-weekly draws the windfall – which has been frozen at $19m for six months – has gone unclaimed.

During 2020 some 1.3 million players hoped their numbers come up and despite the bizarre drought of good fortune the sales of Lotto tickets has held steady, for now. But steps are being taken to get the state based game out of its bad patch, the likes of which it has never seen before.

Bernard Durkan

“[The chances of winning] seem so remote that punters must be thinking Shergar would have a better chance at winning Squid Game,” Fine Gael TD (Irish MP) Bernard Durkan told the Dail (Irish Parliament) in November. “I’m not saying anything odd has happened, but it’s the longest run in the history of the game so we need a bit of reassurance.”

A “full investigation and audit” would help restore people’s faith in the country’s Lotto he argued.

The politician suggested a quick and easy way to win back the confidence of people and increase their chances of winning. “Drop a couple of balls as a mark of good faith,” he suggested to the Premier Lotteries Ireland CEO. “Mr (Andrew) Algeo, tear down those balls,” he said.

Many Irish Scene readers might recall from their time in Ireland watching the Lotto draw on TV (RTE). There was always some dull looking accountant in a suit from one of the large financial firms who was there to ensure there was no foul play.

The only thing we ever got to hear them say was “Evening Ronan”, or whoever else was the host.

Perhaps they should have been given another line at the end, to say the results were valid in their opinion.

In any case their presence must have been removed from the process because Deputy Durkan also called for the return of an independent observer as another needed step to ensure everything was above board.

Mr Algeo had some suggestions of his own for the politicians about how they could help fix the lottery.

In late December the Lottery CEO admitted to a hearing of TDs and Senators it was “highly unusual” the Lotto jackpot was not won in more than six months. He proposed a change to the rules – which would need the politicians to introduce new legislation – and move to a “must be won” jackpot.

So for example, if all six numbers were not matched after a period of time then it would go to a player with five numbers.

THE IRISH SCENE | 19

BEEN THERE, GOT THE TEE-SHIRT!

“[This] would also allow us to provide certainty to Lotto players, as to the latest date on which this record €19 million jackpot will be won by,” Mr Algeo said.

Andrew Algeo

It was also important jackpots would be “large enough” and “won frequently” to attract and retain customers.

WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT? “It is very, very unlikely indeed,” was how one mathematician summed up the six month spell in which there were no matching winning numbers for the Irish lotto jackpot.

Dr Brien Nolan, an associate professor in mathematical science was interviewed about the improbable episode on News at One, on RTE Radio, on December 15. He said there were 10.7 million options for filling out a Lotto ticket but there were other factors to take into consideration. “There is a 12% chance somebody will win the jackpot on any given draw, but it depends entirely ho how many tickets are bought for each draw. So there’s an 8% chance of a roll over, but the Dr Brien Nolan odds of a roll over 54 times in a row, which we’ve seen over the last six months, is very low indeed. I think the National Lottery itself has quoted about 850 to one, so pretty long odds of this happening, so very, very unlikely indeed.”

TOP END CASHES IN ON IRISH LOTTO For some years now a mirror version of the Irish lottery has been run out of the Northern Territory.

“You don’t have to live in Ireland to play,” the Lottery Office website says. “You don’t have to be an Irish resident, you can play to win from the draws of the Irish National Lottery’s Lotto from right here in Australia. You can purchase tickets in our own ‘Irish Lotto’ draw here in Australia and we’ll buy matching tickets in the Irish National Lottery’s Lotto draw in Ireland. Pick just 6 numbers from 1-47 and if your numbers match those drawn you can win a minimum of over $3 Million (€2 Million) from Irish Lotto! It’s that simple! No betting on the outcome and no gimmicks, you’ll receive a real ticket from our own government approved and licensed lottery and go in a matching draw to win!”

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Lotto betting and “synthetic lotteries” websites have been banned since January 1, 2019 as a result of laws brought in by the Federal government in 2018 to curb the influence of overseas lottery providers and schemes.

GPN says its services – for up to 10 international jackpots – are totally legitimate and legal. “The Lottery Office is operated by Global Players Network Pty Ltd, and licensed and regulated by the Northern Territory Government of Australia. All of our lotteries are approved, conducted and drawn in the Northern Territory under the supervision of Licensing NT. Our processes and financials are audited annually as required by our Regulator. The Lottery Office is unlike other companies. Our unique business model allows you to enter our own Government approved lotteries.

When you enter one of our lotteries, we will then purchase a matching ticket in a major overseas lottery and we will claim any prize that is won from the overseas ticket and pay you the exact same amount. This ensures we are able to pay out any prize and not have to rely on an insurance policy like other companies. It also allows our players to have the chance to win from matched tickets with major overseas lotteries having prizes reaching into the billions”.

GPN says it does not offer ‘lottery betting’. “Lottery betting companies operate under a Sports Betting licence and are not approved to run their own lotteries. Most lottery betting companies are headquartered overseas and rely on an insurance policy to pay out large prizes in the case that they have a major winner. They don’t purchase matching tickets in the overseas lotteries. In June 2018 the Australian Federal Government passed legislation to ban Lottery Betting under the Interactive Gaming Act. The Lottery Office is a safe, licensed, reliable way for you to win from some of the biggest lotteries in the world. We are proudly Australian owned and operated and our profits stay right here in Australia.”

The company says a “percentage of our revenue” goes into local community groups and charities, but not what that percentage is.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 21

Free spirits and fugitive folk!

BY LLOYD GORMAN

FENIAN FEVER WILL RUN RIOT AT THE START OF THE PERTH FESTIVAL IN FEBRUARY – AND THERE IS AN OPEN INVITATION TO JOIN IN THE FRANTIC FUN! “The opening event ‘Escape’ is a massive, madcap, free, multi-site family adventure through the streets of Fremantle, inspired by the Catalpa convict escape,” David Templeman, Minister for Culture and the Arts told state parliament in late November.

Around the same time, Perth festival artistic director Ian Grandage expanded a little on 6PR. “We open dockside in Fremantle with Escape, a massive free event that tells stories of arrivals and departures across the waves and of one of the greatest escapes of all – the Fenian convicts on the ship Catalpa,” Mr Grandage said. “Music, projections and a vast array of performers are sown into a glorious anarchic carnival by the team who brought you Home and Boorna Waanginy. It is part of our remit in putting on a festival for many people that we put on this large free event (opening or 22 | THE IRISH SCENE

closing event) Highway to hell, Home, or the Giants, they are some things the Festival is well known for and it is beautiful to be able to celebrate it again in 2022.”

The Perth Festival is almost 70 years old now and still going strong, and last year was one of the few events of its kind in the world that was able to be staged. Due to start on February 11 – just days after WA’s hard border is due to come down on February 5 – and run until March 6, the resilience of the festival could be put to the test but organisers will no doubt have made every preparation possible to help make it a success.

The official programme describes Escape as celebrating the ocean and diverse voyages, cultures and experiences that help define Western Australia. “From the Noongar stories that enter from the western horizon to the waves of subsequent migration, from sail to steam, from convicts to Irish revolutionaries, from the flowering of Mediterranean cultures to the contributions of the African diaspora, to the greatest escape of them all – the Catalpa rescue. Escape is a feast for the eyes, ears and heart. Be part of this free, action-packed experience built by the extraordinary team that brought you Boorna Waanginy.”

Further details about Escape are due to be announced on January 27, too late for this edition of Irish Scene. But we did hear whispers about a huge ceilidh (group Irish dance) being staged, in which large numbers of people will be able to take part and have a crack! Bathers Beach and Kidogo Arthouse too will no doubt feature large.

The scale of the festivities sound impressive and it will be quite a sight to see throngs of people – who for many this will be their first encounter

FREE SPIRITS AND FUGITIVE FOLK!

with the escapade – willingly throw themselves into some kind of Hurley-burley historical re-enactment of a remarkable event in Australian, Irish and even American history.

The story of the Fenians in WA is worth telling and sharing, and indeed there are several dedicated individuals and groups committed to doing just that.

Indeed, not so long ago on December 9 the Fenians Fremantle & Freedom group held its annual walking tour, this year called ‘The Daring Escape of the Fremantle Fenians’. Tour guides Joy and Mike Lefroy’s knowledge of the subject in hand is world class.

(Amongst the many books and titles they have written is a beautifully illustrated book called The Catalpa Escape, which you can pick up in the gift shop of Fremantle Prison where the Irish political prisoners were incarcerated). At the end of the tour it was back to The Norfolk Hotel for a few drinks and more conversation about the Irish fugitives.

Another local institution has paid homage to the incredible story of their escape. Named after the last transport ship to carry prisoners to Australia – including 62 Fenian prisoners and the six in question who dared to get away – the Hougoumont Hotel in Bannister Street is also home to the amazing “Escape

Artist” mural created by Australian artist Fintan Magee. Occupying more than 4,000 square feet of wall space the giant picture pays tribute to Fremantle’s rich past, its history as a port city and seafarers.

“This work is dedicated to six Irish Fenian Prisoners who escaped from the British penal colony of Western Australia,” Magee said about the artwork on the hotel’s website. “The prisoners were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish independence movement who were transported to Australia between 1865-1867. On the 17th of April 1876 six Fenians escaped onboard the Catalpa, a whaling ship that had been organised as an escape boat by fellow Fenian John Boyle O’Reilly, the prisoners were able to escape to the United States and lived the rest of their lives as free men. The work depicts six flying Geese symbolising each prisoner that escaped. This references the name of the handwritten newspaper the prisoners created on their journey to Australia.

Irish Fenian rebels often referred to themselves as ‘flying geese’ as it was the name of the Irish Jacobite army that escaped Ireland after the British Victory over the country. The ‘Wild Geese’ continued the fight against the British as units in French Armies. The work also references Irish cultural notions of life/ death and new beginnings, in Irish mythology Tir

A PERTH FESTIVAL COMMISSION

A fun and anarchic choose-your-own-adventure.

ESCAPE Celebrate the opening of Perth Festival 2022 in immersive and unforgettable style.

Over two magical nights the quays, docks, warehouses and beachfront of Fremantle will undergo an extraordinary transformation. Music, stunning light installations, mass community participation, performance, food, dance, ceremony and mayhem fuse into a joyous affirmation of belonging.

Escape celebrates the ocean and the diverse voyages, cultures and experiences that define us here in Western Australia.

From the Noongar stories that enter from the western horizon to the waves of subsequent migration, from sail to steam, from convicts to Irish revolutionaries, from the flowering of Mediterranean cultures to the contributions of the African diaspora, to the greatest escape of them all – the Catalpa rescue. Escape is a feast for the eyes, ears and heart.

Image: Rob Dose

Be part of this free, action-packed experience built by the extraordinary team that brought you Boorna Waanginy.

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Opposite: This fabulous mural, titled ‘Escape Artist’ by Sydney-based artist and muralist Fintan Magee, is dedicated to six Irish Fenian Prisoners who escaped from Western Australia in 1876. It also pays homage to Fremantle’s rich past and the port’s history and the concept of new beginnings. The work depicts a man floating in the ocean and six flying geese. Photo source: reddit.com/user/AjdeJednuRakiju/ Above: The free, action-packed experience in Fremantle entitled ‘Escape’ celebrates the ocean and the diverse voyages, cultures and experiences that define us here in Western Australia, including the greatest escape of them all – the Catalpa rescue. (Image: Perth Festival brochure) THE IRISH SCENE | 23

Left: The six Irish Fenians who escaped on the Catalpa.

Right: Irish singer songwriter Seán Tyrrell, by Kevin Byrne His next project – his acclaimed debut album which was named folk album of the year – was Cry of a Dreamer, which centred around three poems written by O’Reilly (including one from which the album drew its name) to which he set music. [A live version of Cry of a Dreamer performed by Sean and Aine Tyrrell also made the cut to be included on the stand out 2018 album ‘Exile: Songs and Tales of Irish Australia’.

na n'Og is a mythical land across the sea, there are stories of gods and humans turning into birds to travel there. This references the afterlife for the Irish and also explores the concept of new beginnings in foreign lands. Something that relates to the experiences and stories of all people who have migrated to Australia to build new lives.”

THE CRIES OF DREAMERS The incredible saga of Irish patriot John Boyle O’Reilly and his daring escape from the Swan Colony in January 1869 followed seven years later by his promise to help free six Fenian comrades is almost legendary within Western Australia, but has been “almost criminally ignored in his native Ireland” as one commentator put it. When the late Galway born singer songwriter Seán Tyrrell was introduced to the O’Reilly story, he was astonished by the adventures and achievements of this figure he had never heard about and made a conscious decision to celebrate and share it through his music.

Tyrrell began his musical career in America – where he formed the band Apples in Winter in 1975 – but moved back to Ireland (the Burren in Co. Clare) in 1978 where he worked in NUI Galway (UCG) and collaborated with uilleann piper Davy Spillane on tow of his albums. In 1992 his ‘opera’ of Irish music set to Brian Merriman’s epic 18th century poem ‘Cúirt an Mheán Oíche’ (The Midnight Court) staged by Druid Theatre for the Galway Arts Festival was a critical and commercial success for Tyrrell and established him on the Irish music scene.

24 | THE IRISH SCENE

“He was the most amazing man, the most amazing human,” Tyrrell told The Journal of Music in an interview. “When I first found the ‘Message Of Peace’ I thought it was the most unbelievable piece, particularly when you think when it was written. I was up at the launching of the John Boyle O’Reilly summer school in Drogheda this year, so finally they’re going to honour the man.

“Anyway there’s this story going around that when John F. Kennedy was here in Ireland he quoted John Boyle O’Reilly in many of his speeches. I’d say ninetynine per cent of the people didn’t know who he was.

But I have to say that I was the same ‘cause I played in a club in Massachusetts, in Springfield, called the John Boyle O’Reilly and I hadn’t clue who this John Boyle O’Reilly was. I used to do this regular afternoon gig in Galway and this friend of mine from Mayo used to come into it and he was the first person I’d met who had ever heard of him. We swapped books.

I gave him A Thousand Years Of Irish Poetry and he gave me a loan of The Complete Prose, Speeches and Poetry of John Boyle O’Reilly. There was a whole thing on his life in that. And besides being a brilliant writer, he was an amazing character. And I fell in love with his stuff. I just wonder sometimes why we’re not more aware of men of his calibre. I think his life would make an absolutely brilliant film. I’d love to get somebody interested in it.”

Amongst his other solo records, Tyrrell recorded Message of Peace in 2009, another album inspired

by O’Reilly. Tyrrell died at home in Co. Clare in early November 2021, 78.

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins was one of many to pay his respects to an old friend and recognise him as “one of our finest, most talented, original and creative troubadours”.

“Seán Tyrrell will be remembered too for works such as Message of Peace, his work on the life of John Boyle O’Reilly, his collaboration with a number of international artists on Songs of Peace to

FREE SPIRITS AND FUGITIVE FOLK!

That passion for the Fenian story and its significance to WA and Irish history was also shared by the late Liam Barry and Ormonde Waters through the books and events they produced. Today that torch is carried by the likes of Peter Murphy, Sharon Barba and others from the John Boyle O’Reilly Association, as well as the hardworking Fenians Fremantle & Freedom committee members and hopefully in our own little Irish Scene magazine.

PERTH MP HAS FENIAN BLOOD At least one member of state parliament can claim ‘Fenian’ roots.

During debate about (Persons Linked to Terrorism) Bill 2021, Christine Tonkin, the local member for Churchlands, was able to pluck some interesting ancestors from her family tree during a debate in the Legislative Assembly last October. commemorate the life and work of Francis Ledwidge, and his landmark album The Orchard amongst his many contributions to the world of folk music,” President Higgins said.

“Seán and I walked into UCG on the same day in Autumn 1962 and through the years to have had his friendship, as so many know, was a great gift”.

Frank Murphy paid his own tribute to Tyrrell and his music on his Saturday morning show Celtic Rambles on Radio Fremantle when news of his death came through. “I had the privilege of knowing Sean Tyrrell and getting to know him over a few occasions,” said Frank. “Not least the first time he and Aine came to Kidogo Arthouse and there was the most amazing weather outside. The rain came on the roof and the sea started lashing outside just at the time he was talking about the journey on the Catalpa, it was amazing.”

The radio host remembered an evening of music to O’Reilly they took part in some years ago in a hotel in Busselton.

“I can’t help reflect on the fact that Brendan Woods [a musician and singer originally from Dublin who also died last year] and Seán Tyrrell, both coming from different angles and different perspective, but with the exact same passion.”

“The notion of terrorism is that it is related to extremist ideology, but that is something that may or may not be in the eye of the beholder,” Ms Tonkin – who has lived and worked in Ireland* – said.

“One person’s extremism is another one’s justifiable perspective.

What would be regarded as extremist at one time or in a particular context may be regarded as mainstream at another time or in another context.

“One of my other ancestors, my great-grandfather, was a Fenian. His name was Patrick Thomas Brady and, as a young man, he migrated from Ireland to South Australia in the 1880s. He came from a family of “hedge teachers”, who were regarded as the types to incite lawlessness and profligate adventure. These teachers often taught children in the open, sometimes beside hedgerows. This informal system of education of Catholic and Presbyterian children was necessary because of the impediments to their formal education imposed by the British.

“Patrick therefore grew up in a subversive culture and his Fenian ideology would have been regarded as extremist in Ireland by the British and likely in South Australia, too. I do not know whether he ever acted on his Fenian beliefs against the British. All I know is that Patrick and his siblings left County Cavan for the United States or Australia.”

Christine Tonkin

The Labor MP also revealed another family secret – a convict ancestor. “I have a visceral reaction to the notion of locking someone up and throwing away the key. I dare say that this ingrained attitude may be genetic. My earliest ancestor to call Australia home was my great-great-grandfather Henry Mottram, who was transported to Western Australia as a convict in 1851. Henry was 26 years old when he arrived here, having been convicted in 1849. Henry Mottram’s crime was serious: highway robbery with violence. However, he went on to live a productive life and to raise a family here in Western Australia. His life is evidence of the reality of rehabilitation.” *In her maiden speech to Parliament on May 5, 2021 Ms Tonkin said for the past 20 years she has been working internationally in the area of public procurement.

“Having based myself in Brussels while undertaking research, I was offered a

THE IRISH SCENE | 25

FREE SPIRITS AND FUGITIVE FOLK!

secondment from the Queensland government to the Department of Finance in the Republic of Ireland. For a year I worked with 11 civil servants who had little or no background in procurement, helping them develop their capabilities in modern procurement management and practices. From Ireland, I was recruited by the United Nations Development Programme, where I held a directorlevel post for three and a half years. While based in Copenhagen, my work supporting UNDP offices took me all over the world.”

ESCAPE IS A STATE OF MIND! Secret state papers of the Irish government – declassified in late December after a 30 year confidentiality gag was lifted – revealed details of a highly unusual approach in an attempt to break out of one of Northern Ireland’s most hated prisons.

The Maze Prison outside Belfast was used to intern paramilitary prisoners during ‘The Troubles’, starting from 1971 when the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army carried out a large number of raids and arrested hundreds of suspected IRA members.

The prison would exercise an enormous influence over the situation in Northern Ireland. In September 1983 it saw the biggest breakout of prisoners from a British prison. Thirty eight prisoners stole a prison meals truck and used it to smash their way out.

Several prison guards were stabbed or hurt by the prisoners, including one who died from a heart attack. Half of the escapees were soon rounded up but the other 19 were never tracked down.

Then in March 1997 – during the Peace Process – a 40ft (12m) tunnel from one of the H-block buildings was discovered just 80ft (24m) short of the perimeter.

Authorities believed they had foiled an escape attempt, but a letter dated April 16, 1997 showed the opposite was true. An official from the Anglo Irish secretariat in Belfast disclosed a conversation he had with Breidge Gadd of the Northern Ireland Probation Board, to a high ranking civil servant in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. “Ms Gadd believes, from recent contacts with inmates, that the work on this tunnel did not constitute a serious escape bid,” 26 | THE IRISH SCENE

Top: The Maze Prison with its distinctive H Blocks, in 2002. Credit: Alamy/Irish Eye Above: An RUC archive photo of the entry point for the tunnel to nowhere the letter stated. “Her understanding is that the work was approved by the republican leadership in the Maze but that the latter, for various reasons, had no intention of allowing it to be completed.”

Senior IRA prison leaders who supported the Peace Process were worried “hard-line republican prisoners” who were determined to keep fighting, could get out derail the fragile peace talks. Instead, the tunnel served another function. “The project would have had value as a form of occupational therapy to keep prisoners occupied and away from drugs,” the previously confidential letter said.

“However, the republican command structure would have been aware that, had the escape succeeded, the prisoners concerned would in all likelihood have been rearrested not long afterwards and would have found themselves back in prison paying a stiff penalty in the form of an additional tariff and at a time when, conceivably, a renewed ceasefire might be letting many of their colleagues out.”

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Isteach Sa Teach

BY LLOYD GORMAN

COULD PERTH GET A FULL CONSULATE? The idea of beefing up Ireland’s diplomatic representation in Perth was raised – and not entirely ruled out – in the Dail (Irish parliament) during a debate of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defences back in early November 2021.

Amongst the points and issues he raised, former foreign affairs minister Charlie Flanagan asked a question about Australia to the current minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney. “Our relationship with Australia is good and has been for many decades,” said Mr Flanagan, a Fianna Fail Teachta Dála (TD) (MP) for Laois-Offaly, who also chairs the committee. “That will continue but, having regard to our diaspora in Western Australia and the economic relationship between Ireland and Western Australia, will consideration be given towards the establishment of a consulate in Perth?.”

Simon Coveney (left)

Charlie Flanagan

28 | THE IRISH SCENE

Mr Coveney – a Fine Gael TD for Cork South-Central – was able to add a personal note to his response.

“Regarding Australia, I am familiar with the Irish diaspora in Perth,” Mr Conveney said. “One of them is my brother. He is a doctor there, like many other young Irish people and their families. The Department is assessing where the next phase of expansion will go. We have opened many new representations in the last years, from Chile to Colombia, from Toronto to Auckland, with a range in the United States, Manchester, Cardiff, Frankfurt, Lyon, Kyiv, Rabat and Liberia. It is a long list. We are trying to finalise the next phase of areas where we think enhancing

Ireland’s footprint makes sense politically, economically and with regard to the diaspora. We need to think about Western Australia.

I do not want to pre-announce anything. A recommendation will come to me and we will take it from there. It might be interesting to come back to the committee and get members’ views on those choices. I would certainly welcome a broadening of perspective.”

It will be interesting to see what recommendations do come back for consideration. About twelve months earlier another question was raised about building up the Irish government’s presence in Perth through one of its state agencies.

Catherine Murphy, a Socialist TD for North Kildare, asked if Enterprise Ireland had plans to open a new office in Perth, WA. Tánaiste (Deputy PM) Leo Varadkar, who was also the minister for enterprise, trade and employment, said that idea had already been tried. “Enterprise Ireland (EI) has two physical presences in Australia. The agency’s headquarters is located

ISTEACH SA TEACH

Above: The Citizen’s Assembly video conference attendees

Catherine Murphy

in Sydney, with a secondary office in Melbourne,” said Mr Varadkar. “The EI Melbourne office opened in March 2019.

Collectively, the agency has eight staff located across these two offices. Enterprise Ireland’s Market Advisors in Sydney and Melbourne manage specific industry sectors for the entirety of Australia and New Zealand. There are no current plans to open an office in Perth. Enterprise Ireland previously had an office in Perth from June 2014-March 2016. This office was closed due to a lack of client activity. Enterprise Ireland will continue to work with clients and network locally to adapt to customer demand.”

During an unrelated debate back in June last year, it emerged that Ireland has about 90 honorary consulates – including Marty Kavanagh in Perth. Some of them are in countries where Ireland does not have an embassy while others are in cities where Leo Varadkar the government goes not have consulates.

“It is hard to overstate the role they play in helping us repatriate our citizens,” Niall Burgess (Secretary General, Department of Foreign Affairs) told the Committee of Public Accounts in June 2021, specifically mentioning the consul in Perth. It emerged during the discussion that the ‘honorary consuls’ get a stipend of between €1,000 or €2,000 for their troubles.

CITIZENS SPEAK, POLLIES LISTEN Three members of the Constitutional Convention of Ireland – commonly called the Citizens’ Assembly – on Gender Equality gave evidence by videolink for an hour in early November to the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives which is holding an inquiry into constitutional reform and referendums. The Irish speakers to the Canberra body were Dr Catherine Day and Dr Mary Clare, chair and secretary of the Assembly and Art O’Leary.

“As former secretary to the constitutional convention, it was a very interesting experience, because this had never been done before in this country,” Mr O’Leary said. “Following the election in 2011, the Program for Government decided to establish a constitutional convention to look at issues which it wasn’t possible to reach political agreement on, or issues which the government felt merited further consideration.

“It happened to be that the constitution was 75 years old at the time as well, so it probably merited a review at that point. It THE IRISH SCENE | 29

ISTEACH SA TEACH

was actually 10 years ago this month that I started work on the constitutional convention, and it still surprises me that I’m still talking about it. There is worldwide interest in the Irish experience, because it does appear as if Ireland’s success in conducting these forums, which provide a safe and respectful environment in which people can have a conversation about sometimes divisive issues, has been interesting to other countries who are in a similar position.”

GOOD LUCK TRYING TO GET WORKERS OUT HERE

A chronic shortage of people willing or able to work on farms and in the agricultural sector is a major problem in regional Australia Photo: Dean Sewell/smh.com.au

Another part of the House of Reps rolled into WA late last year. The Select Committee on Regional Australia set up camp at Katanning to hear the experience of the local community as part of its ‘Inquiry into Regional Australia’. A chronic shortage of people willing or able to work on farms and in the agricultural sector was a major problem.

through the 482 visa process. I think we spent about $10,000 on all our visas, which is all non-refundable, and if they don’t get their visa, then it’s just tough luck. One of them got his visa, and the other didn’t.

They were best mates. So the one who got his visa came out last year. He stuck around for six months, but, because his mate wasn’t here, he ended up going back again. I spent all that money and went through that process, not recruiting other people in that time, and I still ended up with no-one. The reason his mate didn’t get accepted is that a farm machine operator is not considered a skills shortage on the ANZSCO list.”

A scheme to try and encourage Australians to get out of cities and urban centres and into the country to pitch in, had failed to make a dent. The scheme, which offered $6,000 by the federal government – with the same amount again from the state government – attracted less than 500 people, when thousands were sorely needed.

Covid and red tape had also made it very tricky to get and keep overseas workers, it emerged. “I had a couple of Irish guys who’d been here for a couple of seedings and harvests, and they were really good experienced farm workers,” Michael Fels, Grains President, WA Farmers told the committee. “We went Musical Entertainer / Teacher

But there was at least one Irish man who did hang around and make a life for himself in the region, the Committee was told. “Like you, Chair [Tony Pasin], my grandfather came out here in the 1920s after World War I, from Ireland, as a 10-pound Pom working on farms near where Rick’s family farms are,” said Alan McFarland, from the Katanning Regional Business Association.

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G’day from Gary Gray AUSTRALIA’S AMBASSADOR IN IRELAND Stay up to date with what’s happening in the Australian Embassy, Ireland by following:

@ausembire

Australian Embassy, Ireland

@AusEmbIre

Right: Abbey Lea, the official residence of the Australian Ambassador to Ireland.

Opposite page, from top: Embassy dog Ted enjoyed a quiet moment over the weekend at Finnegan’s Dalkey in Co Dublin; Gary visits the Swagman Aussie pub in Sligo Ireland; Gary tries his hand with sliotar and hurl.

A New Year’s message from Gary Gray It’s cold in Ireland as the festive season approaches. Coats, scarves and gloves are the order of business as we prepare for another Christmas under the ever present eye of Covid-19. Though concerns remain around the spread of Covid, upon genuine reflection of the year that has been, it has been an extremely positive one which has seen hope return to communities across the Emerald Isle. Ireland has seen a firstclass take up in vaccination resulting in almost 92% of people over the age of 12 now fully vaccinated. Despite the risks of new variants, this fact alone has single-handedly changed the reality of Ireland’s response to Covid and it is palpable in the towns and cities which I visit regularly: Cork, Galway, Ballina, Waterford, Kilkenny, Belfast and Derry are but a few in the list of places I’ve visited in 2021. Ireland has done well in combating the disease.

With 2021 representing 75 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and Ireland, it’s wonderful to see the Australian Government’s commitment to restore and renovate the residence of the Ambassador in Ireland. Abbey Lea is a historic residence in Killiney, County Dublin, purchased nearly 60 years ago by the Menzies Government. A substantial project of works is planned to improve the property’s amenity and sustainability footprint, and the Embassy looks forward to providing ongoing on-the-ground project support.

As we look ahead to 2022, there should be a degree of confidence that equal progress can again be made into a year with less restrictions and more freedoms. Here at the Embassy, we are already in full planning mode ahead of Australia Day celebrations on January 26th with a full forward calendar of activity, ready to adapt and change if need be, regardless of restrictions at the time. This is living with Covid-19. Not forever, but until such time as it is no longer necessary, we will continue to operate within the guidelines and continue to enjoy life. Please join us for our Australia Day quiz night, look for it on our Facebook page.

32 | THE IRISH SCENE

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After we celebrate Australia Day, we’ll immediately start looking at preparations for both St. Patrick’s Day in March and ANZAC Day in April. Although these two events require a lot from the team here, spring will be back in Ireland, Abbey Lea will be in bloom with the gardens looking perfect. Spirits are generally very high in the Embassy.

We have a lot of work to do next year with two significant landmarks. The first is a celebration of the life of Irish man Martin O’Meara VC who was awarded the Victoria Cross in World War 1. Starting in Tipperary, then via Collie, Port Augusta and Perth, O’Meara eventually served in the Australian armed forces in France and fought at both the Battle of Pozieres and Battle of the Somme. His VC for bravery in the field, has travelled to Ireland thanks to an historic Act of the Australian Parliament and is currently on display in the National Museum of Ireland. In May, we will travel to Tipperary to meet with the O’Meara family and the local commemoration committee in his home parish of Lorrha and Dorrha. Plans are underway to hold a special event in O’Meara’s memory and will serve as an important reminder of the historic defence links between our two countries.

In November we look forward to the landing of Australia’s National Rugby Union Team, ‘The Wallabies’. They’re due to touchdown in Ireland for part of their Autumn International games and we will support the team in any way we can, both on and off the ground. The test match organised for November will likely be the sporting highlight in the Irish Rugby Calendar and will be a perfect way to see in the colder months once again.

There is much to look forward to in 2022. Restrictions on travel to and from Australia are set to be eased throughout the coming months with my own state of Western Australia opening to those who are both fully vaccinated and from an approved visa category from February 5th. This is good news and something to look forward to as Irish people in Australia finally end the separation from family.

Reconnecting with friends and family is an emotional and joyous occasion, and here at the Embassy, our staff are working every day to assist those seeking to travel, with applications tripling since November 1st. I consider this to be an indication that many in Ireland and Australia share the growing optimism that 2022 will be a year of further progress and one categorised by the time we have spent together rather than apart.

WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A WONDERFUL 2022. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA, STAY IN TOUCH. THE IRISH SCENE | 33

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THE IRISH SCENE | 35

I’d much rather wear out than rust out!

BY LLOYD GORMAN

THERE WAS A GREAT REACTION TO THE FEATURE ARTICLE ‘KALGOORLIE: WORTH MORE THAN ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD’ IN THE DECEMBER EDITION OF IRISH SCENE AND MANY MORE STORIES ABOUT THE GOLDFIELDS THAN WE COULD FIT INTO THAT FEATURE. HERE ARE SOME OF THEM AND WE WILL HAVE MORE IN THE MARCH EDITION.

The development and extension of the Swan colony’s early rail network from Perth to Northam, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie amongst other places, was of one of the Tom O’Brien ambitious achievements of the Irish born Engineer-in-Chief Charles Yelverton (CY) O’Connor, who is said to have first learned about railway construction as a junior engineer on the Waterford-Kilkenny railway.

The Trans-Australian railway came well after O’Connor’s time and was another massive infrastructure project designed to connect Western Australia with the rest of country. Indeed the promise of a federally funded rail line was held up as an incentive to West Australians’ to vote for Federation. Until the Trans-Australian railway opened in 1917, the only real option for moving goods and people west to east was by ship across the Great Australian Bight, a journey which could be slow and rough. Work on the line to span the Nullabor started from Port Augusta in South Australia in 1912, while at the other end tracks eastward started to be laid from Kalgoorlie during World War One. We have some fascinating insights into this nation building project thanks to the family of the late Tom O’Brien. He came to WA from Tipperary in Ireland in 1913 and two years later found himself working on the building of the Trans-Australian railway, hundreds of miles outside of Kalgoorlie. “[It] was a feat equal to orbiting the moon, in those days,” Tom told a newspaper reporter.

A newspaper clipping from the Kalgoorlie Miner from April 1977 has the headline: ‘A touch of the Irish heading our way’.

The article reported the Irishman would soon be returning to ‘Kal’ after a gap of 62 years. “Last time he was here was in 1915, when he was working on the building of the Trans Australian railway,” the article said.

“He’s looking for anyone who knew him in the old days, or for that matter, anyone who didn’t know him but would like to swap a few yarns. To make sure he would know he was coming he introduced himself at our Perth office and asked in his lilting Irish brogue whether we “might not just do him the favour of putting a little bit in our paper”. He was sure some

36 | THE IRISH SCENE

I’D MUCH RATHER WEAR OUT THAN RUST OUT!

of the other men who worked on the line must still be around. “The main camp had 500 men and 300 of them were Irish,” Tom told the newspaper.

Above: The Prospector train editor Lloyd Gorman took to Kalgoolie with companions Bob O’Connor and Kieran Ahern (inset)

He obviously made a big impact on the reporter who described him as “an irrepressible 83 year old who drops into a joke at the drop of a hat... and also plays five instruments… and sings and stepdances.”

PROSPECTS GOOD FOR THE TRAIN TO KALGOORLIE

He could also write and was a contributor to the handwritten newspaper The Desert Echo, which circulated around the railway workers. Indeed at that time he still had an original copy of the handmade newspaper.

“Those days on the railway were free and easy, they were good days. That’s why when I go to Kalgoorlie I’d like to look up some of my old mates,” he said. “I’d much rather wear out than rust out.”

The Record newspaper carried an obituary about him in June 1981.

“He would recall how nearly half the men out on the line, how Tom Mulcahy built an altar for priests and how he served Mass for Fathers Kiely, Brady and Doddy who came out to say Mass,” the Catholic newspaper article said.

“Pat Maguire his friend, he would relate, could neither read nor write and used to sign with a cross when he collected his pay. One day the paymaster – the story would continued – noticed two crosses and asked why. “I just realised I have two names, Patrick Joseph”, replied Pat Maguire. Tom O’Brien’s confidence in being Irish and proud of it allowed him to tell real Irish jokes a long time ago.”

The Trans-Australian railway still operates today and services both the Indian Pacific and The Ghan.

Irish Scene editor Lloyd Gorman made his first trip to Kalgoorlie in mid-October last year, with companions Bob O’Connor and Kieran Ahern, both originally from Limerick.

We travelled to the outback city by train, taking the aptly named Prospector from the terminal in East Perth. Instead of finding – as I had imagined – a great big locomotive like The Ghan waiting to take us to our destination, I was surprised to find one with two or three commuter carriages, more akin to the train you might catch at any Perth train station. Inside however it was as comfortable as you could expect, like an airplane seat with a scaled down version of the bells and whistles you might get while flying, but with much more leg room and bigger windows.

The Perth to Kalgoorlie standard gauge train line first opened in 1971 and replaced the overnight sleeper service and at an average speed of 85km/h (53mph) slashed the 653km (406 mile) journey from fourteen hours to only eight—making it the fastest service in Australia at the time. Today it can hit about 99km/h and takes about seven hours. When our little party got out at the other end we all felt fresh and rested.

About a month after our train ride, the Prospector officially turned 50, having made its maiden service on 29th November 1971. A shin-dig for the special occasion was held at Merridin train station, the half-way point on its long route. Kalgoorlie MP Ali Kent said the Prospector was “a key part of our Goldfields history”.

THE IRISH SCENE | 37

A WHISTLE STOP TOUR OF HOW THE TRAINS REACHED THE GOLDFIELDS THE FOLLOWING IS A SLIGHTLY EDITED VERSION OF THE HISTORY OF THE KALGOORLIE RAILWAY STATION WRITTEN BY THE CITY OF KALGOORLIE-BOULDER PUBLISHED ON INHERIT.STATEHERITAGE. WA.GOV.AU

“The discovery of gold at Southern Cross and the subsequent declaration of the area as the Yilgarn goldfield in 1888... prompted the State Government to commence construction of a railway to serve the area. The line, known as the Yilgarn Railway, began at the head of the Eastern Railway at Northam (the name “Yilgarn Railway’ was replaced with ‘Eastern Goldfields Railway’ in 1899-1900 and included, at that time, the lines from Northam to Kalgoorlie, the Boulder Loopline Railway, and the lines from Kalgoorlie to Kanowna and Menzies).

Before the line had reached Southern Cross however, the Coolgardie, and then Kalgoorlie, gold finds were made. The line to Southern Cross was opened on 1 July 1894, and tenders were called for the construction of the line from Southern Cross to Coolgardie….. At this point, there was no intention to extend the line to Kalgoorlie, but the Kalgoorlie Miner and local mine owners and businessmen began a campaign to have the line taken the extra 24 miles. Plans were already underway to construct a branch line to Menzies, and both Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie were vying to be the junction for this line and thus become the centre of the railway system and the centre of the eastern goldfields.

One argument for the extension was that it would allow the import of heavy machinery for the opening up of deep mines on the Golden Mile. In September 1895, a bill was passed to extend the railway line to Kalgoorlie. The Wilkie Brothers were contracted to immediately continue on when the line reached Coolgardie, which it did on 23 March 1896. The railway line reached Kalgoorlie on 8 September 1896.”

38 | THE IRISH SCENE

THE WARDEN OF COOLGARDIE Limerick man John Michael Finnerty gave Coolgardie its name. He got it from the indigenous Coolcaby or Coola Garbi Gnamma, the name for a mulga tree at a water hole beside the spot where his house would be built in 1895 by one Robert Bunning (one of the two English brothers who set up timber mills in Western Australia that would eventually grow into the DIY hardware chain we know today).

Finnerty was Coolgardie’s first resident magistrate and mining warden and he would have a major influence over the gold boom town. Just two years later at the peak of the gold rush, Coolgardie was the third biggest town in WA, with a population of 25,000 in the city and district and more than 700 mining companies. Coolgardie was so successful and focused on mining that a World Exhibition to celebrate the industry was held in 1899. More than 60,000 people are said to have attended the event.

At a site known as Fly Flat in August 1892, prospectors William Ford and Arthur Bayley found more than 500oz of gold. Two weeks later Bayley turned up in Southern Cross, nearly 190km away, to register the claim with the mining warden there, Finnerty. The find equivalent to about $800,000 in today’s money kickstarted the last and largest gold rush in Australia that swelled the population of the colony fourfold inside a decade.

Finnerty rode out to inspect the find for himself and while he was there is said to have stopped at a rock hole and written down its Aboriginal name. His telegram to Perth about the find triggered the gold rush.

It read: “Very rich quartz reef… Gold has been picked up on the

I’D MUCH RATHER WEAR OUT THAN RUST OUT!

Left: The Coolgardie house that Warden Finnerty and his family lived in. Below left: John Michael Finnerty

surface four miles square in granite, ironstone and greenstone.”

Finnerty is credited with saving countless lives as a result of his ability to persuade the government to install water tanks along the road to the remote outback location. In 1894 he was transferred from Southern Cross to Coolgardie, where his house – which has been preserved in pristine condition – was built a year later. For the next six years, Coolgardie would be home to the Finnerty family and they continued to thrive. But in 1900, he was ordered to Kalgoorlie, a move which signalled the rise in significance of the new goldfields town and the dramatic decline of Coolgardie.

In 1911 he retired and lived near Geraldton where he died in December 1913. He was survived by three children but the headstone on his grave was erected by his “goldfields friends”.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography gives us this description of the kind of man he was. “He had been a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Freemason and president of the Coolgardie Liedertafel. With the rank of lieutenant-colonel he commanded the Goldfields Regiment of the Volunteer Defence Force. A great raconteur, he wore a full beard with a 'walrus' moustache and had a commanding but genial presence. He was a big man, physically and officially, good at his job. For twenty-five years Finnerty interpreted the mining acts with discretion and his decisions were respected. As a bushman, his authority and leadership were accepted in the camps: no officer of the Crown was held in higher regard in the mining community.”

THE IRISH SCENE | 39

Left: Nigel Quick, host of the WA produced TV show, Desert Collectors expressions of the human form including the landmark Angle of the North monument in the UK, amongst many other public artworks.

RICH PICKINGS ON THE GOGGLE-BOX One of the essential pieces of equipment early gold seekers would have needed in their desperate searches was a pick to help unearth nuggets of the precious metal. Picks are of course still a useful tool today, but arguably their role in modern day treasure hunting has been overtaken by the evolution of ‘picking’ – finding valuables and collectables and its rise as a form of entertainment. TV screens are crowded with these type of shows, but for my money the best one around is a local WA production I only discovered recently.

On Wednesday nights in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I would settle down to watch Desert Collectors on 7Mate. The show follows Kalgoorlie based trader and dealer Nigel Quick as he hits the highways and dirt roads of WA and beyond in search of interesting artefacts for the weekly online auction his business runs.

Quick – who owns Star City Memorabilia in Kalgoorlie – finds amazing similar minded people whose collections could be thousands of old fashioned hand tools, glass bottles discarded by the first generation of Goldfielders now worth a fortune, or petrol heads with dozens of vintage or custom cars stashed away in their garages or even collections of die cast model cars in their home. Nigel does pick up some items but that seems to take a back seat to his natural ability to talk and laugh with people to bring out their passion projects, no matter what they happen to be.

SALT OF THE EARTH PEOPLE In one episode, the treasure seeker visits an incredible location in WA I had somehow never heard about. He was at Lake Ballard, a large salt lake (50km long and 20km wide) in the Shire of Menzies in the Goldfields-Esperance area. This stark but beautiful landscape is also the setting for the outstanding “Inside Australia” art project. The lake is populated by a scattering of 51 metal figures – The Salt People – commissioned by the Perth International Arts Festival in 2003 to mark the festival’s 50th anniversary.

The sculptor chosen to create this other-worldly installation was Sir Antony Gormely. Gormley specialises in creating unusual and interesting 40 | THE IRISH SCENE

Gormley is from the UK but has Irish roots. His paternal grandfather was a Catholic from Derry who settled in Walsall in West Midlands County of England and married a local girl. Under his father’s influence, Gormley was raised as a Catholic and with his Irish heritage. He was one of the artists who took part in the opening exhibition of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1991, and has exhibited and spoken at the museum on a number of occasions since. In January 2016 he told an Irish Times journalist he loved Ireland and why. “I love that it’s full of interesting people, kind people, people who have a different attitude to time,” he said.

Gormley also explained why most of his artworks are generally set in such places like Lake Ballard rather than in museums or gallerys. “I felt I didn’t need the blessing of institutional approval,” he said. “I know you could say, ‘Well that was because you weren’t getting any’, but actually I was.

I’ve been quite fortunate in that respect.”

While it would take a special kind of dedication and effort to get around to see all 51 Salt People (‘Inside Australia’ is one of – if not - the biggest art installations in the world after all), but those who have seen even one or a few generally report that it was well worth the effort.

The nearest settlement to the Lakes is the hamlet of Menzies, some 130km north of Kalgoorlie.

I’D MUCH RATHER WEAR OUT THAN RUST OUT!

Mulligans Pub in Poolbeg Street, Dublin) with ‘Vintage’ Vinny Smith. Dowling approached the makers of American Pickers and convinced them to back his idea for an Irish version. The show is great as it takes the viewer around and across Ireland and introduces viewers to all sorts of local characters and stories, familiar sights and sounds no doubt to Irish watchers.

Top: One of the otherworldly “Salt People” sculptures by Sir Antony Gormely, at Lake Ballard in Western Australia. Above: Maria and Joe Mellett of Mellett’s Emporium in Co Mayo During the gold rush era, Menzies had more than 10,000 people living in it, but today has a resident population of around 100. All the Salt People figures are modelled on people from Menzies who agreed to strip down and pose for the artist.

PICK OF THE BUNCH I discovered Desert Collectors by virtue of the fact that it was on 7Mate straight after a programme that caught my attention as soon as I saw it listed, Irish Pickers. A big fan of American Pickers itself, this was one I had to watch.

The Irish version follows a very similar format to the original show, basically two men – Ian Dowling (founder of rareirishstuff.com) and his sidekick Mark ‘Butzy’ Butterly, drive around the country in a van hunting out artefacts and antiques in all types of places (from castles and farm yards to pubs and homes) and selling them for a profit, supported by the brains of the operation Ali Foy at their office (above

Most of the stuff they find is of Irish historical interest, but in the episode where the boys travel to Swinford, Co. Mayo and went picking in Mellett’s Emporium, there was an Australia Post mail bag hanging on the wall. Curious about why such a thing should be on display amongst the collections and displays, I tried to call the pub after the show (when it was still day time in Ireland) but got no answer. This went on for about a week until finally the phone was answered by Maria, who together with her dad Joe Mellett runs Mellett’s Emporium.

It turned out the pub had to shut down for a while because several members of the family – including Maria herself – and staff all got Covid and they had to go into isolation. It was Maria’s first day back in the historic pub. She said everyone had recovered but got a bad enough dose of the virus, even those double vaccinated.

It transpired that the Australia Post bag was souvenired by her brother from the time he spent in Australia about twenty years ago and he wanted it to display in the pub. Turns out Maria too has spent a bit of time Downunder. She said that about ten years ago she spent three months in Perth where she “lived the backpackers dream”, drinking and working away. She worked for a bank collecting the mail in the morning, which she said was the easiest job she ever had.

She also spent about five months working for an insurance company in Brisbane. Good luck to Maria and her family and staff as they get back to normal after their encounter with the virus.

Meanwhile, two seasons of a reality TV show called Aussie Pickers with Lucas Callaghan and Adam McDonald were made in 2013 and 2014 but not since. Filming on a third season of Desert Collectors just wrapped up in December and our fingers are crossed for a second series of Irish Pickers that will hopefully make its way to Aussie screens again.

☘

THE IRISH SCENE | 41

Home thoughts from abroad

BY SEÁN BYRNE

FLY FISHERMEN IN GENERAL ARE A PATIENT BREED. EVERY YEAR THEY WORK DILIGENTLY FOR ELEVEN AND A HALF MONTHS, THEN COUNT THE DAYS AND FINALLY THE HOURS TO THEIR ANNUAL FISHING TRIP. My trip each year is to the Warren River, in the Southwest corner of Western Australia, where the hot sun and the encroaching bush make for a difficult fishing environment, and a scarcity of fish. Last year’s trip was a complete disaster.

The drive from Perth in late September was slow due to a storm. The rain beat unrelentingly on the windshield of my car. The wipers were unable to cope with the deluge and several times I pulled into a lay-by to allow the worst of it to pass. When I arrived at my cottage the rain had eased, but the overflowing river covered the paddock at the back of the house.

As I unpacked my car a duck and her brood sailed towards me, exploring their new-found playground and quack quacked a greeting as they passed.

42 | THE IRISH SCENE

There was a gentle rain that first evening and I sat on the veranda in the fading evening light, tying flies and dreaming of fishing trips past. I especially remembered those fish caught in ice-cold mountain streams in the West of Ireland. The small, speckled trout that danced on the water in anger when hooked and swam away with a derisive wave of the tail, like a two-fingered salute, when released. And big trout from the Midland Lakes, fine Lough Owel trout that never showed on the surface until it was time for the net. Powerful fish that could pull a large boat around the lake with ease. But most of all, those wonderful trout from the River Boyne, with bellies the colour of fresh butter, like pirouetting rainbows they leaped against the setting sun.

What I wouldn’t give to be sitting on the banks of that great river now, just below Bective Bridge. To sit with my back to the Great house with its sombre grey-stone exterior and to face the skeletal ruins of that ancient abbey where 800-year-old ghosts guard its naked walls. I would sit for hours in the spot below the bridge, light up a cigarette and gaze longingly into my fly box while listening to the water as it bubbled

HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD

Left: Bective Bridge with the Abbey in the background Photo: Eileen Doolan over the weir. Sometimes I’d look into the fly box for inspiration, hoping that the right fly would leap into my hands. And maybe I might catch that two-pounder that had been rising under the second arch of the bridge for the previous three months. I’d sit and try to figure out how to get the fly out to the fish without it dragging in the current from the arch. Finally, I’d give up saying ‘good luck to him’ and be content to leave it at that.

I could walk for hours along that river without ever casting a fly. Just walk and sort out the problems of the world in my head. And when all the problems were solved, I would stand and wait, and watch the river and the sky. I would wait for something to happen because something always did.

I was standing below Mary Lavin’s house early one morning. There was a crashing noise in the copse on the opposite bank beside Bective House. Suddenly a stag appeared crashing through the undergrowth, its antlers catching on the lower branches as it ran. A pigeon took to the sky disturbed by the noisy stag. A hawk circled above and when it spotted its prey, dived like a Mig fighter and took the pigeon in its claws. It broke the pigeon’s neck as it went and disappeared again as quickly. Nothing was left but a flurry of feathers blowing in the wind.

My thoughts were disturbed by the sound of footsteps on gravel. I looked up and saw him coming towards me walking through the rain. The water dripped from his Akubra. On to his long bushman’s coat and finally fell in a mini waterfall onto his boots. He carried an old cane fly rod of dubious ancestry. His hat was covered in flies of every size and colour and his weather-beaten faced smiled when he saw me. I beckoned him to sit beside me on the veranda and we spoke initially of flies and rivers and trout, both captured and lost.

He told me that he was eighty-five years old. He came from Oughterard in County Galway and had migrated to Australia in 1939 as a twenty-three year-old country boy.

Thomas Furey, it seems, lived a life of regret, a life of unfulfilled dreams and longing. After sixty years living here I would have assumed that he would call Australia home. I quickly realised after a brief time in his company that home to him was Ireland.

I was amazed at his capacity to remember his birthplace in perfect detail. Every Hawthorn bush and

moss-covered rock on the lane down to the lake was clear to him. He spoke longingly of his beloved Lough Corrib, of its many islands and churches and of its famous trout. Big, deep-bodied fish that lived on the bottom of the lake and only came to the surface when the Mayfly danced its final sequence and then lay, spent, on the water to die.

“Then they would come up,” he said, “mighty trout of ten and fifteen pounds and even bigger, with their short snouts and fat yellow bellies. The splash, the lifting of the rod and the fine silk line running across the water like the Sligo Express train, that’s what I miss.” He mused.

“Did you ever go back,” I queried, “for a holiday?”

He shook his head, “not even for a holiday.”

“Why?” I asked.

He thought for a moment. “I was afraid that it would be somehow different, that things might have changed and nobody would know me. But most of all, afraid that the trout would be bigger that I remembered, that I wouldn’t be able to leave them and come back to my family in Australia. So, I never went.”

“Do you regret coming to live in Australia,” I inquired.

“No, I don’t regret coming here. I’ve had a good life in this country. A wonderful wife, now gone, God rest her, children, grandchildren, a nice home, enough money and plenty of friends. No, I don’t regret coming to Australia,” he paused briefly, “but I do regret leaving Ireland.”

I didn’t understand. “What do you mean,” I said.

“Well, it’s simple really,” he answered. “The feeling for home is a seed planted at conception, it germinates in the womb and flourishes on mother’s milk. It never leaves you. Australia is just not home to me. You’re Irish. Someday you will understand.”

The old man left and I sat there with my flies and feathers and furs and my memories of Ireland. I realised that I saw a little of myself in that man.

Maybe in forty years’ time I would be that same person, regretful and sad and longing for the impossible.

So, I made a promise to myself, that next year I would go back to Ireland and fish the rivers and lakes of my boyhood. If things have changed, well so be it, at least I will have laid that ghost to rest.

☘

THE IRISH SCENE | 43

Matters of PUB-Lic Interest

BY LLOYD GORMAN

LOCALS VOCAL ABOUT LOCAL VENUE The Jarrah Bar in Hillarys Boat Harbour temporarily stopped being a bar and restaurant for a couple of hours to stage a pop up town hall meeting on December 20, facilitated by the local member of parliament for Hillarys, Caitlin Collins. Jarrah owners – Wes Darcy and Ryan Esqulant – called the community gathering so local residents and other stakeholders could openly discuss and raise concerns about a proposal for ‘a proposed food and beverage facility’ with capacity for 500 patrons at Pinnaroo Point in Hillarys. Mssrs Darcy and Esqulant, both experienced hospitality operators, hope to operate and open it as ‘Hillarys Beach Club’ in early 2023.

The large group of residents who turned up heard the development application (DA) to build the premises itself had just been approved by government planners in the WA Planning Commission on December 7.

One man asked what the point was of the public meeting in that case. Mr Darcy – who is originally from Co. Wicklow – said that approval was for the development itself while they were in the process of applying to Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor to become the licenee for the facility, which is planned to have a cafe kiosk, cafe and tavern. They hospitality business owners were not told or obliged to have the meeting but did so to hear what the community had to say and to make themselves available to answer questions. “I always find it difficult 44 | THE IRISH SCENE

to disregard the points of views of [locals] when it comes to putting a tavern in the community,” Mr Darcy said. The word tavern ‘haunted’ him he said, but they could only apply for a licence for a tavern or a restaurant. A tavern licence was more flexible for the operators and customers but in effect the place would be run more along the lines of a restaurant with the focus on fresh food in a “nice, comfortable and classy environment”. Mr Darcy suggested people could call into Jarrah and The Iluka and see it in action for themselves and get a flavour for the type of hospitality they offered. He explained that they had only recently come on board with the project and were not the developers and that a lot of aspects and issues should be directed to the City of Joondalup, which was responsible for the planning and 42 year lease to the site.

“The question I am asked about most is about parking,” he said. The city were best placed to respond to them he said.

Despite this, questions about parking easily dominated the concerns of local residents. The original concept was for a single storey and smaller facility, but the plan now is a bigger two storey venue.

The intention was that it would be a local venue, for local people, run by locals. Both Mssrs Darcy and Esqulant lived close by and they wanted to ‘target’ the inner locality, not the wider community. A local man said he, as a former president of the Scarborough Surf Life Saving Club, had been involved in

MATTERS OF PUB-LIC INTEREST

Above and left: The proposed Hillarys Beach Club has brought up concerns from locals. Right: The National Hotel’s rooftop bar the redevelopment of the area. The area lost 300 car bays, and promises that people would take public or alternative forms of transport to get there were “bull dust”. “You go down to Scarborough on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday and you try to get a car bay, its impossible, and its going to happen up here.” He urged the hospitality business operators to go to the council and tell them residents were unhappy and to compel them to come up with a solution.

Mr Darcy said the same concerns came up a year ago when they held another open community meeting ahead of the opening of The Iluka, between Ocean Reef and Burns Beach, about halfway through 2021. As with this group, he told those residents if there were any problems around parking or other issues, their door was open to them. “We didn’t have anybody knock on our door and say cars are parked on my lawn or anything like that,” added Darcy. “We have half the parking for the same number of people at The Iluka, which we shared with a busy IGA and some medical businesses and we genuinely don’t have any parking issues.”

Another local man said dodgy parking outside nearby homes and blocking up local verges and streets was already a problem in their area on really hot days and how would the operators deal with that. Mr Darcy admitted there were just times when it didn’t matter how much parking was available. “I personally think it’s going to be an issue on those few really hot days of the year, because (Hillarys Beach Club) is on the beach. It’s always an issue and it happens all around

the world, but I don’t think it’s going to be an issue on those ordinary days.”

Mr Darcy said the important thing was how they responded to the problem and that it was something the business operator and local residents could work together on, including the setting up of a committee to address any issues that come up.

Ms Collins – who has Irish heritage and has lived and worked in Ireland – said she was very aware of the parking woes before the meeting and pledged to look at what she could do.

NATIONAL HOTEL RAISES THE BAR! The National Hotel in Fremantle was the first venue in the port city to open a rooftop bar back in 2018. In December Urban List Perth voted it amongst the very best bars of this kind in Perth.

The bar service area is located inside the rooftop turret on the corner of High and Market Streets, and THE IRISH SCENE | 45

patrons can enjoy the view from the 200sqm decked rooftop area.

“With incredible 360 degree views over Fremantle, out past the cranes of the port and towards Rottnest, The National Hotel is the perfect spot to relax with an ice cold brew,” the reviewer said.

The panoramic vista once served a completely different function and audience. The rooftop was originally known as the Widow’s Walk from where mariners’ wives waited for their loved ones and menfolk to return to port, looking for the lights of ships on the horizon beyond Victoria Quay.

OLD BECOMES NEW AGAIN The National Hotel owners also breathed new life into another Freo institution and sister pub recently.

After a major refurbishment of the heritage buildings – including the courtrooms and construction of a brand new steel and glass pavilion and beer garden – The Old Courthouse in Henderson Street opened just before Christmas.

They have done an amazing job of preserving and incorporating original features and fixtures

– including the dock and a holding cell as a function room – into the story of the place. Dating back to 1850 when they were built with convict labor – including no doubt many Irish prisoners – it operated as a police station and courthouse from 1899 to 2001, until it was replaced by the purpose built Fremantle Justice Complex. Two years after it was closed the property was heritage listed.

SMALL BARS BIG PROJECT Described as a ‘cozy, small bar’, Robert’s on Oxford in Leederville was another new establishment that managed to open its doors in time for the festive period and overcome a string of hurdles in the process.

Owner Robert McNally is a self described “Irish born fine wine, craft beer and banter enthusiast” and obviously knew from the start what he was aiming for.

Canford Hospitality Consultants said they were engaged by Mr Robert McNally McNally to prepare and lodge his application for a small bar liquor licence. “The job itself had a tight turnaround timeframe, with the goal being to open in time to enjoy part of the Christmas and New Year trading period,” the consultants said on their website. “We helped work through a couple issues that arose from converting an old site which had a completely different use [as the old Rutherford News site at 173 Oxford Street], and consulted on compliance issue with the fit out. In doing so, we helped ensure there would be minimal hold ups from a liquor licensing standpoint. Thankfully this resulted in a smooth and nondisruptive liquor licence application.”

Working on small bars often come with little, unforeseen complications, Canford added. “These could include capacity limits, toilet configuration or car parking. Moreover, a lot of popular modern small bar designs revolve around restoring old sites and protecting the facade, which can create layout issues. This could be fitting in the right amount of toilets, or creating a suitably sized bar space that is both functional and ticks off all liquor licensing requirements. For a place like Roberts, where the goal is to achieve the cozy and comfortable feel in a relatively tight space – it can create headaches.

Fortunately, the vision in our clients head was clear and it’s fair to say they’ve achieved the atmosphere they The Old Courthouse pub in Fremantle Image source: instagram @oldcourthousefremantle were striving for.”

46 | THE IRISH SCENE

t a

S 9 P f

MATTERS OF PUB-LIC INTEREST

“If you have a reservation with us this evening, please bear with us while our team gets in touch to reschedule your booking if necessary. If you’re thirsty – we promise we’ll be back pouring Guinness as soon as we can!”

There was an outpouring of support and messages to the staff like “You’re all legends – stay strong” and “Hope all your staff are safe and healthy all the very best for the new year”.

Thankfully the popular watering hole and its loyal customers were able to get back into the swing of Christmas before too long.

The Galway Hooker made an Instagram post on December 23 notifying patrons that the pub was one of the locations visited by a confirmed Covid-19 case Image source: instagram @galwayhookerau

COOL HEADS AND COLD PINTS PREVAILED The Galway Hooker in Scarborough was one of multiple places across the metropolitan area caught up in the Covid-19 outbreak linked to a 25 year old French backpacker. According to an update posted on the HealthyWA website on December 23, the infected man visited the Irish pub on Thursday December 16, between 9.30pm and 10.15pm.

The health advice to anyone who was there at that time was to get tested immediately and isolate until they got a negative result or were told otherwise by the Department of Health.

At 11.06pm on December 22 the following message went up on the Galway Hooker Facebook site. “We’ve just been notified by WA Health that a confirmed case attended our pub between 9pm and 10:30pm on Thursday December 16th”, the post said. “Our team is working closely with the department to provide contact tracing registers and all staff are being tested immediately. We will be closed awaiting further instructions and confirmation that our team have returned negative results.

“We’re back pouring Guinness from 11am today and serving a limited menu at 12pm for lunch & dinner,” the venue said on Facebook on December 23 at 6.11pm. “Please remember to wear your masks & check in using the SafeWA App on arrival. If you’re booked in for the celebrations tonight, our team will be calling to confirm throughout the day, so keep an ear to the ground or send us a message if you have any questions!”

SURF’S UP GRAB A BOARD! Legendary folk singer and songwriter Christy Moore may well have coined the first mention to a surfboard in popular Irish culture with his song Delirium Tremens. The last two lines of the chorus as many readers will remember go: “As I sat lookin’ up the Guinness ad I could never figure out How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout”.

top quality farm reared meats and SPECIALTY irish items Shop 14, Woodvale Boulevard Shopping Centre 931 Whitfords Avenue, Woodvale WA 6026 P: (08) 9309 9992 E: meatconnoisseur@bigpond.com facebook.com/MeatConnoisseur

THE IRISH SCENE | 47

MATTERS OF PUB-LIC INTEREST

But very recently another iconic Irish drink brand found its own footing with the world of surfing. Irish Scene editor Lloyd Gorman recently dashed into a bottleshop near Whitfords Shopping Centre and couldn’t help notice a distinctive looking surfboard, with custom Jameson branding above a silhouette of Western Australia in a stand. It was a striking thing that would appeal strongly to anyone who drinks Jameson or who enjoys surfing. For anyone who falls into both these camps it would be a prized possession.

Eleven bottle shops in WA – and dozens more across other states and territories – have one each as a prize as part of the Jameson coastal store promotion.

Customers who spend just $20 on a Jameson product and who (between 01/12/21 and 18/02/22) scan and submit their receipt are in with a chance to win. Made in Australia, the Rarest Bird Chilli Quiver surfboard is a worthy prize, valued at $895 and another $120 for the vertical surfboard display rack.

Participating locations in WA are: Beldon Tavern, Northshore Tavern, The Tambrey Karratha, Treendale Farm Hotel, Cellarbrations Mt Barker, Big Brews Liquor, River Hotel, Thirsty Camel High Wycombe, North Road Liquor, Cons Liquor Geraldton and Thirsty Camel North Beach.

TUESDAYS

at the Woody

$15

$6

PIE & PINT PINTS OF FROM NIGHT GUINNESS 6PM

IRISH MUSIC

SESSION 7-11pm Woodbridge Hotel 50 EAST STREET, GUILDFORD 9377 1199

woodbridgehotel.com.au 48 | THE IRISH SCENE

AN IRISH DROP V AN AUSTRALIA DRAM Whiskey and food writer Seáneen Sullivan organised an “intercontinental whiskey tasting adventure” in the Irish Club in early November 2021.

Whiskeys from Carlow, Dublin and Tullamore went up against their local cousins from Albany, Melbourne and East Perth, with distillers from WA and Ireland (via Zoom) also taking part in the event.

Seáneen said the tasting session for the six whiskey showdown was suitable for novices and aficionados alike.

☘

The Irish Club of Western Australia

“Sharing our Irish Culture through Community Connections”

70 YEARS AND COUNTING The Irish Club of WA was founded in 1950, to create a hub for Irish emigrants to have a place to socialise and build a sense of community in a foreign land. Over the years, the Club has expanded its role in Western Australian society.

Keep an eye out for all upcoming events on our Facebook page and sign up on our website to receive all the latest information via email.

opening hours

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 5.00pm – 10.00pm Friday & Saturday: 5.00pm – 11.00pm New Kitchen Caterers: Perth Catering & Events Kitchen open 6.00pm – 8.30pm (kitchen closed Monday)

All welcome to experience all the Club has to offer To receive a 10% discount on all bar purchases and have access to discount hire of the venue for your private function, why not become a Member, or renew? Take out or renew a membership online.

61 Townshend Road, Subiaco • irishclubofwa.com.au • Tel (08) 9381 5213 For Catering please email: irishclub@perthcateringandevents.com.au • For all other queries please email: info@irishclubofwa.com.au THE IRISH SCENE | 49

Around The Irish Scene

Below left: Irish Mams NOR celebrating Christmas

Below: Happy 50th Birthday to the man himself, editor Lloyd, pictured with daughter Molly

Left: Former presidents of the Irish Club of WA Frank Smith and Paddy and Lena Costello.

Above: Paddy Cannon and Terry O’Leary at the Irish Club seniors Christmas Lunch

Below: Happy 70th birthday to Noel O’Neill

Above Left-Right: PJ Malone, Bob O’Shea, Lilly Rea, Jim Egan, Miv Egan and Moira Malone celebrating If you would like to be featured in the next issue, please send your photo/s to irishsceneperth@gmail.com along with a short description 50 | THE IRISH SCENE

Left & below: The Irish Perth Choir brought on that festive feeling in bucket loads with a double (matinee and evening) showing of “A VIRISH CHRISTMAS CONCERT” at the Irish Club in early December. The choir also spread Christmas joy further afield with another performance at Perth Children’s Hospital just before Christmas.

A LOVELY KENNEDY MOMENT Right: America’s new nomination

for ambassador to Australia – announced by President Joe Biden (who has Irish roots in Co. Mayo) in mid December 2021 – is Caroline Kennedy. The 64 year old lawyer and diplomat is the daughter of the one and only JFK, who naurally had strong Irish heritage and whose 1963 visit to Ireland left a deep and lasting legacy on the island nation. As well as a deep connection with Ireland the Kennedy’s have an interesting history with this region of the world. A Japanese destroyer sank Kennedy’s PT 109 boat in the Solomon Islands in August 1943 and exactly 70 years later Ms Kennedy became her country’s ambassador to Japan. Politics and history aside Irish Scene spotted this brillant and happy photograph of Caroline Kennedy as a child with her dad on RareIrishStuff.com and wanted to share it with our readers as a way of welcoming the diplomat with an amazing life story.

MASS GATHERING OF IRISH MEDICOS Above: Some 150 Irish

doctors in Western Australia – and another forty or so who were there but not in the picture – marked Christmas Day the traditional Aussie way, by heading for the beach, in this case Cottesloe Beach. Eoghan O’Leary tweeted this photo and a message on December 25 for the occasion.

LA BELLA LUNA Right: The Palace Hotel in Southern Cross – run by Dubliner Liz Sheehan – has a new mascot of sorts. Just before Christmas a tiny six week old kitten was found in the hotel’s carpark and handed in. Liz said she would try to find a decent home for it but if not she would keep it and take care of it. In any case Liz has given the cute little thing a name, Luna. “I named her after the moon as all the constellations and stars have male names and I felt her name should be related somewhat to astronomy seeing as we are in Southern Cross where every street is named after a constellation or a star.”

A LOTTO OF ROTTO Left: Declan Page and Elaine Davidson and their daughter Clodagh Page enjoyed a few days post Christmas break on Rottnest before launching into the difficult task in this market of trying to find a new place to live for their family.

THE IRISH SCENE | 51

MUMS THE WORD FOR THE DEVITT BOYS Right: Belated applause for Marcus Devitt, originally from Ballybough, Dublin, who ran his first full marathon around Neil Hawkins park in Joondalup to support research into Ovarian cancer last October. About the same time his brother Alan in Naas, Co. Kildare took part in the London virtual marathon. He covered 42.2km in laps around the local lake in a respectable 3hours and 52 mins, which he was very happy with. His two boys Callum and Ryan showed up at the finish line to cheer him on while other mates, including Dave (in Blue) from Tallaght and Bryn Tester (in black) did the same. The brothers were running and raising funds for their late mum Geraldine Lynch Devitt (right) who died in October 2016, just 28 days after being diagnosed with the disease. Marcus raised money for the Christie Charity Manchester Hospital where his wife’s family are from and the Mater Hospital Cancer Foundation in Dublin.

OH NO HE DIDN’T, OH YES HE DID Below: Irish Scene editor Lloyd Gorman got up close and personal with Cinderella’s obnoxious sisters played flawlessly by Stephen Lee and Ron Arthurs.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST Left: This edition of Irish Scene will be the last

PRAYING FOR DIVINE – OR DIVING – INSPIRATION Above:

Limerick man Jimmy Flannery looks like he is either praying or preparing to dive straight into his first pint of Guinness in two years. In any case he looks happy!

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one our talented graphic designer Caris Grant (pictured with husband Clayton at the Galway Hooker) will be involved with. When we took over as the publishers from Fred and Lilly, Caris was instrumental in designing a new look and style for the magazine and in putting it together for printing and publication, which is no easy task. Most of the positive comments and feedback we get about how much people like the magazine is because of her creative efforts. Throughout the last two and a half years or so, Caris – who has Irish heritage through her mother – has been professional, hard-working and innovative and probably best of all patient! She is going down a new career path and we wish her all the very best with what ever comes next. We would like to thank her for helping to make Irish Scene the fantastic and well produced publication that it is.

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98 High Street Fremantle. Tel: 9335 6688 nationalhotelfremantle.com.au THE IRISH SCENE | 53

Time

BY BILL DALY

‘THE TIME YOU ENJOY WASTING IS NOT WASTED TIME’ – BERTRAND RUSSELL

I was watching a documentary recently in relation to the centenary of the War of Independence and my thoughts started to wander in the direction of my grand-uncles, Patrick and Michael Daly who left these shores in and around the early to mid 1920’s for New York, and were never to return. They both fought in the War of Independence with the Waterford 2nd Brigade Old IRA. However, things got a little complicated during the subsequent Civil War when they took opposing sides. Legend has it that my GreatGrandmother would take the guns from them when they arrived home for the weekend and told them to be civil to each other. She would return the guns to them when they left early on the Monday morning, on their separate journeys!

When the documentary was over, I made a cup of tea, and started to think about the passage of time in a more general way. The 100 year time span of the documentary seemed a long way back when I was watching it, but in reality only a little speck in comparison to what I will now be relating to you for the remainder of this article. We would be most familiar with historical time, and that would concern the last two thousand years since the advent of Christianity. Before this we have archaeological time when mankind appeared on the scene, we do not have any historical records for the period and we have to forensically examine the landscape for clues.

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Before this we have geological time, a time before mankind, and when the landscape features we are familiar with today were laid down.

Ireland started off as two separate pieces of land separated by 5000 miles of ocean. The northern part was named Laurentia and the southern part was Avalonia. These two parts should never have met, but they did over 420 million years ago in a violent collision that shoved up our current mountain ranges. The Iapetus Suture is the seam from Loop Head in Co. Clare over to Clogher Head in Co. Louth where both parts joined together. Iapetus was the legendary father of Atlantis, after whom the Atlantic Ocean is named. Galway would have been in the northern Laurentia and Cork, Kerry and Tipperary in the southern Avalonia.

In the early 1850’s when the Owenriff River and Lough Corrib in Oughterard were dredged, the equipment broke through the limestone rocks. Many of the stones which were removed could be used afterwards in the construction of the dry-stone walls we are familiar with today. I found some examples of Productic Brachiopods (see image) a few years ago on the banks of the Owenriff and these have embedded fossils which are 330 million years old. I was showing these to Roger Joyce one morning, and afterwards he brought me in an example of the Straparollus which he had previously found on his land (see image). The

TIME

Straparollus was an ancient sea snail, now extinct, and can be dated back to 359- 330 million years old. At the time both the Brachiopods and Straparollus came into being, Ireland (and Oughterard) was submerged beneath a warm, tropical and coral sea to the west of present day Australia. We have moved northwards since then, and continue to do so ever so slowly.

The water level of Lough Corrib was lowered by approximately three feet due to Dredging Operations in the mid 19th century. In his excellent book ‘Wilde’s Lough Corrib’ (1867), Sir William Wilde remarks: ‘This sheet of water formerly extended over a much larger space; but by the drainage operations carried on from 1846 to 1850 it was lowered, much valuable land relieved from flooding, and large tracts rendered capable of cultivation; and I myself remember passing in a boat over places now in good pasturage, and fishing in places at present occupied by flourishing plantations’.

A few years ago, the late Jackie Murray would often visit me upstairs in the Courthouse. Over his customary cup of black coffee he regaled me with wonderful stories about people and historical events in and around Oughterard. On one of these particular mornings, he pulled a limestone/ sulphur rock out of his bag and I was absolutely delighted to see it. The Owenriff- (Abhainn Ruibhe – Sulphur River) gets its name because of sulphur stones which were found in the river in 1666 and 1667, an occasion of major summer drought. Similar stones were also found when the river was deepened in 1960. Jackie’s stone (see top right image) is an absolute beauty with an age estimation of greater than 40 million years.

In his essay ‘The Islands of the Corrib’, published 1n 1897 (RSAI), Richard J. Kelly remarks: ‘Lough Corrib is fed by many streams, namely, the Shrule, Cloghenower, Killroe, Cregg, and Claregalway rivers. One of the most remarkable is the river of Fough or Owenriff, which, according to an old account – whenever the river runs shallow, sulphur is found on the stones in the channel, from the mountains, until it passes by the castle of Fough. On the north of this river is a well in honour of

St. Michael the Archangel, which O’Flaherty says was discovered by revelation in 1654. Fough Castle was called Nowghe in 1586, and stood on a natural bridge.

It was pulled down, and out of its stones the barrack of Oughterard was built.’

Jackie was a man of acute intelligence, very well read, a marvellous storyteller and imbued with a keen and natural sense of curiosity.

He was also very kind and generous with his time to impart the vast amounts of his knowledge. He is greatly missed by everyone who ever had the pleasure of his company.

THE IRISH SCENE | 55

TIME

‘Is it not a great pity that so little is known about our native town and district? Very few people have even heard of the many and varied items of interest which abound around this area. It would be a wonderful thing if those with any local knowledge would make it available.’

The above quotation is from a column in The Oughterard Newsletter of the 7th October 1973. Over the past few years we have explored our prehistory in great depth, and can now say with certainty that Oughterard was among the areas to be settled during the Mesolithic period when our ancestors settled in Ireland for the first time.

A tool called a ‘Bann Flake’ (see image) and associated with the Irish Mesolithic (8000 – 4000 BC) was found by Jim Higgins in 1975 where the Owenriff River enters Lough Corrib just outside Oughterard.

The accompanying image is my own interpretive drawing of this very valuable find. Jim also found a scraper and a piece of discarded flint in the same location in 1984. This provides us with evidence that there was a Mesolithic fishing community on the shores of the Owenriff or along the banks of Lough Corrib in Oughterard. Evidence for the Mesolithic is very hard to find because of the perishable nature of what they were using.

The Bann Flake from 1975 doesn’t show much evidence of having been ‘rolled’ around in the Lake for a long period of time and may have been dislodged from the banks of the Owenriff River in times of storm and high flooding. A Bann Flake is named after the first known Mesolithic settlements found along the banks of the River Bann in Northern Ireland. When I finish my research on the Bronze Age in 2022, I hope to embark on an extensive search for more examples of Bann Flakes in our locality along the banks of the Owenriff and Drimneen rivers and the shores of Lough Corrib.

The Anthropocene is now seen as the unofficial unit of geological time which defines our habitation on this planet. It is viewed as the period during which human activity has been a dominant influence on climate and the environment. Some Geologists argue that the Anthropocene began with the Industrial Revolution in the mid to late 19th century.

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We do not live in too bad an age at all, and we just need to tune into modern technology a little more and turn it to our advantage. There was a time when people’s mental and physical spirits were ground down by the excesses of manual labour and aged before their time. Our bodies tend to last longer these days as we replace the manual effort with more mental input, aided by diverse iterations of modern technology.

The past few decades have given us higher degrees of apparent prosperity, but there is always a downside and a price to pay for this greater affluence. People are certainly under more pressure these days, and especially young couples. In order to feed the always hungry and demanding lifestyles, a greater amount of responsibility has had to be taken on in the workplace, which means that people are putting in less of an appearance at home with their spouse and children. Unless this is checked and kept in perspective it will tend to have a detrimental effect on the overall balancing act between life and work. Step back now and then to see where you are spending your time and reset the switches accordingly.

We have not adjusted our eating habits very much to compensate for abrupt lifestyle changes over the past decades. We still eat like our earlier ancestors who worked the land with their physical exertions, except we do not have an opportunity to burn off the calories out in the fields anymore. We tend to drive everywhere, sit in offices, and as a consequence, put on weight to the delight of the Gym Club owners! It is important as we progress outwards that we find that symbiotic relationship between work and life in order to achieve personal contentment and balance. Higher degrees of prosperity are of little value to us unless they can be enjoyed with family and friends.

‘TIME IS THE COIN OF YOUR LIFE. IT IS THE ONLY COIN YOU HAVE, AND ONLY YOU CAN DETERMINE HOW IT WILL BE SPENT. BE CAREFUL NOT TO LET OTHER PEOPLE SPEND IT FOR YOU’ – CARL SANDBURG. 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 now been working on his own as a Consultant/Contractor for the past 20 years in Lean Manufacturing and Materials principles.

Bill has been resident in Oughterard since 2009, and for the past few years, working as a Local Archaeologist, has been undertaking a project with the Oughterard Heritage Group to research the prehistoric roots of the village.

ast

SAINT BRIGID’S FESTIVAL 28-30TH JANUARY Torc Ceili Club are holding a festival at Kidogo Arthouse, Fremantle. This festival will be a weekend of creativity celebrated through music, dance, art and food. The festival’s activities will mostly be interactive with the aim of bringing people together to acknowledge the culture and history of St Brigid while celebrating the creativity of our local artists.

The Sunday session will focus on family friendly activities. There will be an Irish Céilí with the best of Perth’s traditional musicians.

There will also be a program of various arts and crafts activities during the festival.

AIHA plan to make a presentation on St Brigid on Sunday afternoon.

If you have ideas or want to participate please email admin@ irishheritage.com.au and our coordinators Gayle and Diana will respond.

THE FOURTH TUESDAY BOOK CLUB MEETS FOURTH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH, WITH EXCEPTION OF DECEMBER, 7.30PM January 25 ‘American Dirt’ by Jeanine Cummins. Presented by Thelma Blackford VENUE: Irish Club Committee Room 61 Townshend Road Subiaco COST: Free entry. All welcome.

Light refreshments provided.

Tea and coffee from the Bar $2 CONTACT: Convener Mary Purcell m.purcell@telstra.com

Australian-Irish Heritage Association Be proud of your Irish heritage

AIHA FILM CLUB SEASON

WEDNESDAYS FEBRUARY 2, 9, 16, 23 & MARCH 2 Fourteenth annual outdoor Irish Film Festival with a programme of rarely seen and some classic Irish cinema. Private garden cinema, 7.45pm nightly. Ample parking available. Big fifteen-foot cinema screen.

Programme will be released in January. Plus each night a supporting Irish short film or documentary, together with tea/coffee and cakes VENUE: Kensington (South Perth) COST: Donation $10 to cover catering and costs, pay at the gate. Ice creams $3 SEATING: Come early for best seats, bring deckchair if running late CONTACT: Tony Bray - Ph 9367 6026, check our website and facebook

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY We invite you to come on board and share the fun in organizing and promoting events and activities of relevance and interest. We welcomed 4 new committee members in 2021 and continue actively looking for new members to the committee and helpers on the sidelines. We hold annual brainstormers and planning meetings to look for new directions.

VENUE: Irish Club Committee Room (Upstairs) TIME: 3pm, followed by complimentary afternoon tea CONTACT: Secretary Tony Bray on 9367 6026 or secretary@irishheritage.com.au

IN PLANNING FOR 2022 REGULAR EVENTS: Easter Monday Rockingham Catalpa Commemoration; ANZAC Commemoration Subiaco War memorial; Annual Mary Durack talk, Irish Club Theatre; Parlour Concert featuring local authors.

BLOOMSDAY: 16 June 2022 marks the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. With the support of the Irish Embassy in Canberra we are planning an evening of Joycean or Ulysses vignettes of prose/play/ poetry in a Bloomsday stage competition. There will be a cash incentive for all accepted entries and cash prizes. Register your expression of interest before 22 April 2022 to admin@irishheritage.com.au JOHN O’DONOGHUE AFTERNOON: Sunday 11 September 2022. Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher, 1956-2008. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularising Celtic spirituality. ‘Anam Cara’, 1996 was his first publication. This event will feature an exploration of his writings shared with reflective music.

AIHA 30TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2023: A sub-committee will be formed to plan for suitable commemorative events. Input is welcome.

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

MEMBERSHIP DUE 1st JANUARY – Membership fee includes tax deductible donation of $20

Look us up on Facebook @australianirishheritage or check out our website irishheritage.com.au

Members enjoy discounted rates to dinners and functions, exclusive events, quarterly Journal, voting rights, and opportunities to participate in activities which promote an awareness ofTHE Australia’s Irish Heritage | 57 IRISH SCENE

Family $65 • Concession $55 • Distant (200kms from Perth) $45

Photo credit: Rob Youngson / Focus Features

Ulster Rambles

BY DAVID MacCONNELL

I WOULD LIKE TO WISH A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOUSE ALL. I DO HOPE YOU HAVE HAD A GREAT START TO 2022. FEBRUARY WILL BE LOOMING LARGELY IN OUR LIVES HERE IN W.A. NO MATTER WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS, IT MOST LIKELY WILL BE BETTER IN EVERY WAY THAN WAS THE CASE IN IRELAND (ESPECIALLY ULSTER) IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES. I have to confess here that I left the Province at that time for three years and lived in Spain. I never knew what I had missed or how fortunate I was until recently when I found a book by Kevin Myers called Watching the Door. To be honest, I thought I had read it some years earlier but either I had forgotten all of it (unlikely) or I had borrowed it and had to return it before I had read it (equally unlikely). The book is as much an unbiased account of the happenings there (mostly in Belfast and Derry) as you are going to find.

The introduction to the book goes roughly like this.

Watching the Door is the work of a lost young man, Kevin Myers, who drifted into a war zone, made it his home of sorts and somehow managed to stay alive while endangering himself many times.

He graduated from UCD with a history degree and was lucky enough to be hired as a journalist for RTE, where he was a lowly dogsbody sent to the North where no one else (sensibly) wanted to go. Due to his carefree attitude, he was absorbed quickly into the local community and soon became privy to the secrets of Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries alike. I quote,

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‘In his darkly funny account of life on the streets, Myers evokes with searing clarity a society on the brink of civil war.’

He found the knack of talking to loyalists, provos, paratroopers, squaddies, the RUC, the UVF and other organisations that were around at the time. He drank in the many different sectarian pubs and was more than lucky quite a few times.

His father had worked in Dublin and Belfast but (wisely) left for England after the Second World War so Kevin was brought up and educated in England. Kevin was a good name to have in Belfast.

It was a Catholic name yet he could get away with it in Protestant areas because of his English accent. The book’s title continues with the following: ‘Cheating DEATH in 1970s Belfast. Sex, drink, betrayal, cowardice, bravery, more drink and beyond all this, always, the violence... This book stinks of the truth.’

It is truly a remarkable account of the many atrocities that occurred at that time, but I would like to point out that most of those happenings occurred in very distinct areas of the city. Other parts were (relatively) much safer and people in those places watched the news in horror as did many people from around the world.

A recent film, “BELFAST”, about life in Belfast in the late sixties was more my cup of tea, or should I say pint of Guinness. Celebrating Northern Ireland, the film was written and directed by Kenneth Branagh and it stars Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan and Ciarán Hinds. Branagh describes it as his “most personal film”. It is set in the 1960s and chronicles the life of a working class Northern Irish family from the perspective of their 9-year-old son Buddy during the late sixties. Buddy’s father Pa, or as I would have called him Da, works overseas in England, while the family - Ma, elder brother Will, and paternal grandparents Granny and Pops - live in Belfast.

I must confess that I have never heard of the name Buddy but I suppose it might have been chosen as it has neither a Protestant nor Catholic connection... well not to my mind!

On 15 August 1969, a group of Protestants stage a riot on Buddy’s street, attacking homes to intimidate the local Catholics, who happened to live in a Protestant area and were accepted as one of the community. In response, the townspeople set up a barricade on the street to prevent their return and Pa returns home from England to check up on the family’s wellbeing. The family attends church, where the minister delivers a harsh Paisley-like speech; the rhetoric

Photo credit: Rob Youngson / Focus Features

ULSTER RAMBLES

is continually reflected upon by Buddy throughout the film. Buddy develops feelings for a great wee girl, Catherine, of a different religious persuasion; the two eventually become friends.

Local rioter and lead figure Billy Clanton approaches Pa demanding his involvement for the cause; when Pa refuses, he becomes aggressive and continues to incessantly approach Buddy. Meanwhile, the family struggles to pay off their accumulated debts. Pa dreams of emigrating to Australia or Canada, a prospect met with distress from Ma. However, she can no longer deny the option of leaving Belfast as the conflict worsens and Pa is offered a promotion and housing deal in England from his employers. They attempt to discuss the matter with the boys, but Buddy breaks down at the thought of leaving.

Buddy and local girl Moira attempt to steal chocolates from a sweetie shop but the plan goes awry. When later questioned by the police, Buddy does not reveal his co-conspirators. Following this, Moira recruits Buddy into her local gang, who participate in a looting of a supermarket. A reluctant Buddy is coerced into stealing a box of laundry detergent before he returns home and informs Ma of his activities. Ma berates and drags Buddy and Moira back to the on-going looting to return their stolen items; however, Billy appears and takes them hostage as leverage for his escape. Pa, Will, and the army arrive at the scene to end the riot, initiating a standoff. When Billy attempts a shootout, Pa and Will handily disarm him. Billy is promptly arrested but swears retribution. This was the only part of the film I did not like. It was likened to various ancient western films, namely High Noon and Gunfight at the OK Corral.

The atmosphere in Belfast at that time was very much more complicated.

Realizing that they are no longer safe in Belfast, the family decides to leave for England. Before departing, Buddy bids farewell to Catherine; he later laments about whether he could pursue a future with her despite her being a Catholic, to which Pa responds that it shouldn’t make any difference. As Granny watches, the family boards a bus headed for the docks.

The film was part of the British Film Festival but it is due to be generally released around January, so you should be able to catch it. The music score is almost completely Van Morrison and Jamie Dornan makes the typical Belfast working class accent understandable but not realistic.

If you are not from ‘The North’ or have no connections to it, you might well want to skip the next paragraph or two because recently I found an article which described itself as ‘50 Things You Only Know If You Live In Northern Ireland’. I went on the assumption that I could use a past tense here as well i.e. lived in. Northern

Ireland is a place of quirks and colloquialisms, here are some of the things you’ll only know if you live (or have lived) in “Norn Iron”!!

1. An Ulster fry is the best breakfast, lunch and maybe even dinner in the world (beans optional depending on taste).

2. You go for a “poke” while at the seaside and know what it really means.

3. There are at least 100 words which mean getting drunk. Here I have listed a few! (bladdered, plastered, full, stocious, blutered, half-cut, steamin’, wasted, hammered, blocked etc).

4. Everyone knows someone who says “bye, bye, bye, bye, bye” at the end of a phone call.

5. “Whadaboutye” is a traditional greeting.

6. You know which “part” of town you’re in and whether you should be there or not.

7. That the country is obsessed with “flegs” of various colours.

8. That soda bread and potato bread are much nicer than croissants.

9. You can fondly recall the delights of the annual summer trip to Barry’s Amusements in Portrush and the dismay when you get there, it’s raining outside and it’s packed.

10. We all know someone who starts every conversation with “wait til I tell ye”... because whet they heard is “the gospel truth”.

11. And know someone who ends that conversation with “so it is” just to make sure you got the message.

12. You call the Republic of Ireland “the Free State” and don’t understand why everything costs more.

13. You have a granny who has a taste for “fruit loaf”, “barnbrack” or “veda bread”. My sister who lives in England always brings back 3 loaves of veda bread and a few barnbracks whenever she visits the Province.

14-25. You’re fluent in the local lingo and understand the meaning of “dead on” and “bout ye”, that a “buck eejit” isn’t a particularly smart person, you “boke” when you’re not feeling well and are “parful well” when you’re better, you’re “boggin” when you’re covered in muck, possibly from falling in a “shuck” and boys a dear that’s enough for a wee while... so away with ye, wind yer neck in and catch yerself on. Bye bye bye bye bye...

TIME FOR ME TO HEAD OFF AND WISH YOUSE ALL A PROSPEROUS YEAR AND MAY YOUR GOD GO WITH YOU. THE IRISH SCENE | 59

Craic, Ceol and Ceilidh at Torc Irish Dancing Christmas Party AT MASONMILLS

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CRAIC, CEOL AND CEILIDH AT TORC IRISH DANCING CHRISTMAS PARTY

We get what matters to you.

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Family Friendly, Family Lawyers 165/580 Hay Street Perth WA 6000 T: (08) 6557 5888 E: reception@kavlaw.com.au kavanaghfamilylawyersperth.com.au THE IRISH SCENE | 61

Nollaig na Mban

(Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas) The Irish Club in Subiaco hosted Nollaig na Mban (Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas) on the day itself, Thursday, January 6th. These lovely ladies celebrated the occasion in style and with fun and games as well as traditional Irish music and songs, provided by Dympna Finch and Tommy O’Brien. The event was even picked up by RTE and shown on the Six O’Clock TV news as one way Irish women around the world were marking the occasion. Great fun and great work by all involved.

Meanwhile, another group of gals celebrated Nollaig na mBan on Rottnest Island. They started at Rustica Canteen in Hillarys Boat Harbour and finished the day at Jarrah Bar sipping cocktails!

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AN IRISH CHRISTMAS IN BUNBURY

THE IRISH SCENE | 63

An Irish Christmas in Bunbury

A GREAT TURNOUT OF ABOUT 140 ADULTS AND CHILDREN CAME TOGETHER ON DECEMBER 30 AT KOOMBANA BAY SAILING CLUB BUNBURY TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS IRISH STYLE. “The event was a concept thought up by local Irish couple, Ronan and Fiona O’Mara, to celebrate as a community due to many of us not being able to travel home for Christmas the past two years due to the pandemic,” said Peggy Maguire, who sent us these photos of the festive function. “A small committee was set up and it took off. It was a huge success with a great turnout. Jack Irish was the entertainment, Peter Murphy was there representing the J.B. O’Reilly Association. There was Irish dancing, face painting and plenty to keep the kids entertained,” she added.

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AN IRISH CHRISTMAS IN BUNBURY

FRANK MURPHY PRESENTS

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

Music. Conversation. Special Tributes. Interviews.

Celebrating the Ireland of today and past times.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 65

Trioblóid i bPáirc an Aoibhnis Páirc an Aoibhnis an t-ainm a bhí ar an láthair champála. Bhí áiteanna ar an suíomh do charabháin agus do phubaill. Bhí an áit dubh le turasóirí sa samhradh. Ach an geimhreadh a bhí anois ann. Ní raibh turasóirí thart faoi láthair. Bhí na carabháin ligthe ar cíos do theifigh.

Bhí an áit iontach gruama an t-am seo den bhliain.

Bhí an fhearthainn ag titim go trom nuair a bhain Paloma an áit amach. Bhí sé an-dorcha. D’amharc sí amach fuinneog an chairr. Áit an-ghruama a bhí ann, a dúirt sí léi féin. Bhí drogall uirthi an carr a fhágáil.

Rinne sí moill bheag.

‘Fanfaidh mé go dtí an lá amárach’, a dúirt sí léi féin.

‘Tiocfaidh mé ar ais nuair a bheidh an fhearthainn thart’.

Bhí sí ag déanamh réidh le himeacht nuair a chuala sí scairteach. Tháinig bean óg agus fear meánaosta amach as carabhán. Ba léir go raibh siad corraithe go mór. Ba léir go raibh an-fhearg orthu. Thiocfadh le Paloma an screadach a chluinstin gan deacracht ar bith. Bhí an rogha déanta di anois. Bhí uirthi dul amach faoin fhearthainn – agus go gasta.

Chaith sí doras an chairr ar oscailt agus léim amach.

Chuir sí a caipín ar a ceann. Rith sí anonn go dtí na carabháin. Bhí fear féasógach agus bean óg ag troid. Bhí siad ag béiceach in ard a gcinn. Níor thuig Paloma a gcuid cainte ar chor ar bith. Ba theifigh iad na daoine seo – bhí a fhios aici sin. Ní fhaca siad Paloma ag teacht in aice leo.

Bhí an bhean óg agus fear na féasóige i bhfostú ina chéile. Bhí fearg mhór ar an bhean óg. Ise is mó a bhí ag screadach. Níor thuig Paloma an chaint. Ach d’aithin sí an fhearg. Ní raibh eagla ar an bhean óg roimh an fhear. Ba léir gur ise a bhí ag déanamh ionsaí airsean. Bhí an fear ag iarraidh éalú. Ach ní ligfeadh an bhean óg dó. Bhrúigh Paloma í féin chun tosaigh. ‘Stadaigí, stadaigí láithreach’, a dúirt sí de ghlór ard. ‘Stadaigí anois. Láithreach’.

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SEANFHOCAL Bhain sí preab as an Scuab nua is fearr a bheirt a bhí ag troid. scuabann an teach.

Go maith, a smaoinigh sí léi féin. Ní fada go mbeidh siad faoi smacht agam. D’amharc an fear meánaosta uirthi.

Tháinig scaoll ar Phaloma. Ba léir go raibh fuath aige di. Chuir sé cár air féin. Ní raibh eagla ar an bhean óg.

Bhí sise ag scairteach go fóill ar an fhear.

‘Bí ciúin’, a dúirt Paloma léi. ‘An dtuigeann tú mé? Bí ciúin. Anois. Láithreach’.

D’amharc an bhean óg uirthi. Bhí sí idir dhá chomhairle.

Labhair Paloma arís: ‘Bí ciúin’. Stad an bhean óg den scairteach. Thiontaigh sí thart chuig an fhear meánaosta. Bhagair sí méar air agus dúirt rud éigin os ard. Lig an fear gnúsacht as féin. Bhagair seisean méar uirthise agus dúirt aon fhocal amháin.

Phléasc an bhean amach ag scairteach arís. Bhog Paloma isteach le í a chiúnú. Thapaigh an fear an deis. A fhad agus a bhí Paloma gnóthach leis an bhean, d’imigh seisean i ngan fhios. As cúinne a súl chonaic Paloma ag imeacht é. Ach ní thiocfadh léi é a stopadh.

(PALOMA, AN BEALACH CÓIR, PÓL Ó MUIRÍ, LEABHAIRCOMHAR, BÁC, 2012)

BRÍD

TRIOBLÓID I BPÁIRC AN AOIBHNIS

☘ ☘☘

This is the final Irish language column from Bridie Higgins and we would like to recognise her for the contribution she has made to Irish Scene over the years.

It is important - indeed vital - for a publication like Irish Scene to have original writing and story-telling 'As Gaeilge' and from within our community.

We wish Bridie and Steve all the very best for the future.

Lloyd and Imelda Gorman

☘☘☘

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THE IRISH SCENE | 67

Claddagh Report CLADDAGH SENIORS The Claddagh Seniors Group finished the year in style with three fantastic events.

In November they took a day trip to Moore River. Gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery and a yummy picnic added up to a very enjoyable day. The group met again in December for their traditional Christmas lunch at the Mighty Quinn Tavern. More than 90 members of the Seniors Group had a ball, enjoying the music from the Broken Pokers, a visit from Santa and the fabulous prizes in the raffle. By the time you read this the group will have finished the year by attending The Irish Theatre Players panto ‘Cinderella (The Slightly Deviated Version)’. It promises to be a very enjoyable show.

All senior members of the Irish Community in WA are welcome to join the group. If you, or a senior you know from the Irish community, would like to attend events in 2022 you can register by calling Patricia Bratton of the Seniors Subcommittee on 0417 099 801/08 9345 3530 or by contacting Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@ claddagh.org.au/08 9249 9213.

Above: Our Seniors at their traditional Christmas lunch at the Mighty Quinn Tavern. Left: Phil Leonard at Moore River 68 | THE IRISH SCENE

CLADDAGH REPORT

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS AND SUPPORTERS

Above: Claddagh Committee Darren King, Stephanie Upton, Tom Quinn, Heather McKeegan, Peter McKenna and Patricia Bratton

CLADDAGH AGM Claddagh’s 2020-2021 AGM was held on the 29th of October 2021 at the Irish Club. For the third year in a row Claddagh Chairperson, Heather McKeegan, reported that Claddagh experienced a heightened demand for services, organised more events, interacted with higher numbers of people from our community and increased spending on emergency relief.

As always, Claddagh dealt with clients facing a wide variety of difficult circumstances, including migration, health, bereavement, housing, financial, criminal, domestic violence and relationship breakdown issues. It is not unusual for Claddagh to work with clients for an extended period due to their complex needs. Although we had an average of 9.4 new cases per month during the 2020-2021 year, we commonly work with an active case load of up to 20 cases per month.

In the past year Claddagh also organised three new projects: The Claddagh Oral History Project; Online Training for Seniors; and Claddagh Visa Clinics. These were so successful that we will run them again in 2022.

The AGM voted to keep the current committee in place for another year.

Heather McKeegan remains as chairperson, Peter McKenna is Vice Chairperson, Stephanie Upton is Secretary, Patricia Bratton is Treasurer and Darren King and Tom Quinn are ordinary Committee Members.

During the 2020-2021 year the Claddagh Committee worked in partnership with full time Coordinator, Anne Wayne and our hardworking volunteers to carry out our casework and programmes. We are very appreciative of our diverse, loyal group of volunteers who donate their skills and time to Claddagh helping us organise events for Seniors, staff our fundraising ventures, work on our special projects and offer their expertise in matters ranging from migration to legal to medical. We could not carry out our work without them.

We were also supported last year, as always, by our principal funder, the Government of Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme, by our many generous donors and all those who participate in our fundraising events, by the Honorary Consul of Ireland in Perth, the Embassy of Ireland in Canberra and the other Irish community groups in Perth. We are so grateful for the help of all our supporters.

13/15 Bonner Drive Malaga.

Enquiries: 08 9249 9213 / admin@claddagh.org.au | 69 THE IRISH972 SCENE265 Crisis Support: 0403

www.claddagh.org.au

“IN MEMORY OF EIREANN” FUNDRAISERS FOR CLADDAGH In the last issue of the Irish Scene, we shared with you the words of the O'Riordan family whose hearts were broken when they lost their little angel Eireann in February 2021: “On the 4th of February 2021 we lost our newborn baby girl Eireann.

Life went to a standstill while we as a family tried to come to terms with what was happening and what was ahead of us. That’s where we were introduced to the Claddagh Association. They provided so much financial assistance and emotional support for our family.

They assisted with everything and anything that would help lift some burden from us. They also went above and beyond to get our family over from Ireland, in the midst of the pandemic so that we could be together for 6 months. We are now in a position to try and say thank you in raising as much funds and awareness as we can, to support their wonderful association so other families like ours continue to get the same support.”

In memory of Eireann, her mum, Grainne, and her dad, Darren (top), organised a quiz night, a GoFundMe appeal for Grainne's workmate, Vivian (left), who shaved her head on stage at the Quiz night, and a Sausage Sizzle at Bunnings, Malaga. All three events were a wonderful success raising a combined total of $14,352.

Many volunteers gave generously of their time and skills to help with these fundraisers. Thanks go to Conor Brennan, our fabulous quizmaster, Vivian, who shaved her head in memory of Eireann, The Sweet Woodbines, who performed for free, entertaining the quiz night audience till late into the night, The Irish Club who hosted the quiz night, Claddagh’s many wonderful volunteers who worked at the Quiz night as well as the Sausage Sizzle and Paul McLoughlin, who donated the sausages for the sausage sizzle.

Finally, a big, big thanks to Darren and Grainne Conlon O'Riordan who went above and beyond to pay forward the support they received from Claddagh after they lost their beautiful baby girl Eireann. They worked so hard, brought together their lovely community of friends and created a wonderful tribute to Eireann.

70 | THE IRISH SCENE

CLADDAGH REMEMBRANCE SERVICE On Sunday the 7th of November, at Claddagh’s annual Remembrance Service, Fr Tim Corcoran led the Irish community in remembering our loved ones who died here in Australia, in Ireland or elsewhere in the past year. Members of many of the Irish Australian community groups in Perth played roles in the service which led to a wonderful sense of unity and support despite grief.

Thanks to the Irish Club who hosted us afterwards for a delicious Irish afternoon tea catered by Hetty’s Scullery.

CLADDAGH ORAL HISTORY PROJECT This month we share the migration story of John Flood from the Claddagh Oral History Project 2020. Readers of the Irish Scene will enjoy John’s recollections of migrating to Perth in the late 1980s. John is from Co Meath and was interviewed by Claddagh volunteer Dee O’Callaghan. Dee is from Blackrock, Cork City and migrated to Australia in 2017.

All the interviews from Claddagh’s Oral History Project 2020 were edited and collated as a book, From Home to Home: Oral Histories of Irish Seniors in Western Australia. The full book is available as a free digital download at the Claddagh website here: claddagh. org.au/claddagh-oral-history-project/.

Above: St Joseph’s Church Claddagh Remembrance service. Left: Eimear Beattie and Mariea Crabbe at the Irish Club after the Remembrance Service

Claddagh are delighted that we have been awarded funding from the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme to carry out another larger oral history project in 2022. In this expanded oral history project, we’d like to interview a wider group of people to explore the diversity of migration experiences in the Irish community here. As well as interviewing more Seniors we’re also interested in the migration stories of people who arrived after 2008, the journeys of people who migrated when young– perhaps as children in a family group, and the migration experiences of people with mixed ancestry, people from the LGBTQI community, and people from the Traveller community.

If you're interested in sharing your story or volunteering as an interviewer with Claddagh's 2022 oral history project, contact Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne on admin@claddagh.org. au/08 9249 9213.

CLADDAGH AT WORK THROUGH THE SUMMER We hope that you have a wonderful and relaxing summer. Don’t forget, if you or someone you know needs Claddagh’s support, please contact the Claddagh Coordinator Anne Wayne via admin@claddagh.org.au/08 9249 9213. If your need is urgent, you can call Claddagh’s crisis line on 0403 972 265.

If you would like to give to Claddagh to support our work in 2022, you can make a donation at our website: claddagh.org.au/support-our-work/make-a-donation/.

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THE IRISH SCENE | 71

John Flood

John Flood was born in 1947.

He is from Athlone, Co. Westmeath.

Well, I was born in Athlone, which is the dead centre of Ireland. I’ve three sisters fairly close in age to me, basically, all within five years. I was the oldest. I wasn’t wild because I listened to my mother.

She had me earmarked for the priesthood and my sisters for the nunneries. My mother was very religious and dad as well. He used to go to Mass quite a bit. The Franciscan friars in Athlone were very good to our family when I was younger.

We were very involved with promoting Blessed Martin de Porres from Peru. He became Saint Martin de Porres. My mother and I used to sell about 60 to 70 Blessed Martin magazines, to families around Athlone every month. We’d have to go around to people’s houses to do that.

I came to Dublin when I was 17. I got a job with the College of Technology in Kevin Street as a trainee laboratory technician, because I had a group certificate instead of a Leaving Cert as my parents hadn’t got much money. So I was very lucky to get into the College of Technology as a trainee lab technician.

I was [still] involved as a Scout in Athlone and also as a Cub Master. I had about 50 Cubs who dressed to the nines every Saturday morning. I used to come down from Dublin to Athlone. Looking back on it, I mean, it was fabulous. I managed full houses every week, organised games for them and [held] their attention.

They would have been in the eight to twelve age group. Afterwards they would have moved on to the Scouts.

Then I started to do my O levels, which is what I needed to get my junior technician status and then I went on to get one A level from the University of London to get my technicianship. Then I found out that you could go a bit further. If you got two A levels you were entitled to go on for the Bachelor of Science degree. I was attending the lectures in the college I worked in, and then for some of the chemistry and biochemistry practicals I had to fly to London. Eventually I qualified in 1976 with an Honours Bachelor of Science as an external student from the University of London. When I did get my degree, we all had to go to the Royal Albert Hall [and 72 | THE IRISH SCENE

be] presented to the Queen Mother. I had two sisters in London at the time and they came and they were dressed up.

When we got married we lived down in Ashbourne, Co. Meath. I was involved in the Mater Hospital radio, the internal radio station at the Mater Hospital. And I organised a couple of interviews there. We had Daniel O’Donnell and Dickie Rock. People wouldn’t know nowadays, who they are, but they came into the hospital.

We’ve been here [Perth] now for close on 30 years, which is just amazing. Oh, where the time has gone.

We came out prior [to moving]. We had an offer of the flight where you could go to five or six cities, open to anybody, and we took that offer up and we came out. We went to all the cities except Darwin. We felt Perth’s a nice place. It’s a lovely atmosphere there and we were thinking of emigrating. There was talk of cutbacks and redundancies [in Ireland] and there was a possibility that we might have been affected.

The Irish television had been out here, as well, doing a programme on Perth, a lot of promotion of Australia as a possible immigration place, a lot of people here already.

And then we said, ‘Yeah, we’ll go back [to Ireland] and we’ll put in for a visa [for Australia]’. That was it. We put our house up for sale. We were going hell for leather, you know, hey, whatever happens. The recession in Ireland, the cutbacks and houses weren’t selling that much so our house in Ashbourne didn’t

FROM HOME TO HOME: ORAL HISTORIES OF IRISH SENIORS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

sell before we came. The price was reduced eventually. We were here maybe about a year and it was sold.

It was the 26th January, 1989 [we arrived in Perth]. Of course, January is the hottest [month]. I can still remember running for shelter across St. George’s Terrace, going from one side of the street to the other side, and looking for shade in whatever alleyway we could find. We were registering for work with employment agencies.

We just hadn’t realised what it was like at 40 plus, and especially in a city, no rain!

The shock was probably the fact that we weren’t going to sail into a job aseasily as we thought we were going to. We thought it would be very easy to get a job because I had a degree. We [were] well qualified.

And that was the thing we found, certainly for the first year, it was very difficult. It just seemed there were no avenues open to us. So you could be fearful you know. We didn’t really [feel like going back].

That wasn’t an option. Phyllis [my wife], I think she’s a quite a persistent person. Resilient, I suppose that’s a good word.

I ended up selling French wine.

I mean, I wasn’t a wine drinker.

I did become a wine drinker afterwards and I had to give it up again. It was just too dangerous!

Phyllis got into the university fairly early on. It took me about a year for me to sort of get a feel for what I want to do. And then a job came up in the education field similar to what I was working in Ireland as I was involved with FÁS, AnCO, in the training business.

Once I got the job and I was involved in running courses for businesspeople I began to feel [settled]. I felt like I’ve got a handle now, on what’s going on here. And also, it means I can network for

Ireland. But in terms of modern Ireland, things have changed a lot. I’m a little bit more hanker on to the old traditional, and the We sort of made a bit of a decision memories are of that. But when not to get too attached to the Irish you go back community the reality is for fear of probably not submerging exactly as you or maybe not remember. getting out and Things have networking. I moved on.

Even though you’re on joined a couple People have of volunteer the other end of the changed. organisations, world, you’re not really. We’ve been a couple of theatre groups, You’re very connected” lucky enough the homeless to be able to get men’s, St. over to Ireland Barts, hostel. every three, I was involved four years with Radio and of course Lollipop at now with the Skyping, we Skype Princess Margaret Hospital when I with the whole family. There is came out here first, as a presenter a very good group that meet on and as a public relations person. the internet called ‘Athlone Down We had Fawlty Towers, Mrs. Fawlty Memory Lane’, and people post come in to visit the hospital and on stories about Athlone. I post we had Darth Vader come in. Little on some photographs and go did I know at the time how famous back over those memories. People he was! can remember my home. People I was involved at one stage with remember my sisters. Only the the Irish programme on 6NR, other day a lady got onto me and at Curtin University. We did said, ‘Are you related to the Anne an Irish programme, two hour Flood? Anne Flood used to be my programme on every Saturday best friend at school’. It’s amazing. morning. So I was involved with Even though you’re on the other others intermittently doing that end of the world, you’re not really. programme. My speciality became You’re very connected. entertainment and theatre. And that was later to lead me to getting When I hear the young choir singing ‘I still call Australia a little slot on the ABC Radio home’ it brings back the feelings presenting reviews on community to me that it is a lovely country, theatre productions in Perth. the weather is fantastic in Perth, I’m on tomorrow morning with there’s lots to do. I’m still involved. the Kalamunda Radio covering I feel Australian. I’d say a nice interviews with theatre people in mixture [Irish and Australian], a Perth. foot in both camps.

I do feel Irish. Ireland’s a lot to be John was interviewed by Claddagh proud of, a lot of goodness and a volunteer Dee O’Callaghan. Dee lot of kindness in Irish and Irish people. I miss the music. I love the is from Blackrock, Cork City and old characters and the stories from migrated to Australia in 2017. other opportunities should I wish.

And the people who lectured there were very interesting.

“

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THE IRISH SCENE | 73

Rev. John Treanor 1800-1879 Mayo & Galway, Ireland How many among us can say we have family connections to County Galway’s celebrated historic churches? FamilyHistoryWA member Marny Howe’s interest in researching her family history was sparked when she learnt about her great-grandfather Rev Thomas Stanley Treanor’s years as a member of the Missions to Seamen in Kent, but when she investigated his story further, Marny discovered that his father, Rev John Treanor, was a Galway man who had served in some of Connemara’s most significant historical churches in Tuam and Galway City. In this article, Marny shares details of John Treanor’s life and the Galway locations where he ministered, including two celebrated churches of medieval origin: St Mary’s Cathedral in Tuam and the 800-year-old St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church in Galway City.

74 | THE IRISH SCENE

BY MARNY HOWE My father had some books written by his grandfather Rev. Thomas Stanley Treanor about his years as a member of the Missions to Seamen in Kent, which is one reason I started researching my family history.

During my research I found that Thomas’s father, Rev. John Treanor, had been a Minister of the Church of Ireland, born on 11 March 1800 in Co. Mayo, the son of Thomas Traynor/Trenor, a farmer, and Eleanor Burke.

The clerical directories of the time recorded that John was educated by Mr. Rogers and entered Trinity College on 22 October 1827, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1832. He was ordained at Limerick on 25 March 1834, and 4 September 1835 he married Frances Ann Page in her local parish church of St. Mary, Dublin.

From January 1836 to end of June 1840 John was in England, where he served as Curate in the parish of Farlow and Stottesden, not far outside the industrial city of Birmingham and ten miles from the Shropshire Hills, today celebrated as an Area of Natural Beauty. It was during this period that his son Thomas Stanley was born. Another son Arthur was to follow in 1840, though to date I have not found a baptism record for Arthur.

Rev John Treanor soon found himself back in Galway, where he served at various times in Moyrus, Roundstone, Rahoon, Kilmoylan and as Prebendary at Taghsaxon from 1876 to 1879, the year of his death. He also served in positions one might expect of the Church of Ireland clergy, including time as the Established Church’s Dean of Residence at Queen’s University, Galway, and as chaplain to the Galway Union Workhouse, serving alongside the Catholic chaplain Rev Peter Daly PP, but it was his extended service as Vicar of St. Nicholas, Galway City and Canon of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tuam that brought him into the medieval environs of those celebrated treasures of Irish ecclesiastical architecture.

The Griffith’s Primary Valuation of 1855 shows that John was living on Prospect Hill in Galway City, not far from St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church.

Here he occupied a house, offices, yard and garden with an area of ten perches, at a rateable annual value of twenty pounds.

St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church in Galway is the largest medieval parish church in Ireland, still in constant use. It was built about 1320 on the site of an earlier chapel, and its history is linked very closely with the history

FAMILY HISTORY WA

Above: St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church in Galway was built in 1320. of Galway City. Tradition has it that Christopher Columbus prayed here before he crossed the Atlantic on his voyage of discovery to the Americas. The Church was established as a Collegiate Church when Galway was granted a charter in 1484. It contains many unique features including the tomb of the famous Mayor Lynch, who was reputed to have hanged his own son for murder. Its fine stained glass, carvings, holy vessels and even its graves were damaged by Cromwell’s army when they used the Church to stable their horses, but in spite of this abuse it remains a site of beauty and historical importance to this day.

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Tuam, consists of three buildings dating from the 12th, 14th and 19th centuries. The 14th century section, now known as the Synod Hall, stands at the eastern end. It constitutes the choir of a large Cathedral that was never completed. Adjoining the western gable of this Synod Hall is a Romanesque chancel that had formed part of the original 12th century Cathedral. This is now incorporated as the Sanctury into the present Cathedral, a 19th century building with a spire 180 feet high surmounted by an 18 feet high iron cross, one ton in weight. There are many important features within this Cathedral, one of particular note being the ancient High Cross of Tuam which now stands in the south transept.

This cross was carved between 1128 and 1152 at the behest of Turlough O’Connor, the second last High King of Ireland.

John died on 14 April 1879 in Tuam, Co. Galway, shortly after the completion of the present St Mary’s Cathedral, and he is buried at St Mary’s in Grave No. 19 along with his son Arthur, who had predeceased him, and daughter-in-law Charlotte Elizabeth, first wife of his older son Thomas Stanley. Also buried in the same enclosure is Jeannie, wife of Henry A. Blake, who was present at Thomas Stanley Treanor’s second marriage, to Anita Maria Sillitoe.

In his will John left two policies in insurance companies on his own life (£200 in Church of England Insurance Company and £300 in Scottish Provincial Assurance Company), and £300 preference stock in the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway Company to be invested for the maintenance of his wife, Anne. The Trustees nominated were his son, Rev. Thomas Stanley Treanor, and a cousin, Rev. James Treanor, Rector of Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon.

Evidence for Anne’s death has proved elusive to date, though

Above: St Mary’s Cathedral in Tuam where Rev John Treanor is buried along with extended family members.

All photographs taken by the author Marny Howe and held in her private collection.

there was an Anne Treanor who died on 13 December 1889 at Balla, Co. Mayo, aged 87 – she could have been John’s widow. After Anne’s death the principal and interest were to pass to their son Thomas Stanley, whose books about his time in the Missions to Seamen in Kent had first aroused my interest, leading me to discover my family’s connections to Galway’s beautiful medieval churches.

THE IRISH SCENE | 75

FAMILY HISTORY WA

FHWA WRITERS GROUP Marny Howe is a member of FamilyHistoryWA’s Writers Group, a Special Interest Group whose members meet monthly to support and encourage each other to turn the documents and findings of their family history research into narratives that bring their ancestors to life. Marny’s story about the life of John Treanor’s grandson in South Africa was published in the group’s 2019 book of thirty family stories, I have often wondered.

This book includes several Irish family stories and is available for purchase from FamilyHistoryWA for $15.

If you have an interesting story, character or event in your ancestry, or if you would like to be the ancestor yourself and write stories of your own life to share with your children, grandchildren and beyond, you are welcome to join us at a Writers Group meeting at FHWA’s Bayswater premises. No experience is needed. The first step is simply putting pen to paper – or keystrokes to screen – and Writers Group will be there to motivate and encourage you, as well as provide ideas and tools to help you, whether your stories are intended for future publication or for sharing with family and friends only. Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month except January – see email address and links below.

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THE IRISH SIG IN 2022

MORE INFO

The Irish Special Interest Group (Irish SIG) at Family History WA (FHWA) continues to offer face-to face meetings, though the option to meet online via Google Meet can be exercised at short notice if the Covid-19 situation changes. Next ISIG meetings will be on 16 January and 3 April 2022. The January meeting will be an opportunity to bring your specific Irish family history challenges to our ‘brick wall session’ where we will harness the combined experience and expertise of members and committee to help you. New members and visitors are always welcome - simply book your place using the online booking site TryBooking, details right.

ROBYN O’BRIEN Convenor Irish Special Interest Group E irish.sig@fhwa.org.au

FHWA also hosts many other face-to-face and online presentations, workshops and meetings, some for beginners and others for experienced researchers. Bookings are essential, and a small payment may be required for some events. See links right.

We invite you to visit FHWA’s extensive library and resource centre at 6/48 May Street, Bayswater. Please consult the FHWA homepage for current opening hours and capacity limits, if applicable. Happy and successful researching!

CHRISTINE TIMONEY

ON BEHALF OF THE IRISH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Book a place at the next IRISH SIG MEETING at TryBooking: trybooking.com/BLPZM LIANA FITZPATRICK Convenor Writers Group E writers.sig@fhwa.org.au Book a place at the next WRITERS GROUP MEETING at TryBooking: trybooking.com/BMBCF Book for FUTURE FHWA EVENTS at TryBooking: trybooking.com/eventlist/genealogy Go digging for resources at FamilyHistoryWA’s IRISH SIG WEBPAGE Join FAMILYHISTORYWA FACEBOOK GROUP – researching family worldwide, open to all. Join in the chat or ask a question.

FamilyHistoryWA (FHWA): fhwa.org.au membership.wags.org.au T 08 9271 4311

Tony and Veronica McKee PO Box 994 Hillarys WA 6923

Tel (08) 9401 1900 • Fax: 9401 1911 76 | THE0413 IRISH SCENE Mob: 337 785

info@mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au www.mckeefamilyfunerals.com.au

IRISH MAMS NOR PLAYGROUP Sponsored by IFIP

By Sorcha McAndrew

EIMEAR BEATTIE Irish families in Perth is a voluntary non profit organisation with over 17,500 members on our social media group.

We provide Irish emigrants with advice on how to best assimilate into the Western Australian culture and lifestyle.

We communicate with our members through social media where topics such as long lost relatives, housing, jobs and social events are covered. It is a vibrant active forum that provides a wealth of knowledge to young families and singles emigrating to Western Australia.

IFIP contributes to a cohesive Irish Community by working together with many of the wonderful groups in Perth that support Irish culture and heritage.

IFIP aims to: • • •

Coordinate Irish family events including six weekly playgroups.

Develop Irish culture & heritage.

Help Irish people with any problems that might arise and provide a link to Australian and Irish support services.

Irish Families in Perth would like to sincerely thank all of our wonderful sponsors whose money goes directly to help and support our Padbury Playgroup.

www.irishfamiliesinperth.com |

The playgroup meet up in Padbury NOR is a purpose-built playgroup centre which has undergone recent refurbishment. It has a bright indoor area and a small kitchen complete with small fridge, microwave, tea and coffee making facilities. Outdoors, there is a covered playground attached to the building and the outdoor area is fenced with a locked gate, ensuring the safety of our little ones. It also has a large selection of indoor and outdoor toys, ensuring that all parents and kids receive a warm reception.

We have had an explosion in numbers in the last year. Our twice weekly playgroup from 2020 has now increased to 6 week meet ups.

Due to demand, our new times are as follows:

Mon

9am-11am & 11am-1pm

Tues

9am-11am

Wed

9am-11am (2 groups)

Fri

11am-1pm

We have 60+ members that attend each week. If you would like to get in touch or have a free trial, please PM any of our friendly admins on our Facebook page. New members are always welcome!

facebook.com/irishfamilies.inperth THE IRISH SCENE | 77

Book Reviews

LEONARD COHEN: THE MYSTICAL ROOTS OF GENIUS

BY HARRY FREEDMAN / BLOOMSBURY $29.99

In her book, ‘The Art Of Inheriting Secrets’, Barbara O’Neal says of Leonard Cohen, “I’ve studied his poetry, of course, but never heard him sing.” Maybe Cohen would have been pleased with this declaration since, according to book author, Harry Freedman, Cohen had no ambitions to be a singer, artist novelist, or musician; he merely wanted to be “recognized for his greatest love, his poetry.”

In this analysis of Cohen’s songs (“what most people know him for”), Freedman sets out to examine how Cohen was influenced by Christian, Jewish and Buddhist traditions and how these helped shape his identity and the way he saw the world. Cohen’s knowledge of the Bible and religious folklore was profound, and nearly every song he wrote displays aspects of his religious ideologies. His most famous anthem, ‘Hallelujah’, recorded by over 300 other artists, is a case in point. It took Cohen five years to compose ‘Hallelujah’ and 20 years for it to eventually make the charts. Describing the biblical story of King David and drawing extensively on Talmudic tradition 78 | THE IRISH SCENE

and legend, Cohen retells how this complex and contradictory king was musician, adulterer, warrior and murderer. ‘Hallelujah’ is a tale about a conflicted world in which things cannot be reconciled. For Cohen, “regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and throw open your arms... and you just say ‘Hallelujah’.”

In May 2016, Cohen and Irish playwright John MacKenna cooperated to create a requiem commemorating the deaths of three of MacKenna’s friends, the premier of which took place in Carlow on 15 June 2017.

Departing from the traditional biographical approaches, Freeman examines Cohen’s works song by song, exploring how the lyricist reworked religious myths, prayers and legends thus providing a window in to the landscape of his soul, and an understanding of the Canadian poet who became a cultural giant.

Cohen died on 7 November 2016, the day preceding the election of Donald Trump. “The broken world he sang about had fractured even further”. – Reviewed

by John Hagan

THE DARK REMAINS

BY WILLIAM MCILVANNEY & IAN RANKIN / CANNONGATE $29.99

When Scottish crime writer McIlvanney died in 2015, he left behind an unfinished manuscript featuring Glasgow’s original gritty, chain smoking, philosophical, hard-bitten policeman, DC Jack

BOOK REVIEWS

Laidlaw. McIlvanney had already written three Laidlaw novels which, according to best-selling novelist, Val McDermid, “changed the face of Scottish fiction” creating a new genre acclaimed as ‘tartan noir’.

Years after his death, McIlvanney’s widow, Siobhan Lynch, contacted her husband’s publishers, Cannongate, to see if there was any way his work might be completed. Award winning author, Ian Rankin was approached and ultimately agreed to the task with reservation, and some trepidation.

“I’m a huge fan”, Rankin conceded, “and I didn’t want to do him a disservice”. Rankin and McIlvanney were old friends, having met at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 1985, when Rankin confided to McIlvanney that he was writing a crime novel featuring his own crime buster, John Rebus, who was “like Laidlaw” but set in Rankin’s home city of Edinburgh. “Good luck with the Edinburgh Laidlaw”, McIlvanney responded.

The rest is history.

Now, these two influential authors have cooperated to recreate the criminal world of 1972 Glasgow. The first few sentences of chapter one set the tone. “All cities are riddled with crime. It comes with the territory.

Gather enough people together in one place and malignancy is guaranteed to manifest in some form or other. It’s the nature of the beast”. Shady lawyer, Bobby Carter, bagman for Glasgow crime boss, Cam Colvin is murdered and his body dumped in a lane behind a pub. Suspicion falls on drug overlord, and Colvin’s rival, John Rhodes, but would he want to start a turf war and invite intervention from the local constabulary? Laidlaw is assigned to investigate, but he’s not a team player and quickly antagonizes his superior officer, DI Milligan. However, like Rebus, Laidlaw has an innate sense for what’s happening on the city’s grimy streets. Carter’s slaying is a crime Laidlaw needs to solve quickly, before Glasgow explodes in gang warfare. This is champagne crime fiction from two great exponents of the craft. – Reviewed by John Hagan

SH*T TOWNS OF AUSTRALIA: THE GREAT AUSSIE ROAD TRIP

BY RICK FURPHY & GEOFF RISSOLE / ALLEN & UNWIN $19.99

Sir Thomas Beecham’s talent for aphorism risks overshadowing his towering achievements as a conductor and musician. He once famously admonished a female orchestral cello player by saying, “Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it”.

My own favourite Beecham witticism involves an elephant defecating on stage during a dress rehearsal of Aida. The great conductor, appalled by the singing of his diva, and, on observing the performance of the pachyderm, laid down his baton and dryly remarked, “Terrible stage manners, but what a critic”.

It would appear that Furphy and Rissole have adopted the same standard, and mode of criticism in relation to some tourist towns and routes across ‘the sprawling expanse of medioctity known as Australia’.

They present seven possible national tours including explorations of the ‘Crackpot coast’ – Brisbane to Sydney; ‘The Devil’s gooch’ – Melbourne to Adelaide, and along the ‘Methamphetamine Highway’ – from Darwin to Perth. The authors fling copious dollops of excrement on towns/cities such as Geraldton, Rockingham, Ararat, Frankston, Parramata, and Tennant Creek, in addition to observations on ‘dumb regional foods’, our somewhat offensive place names and ‘sh*t town songs’.

Unfortunately, this book is neither funny or witty, but merely distasteful and vacuous. So, if your bent is crude, potty humour, have a roll around in this clabber. – Reviewed by John Hagan

TREASURE & DIRT

BY CHRIS HAMMER / ALLEN & UNWIN $32.99

The prologue to this well-paced novel reminds me of the first 20 minutes of the classical film ‘Rififi’, in which French villains silently move with precision to undertake the ‘perfect’ bank robbery. Hammer has replaced the Paris bank vault with an opal mine at THE IRISH SCENE | 79

Finnigan’s Gap in outback Australia as four thieves pursue their heist following their well rehearsed plan.

These men are the ‘ratters’, despicable looters who pillage opal mines when the owners are away. But the crooks get more than they bargained for when they discover the decaying and crucified body of the mine owner, Jonas McGee.

Stratton has spent most of his life embroiled in the film industry, with a lengthy career as director of the Sydney Film Festival, followed by 28 year stint with Margaret Pomeranz reviewing movies on SBS and ABC TV. ‘The films in this book are my favourites’, he writes, ‘not only because I love them as films, but sometimes because of the circumstances in which I originally saw them’.

Enter homicide detective, Ivan Lucic, an investigator with a gambling problem, who has been sent from Sydney to solve the grisly case. He teams up with local, inexperienced constable Nell Buchanan, who has previous history in the town following a drug bust, leading to enmity between her and her former colleagues.

But this is not the only frustration which Lucic and Buchanan face. Local miners prove tightlipped and uncooperative; two unscrupulous mining magnates are at loggerheads over a valuable rare earth deposit; a local religious cult leader is resentful of Lucic and Buchanan nosing around, and to complicate matters even further a professional standards officer arrives from Sydney. But who, or what, is he investigating?

It’s an eclectic choice spanning westerns, musicals, romances, thrillers, arthouse classics, noir and comedy. Stratton reviews Hollywood blockbusters such as ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ and ‘Jaws’, as well as a plethora of foreign movies from all parts of the world.

Also nominated are ten fine Aussie presentations, including two of my own particular favourites, ‘Breaker Morant’ and ‘Picnic At Hanging Rock’.

Hammer etches his characters with colour and conviction penning a clever, intricate, wellplotted tale. However, it is his portrayal of the dry, unforgiving, fly infested, sun baked, landscape which arguably contributes most to the novel’s resonance.

This is a class follow-up to Hammer’s previous three best sellers (‘Scrublands’, ‘Trust’, and ‘Silver’) as he again delivers a real sense of place and dramatic action, while exploring current Australian social, religious, moral and ethical issues. – Reviewed by John Hagan

MY FAVOURITE MOVIES

BY DAVID STRATTON / ALLEN & UNWIN $32.99

Sick of trawling through Netflix movies you don’t recognize? Puzzled as to which films are worth watching? Concerned about the content? Whether an avid movie buff, or the just the occasional cinemagoer, this book is a gem, as Australia’s film doyen reviews 111 of his favourite motion pictures from over a century of cinema.

80 | THE IRISH SCENE

During the planning process, Stratton made the decision to choose one film made by a particular director, so only single presentations from great directors such as Hitchcock (‘North

By Northwest’), Loach (‘I, Daniel Blake’) and Losey (‘Accident’), make the cut. He admits being a little upset by having to omit the work of eminent directors like Carol Reed, Paul Cox, Michaelangelo Antonioni and Istvan Szabo.

For each chosen movie, Stratton outlines the plot, roles of the principal actors, pertinent information on how the film was made, behind-the-scenes yarns, and discusses other films made by the same director.

Over his decades in the industry, the author has met, and interviewed, scores of the world’s best film makers and stars, and many engaging anecdotes and memories arising from these encounters are shared.

All these personal reminiscences add colour to, and understanding of, the particular film reviewed, and the business of movies in general. This book is the perfect companion for anyone who relishes entertainment on the silver screen either at home or in the cinema. – Reviewed by John Hagan

BOOK REVIEWS

PROCLAMATION 1625: AMERICA’S ENSLAVEMENT OF THE IRISH

BY HERBERT L. BYRD JR.

I was taught Irish history in the ‘50’s in Primary School; the ‘60’s in Secondary School. In the ‘70’s I found out about the Civil War, still fresh in the silence of older people; the Civil War that left Irish society divided and embittered for generations; brother against brother, too horrible to mention. Dropped from the curriculum, lest we remember!

Other events that have recently been ‘corrected’ include the assassination of Michael Collins, and The Great Famine in the 1840’s, now generally described as The Holocaust.

Published in 2016 but new to me in 2021, is “Proclamation 1625”

by Herbert L. Byrd Jr, whose information technology and intelligence analysis company supports the U.S. intelligence community and national-level decision makers; a mind highly qualified to evaluate the subject matter of this book.

The book’s title refers to King James 1’s proclamation ordering that the Irish be placed in bondage. This “opened the door to wholesale slavery of Irish men, women and children … not indentured servitude but raw, brutal ‘I-ownyou’ slavery with all the mistreatment that goes with being a slave including being beaten to death”.

Thousands of Irish were bought and traded like cattle and subjected to unspeakably inhumane treatment.

When you’re grabbed from your community, taken to a ship, manacled for the trip to America, and then sold, you’re a slave – not an indentured servant.

It started in England, in the 1600’s. More than 300,000 were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from the streets to work in the tobacco fields, with a life expectancy of less than two years.

Brothels were raided for breeding purposes. Migrants were conned into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property that could be bought, sold, and even gambled away.

Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock.

When they ran out of victims in England, they turned their attention to Ireland, with many thousands being enslaved in the British colonies of America and the West Indies, particularly in the tobacco fields of Virginia and Maryland and the sugar cane fields of Barbados and Jamaica. For over 179 years, the Irish were the primary source of slave labour in the British American colonies and the British West Indies.

The Irish were forced from their land, kidnapped, with iron collars around their necks, chained to 50 other people and held in cargo holds as they were transported away from their homeland.

Historian Ulrich Phillips, in “Life and Labor in the Old South”, states that African slaves were “late comers fitted into a system already developed.” Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, in “White Cargo”, show that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery, were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule.

Sean O’Callaghan, in “To Hell or Barbados – The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland”, gives a vivid account of the Irish men, women, and children transported to America and the West Indies.

By the time Africans became the primary source of labour, the plantation owners had already honed their skills in using violence to increase tobacco and sugar production. The Irish and African slaves lived, and were forced to mate, to provide the plantation owners with additional slaves.

‘Proclamation 1625: America’s Enslavement of the Irish’, the full title, is not a long book, and tells the story in a logical chronological order. References are numerous and show the detail of the underlying research. (You will find articles on Wikipedia saying that there were no Irish slaves, just indentured servants. These articles give no proof, just attempts to muddy the waters. Classic fake news!)

The British abolished slavery in 1833. This emancipated the Irish slaves in the British West Indies. America followed in 1865. None of this freed the Irish fully because America had classified them as ‘coloured’ and treated them accordingly. It took many years for the ruling class in America to accept the Irish as ‘white’.

At the end of the book you will understand how modern ‘racism’ came about, a deliberate, and successful, plan to ‘divide and rule’, to keep everyone in their place.

I have now read the book 3 times, and checked many of the references. I have interviewed the author; you can listen at ozirish.com. The book is highly recommended. – Reviewed by Brian Corr, ozirish.com

☘

THE IRISH SCENE | 81

Paula from Tasmania

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

TOM’S ELF-Y VIEW ON LIFE When you talk to Tom Keneally you can’t help but notice the impish charm, maybe not Santa exactly but a mischievous elf and one that isn’t content to sit on the shelf. Tom’s propelled himself off and with that impressive vocabulary and language lilt he’s qualified for a good old rant backed by impeccable research.

In his book ‘A Bloody Good Rant’ he tells the reader that he feels extraordinarily privileged to have been born in the 1930’s and grown up in an Australia tempered by the depression and war. Growing up believing in a sense of a fair go, his rants include joyful ones of discovering the joys and challenges of grandparentage and ones of sadness in how the treatment of Indigenous Australians and refugees leaves much to be desired, as well as the need to give more acknowledgement to climate change.

Tom reminds us that the indigenous occupation of Australia preceded the European occupation by thousands of years and is two and a half times older than the famous French Lascaux cave painting.

On a less serious topic, Tom explores being a grandparent and the turnaround from him telling his 82 | THE IRISH SCENE

teenage daughters he would be happy to welcome their future offspring for 5 minutes at easter and Christmas and hand them the required chocolate treats. Now those 5 minutes have turned into Tom seeing his grandchildren as incipient Noble Prize winners misunderstood by their teachers and predicting that at 22, his grandson will both open the bowling for Australia and restrict himself to making two feature films a year while he finishes his doctorate on astrophysics. Another grandson is doing the groundwork as he studies the complex patterns in fences.

Tom says that what the youngsters might give in germs, they make up for in enhancing his cardiovascular and mental health, fitness and flexibility. For example, at Sydney’s Olympic Park in Parramatta the treehouse is half the size of a grown human, making it easy for children to climb but not for grandads with knee problems.

‘A BLOODY GOOD RANT’ BY TOM KENEALLY IS OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY ALLEN AND UNWIN

WATT A TASSIE LEGEND Every year it’s a pleasure to catch up with honorary Tasmanian and prolific author Peter Watt.

In his latest book ‘The Colonial’s Son’, his protagonist is Josiah Steel, son to the famous Queen’s colonel Ian Steel, who is the protagonist of Peter’s previous novels. Josiah has said he wishes to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the military. Ian is at first not supportive in this desire, as he wants his son to have a safer occupation and had hoped Josiah would choose a business career. However, Peter himself tells me that only the morning of our interview he attended a dentist appointment where he

PAULA PAULA FROM FROM TASMANIA TASMANIA

encountered a generational lawyer and agreed that sons do tend to follow fathers into their profession.

In the novel we learn that Ian’s late wife Ella is the daughter of Ikey Solomon. Before readers think it is the Ikey Solomon who is considered the real life inspiration for Charles Dicken’s Fagin and who was a seatholder at the Hobart synagogue, no, Peter tells me that Ella’s father is not that Ikey Solomon and that the name Ikey Solomon is a common one, the equivalent of John Smith in Australia.

Nevertheless, in the story of Ella’s Jewish faith the reader observes the nonpatriarchal nature of Ian, who is content to abide by his wife’s wishes and raise their children in the Jewish faith. At the time, marriage between a Catholic and Presbyterian was frowned on, as were most mixed religion marriages, so Ian and Ella’s marriage was a progressive one. Peter learned about this structure concerning marriages of the time in his history degree under the tutelage of Professor Michael Roe, whom Peter has great affection for, as he does for his alma mater, the University of Tasmania. Professor Roe continued to support Peter in his writing career and attended one of his book launches.

Away from the writing desk, Peter is very action oriented and works as a volunteer fire fighter. He continues to push for causes he believes in, for example the importance of commemorating the Boer War for Australia’s contribution to the campaign. On the home front, Peter wants to see the volunteer fire fighters, who give so much, rewarded. It has become a worrying trend that fire fighters – more than other professions – have higher incidences of cancers. Peter is working to see that scholarships are awarded to the children of firefighters who are affected by this illness in the course of their duty.

Some of Peter’s fans are no doubt a little upset that he is cutting back on his writing and that the book coming next year concludes the story of Josiah so

that Peter can concentrate more on his volunteer firefighting and have some relaxation with fishing. Of course there is always the possibility that after some downtime he may decide to take up the pen again.

‘THE COLONIAL’S SON’ BY PETER WATT IS OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY PAN MACMILLAN.

RURAL LANE LEADS TO REJUVENATION Karly Lane’s latest book ‘Once Burnt, Twice Shy’ is in part a tribute to the rural fire service and the work they did through the bushfires of 2020. Carly says she wanted the book to demonstrate the positive: the ability of the rural people to band together to combat a common foe at a difficult time.

Away from the challenges of the natural environment, the story focuses on the main protagonist Samantha Murphy, who is returning home after many years in the city to take care of her parent’s rural property while they are on an overseas holiday.

One of the people she encounters on her return is Jack Cameron, the boyfriend of her teenage years that she left behind when her restlessness saw her seek a new life in the city. Samantha and Jack become reacquainted and must ask themselves the question of if they wish to resume their relationship, when so much has happened to each – both have married, divorced and both are raising daughters.

I had a chance to speak to Karly who told me that while the bushfires posed a serious challenge, the following life in lockdown in her rural environment hasn’t been too hard to go along with as she has the luxury of space and not feeling so isolated with life pretty much going on as normal.

Karly’s book, like the time it documents, is about rejuvination in the land and in relationships.

☘

‘ONCE BURNT, TWICE SHY’ BY KARLY LANE IS OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY ALLEN AND UNWIN.

THE IRISH SCENE | 83

Geraldton & Midwest Irish Club THE GERALDTON & MIDWEST IRISH CLUB HAD A BUSY END TO THE 2021 YEAR! The club hosted numerous Christmas events including the clubs annual Christmas party and a Sunday afternoon visit from Santa Claus himself (aka President Peter Vanderpol) who entertained the kids and handed out Christmas presents.

On the same day we celebrated one of our life members, Grace Criddle’s, 80th birthday.

There to help her blow out the candles was Finbar Kelly, also a Life member of the club.

The club continues to have live music every Friday evening and Sunday afternoon promoting local Geraldton musical talent which has drawn in big crowds thanks to our Sunday meat raffle.

The Geraldton & Midwest Irish Club wishes everyone a happy new year and again invites anyone passing through Geraldton to pop in and make themselves known over a pint of Guinness.”

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Below: The Irish Theatre Players celebrated their 40th anniversary on 22nd October at the Irish Club

Above: Scenes from our Panto which ran from 15 - 19th December 2021 at the Irish Club

irishtheatreplayers.com.au

IrishTheatrePlayers THE IRISH SCENE

| 85

Australian Irish Dancing Association Western Australia

Huge congratulations!

TO ALL OUR DANCERS WHO TOOK PART IN THE WA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2021! FANTASTIC PERFORMANCES FROM ALL. AIDA WA acknowledge how blessed and grateful we are to have been able to hold our State Championships during these uncertain times ‍♀️ ️

👯☘

We have also had the opportunity to hold our November Beginner Feis ️ ending the year with success given the current circumstances ️

✨☘

☘

A huge thank you to all our AIDA WA members, especially our executive committee for your continuous hard work and determination to make the year 2021 a great success ️

☘

86 | THE IRISH SCENE

A SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STATE CHAMPIONS!

✨ 6 Years & Under Mixed - Matilda McClelland (WA Academy) ✨ 7 Years Boys - Landen Ryan (WA Academy) 💫 7 Years Girls - Sephora Donelan (The Academy) ✨ 8 Years Boys - Tiernan Beattie (Three Crowns) 💫 8 Years Girls - Maeve Carroll (WA Academy) & Hannah Lonergan-Smith (The Academy) ✨ 9 Years Boys - Tane Young (The Academy) 💫 9 Years Girls - Cassie Lin (The Academy) ✨ 10 Years Boys - Ronan O’Reilly (The Academy) 💫 10 Years Girls - Sahara Donelan (The Academy) ✨ 11 Years Girls - Georgia Western (Trinity Studio) 💫 12 Years Girls - Tara Fox (Three Crowns) ✨ 13 Years Girls - Layla Barnes (The Academy) 💫 14 Years Girls - Isabella Campeoto (WA Academy) ✨ 15 Years Girls - Shannen Rogerson (The Academy) 💫 16 Years Boys - Vaughan Cooper (WA Academy) ✨ 16 Years Girls - Sinead Daly (The Academy) 💫 17 Years Ladies - Meabh Flanagan (The Academy) ✨ 18 Years Ladies - Caoimhe McAleer (The Academy) 💫 19 Years Ladies - Koral Smith (The Academy) ✨ 20-22 Years Senior Ladies - Ruby Driscoll (The Academy) 💫 22 Years & Over Senior Ladies - Dara McAleer (The Academy)

🏆

AIDA WA EXECUTIVE 2022 President: Teresa Fenton TCRG Vice President: Katherine McAndrew TCRG Secretary: Caitriona Slane TCRG Treasurer: Martina O’Brien TCRG Registrar: Jenny O’Hare TCRG National Delegate: Siobhan Collis TCRG

SCHOOL CONTACTS: CELTIC ACADEMY East Victoria Park & Karragullen www.celticacademyperth.com Siobhan Collis TCRG 0403 211 941 LYONS IRISH DANCE Butler & Clarkson lyonsirishdancecompany@gmail.com Facebook: @LyonsIrishDance Roisin Lyons TCRG KAVANAGH STUDIO OF IRISH DANCE Maylands www.kavanaghirishdance.com.au Teresa Fenton TCRG 0412 155 318 Deirdre McGorry TCRG Melissa Kennedy TCRG Avril Grealish TCRG THE ACADEMY MID AMERICA & WESTERN AUSTRALIA Subiaco, Wangara & Pearsall Samantha McAleer TCRG Dhana Pitman TCRG

🏆

Kalamunda Lara Upton ADCRG 0409 474 557 O’BRIEN ACADEMY Joondalup www.obrienacademy.com Rose O’Brien ADCRG 0437 002 355 Martina O’Brien TCRG 0423 932 866 O’HARE SCHOOL OF IRISH DANCING Doubleview, Wembley Downs & Craigie Jenny O’Hare TCRG 0422 273 596 SCOIL RINCE 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

Stephen Dawson MLC Minister for Mental Health; Aboriginal Affairs; Industrial Relations 12th Floor, Dumas House​ ​​​​2 Havelock Street, WEST PERTH WA 6005​​​ Email: Minister.Dawson@dpc.wa.gov.au Telephone: (08) 6552-5800

TRINITY STUDIO OF IRISH DANCING Morley, Midland & South Lake 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

THE IRISH SCENE | 87

Irish Golf Club of WA

Champions & Christmas Events The Irish Golf Club Champions Event was played over two rounds at Hartfield and Kwinana golf clubs.

The winner of the Nett event was Paul Jenkins (top right on the right) while the winner of the Gross event was PJ Kenny (top right on the left).

The Irish Golf Club Christmas Golf outing was held at Maylands Golf Complex on the 12th December.

The winner with 45 points was Mr Donegall, Brendan Whymbs (bottom right on the left, and far right).

Brendan, who has been practising this shot for some 20 years, finally managed to get a hole in one on the 16th green!

☘

Our next outing in January will be at Hartfield over in Forrestfield.

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ALL OF US AT CARRAMAR SHAMROCK ROVERS FC WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR, AND HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT CHRISTMAS BREAK. Although the season finished in September, things don’t stand still for the committee. With Senior and Junior presentations and junior trials to organise, we were kept on our toes. We want to thank all the coaches and committee members who put a lot of time into the junior trials, especially Mari and Rod who did all of the heavy lifting on the admin side.

And Mari still has to keep on top of things, dealing with the large number of emails etc that the trials generate.

We’d like to welcome Steve Robinson to the State League coaching staff as the Under 18s State League coach. Steve has been coaching juniors at the club for many years with several titles to his credit, and will be a great asset to the club at State League level.

The Night Series is starting earlier than usual this season, which puts pressure on Gerry and his coaching staff to get the lads fit.

NIGHT SERIES MATCH

VENUE

DATE/TIME

UWA Nedlands FC vs CSRFC

Unknown

4 Feb 2022 (time TBD)

CSRFC vs Dianella White Eagles

Percy Doyle Reserve A

13 Feb 2022 at 5:00pm

CSFRC vs Ashfield Sports Club

Unknown

18 Feb 2022 (time TBD)

The state teams started pre-season training in December, and the schedule for January is:

FIRST TEAM TRAINING Wednesday 5th Friday 7th Monday 10th Wednesday 12th Friday 14th Monday 17th Wednesday 19th Tuesday 25th Thursday 27th

Grandis Nodes Park Hillarys City Beach Grandis Nodes Park Hillarys City Beach Grandis Lake Monger Grandis

6:30-8:00pm 6:00-7:00pm 6:00-7:15pm 6:30-8:00pm 6:00-7:00pm 6:00-7:15pm 6:30-8:00pm 6:00-7:15pm 6:30-8:00pm

RESERVE AND U18S

Resume Tuesday 11th January, Grandis 6:30-8:00pm, then every Tuesday and Thursday @ Grandis 6:30-8:00pm.

The girls are looking to put the gang back together for 2022. Anyone interested, give us a shout. And if you are interested in getting involved with your local club in any capacity – coach, volunteer, committee member – please contact us at CSRFC2020@gmail.com As always, thank you to our major sponsors, and also to Nicky Edwards for his continued support:

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Ladies and Mens Championships finals TOM BATEMAN RESERVE, 4 SEPTEMBER, 2021

90 | THE IRISH SCENE

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

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

THE IRISH SCENE | 91

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PA R A D E & F E S T I VA L 2 0 2 2 Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit 2022 Perth Happy St. Patrick’s Day 2022 Perth The St. Patrick’s Festival WA Committee is delighted to announce the 2022 St. Patrick’s Day festival and parade is planned for Leederville Oval on Saturday March 12th. We hope to see you all there!

Please keep an eye on our facebook site for further details and updates - Committee chairman Olan Healy

facebook.com/stpatricksfestivalwa THE IRISH SCENE | 93

WA’S FIRST SCÓR AT THE IRISH CLUB, DECEMBER 5, 2021 WAS A CELEBRATION OF IRISH DANCE, MUSIC AND CULTURE

94 | THE IRISH SCENE

facebook.com/ggjawa Call/text: 0415 048 425 Email: infoggjunioracademy@gmail.com ggjunioracademy@gmail.com Web: ggjaofwa.teamapp.com SPONSORED BY

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McLoughlins Butchers would like to say a big thank you for your continued support throughout 2021 and look forward to being of service to all in 2022.

Remember we are open 6 days a week Mon-Fri 9am-5pm & Sat 8am-3pm Products available at our Malaga address and selected IGA, Farmer Jacks and Coles

58 Westchester Rd, Malaga WA 6090. Phone 9249 8039 For any enquiries please contact : info@mcloughlinbutchers.com.au

McLoughlinButchers.com.au PROUD SUPPORTERS OF THE IRISH COMMUNITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA