2024

February

The Annual General Meeting was held at the Irish Consulate General and online via Zoom. The AGM was followed by the February ordinary meeting at which Dr Peter Moore spoke about St Patrick’s Day buttons that were sold in Adelaide from 1917 to 1941.

March

We celebrated St Patrick’s Day in style at the Sir Stamford Hotel, Macquarie Street Sydney. The guest speaker was Paddy MacDonald who talked in conversation with Jeff Kildea about his interest in Charlie Chaplin, including his Chaplin exhibitions in Australia, Ireland and Cuba, and the little Tramp’s Irish connections with Waterville, County Kerry.

April

Simon Smith, author of A Man of Honour spoke about his forebear Henry James O’Farrell who attempted to assassinate Prince Alfred in Sydney in 1868.

May

The guest speaker was Professor Peter Kuch who continued his series of talks on Irish theatre in colonial Australia with a talk entitled ‘Irish roles/Irish plays – performing “Irishness” at the Royal Victoria Theatre in the age of Wyatt and Knight, 1838 – 1844’.

June

In a talk entitled ‘A shamrock, a “Last Rose” and a bookplate – Echoes of Ireland and Irish/Australia in the collections of the National Library of Australia’, Dr Richard Reid spoke about the collection of Irish material in the National Library.

July

Speaking from Dublin via Zoom, Irish novelist and short story writer Evelyn Conlon discussed stories from her collection of short stories Moving About the Place and her acclaimed novel Not the Same Sky, about Irish famine orphans who came to Australia.

August

At the Mid-Year Lunch at the Gaelic Club, Devonshire Street, Sydney renowned Australian journalist and broadcaster Geraldine Doogue spoke about her Irish roots.

September

Dr Paula Cobain, Executive Officer of the Irish Support Agency NSW and a native of County Antrim, spoke about the work of the Irish Support Agency.

October

Benedict Smith, Head of Mission, Identity and Civics, Catholic Schools NSW, gave a talk on the Young Ireland movement and the leaders who were exiled to Van Diemen’s Land following their abortive rising.

2023

February

The Annual General Meeting was held as a hybrid in-person/Zoom meeting. It was followed by a talk by Professor Peter Kuch, who spoke about his research for his latest book on Irish theatre in early colonial Australia.

March

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day dinner was held at the Sir Stamford Hotel, Macquarie Street Sydney. The guest speaker was Fr Frank Brennan SJ who spoke on the Voice to Parliament.

April

Aisling member Geoff Barker gave a talk entitled ‘The Design and Construction of Castletown House, County Kildare’ in which he discussed the controversy over the architect who designed the building.

May

In a talk entitled, ‘The Romans and Ireland’, John Coombs discussed the influence the Romans had on Ireland. Although Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire, it was right next door to that empire and was influenced by it in many different ways.

June

July

The guest speaker was Dr Neville Potter who spoke about his latest book, The Lass from Loch Léin: Ellen Powell — an Irish Orphan in the Victorian Gold Rushes.

August

The mid-year lunch was held at the Sir Stamford Hotel, Macquarie Street, Sydney. The guest speaker was Teresa Keating, Executive Director of the Ireland Funds Australia, who spoke about the work of the Ireland Funds.

September

Instead of the usual ordinary meeting, we combined our meeting with the 10th Australian Conference of Celtic Studies at the University of Sydney, where the keynote speaker was Dr Elizabeth Boyle of Maynooth University.

October

Aisling member Hugh Myers gave a fascinating talk on Richard Madden, an Irish surgeon who served as colonial secretary to Western Australia (Swan River colony) in 1848-49. Madden was an Irish patriot, an historian of the 1798 rebellion, and an advocate for Australian Aborigines.

November

The Aisling Christmas Party was held at Sancta Sophia College, Missenden Road, Camperdown, with the guest speaker, Judi Toms, Chair of the Australian Standing Stones Management Committee at Glen Innes speaking aboutGlen Innes, the Celtic capital of Australia, and its monument of standing stones.

2022

February

The Annual General Meeting was held as a hybrid in-person/Zoom meeting. It was followed by a talk by historian Dr Damian Gleeson entitled ‘Bigamy, clandestine marriage, and the “seven-year rule” in penal NSW’, a fascinating survey of Irish marriage practices in early colonial Australia.

Dr Damian Gleeson

March

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day dinner was held at the Sir Stamford Hotel, Macquarie Street Sydney. The guest speaker was the new Consul General for Ireland in Sydney, Rosie Keane, who gave a talk introducing herself and informing the members and guests who were present of current events affecting Ireland.

Consul General Rosie Keane addressing Aisling St Patrick’s Day Dinner

April

Former Aisling president and honorary secretary Peter Gray SC gave a talk on Ireland and cricket in which he narrated the history of cricket in Ireland and spoke about some of the leading Irish cricketers and about the cricketing links between Ireland and Australia.

Peter Gray SC speaking on Ireland and cricket

May

Professor James Franklin gave a talk entitled, ‘Irish Australian Catholics: the tribal faith of a semi-enclosed community’ in which he looked at some unique features and colourful characters of the Irish-Australian Catholic community.

June

The immediate past president of the Aisling Society, Dr Pamela O’Neill gave a talk entitled ‘Eleanor Knott:  a case study of the value of retrieving Irish women’s stories’. In her talk, Dr O’Neill examined Knott’s contribution to the study of early Irish and argued that her work is not as well-known as it warrants – a valuable example of how the work of Irish women is under-appreciated.

July

Aisling Prize winner Thomas Café gave a talk entitled ‘What do the Country Houses of eighteenth-century Protestant Irish Ascendancy reveal about the political culture of Ireland at the time?’.

August

The Mid-Year Lunch was held at the Sir Stamford Hotel, Macquarie Street, Sydney. Ireland’s ambassador to Australia Tim Mawe was the guest speaker.

September

The guest speaker, joining us via Zoom from Ireland, was Irish poet, playwright, and broadcaster Vincent Woods. who gave a talk entitled ‘Freedom’s Laureate: The Poetry and Legacy of Francis MacNamara’. Known as Frank the Poet, MacNamara was a convict transported to Australia in 1832 who contributed to Australia’s foundation literature.

October

The guest speaker was Donal Griffin, who spoke about his recent book An Irish Book of Living and Dying.

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November

The Aisling Christmas Party was held at Sancta Sophia College, Missenden Road, Camperdown, with readings from Ulysses by Professor Peter Kuch and Dr Marie Leech.

2021

February

After the Annual General Meeting award-winning Irish-Australian poet Anne Casey gave a talk entitled ‘An emigrant’s story’, a mix of humour, tugging at heartstrings and visits to the misty landscapes of Anne’s native west coast of Ireland, illustrated by readings from her poetry.

March

The guest speaker, Professor Francis Campbell, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Notre Dame, gave a talk entitled, ‘Is the Legacy of Partition Preventing the Future and the Common Good?’ in which he discussed the legacy of the partition of Ireland and the possible course leading to the reunification of Ireland.

April

At our first hybrid meeting (in person and via Zoom), the guest speaker was cultural historian, Dr Robert Lindsey, who gave a talk entitled, ‘”An example some of us in Ireland might advantageously copy”: Vincent Hearnes and the cultural landscape of Irish Australia’.

May

The guest speaker, Elisabeth Edwards, spoke about her book Wearing the Green: The Daltons and the Irish Cause, an amazing ‘rags to riches’ story of the Dalton family of Orange which began with a transported Irish convict and became one of the colony’s wealthiest dynasties

June

Dr Jeff Kildea gave a talk entitled, ‘A Victory Comparable to Jutland: the Royal Navy’s Hijacking of Archbishop Daniel Mannix in 1920’.

July

Thomas Cafe, the 2020 Aisling Prize winner from the University of Sydney, gave a talk on ‘Clerical Fascism in the Interwar Irish Free State. Eoin O’Duffy and the Irish Brigade’.

August

Aisling members, Dr Julian Neylan and Dr Greg Stewart, spoke on the celebration of Bloomsday in Sydney, with some observations on the history of the publication of Ulysses and their experiences in putting on events in Sydney to mark the day.

September

Aisling member, Hugh Myers, Special Collections Advisor, Australian Catholic University, spoke about the Catholic mission to the Irish convicts and how this was perceived by the colonial government of the time.

October

November

In place of the usual Christmas Party, the society celebrated the festive season with a virtual Christmas party at which  members entertained each other with poetry, stories, and talks on their research activities.

2020

February

On 2 February the Aisling Society marked St Brigid’s Day with a special one-day symposium at the State Library of NSW celebrating the historical and cultural contribution of Irish Australian women.

February

After the Annual General Meeting Dr Mary O’Connell spoke about her latest book The Country of Our Dreams, a novel set in 19th-century Ireland and 21st-century Australia, exploring the Irish Land War of 1879 -1882

march

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day dinner was cancelled due to COVID-19 epidemic

April

This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software. Dr Jeff Kildea had posted to YouTube a video podcast entitled ‘Archbishop Kelly and the Quarantine Station incident of 1918’. Members, who had been invited to view the video before the meeting, discussed the content of the video.

May

Dr Pamela O’Neill  spoke on ‘Lost infants in the Irish psyche’.  Her talk contextualised the infamous Kerry Babies case within Irish culture from the early medieval period to the present day, by looking at literature, archaeology, news reports and other sources. This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software.

June

Caitlin Erbacher gave a talk entitled ‘”Guns and Chiffon”: Negotiating Gender and Violence in the Easter Rising’ on Irish republican women’s participation in nationalist violence during the Easter Rising of 1916. This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software.

July

In a talk entitled ‘The Great Irish Famine debate in America: Was the Famine genocide?’, Siobhán Ryan spoke about the debate in the United States on the use of the term ‘genocide’ in reference to the Great Irish Famine. This meeting was held using Zoom video conferencing software.

August

Irish-Australian actor, director and raconteur Maelíosa Stafford gave a ‘seriously humorous’ talk entitled ‘Minister O’Connor…What an Honour’ based on his childhood memories of growing up in Ireland and hearing stories told to him by his grandfather about the early days of the Irish state.

September

Erin Mollenhauer, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Moore College, gave a talk entitled ‘The Loyal Orange Institution and the Anglican Church in Sydney’ that looked at Irish Anglican clergy in mid-20^th century Sydney who had close connections with the LOI.

October

Professor Emeritus Peter Kuch gave a talk entitled ‘Hail and Farewell: Reminisces about 13 years in New Zealand’ in which he will speak about the challenges and delights of establishing a Centre for Irish Studies at the University of Otago — the students taught; the courses offered; the guests who were invited; the events held; and some of the conference presentations and publications that were produced.

November

December

2019

February

After the Annual General Meeting Dr Ellie Crookes gave a talk entitled “Maud Gonne: Ireland’s Joan of Arc” in which she examined the alignment of Maud Gonne with Joan of Arc and discussed the significance of her medievalisation.

March

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day Dinner was held on 22 March 2019 at Parliament House, Sydney. The guest speaker was the former ABC TV presenter, Kerry O’Brien, who spoke about his family who emigrated to Australia from  Ireland during the Famine.

Kerry O’Brien addressing the St Patrick’s Day Dinner [Patrick Tansey]

April

Due to a venue difficulty no meeting was held.

May

Dr Jeanette Mollenhauer gave a talk entitled “Dancing at the Southern Crossroads” on Irish dancing in Australia.

June

In the presence of the Irish Minister of State for the Diaspora, Ciaran Cannon TD, Mary Barthelemy spoke on “The Song of the Camán – Hurling in Sydney 1884-1910” in which she discussed the development of hurling in Sydney, arguing that it was a strand in a Celtic knot that was intricate and culturally rich rather than an aspect of “ghettoisation”.

July

Sr Vivienne Keely spoke about her recent book on Michael Hayes, a 1798 rebel transported to New South Wales, whose letters home reveal a colourful and tragic life marked by attempts to stem the loss of family and friends.

August

At the mid-year lunch the Irish Consul-General Owen Feeney gave an interesting talk on his career and his time in Sydney as well as on the situation in Ireland, including what is happening over Brexit.

September

Eleanor Deep spoke on ‘“Far from the hills of my own native home”: Irish and Scottish Migrants in Colonial New South Wales’

October

Dr Eddie Jackson gave a detailed analysis of Brexit and what it means for Ireland and the peace process in Northern Ireland. His address was preceded by a talk by the Consul-General, Owen Feeney, on the Irish government’s attitude to the Brexit negotiations.

November

At our Christmas Party, Dr Pamela O’Neill gave a talk on 1500 years of Irish Christmases.

2018

FEBRUARY

After the Annual General Meeting Ciara Smart gave a talk entitled ‘Excused only through the Exigencies of Narrative’ about Irish-Aboriginal relations in colonial Australia.

 MARCH

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day Dinner was held on 23 March 2017 at Parliament House, Sydney. The guest speaker was acclaimed Irish novelist and short-story writer Evelyn Conlon.

April

Rod Smith spoke about his book Guinness Down Under, which tells the story of how the grandsons of Arthur Guinness, the famous brewer of Dublin, took the family business to Australia and New Zealand.

May

Kathleen Gilbert gave a talk entitled ‘An Irish-Australian Catholic Country Childhood’ in which she described growing up in the fifties and sixties on a sheep and wheat farm on the Murray River. Her talk was warmly received.

June

Dr Jeff Kildea, Adjunct Professor in Irish Studies at UNSW, gave a talk entitled ‘What price loyalty?: Australian Catholics in the First World War’ in which he examined the ways in which Australian Catholics of Irish descent reconciled their loyalties to Rome, Ireland and the British Empire.

July

At the mid-year lunch Susan Ryan AO, recently retired Age and Disability Discrimination Commissioner and a former federal Minister for Education, spoke about the massive cultural changes in education, especially in schools, that we have seen over this generation, particularly the changes following the disappearance of the Irish teaching orders.

Susan Ryan AO addressing Mid-Year Lunch [Greg Hurst]

August

Paul Lynch MP, member for Liverpool in the NSW parliament, gave an interesting talk entitled ‘West Britons Down Under: Colonial Politics and Being Irish?’ in which he discussed the ‘Irishness’ of three NSW colonial politicians: James Martin, William Bede Dalley and Patrick Jennings.

September

John Gooley, barrister, author and lecturer, with an interest in Anglo-Irish relations gave a talk on Winston Churchill and Ireland.

October

Professor Jonathan Wooding gave a talk entitled ‘On the trail of early Irish monks in Iceland: a report on recent fieldwork’ in which he discussed his research of an Irish monastic settlement in Iceland c. 800 AD.

November

Professor Ruairí Ó hUiginn, Director of the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies gave a talk entitled “Poets and Princes” about the powerful poetic class in the courts of the Irish kings who by composing poems of praise or satire could win the king’s favour or bring about his downfall.

2017

FEBRUARY

After the Annual General Meeting Tony Earls gave a talk entitled “Hollywood’s Irish mother: An Irish Australian Tragedy” in which he discussed the life and career of one of Ireland’s finest actresses, Sara Allgood (1879-1950), who appeared in numerous Hollywood movies and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941.

 MARCH

The Aisling St Patrick’s Day Dinner was held on 24 March 2017 at Parliament House, Sydney. The guest speaker was His Excellency Breandan Ó Caollaí, Ambassador of Ireland to Australia.

Ambassador Breandan Ó Caollaí (centre) at St Patrick’s Day Dinner [Greg Hurst]

 April

Aisling member and Irish Air Corps veteran Myles Mooney gave a talk entitled “Missionaries, Mercenaries and Musicians: Africa the Irish Connection” in which he looked at the history of Ireland’s contact with the continent, including the role of Irish peacekeepers in the Congo in the 1960s, and spoke of his personal experiences there.

May

Aisling Hon. Secretary Jeff Kildea spoke about his latest book, Hugh Mahon: Patriot, Pressman, Politician, the first volume of a two-volume biography of controversial Irish-Australian politician Hugh Mahon, who in 1920 was expelled from the Commonwealth parliament for his criticism of British rule in Ireland.

June

Chloe Haywood-Anderson, winner of the Macquarie University Aisling Society prize for 2016, gave a talk entitled “From Home Rule to Republicanism: ‘Striking for Freedom’ in Easter 1916”

July

At the Mid-Year Lunch in the Grand Dining Room at the former St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly (now International College of Management, Sydney), Mark Tedeschi AM QC, NSW Senior Crown Prosecutor, spoke about his latest book Murder at Myall Creek which gives a detailed account of the murder of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children at Myall Creek in 1838 and the prosecution of the perpetrators by Irish-born Attorney-General John Hubert Plunkett.

August

Dr Richard Reid spoke about Lord Belmore, governor of NSW 1868-1872, who was in office at the time of Henry O’Farrell’s attempted assassination of Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, at Clontarf, Sydney and who during his term travelled extensively around the colony.

 September

Renowned Irish-Australian actor Maeliosa Stafford gave us a talk entitled, “Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: A Family Story” in which he spoke about his alma mater, St Ignatius College, Galway and some of its teachers and alumni, including William Joyce, aka Lord Haw Haw.

October

Professor Ronan McDonald, gave us a talk on the celebrated Irish poet Seamus Heaney entitled ‘Crediting Heaney’.

November

At the Christmas dinner Professor Peter Kuch, Eamon Cleary Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Otago and a former president of the Aisling Society, spoke on his latest book Irish Divorce / Joyce’s Ulysses.

2016

February

After the Annual General Meeting Tony Earls spoke about the Society’s plans for a program of events on Easter Monday this year. There will first be a reading of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, on the steps of the GPO in Martin Place, followed by a screening in the State Library of three films – two archival and one more recent – about aspects of the Rising and its aftermath.

 MARCH

At the St Patrick’s Day dinner at Parliament House, Sydney on 4 March Professor Ronan McDonald gave a fascinating talk on Yeats’ poetry, including expositions of “Easter 1916” and “An Irish Airman Foresees his Death”.

Professor Ronan McDonald speaking on Yeats’ poetry [Éilis Hurst]

April

Noel Leggett of the Irish National Association (INA) spoke on the founder of the INA in a talk entitled “The World of Albert Dryer, Australian-born Irish Patriot”.

May

Professor Jonathan Wooding the Sir Warwick Fairfax Professor of Celtic Studies at the University of Sydney gave a talk entitled “Abstaining from the heroic: the character of the Otherworld traveller in early Irish literature”

June

Rebekah Poole spoke on “Teaching Irish history in Australian schools through the use of political murals”.

July

The annual Mid-year Luncheon was held in the Grand Dining Room at the former St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly (now International College of Management, Sydney). His Excellency Noel White, Ireland’s Ambassador to Australia, spoke about his time in Australia as his term comes to an end.

Ambassador Noel White addresses Aisling Society

August

In a talk entitled “An Olympic Vignette: Ireland’s First Gold Medallist”, Kevin O’Connor AM spoke on Dr Pat O’Callaghan, from Kanturk, County Cork, a gold medallist at the 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games, the first athlete from post-independence Ireland to win an Olympic medal.

 September

Dr Anne Jamison, Lecturer in English at Western Sydney University, spoke on “‘The enjoyment of a good story’: Irish school readers and children’s literature in nineteenth-century Australia”.

October

Dr Perry McIntyre gave a talk entitled “Building a Memorial and sustaining the rage” in which she examined the history and legacy of the Monument to the Great Irish Famine, which was unveiled at the Hyde Park Barracks in August 1999 and explored questions such as whether in a modern technical world a physical presence is necessary and whether we need to gather and remember past victories and tragedies?

2015

FEBRUARY

After the Annual General Meeting Dr Jeff Kildea, spoke on his time as Keith Cameron professor of Australian History at University College Dublin in 2014.

 March

At the St Patrick’s Day Dinner at Parliament House on 20 March Billy Cantwell spoke about his experiences publishing The Irish Echo for more than a quarter century.

April

In a talk entitled “Embodied emotion and The Hibernian Father” Professor Peter Kuch gave an audio/visual presentation on the stage play The Hibernian Father, which opened on 6 May 1844 at the Royal Victoria Theatre. It was the first play written by an Irish convict to be performed on the colonial Sydney stage.

 May

Irish author John Connell, in a talk entitled “Writing The Ghost Estate”, spoke about his recently published novel of that name. The novel deals with the impact of the GFC on Ireland, from the perspective of those at the pit-face of the busted building industry. He  also spoke about the craft of writing, and about how a 28-year-old Irish novelist found himself living in Australia.

Claire Dunne and John Connell

June

Dr Matthew McGuire, a senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney, spoke on  “Literature in the wake of the Northern Irish Troubles”.

Peter Gray and Matt McGuire

 July

The annual Mid-year Luncheon was held in the Grand Dining Room at the former St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly (now International College of Management, Sydney). Anne Stevens gave a wonderful talk in which she reflected on the 60th anniversary of the Aisling Society.

August

Dr Eddie Jackson gave a very stimulating talk on the social policy mechanisms that have been attempted over the past few decades in order to address sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland.

Dr Eddie Jackson on Northern Ireland

 SEPTEMBER

Dr Jeff Kildea, , Adjunct Professor of Irish Studies at UNSW and a vice-president of the Society, gave a talk entitled “The Irish at Gallipoli” in which he outlined the part played by Irish soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign, often alongside the Anzacs.

October

Susannah Fullerton spoke about the life and works of Oscar Wilde in a fascinating talk entitled “The Importance of Being Oscar”.