Did British use Cromwell model in Australia?

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What does it mean tn h Iriqh AiitrIin2 share similar cultural characteristics Yorta Yorta elder and and traits that spring from their com- parative connections with the land and their shared experiences of colonisa- descendant tion. Perhaps the most significant of these is the ability to be able to stand outside of oneself in trying times and to take a trip to Ireland be able to make a joke about one's A recent trip to Ireland by Dr Wayne sound more like a folk tale than a nar- predicament whatever it may be. A Atkinson, one of the principal rative about a relationship that would good old hearty laugh and a capacity to claimants in the historic Yorta Yorta have a lasting impact on my future see the funny side of things that other- Native Title case, and his partner, directions in life. wise may seem rather obscure to those Cathy Guinness, a descendant of People may ask how come a young outside the circle are characteristics the founder of the legendry Koori became soul mates with two Irish that are the essence of an Indigenous- fellas whose names and lineages are Irish connection. , has opened up Whether these are natural attributes new angles on Irish-Indigenous more commonly associated with, coun- ties Wicklow, Wexford, Dublin and or have evolved from a common expe- relations. rience is academic, but on the whole Wayne Atkinson is an elder of the Down in Ireland, rather than with a town nestled on the banks of the Murray they are undeniably common and Yorta Yorta people and lecturer in and Campaspe rivers. indeed formidable traits. A mistrust of political science at the University of officialdom, a suspicion of govern- Melbourne. From March to May this Growing up with ment-driven policies, and a dislike for year he visited Ireland including Malone and O'Toole what has become a discourse of put- Dublin, Galway, Cork, Dingle, Sligo I went to school with Paddy Malone, down cultural language are other attrib- and Belfast. and later Simon O'Toole who migrated utes that give rise to a commonality of Both Wayne and Cathy have writ- to Australia from Dublin with his fami- shared experience. ten reflections on their visit. First, ly and settled in Echuca in the 1960s. Connections with land and the rela- Wayne Atkinson outlines the back- Paddy and Simon were to become close tionship between land and identity bear ground to their trip. mates and companions in a relationship witness to an Indigenous-Irish connec- that transcend many social and cultural tion. Notions of individual land owner- This story about the Irish connection boundaries. ship and property rights were imported begins with my personal journey as a If one's back was against the wall, as into Ireland and Australia by the Koori lad growing up in Echuca in it often is for Kooris growing up in British. The closer knit tribal groupings north-central Victoria, a town perhaps regional Australia, you could always of kinship, communal ownership and a better known for its paddle steamers count on Simon and Paddy to be there spiritual as well as economic relation- and the popular TV series, All The shoulder to shoulder with you. ship with the land is known to have cul- Rivers Run. There a relationship with This was an important chapter in my tivated the rich Indigenous and Irish two Irish mates by the names of Paddy Irish-Indigenous connection and one oral traditions that have been and con- Malone and Simon O'Toole began. that laid the foundations for other sig- tinue to be transmitted over the millen- When the occasion arises for me to nificant journeys. I must also acknowl- nia. It has been through the process of tell this story, as it often does, it may edge here in respect of the O'Toole story, song, dance and art that a unify- family, that Simon has since been ing force has been created. called back to his dreaming. His mem- Indigenous music and Irish music limearil7) 1:7 ory certainly lingers on in old Echuca. have become both an expression of cul- Another Irish-Indigenous connection ture as well as a tool of individual and left an indelible impression on me: the community empowerment. From the names of some of my other school 'Fields of Athenry' to a call by popular mates, names like Kellys, Lynches, Indigenous songwriter and artist Lou O'Neills, O'Connors, O'Reillys, Bennett, to 'Knock Dovo the walls that Ahearns, Barrys and O'Briens. I have Divide Us', are songs of humanity that r , kr; since discovered that these names spring from the heart and the soul of would ring loud and clear across the Indigenous and Irish artists. length and breadth of Ireland. At present, with opportunities to An occasional visit to a cemetery or a express more freely the diversity of local history centre in Ireland gives you Indigenous culture and traditions in an immediate sense of a common set of Australia, we have witnessed a flower- names and a sort of melancholic feeling ing of Indigenous artists, writers and of being in Ireland and at home in performers of national and internation- Echuca at the same time. al acclaim. Indigenous with Land rights in Ireland Irish surnames and Australia In many Indigenous communities in The recognition of land rights in the Riverine and Murray region one Ireland by the British under the import- does not have to delve too deep to find ed common law opens up another con- an Irish ring in the names of families nection. The famous 1608 Case of today like the Kellys, Morgans, Pattes, Tanistry provided a legal precedent for Wayne Atkinson at Trinity College Wal shes, Petti ts, Rigneys and the way Indigenous lands were to be Dublin: his boyhood in Echuca laid O'Laughlins. treated by the British when they colo- foundations for a later journey Indeed, Indigenous and Irish people nized other countries during the heyday

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200,000 square kilometers Yorta Yorta have KEY Yorta Yorta Territory { made 17 attempts state border Jerilderie • • key sites at compensation • town/city The Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Community consists of more than Dentliquin 4,000 people. On 12 December NEW SC 10 Hi WALES 2002, the High Court rejected their native title claim. Their claim covers Moira-Millewa Fores Mathoura • , some 2,000 square kilometres of , Howlong crown land from New South Wales • Barmah Forest • 'ril amp Cobram - /?iver • and Victoria in the mid-Murray Kow Sw" Torrumbarry Weir ..,--,_,,,, • Barmah • . region. The Yorta Yorta call the river Yarrawonga • Gunbower tsland Nathalia ----L.....,-,_Broken c; (-I . Dhungula. Their present claim is for Baroona A • r.., ' A McCoy's Bridge UN k some one-tenth of their original '',. Echuca 4 1-/hurn k VICTORIA A Loch Garry , native title land. .,.. ---■. ' 1. , : "The Yorta Yorta people occupied ' - • tGemmill's Swamp Wangaratt a , , Kyabra rn --., Rochester • ,-„ • Shepparton a unique stretch of territory located Glenrowan ,, ',.. Mooroopna t Bonds Bend in what is now known as the Murray- , ) Lake Atkoan ,, cA Daunts Bend Benalta • , -- ,...- Goulburn region. Their lifestyle was ,--` Rushworth.\ 7 ,./ ,- based on hunting, fishing and col- • Murchison A .. , lecting food. However, being river people, most of their time was occu- 'kkk ,k - '''' • Euroa pied by fishing as the majority of food was provided from the network of colonisation and land appropriation: Our free entry to the Guinness brew- of rivers, lagoons, creeks and lakes that conquered peoples' preexisting ery courtesy of Cath's connections with which were and are still regarded as rights and interests in land continued her ancestor Arthur and a couple of free the life source of the Yorta Yorta was the rule that became part of the pints at the end of our visit were most people. The annual floods that occur common law of the time. The rule rewarding. My friends Simon O'Toole in this region are regarded by Yorta applied in this famous case went to the and Paddy Malone were not wrong Yorta people as necessary for the heart of the historic Mabo decision, when they used to tell me in most replenishment of food sources and 1992. The Tanistry case was cited in graphic detail that the only way to the survival of the forest," writes both Mabo and Yorta Yorta, 1998 and enjoy a Guinness at its best was to Wayne Atkinson (see Yorta Yorta was used by Australian legal teams to drink it in Ireland. website). support Indigenous claimants' struggles Not to suggest that our coming "The original territory was both for land justice under the Australian together in Adelaide was all about that rich and abundant in natural food native title law following the Mabo case. part of the famous Guinness connection sources. Archaeologists refer to this The legal discourse and the contrasts but it is a name, as any traveller to type of environment as a broad-based between Indigenous and Irish occupa- Ireland will find, that has become syn- economy which is capable of produc- tion and land law go beyond the scope onymous with Ireland and one that is ing a wide range and variety of food. of this article but the essential connec- steeped in rich Irish history and tradi- Edward Curr, one of the first white tion between Irish and Indigenous land tion. Cathy will enjoy elaborating more intruders to have contact with the relations and their struggle to hold on to on this side of the story. The Yorta Yorta Yorta, commented on its rich- what they saw as their prior and inher- Yorta-Guinness relationship of over ness and recorded in his recollections ent rights to land and resources is three decades has obviously led to that the area could have supported another important link in the chain of many other interesting and exciting 'twice the population' he encountered Irish-indigenous connections. revelations. there in 1843. Travelling through Ireland and listen- Questions started "Between 1860 and 1993 the ing to the voice of the Irish constantly at Cummeragunj a Yorta Yorta people made approxi- reminded me of a common humanity mately 17 separate attempts to claim and a kindred spirit that has shaped our Coming from an Indigenous family land and compensation. Overall the existence and survival as a people. whose ancestors were confined to the only land that has been returned is outskirts of the local town on a 1,200 acres of the former The Guinness connection Government administered reserve Finally and perhaps the most signifi- known as Cummeragunj a (1888-2006), Cummeragunja Reserve, which was originally 2,965 acres. This land was cant factor that had an influence on my my search to find answers about ori- notion of an Irish connection is related gins, and the mindset of this particular granted to the Yorta Yorta Land to my academic studies. It was during scheme of things, became an obsession. Council in 1983 by the New South my undergraduate studies in Adelaide At the time I never thought that my Wales Government under its land that I met my partner and life-long search for answers to these questions rights commitments. The 'land which friend Cathy Guinness. would eventually illuminate the Irish was granted under inalienable free- Being partial to an occasional drop of Connection. After completing my stud- hold title, when measured against Guinness at the time, however, I had no ies in Adelaide I was successful in traditional Yorta Yorta territories, idea that our relationship would even- achieving an overseas study award was a mere pittance. It amounts to a tually take me to the place which, it is which allowed me to travel to North tenth of 1 percent of their tribal said, produces over 10,000,000 pints of lands of some thousands of square the good stuff on a daily basis. (continued page 22) kilometres." Temp Sept-Nov 2006 21 America and to learn about the terms of British colonial policy and colonisers of the time. Indigenous American experience of practice. It was from this visit that I was This slogan meant that if you did not colonization. I was interested in learn- quick to learn that like Indigenous "transplant" yourself, which was anoth- ing about their comparative response to Australia, the original occupants who er way of saying that if you did not colonisation, and their struggle for land had been in possession of their ances- remove yourself to the reserved lands justice in what were former British tral lands since time immemorial had of the province of Connaught and Clare colonies that preceded Australia in been brutally dispossessed and placed into which the Irish were ordered to on reserved lands that were allocated move, the alternative would be hell. west of the Mississippi under the infa- Those who did not leave their fertile Oliver Cromwell mous Indian Removal Act, 1830s. fields and travel to the poor land west The pattern of dispossession and the of the Shannon would be put the sword and Ireland policy of forced removal to reserve and Puritans believed that the destina- N lands and the control of residents' lives tion of these souls was hell. Malacht and movements both on and off the Chromail, the curse of Cromwell, is a reserve were the focus of my enquiries. phrase still in use in some parts of While the comparative land justice Ireland. issue was important it was obvious that Irish writer Breandan 0 hEthir the policy of removing the original describes Cromwell's mission to occupants and placing them on reserves Ireland: "Because he typified the mili- as a means of dispossession and as a taristic mixture of religion and the lust scheme for opening up the land for set- for Irish land, spilling much Irish blood tler society usage had been around long in the process, Cromwell found his per- before it reached Australia. Indeed it manent place in the folk-memory of was a well rounded policy based as it hate. Stories of the massacre of men, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was was on a great deal of prior experience. women and children in their hundreds an English military leader, politician, Using the American vernacular to after the siege of Drogheda (north of and dictator, and one of only two describe this part of the story it became Dublin) helped to perpetuate his reputa- commoners ever to have been the a question of "if the goddam reserves tion. The stark reality was that by the English Head of State (from 1653- were here, where the goddam hell did time the Cromwellian war had ended 1658; the other being his son they come from before they got to the population had been reduced by Richard Cromwell from 1658-1659). here?" famine and plague as well as systemat- He rose to command the army and to An open-ended question but one that ic butchery." impose his rule on England, produced results when I received some This policy of forced removal, isola- Scotland, and Ireland as Lord vital assistance. Professor Henry tion and control, dressed up in all its Protector, from December 1653 until Dobins, a scholar in the Newberry colonial trappings, had become a potent his death, which is believed to have Library, Chicago, enlightened me on and lethal force even before it reached been of malaria. After the restoration the origins and the practice of reserves Australia and the USA. of the monarchy in 1660 his body and in doing so was able to point me to The reserve system as a tool of was exhumed and hung in chains at a reference that linked the reserve sys- colonisation was developed in the Tyburn (Wikipedia). tem in the United States with that prac- United States under the Indian Cromwell was in Ireland from tised by the British before and during Removal Act, 1830. There are major August 1649 until May 1650 with an the Cromwellian Colonisation of differences in the recognition of army of 20,000 plus powerful Ireland 1654-1658. American Indian land rights and artillery and a navy; and, for the fol- Detailed discussion of an Irish con- Indigenous Australians, but the main lowing years, was also in command nection that links Indigenous Australia objectives of the reserves system were of the subsequent transfer of land and the United States to policies of consistent. from Catholic land-owners to forced removal, segregation and con- While the primary aim of the colonis- adventurers, soldiers and Old trol and land dispossession by the ers was to relocate Indigenous people- English Protestant settlers. British needs fuller treatment on anoth- away from their tr‘ditional lands, the His military campaign included er occasion. For now, let us take a cou- reserves nonetheless became enclaves massacres at Drogheda and ple of steps down that road. of Indigenous political resistance and Wexford. In the latter town his army Cromwell precedent survival. killed 2000 civilians in the market Indeed those reserves that were place. At Clonmel his army suffered of native reserves established within the traditional lands, serious casualties when trapped by The idea of separating Indigenous as can be demonstrated in the Yorta the forces led by Hugh Dubh people and placing them on reserves Yorta case, were skillfully manipulated O'Neill. was well-established British policy. At by Indigenous elders to provide for the The Cromwellian land settlement least two centuries before Australia was cultivation of the Indigenous political is often recalled in the phrase "To colonised, reserves were used to dispos- struggle. Hell or Connaught" which refers to sess and to replant traditional Irish In a later issue I will outline more the choice offered to those opposed groups. This was officially carried out details of my research on the Cromwell to British rule: execution, trans- by the infamous Oliver Cromwell under precedent and its ramifications for portation to Barbados or go west to the Act of Settlement of Ireland, 1652. Yorta Yorta and other Indigenous the less fertile lands of Connaught. The Cromwellian colonisation of claims. Cromwell's map-maker, William Ireland has left a legacy of brutality that is still uppermost in many Irish peo- • Dr Wayne Atkinson teaches Yorta Petty, estimated that 11 million of Yorta history and politics in "On coun- Ireland's 20 million acres were con- ple's narrative of history. "To Hell or Connaught" was the choice given to try learning: Indigenous studies" at the fiscated by the invaders under University of Melbourne. He is at Cromwell. Irish land owners which graphically described the mindset of British . 22 Min Sept-Nov 2006 "I went to Ireland to find out what being Irish means to me" Coming to terms with ggggrandfather Arthur Guinness, famous brewer

Cathy Guinness visited Ireland by marriage, and became a widow and I was discovering books about the with Wayne Atkinson. Sharing with when Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, Guinnesses. Particularly useful was Wayne a concern for human rights, killed her husband in a duel. Derek Wilson, Dark and Light: the Cathy nonetheless has a different Dad's grandfather was grandson to story of the Guinness family. I was also story to tell. In this second part of the famous Arthur Guinness. He was able to visit some of the buildings con- the report on their dual mission to named after Arthur nected to the Guinness family. Dublin she offers some intriguing Guinness's wife's cousin, the great Henry Grattan, leader of the Irish Good and bad news reflections on being a descendant about the Guinnesses of a famous Guinness family. Parliament in the late 1700s. Dad's mother Annie Reed was born Going back to Richard Guinness I'm an English and Irish Australian in England of Irish and Yorkshire par- (1690-1766), Arthur's father and the who was born in England but emigrat- ents. She emigrated to Tasmania at the earliest Guinness we can trace with no ed to Australia when I was seven. age of seven. doubts, I have some good news and However, I need to explain that Dad's grandmother on that side, some bad. I am happy that he was land- Arthur Guinness (1725-1803) who Margaret Frith, was from Inniskillen in less so not born privileged, but unhap- founded the Guinness Brewery was my Northern Ireland. She was descended py that he became part of the oppres- great-great-great-grandfather. from John Frith the martyr who, in the sive Protestant Ascendancy by working Dad was Rev Dr Howard Guinness time of Henry VIII, was burnt at the as an agent for Rev of the and his father, Dr Harry Grattan stake at Smithfield for distributing the . Guinness, was born in England of Irish William Tyndale bible. The Protestant Ascendancy was the parents. My mother, Barbara Green, is Dad's grandfather on his mother's land-owning Protestant ruling class English with a Portuguese grandmother side, Henry Reed, was born a Yorkshire which dominated the Catholics until but no Irish ancestry that I know of. man and at 21 he emigrated to Tasmania partial Irish independence was won I've always been ambivalent about my where he lived most of his life. from the British in 1922. Irishness, not because of any shame Dad, then, had three out of four Richard Guinness was the land agent about the idea of being Irish, quite the grandparents born in Ireland of Irish for Rev Price, who Derrick Wilson contrary, but because I was not sure of parents. Looked at that way, my genet- describes as "an establishment man what sort of Irish my Guinness ancestors ics is three-eighths Irish. Here are some through and through". As such Richard were. They were Protestants. I had this of my findings about the Guinnesses. was at the sharp end of English idea that they were Anglo-Irish whatev- In Dublin, Wayne was busy in the Protestant oppression of Catholic er that meant and was not at all sure city library researching Irish history, Irishmen. He would have overseen the what their politics were. My sympathies were with the Catholic underdog. So I often wondered what sort of wel- come would I receive in Ireland as a Guinness. What did being Irish mean to me? I went to Ireland to find out. Shamrock Trati. Dad's Fitzgerald, Frith and Guinness links Experts on Before telling you some of what I found out let me tell you some details Ireland,UK about my father's ancestry. These details are from Michelle Guinness, The Guinness Spirit: Brewers and and Europe Bankers, Ministers and Missionaries. No matter how you intend Dad's grandmother on his father's side, Fanny Fitzgerald, was Irish but was approaching your next trip to left an orphan and was raised in England Ireland or Europe, approach us by a Quaker family. Fitzgerald inciden- first, for first-class direction and tally is a Norman family name, so they advice at economy-class prices! would have been in Ireland from the 12th century when Maurice Fitz Gerald accompanied Strongbow to Ireland. Level 9/310 King St, Melbourne 3000 Dad's grandfather was born in Ireland and lived Tel: 03-9602 3700 Fax: 03-9602 3885 in Dublin and England as a child. His parents were both from Dublin: Captain Website: www.irishtravel.com.au John Grattan Guinness and Jane Lucretia Desterre. Jane was a Desterre Email: [email protected]

Thin Sept-Nov 2006 23 inheritance laws which provided that excluded Catholics. Arthur married into lands and tenancies must pass to any the establishment, took his place on the sons who declared for the faith of the City Council, and so on. established Church of Ireland, bypass- What did they do ing if necessary any Catholic heirs. Penal laws denied Catholics the right to with what they got? vote, buy land or join the professions. What use did these early Guinnesses The name Guinness could have come make of their influence and wealth? from of but it What were their politics? What was also occurs in English records centuries their commitment to human rights? ago in Devonshire. Whatever, Arthur These are my personal questions com- claimed the Magennis of County Down ing from my own perspective on the connection when he married Olivia world and important to my sense of Whitmore. That will do me. By doing heritage and identity. this he claimed an Irish heritage that The first Arthur was widely regarded was Catholic and that had supported as a good man. I can be proud of his James II against William of Orange. efforts to contribute to society. He was treasurer and later governor of the Claiming 12th century link Meath Charity Hospital. He supported In claiming Irishness in this way St Patrick's Cathedral (Church of Arthur was making a public statement Ireland) with money for schools. He of where his sympathies lay. That this was involved in penal reform. He was was not simply a cynical action giving an enlightened employer, treating his him two bob each way is shown by his Catholic workforce with dignity and later stand with Henry Grattan for respect. More unusual, he publicly sup- Catholic emancipation. Henry Grattan ported the Catholic majority in their was Arthur's wife's cousin. Cathy Guinness in front of a portrait struggle for equality, including full of her ancestor Arthur Guinness, So I, with Arthur Guinness, claim to emancipation, as long as they went the founder of the brewery be descended from the Magennis clan way of non-violence. of County Down. From the 12th centu- Arthur's son, Arthur II, continued the ate landlord during the famine in 1847. ry, Magennis were principal territorial civic and philanthropic work, serving on Arthur II, at this stage, had his big lords of Iveagh, Co Down. This clan charitable committees during the eco- estates in Wicklow and Wexford han- that Arthur chose to associate himself nomic depression and crops failures of dled by agents who removed unproduc- with was not only Catholic, it was offi- the late 1810s. He also assisted Daniel tive tenants and replaced them with cially regarded among Dublin's elite as O'Connell, the first Catholic to sit in the selected farmers able to absorb new traitorous. They, along with the great Westminster Parliament, to win a by- methods. He converted land to pasture O'Neill clan, supported James II election in County Clare in 1828. This is for beef and dairy. He thus became against William of Orange and went the same O'Connell who killed Jane party to the clearances, a dilemma he into exile. Desterre's husband, the Jane who John, resolved by being as generous as possi- The humble part of the Magennis Arthur's brother, married. ble to the departing tenants. clan which Richard claimed was far In 1839 at the age of 71 Arthur II The success of the Guinness Brewery removed from the earldom, and they retired and handed the business to his was such that Benjamin Lee became a may have dropped the Mac around son Benjamen Lee. When the potato millionaire. Like the Quakers, he was a 1690 to avoid penal laws against the blight and the Great Famine struck in the benevolent employer, providing job Catholics. Who can judge this too late 1840s Arthur urged Benj amen to use security, pensions, decent housing and harshly when you consider how unjust his wealth to relieve the sufferings of the amenities. Wages were higher than at and cruel these laws were. Others sug- poor, but Benjamen Lee like the rest of any other company. gest the Mac and 0 were dropped in his class chose to turn a blind eye and I have photos of the Guinness hous- many Irish families because of the infe- leave the problem to the Government. ing and the Guinness baths in the riority complex accompanying them. Only Arthur II's older son Arthur Lee Liberties area near the Brewery. The Arthur Guinness claimed Catholic used his resources to save lives. He was family home at 81 St Stephen's Green descent but was very much a Protestant. a live-in landlord at Stillorgan Park out- was donated by the family to the nation As he became more and more success- side Dublin and thus in contact with ten- in 1939 and renamed . ful in the brewery business, Arthur was ant farmers at first hand. An obelisk was Benjamen Lee's Ashford Estate at welcomed into the ruling class of a presented to him inscribed by his tenants Cong on the shore of Lough Corrib in Dublin society that systematically to mark his generosity as a compassion- Connemara created much employment and greatly improved living standards in this famine-scoured area. Selection of Guinness Family Tree There is no need to go further with Richard Guinness of married Elizabeth Read the brewing Guinnesses, as you have by now a picture of my direct ancestor Their son Arthur Guinness (founder of the brewery) married Olivia Whitmore Arthur and of the son and grandson that succeeded him. The busineSs has Their youngest child John Grattan Guinness married Jane Lucretia Desterre recently passed out of Guinness hands Their sixth child Rev Henry Grattan Guinness married Fanny Fitzgerald and our legacy may fade, but let's remember it as it was. Their eldest son Dr Harry Grattan Guinness married Annie Reed So how was I, a Guinness, received? Their ninth child Rev Dr Howard Guinness married Barbara Green There were two conversations I want to mention. In the Brazenhead Pub Dublin Their second child is Catherine (Cathy) Guinness on Easter Sunday 2006 there was a

24 Thin Sept-Nov 2006 crowded house celebrating the anniver- stood up for Catholic interests when sary of the Easter Uprising of 1916. We this was not a popular stance within were listening to some great traditional their class. I am pleased that they used music. Next to me was an Irishman of their considerable business success to about 30. When we exchanged infor- serve the workers' interests in a way mation and I told him I was a Guinness, that is still respected in Dublin today. he was excited and told me that his I am pleased that they participated in father had worked for Guinness for 30 the city politics of their day and con- years. Guinness were great employers tributed on the City Council, on hospi- and he mentioned housing, medical tal boards, and on the committees of Emerald care and pay. charities. They also were philanthro- travel "Brilliant" to be employed pists who gave away to these causes considerable sums of money. Of these by Guinness things I can be justifiably proud. In the Dublin library where we did I am aware also that these actions fell some research, Wayne made friends short of revolutionary. They and their with Leo Magee, a reformed Guinness class did not bring about Irish inde- alcoholic. He said Guinness were "bril- pendence, which was only achieved liant" employers because they had built through rebellion and the Republic. lots of housing around the Liberties The Arthurs, father and son, were area where he grew up and still lives, reformers, who sought to make peace- the Iveagh Baths with hot water for ful change through constitutional people who had no baths, a medical means. The business interests, the reli- centre and gardens. gious commitments and the voracious As a result of Leo's comments I appetite of a large and unevenly solvent walked around the Liberties and found cast of relatives resulted in them focus- the Guinness buildings near the ing on business, family and Christian Brewery. The photos are there for you all living rather than radical politics. to see. So I am ashamed that Benjamen Lee You will see in photos at the brewery went along with his class in dismissing that Arthur is celebrated as a brewer the urgency of the Great Famine and only. There is none of the history of cor- failing to take action to prevent the porate citizenship that is so important to appalling suffering that resulted. He Located within the me. This was extremely disappointing had the opportunity to stand up and and may point to the changes to come make a difference. Celtic Club building under a multinational company. Then there is the failure of generation Living with contradictions after generation of English rulers to For the best deals and Back from Ireland, I am gathering relate honorably to the Irish. The history service when travelling of English perfidy, greed and brutality, to Ireland and beyond my thoughts about my Irishness, a their double standards and appalling use work in progress like all questions of of power against a race of people, that is identity. I have been able to affirm At those aspects of me that resonate with a shame that I too have to bear, because I am mostly English and because I am Emerald Travel Irish sensibilities, and have experi- part of the privileged classes. Seamus and enced again and most forcefully the Now I have faced up to my Irish her- English/Irish struggle within. This is an important aspect of my life and its con- itage and explored it a bit, now I have Christina opened up to the pride and the shame, tradictions. the dark and the light, and I am glad to Moloughney Human rights and political behaviour be able to share honestly in the great continue are my particular interests, and of heritage the Irish value so highly. course each of us would be interested in Accepting what happened in Ireland, a family tradition a different angle. I have focused on the powerful, cruel and deep divisions those facets of the first three genera- between Catholic and Protestant, Irish of professional tions of the Dublin Guinnesses. and English, is important as a precursor As I have explored these things, I travel service to understanding what is happening in have also learned about the context of other divided nations around the world. their lives, the political history of Level 3, 316 Queen St, Joyfully, being Irish is being part of a Melbourne Ireland. The multiple identities of Irish fascinating family, most marvellous people include questions about which musical tradition, a country of story- Victoria 3000 ethnic groups they are descended from, tellers and powerful imagination, and a Celtic people, Vikings, Normans, land of ancient and mysterious beauty. Scottish, English and so on; what reli- 03 9670 9696 It is a great privilege and great fun to be gion, Catholic, Church of Ireland, Irish. Presbyterian, or other; what class, land- 0419 401 584 ed Protestant Ascendancy, landed Sources: Michelle Guinness, The Fax: 03 9670 7007 Catholic, or landless; what educational Guinness Spirit; Hudson Fysh, Henry and employment status; and what side Reed: Van Diemans Land Pioneer; Derek [email protected] they fought on in the endless battles. Wilson, Dark and Light: the story of the www.emeraldtravel.com.au I am pleased that these Guinnesses Guinness family; Jonathan Guinness, identified with Catholic forebears and Requiem for a Family Business. Licence 32507

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