Filed under Memorial

From Tipperary to Outback Australia

From Tipperary to Outback Australia

Today, a hundred and eighty years later I stand near his grave in the hot, dry semi-desert land of the Australian ‘outback.’  Emigrating to Australia in the 1860s and becoming one of the burgeoning numbers of the Irish diaspora, John, better known as Jack, was part of a heroic effort to develop this new and challenging land, so different in every way from the green fields of Tipperary. Continue reading

Community Gatherings in Ireland: part two

Community Gatherings in Ireland: part two

The very earliest communal gathering and feasting for which we have solid evidence are known as fulachta fia. These were the locations where an animal, probably a deer or boar, was cooked following a hunt. The sharing of food is a social act that creates and maintains bonds and obligations within a group or community, which seems to have been the entire function of these feasts. Continue reading