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
Filed under News …
RECAPTURING THE IRISH SPIRIT AT EUREKA
‘ … the aftermath of the Eureka Stockade brought this nation a major step closer to a democratic system …’ Continue reading
British Espionage after The Rising
The Intelligence authorities found it difficult to accept that parents whose eldest adult child had been executed for his role in the Easter Rising, and who moreover had two more sons Volunteers (initially sentenced to death but commuted to 10-year sentences), were not actively involved in the Rising. Continue reading
VOICES of the Irish Famine Orphan Girls to Melbourne
In 2022, the commemoration committee searched for a new way of ‘bringing the girls to the table’. Continue reading
Bilingual Haiku
Crainn Jacaranda,/buamaí gorma áille…
Jacaranda trees,lovely explosions of blue. Continue reading
What’s on in January/March 2023
Irish in Australia Research Updates In the middle of the pandemic we published an article by Trevor McClaughlin, Australia’s foremost authority on the Irish Orphans – see his blog at https://earlgreysfamineorphans.wordpress.com/author/trevo1/. We are reprinting it here below. Of course, at that time, we did not know we were in the ‘middle’ of the pandemic. While … Continue reading
Professor J. Otway-Ruthven (1909-1989)
A ‘Brief Life’ of Professor J. Otway-Ruthven. 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
Christmas Memories
I usually held my father’s hand and would walk on the outside of the path as the hedges and bushes we passed seemed to develop a sinister aspect in the night shadows. Our footsteps resonated in the silence of the night. No memory of the cold temperatures of those nights remains with me. Only the joy of the special experience. Continue reading