Catherine and Michael arrived on Saturday from Darwin, having come from 32 degree heat they're suffering a bit at the moment with Canberra's chilly weather, especially as they're sleeping in a caravan on our front lawn!
On Sunday the four of us headed to the Not Just Ned exhibition currently on display at the National Museum of Australia. It's a really good history of the Irish in Australia (not just Ned).
For the uninitiated Ned Kelly is Australia's favourite criminal/bandit. He's kind of akin to a latter day Robin Hood except that he didn't distribute his spoils amongst the poor and kept them himself. The Kelly gang (who were at their height of notoriety in the 1880s) wore trademark 'armour' to protect them from the bullets fired from police. It's a unique form of armour - essentially styled on a bucket on your head with a slit to see out of. The armour then extended to body/shoulder plates which in theory would stop a bullet/musket ball(?) fired at it. When Kelly was captured the police shot him in the (un-armoured) legs rendering his clever defence ever so slightly useless. They then hanged him for the murder of 3 policemen.
The exhibition featured the armour of the Kelly gang (which was excellent to see) as well as a host of other Irish paraphernalia. I hadn't realised Burke and Wills had been Irish (they planned the first South to North Australia exhibition), their adventure is again famed in Australian history (they died en route).
Other more successful Irishmen included John Curtin after whom our suburb is named who was Australian PM during WWII.
There wasn't a lot for the children, but there was still lots to look at including a huge dolls house which kept them occupied for ages. Even though Australia's population is made up of less than 1% of Irish born people, the influence that Ireland has had on Australia's history is pretty evident.
No comments:
Post a Comment