No, it was not the gold discovery that brought me out. In Corrigeen, Barony of Kilmarney, where I lived, seventeen houses were burnt in one day by way of eviction. I at once made up my mind to be under Parker, our landlord, no longer, and I came out here. Continue reading
The sheer distance between Ireland and Australia and the cost of the 12,000 mile passage for example meant that Australia was spared the ‘hundreds and thousands of refugees…ragged, starving and diseased, that were cast up on the shores of Great Britain and North America.’ Continue reading
But strangely enough despite all my extensive sports background, I got totally absorbed and immersered listening to cricket games on the BBC radio. Continue reading
A research manager at the University of Adelaide, her profile notes that ‘Her interest in migration, particularly the global movement of the Irish, stems from a lived experience of repeat and frequent migration.’ Continue reading
She used a blue biro pen and had numbered the pages on small, plain, lined notepaper…I was pleased to see, sometimes, the smudged ring of a teacup or saucer imprinted on the page. I ould see her in the kichen getting a cup of tea as she wrote to me on a Sunday night. Continue reading
We are struck by the extent of the brothers’ influence on both their adopted countries. They made a difference. They added to the community and to the culture. Continue reading
While many Irish place names in Australia remain unchanged, especially those of populated areas and permanent geographical features, the names of homesteads are more likely to change. A homestead in Australia is usually a house and pastoral property. Some placename websites separate the homestead from the land, and some call a homestead a ‘station’. Continue reading
We heard you read local poets
McNiece, Larkin, Rodgers. Told us of
Hewitt’s ox and goat metaphor
for Northern Ireland. Continue reading
My father’s father’s father
survived the potato blight of ’47.
lived all his life
on the Crow’s Nest farm
where he heard an eerie
caw, caw, cawing
late in the night. Continue reading
Daddy said: ‘Give her a bag of porridge going’. Continue reading
Tinteán 