. To this day, we have a saying in Irish ‘Bhí togha gacha bí agus rogha gacha dí le fail ann’, The finest of every food and the choice(st) of every drink was to be had there. This is believed to originally date from bards of one to two thousand years ago. As a chieftain or king, one’s reputation had to be maintained, or enhanced and these ‘songs of praise’, so to speak, were pivotal in this regard. Continue reading
Filed under Features …
Study Sydney: Life as an Irish Exchange Student in the Big City
The student experience in UNSW, Sydney was markedly different from that of Trinity. Continue reading
Brian Bourke, Barrister and Irishman (1929-2018)
What was Irish about Brian Bourke? Of course, he had the name and the face, a map of Ireland. Continue reading
Ireland set to vote on the Eighth Amendment
Between the initial insertion of the Eighth into the Constitution in 1983 and the current proposed removal, there have been four additional referenda pertaining to abortion – two which passed, and two which failed. Continue reading
Joanne Hayes – a story to frighten
Sometimes a series of events can be so unusual and improbable that factual information becomes stranger than fiction so that a bizarre story trumps one’s wildest imaginings. This applies in spades to the strange story of Joanne Hayes from Abbeydorney … Continue reading
A DAY ON SKELLIG ROCK
Skellig really is a magical place. Continue reading
After O’Farrell: Writing a New History of the Irish in Australia
Given that so much of mainstream Australian history continues to ignore the Irish or even, on occasion, to disparage them, a new general history of the Irish in Australia is overdue. Continue reading
Killurin to Kalgoorlie: the making of Hugh Mahon
The Honourable Hugh Mahon is one of the most interesting personalities in the national legislature. There has been more stirring incident in his career than in a dozen ordinary men’s lives. Continue reading
Henry Lawson’s Irish Characters
Lawson used Irish characters in his multicultural cast as a literary device, in the main a comic one Continue reading
An Extraordinary Family
let us look at a family that truly deserves the word ‘extraordinary’ Continue reading