Hidden Cargoes is a substantive work of research and creative analysis that also reads like a gentle musing on life by a favourite relative. Continue reading
Filed under diaspora …
Croí ár Náisiúin/Statement from the Heart
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’,
and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain
attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. Continue reading
MacCabe Corner
he obviously was a good bushman, and an active and effective surveyor. He was interested in the history of the land he measured, and he respected and made use of Aboriginal knowledge. Continue reading
Michael Boyle’s poems of exile and return
Going Back Home Again When are you going back?”Often I reply-I have an open ticket. Cups of tea full of sugar and milkThe full Irish or Ulster frySomber heart felt chatby stony graveyard walls.Old paths – now jungle under growthsYou wonder where time went.No one here knows you anymore.A couple of older neighborsstill tell how … Continue reading
Elvis Presley’s Irish Roots
He had a granddaughter called Rosella who had several children, one of whom was a son called Jesse Presley. In 1913, Jesse Presley married a lady named Minnie Mae. They had a son in 1916 called Vernon Elvis Presley. Continue reading
A Brief History of the Irish in Australia
With the passage of time Irish Catholics eventually did become part of the fabric of Australian society. With the coming of each generation, they moved along and some of them, up the social scale. But their ascent was neither rapid nor easy. Continue reading
Bilingual Haiku
Crainn Jacaranda,/buamaí gorma áille…
Jacaranda trees,lovely explosions of blue. Continue reading
An Irish Teacher in Papua New Guinea
Early one morning on my way to Rabaul with my family we did not see even one woman. However, we overtook many men on foot and on bicycles, all moving in the same direction with their bodies naked from the waist up. Each wore a bright red lap-lap or long piece of cloth knotted at the hip to form a skirt. Continue reading
Conamara faoi Nollaig: A Connemara Christmas
Cloisim gach coisméig is scuabadh ár gcosa le gach méanfach sa dorchadas..lI hear every squeak and sweep of our feet with every yawn in the dark. Continue reading
Patrick Morrisey’s 50 Days in Ireland
Each visit to Ireland runs deeper than the last. Back in the 1980s, I met distant relatives before hitching around The Republic. When I felt the Atlantic’s chill, I retreated south towards the equator and finally home to The Great South Land. From August to early October 2022, I crisscrossed Ireland, listening to RTÉ and … Continue reading
Tinteán 