Composing these words brings to mind a man who, in my experience, was always kind, cautious and considerate, and one who believed that by writing, teaching and example he could make his country a more reasonable, and therefore a more tolerant, society than it had been during his boyhood and early manhood years. Continue reading
Professor Beckett in the Quadrangle of Queen’s University Belfast c. 1975
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A ‘Brief Life’ of Professor J. Otway-Ruthven. Continue reading
Some of Bridget’s descendants in NSW Continue reading
A brilliant multi-layered Irish orphan story. Continue reading
Hossein Valamanesh’s art, as exemplified by the Irish Famine Authors monument in Sydney, was grounded, deep, spiritual, often with an exquisite light poetic touch… Continue reading
Caroline Chisholm had worked hard in Australia for the families of convicts to be reunited. No one knew we had been rejected from the list of travellers. Continue reading
A new collection of short stories, some set in Australia, by Evelyn Conlon Continue reading
A Miscellany of Recommendations from a Sydney-Sider How are you coping with the latest lockdown? I confess to finding this one more difficult; my troubles are minor things really, such as waking during the night, feeling a bit down, not focussing on the book I’m reading, despairing about human weaknesses. Let me share a few … Continue reading
Was the period between 1840 and 1869 the one when the influence of the Irish, at least, numerically, was strongest in colonial Australia? How do we account for the fluctuations? Continue reading
Tinteán 