Australian Of The Year Prof Pat McGorry has declared that this country must emerge from its “prolonged adolescence into the full flower of independent adulthood” as a republic.

The Dublin-born professor, who has built an international reputation for his work on mental health, made a passionate plea for constitutional change to “finally face up to the test of maturity, our own tryst with destiny,  and become adherents to the seriously progressive idea and reality of Australia as a truly independent republic with its own unique and complex identity”.

In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, Prof McGorry described himself as a “life-long republican and Irish-Australian”.

He likened modern-day Australia to a teenager staring into “the middle distance towards the horizon of national maturity”.

“Australia’s adolescence has lasted more than 100 years since Federation.  This is one world record we shouldn’t be proud of,” he said.

Born in Ireland to an “Irish Catholic father with strong ‘West-Brit’ tendencies” and an Aussie mum, McGorry moved to Wales with his family when he was two in the mid-1950s, and later to Australia, when he was 15, in 1968.

“From my first days in Australia I vividly recall finding it aversive to gaze upon the Union Jack on the Australian Flag.  It was only a growing love of Australia during the inspiring and heady days of the Whitlam government which overcame my reluctance to accept the Queen as Head of State when I became an Australian citizen in Randwick Town Hall in May 1975,” he said.

McGorry said Australia was like “the 27-year-old who just won’t leave home! A Gen Y nation!”

He claimed that the “descendants of what was once the Irish Catholic underclass of the 19th and early 20th century” were now a “seamless element of the establishment and mainstream society itself”.

However, he said, “these ancestors would rest more comfortably within an Australian republic”.

“For a long time,” he opined, “the Irish-Australian contribution to Australian republicanism has been furtively denied for fear of frightening the old sectarian horses. Those horses are long dead in this country and it is safe to tap into this valid vein of republican support.”

In order to advance the constitutional debate, he said, “we need an awakening of spirit, an acceptance of historical truths, and a rediscovery of original Australian values”.

by Billy Cantwell

Full transcript of Professor Pat McGorry’s speech

“I accept with the greatest alacrity the high honour you have done me in calling me to the chair of this majestic meeting. I feel more honoured than I ever did in my life, with one single exception…..” Daniel O’Connell 1843. The exception in my case I think is obvious.

Tonight I am going to talk about why it is time for Australia to pass the test of maturity and finally emerge from its prolonged adolescence into the full flower of independent adulthood as the Republic of Australia.

I intend to talk firstly about the origins and meaning of national maturity, secondly why national maturity provides an antidote to current political disenchantment, and finally how national maturity must be based on integration of our disparate cultural legacies.

I have begun with a quote from the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell MP, the great pacifist leader of the 19^th century whose name is honoured in Sydney and Melbourne nearly as much as in his native Ireland. He was the forerunner of Gandhi and of the peaceful mass movement for freedom. He succeeded in delivering Catholic Emancipation in 1829, but not in the repeal of the act of Union.

This would take the best part of 100 years to realise.

At the other end of O’Connell Street in Dublin from the statue of O’Connell himself stands the memorial to the other great 19^th century Irish independence leader, Charles Stewart Parnell, which bears the quote “No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has the right to say to his country, ‘Thus far shalt thou go and no further’.” Yet both sides of Australian politics are seeking to set the boundary to Australia’s progress. It is as unacceptable for Australia in 2010 as it was in Ireland in 1885.

I am a life-long republican, an Irish-Australian and I am a psychiatrist who has spent the last 25 years focused on the struggle of young people as they make the tortuous and increasingly protracted transition to adulthood.

I am not a historian or a constitutional lawyer so my lecture will be personal and intuitive. I can see parallels for our nation as it stares into the middle distance towards the horizon of national maturity. Just like any adolescent or emerging adult we know we will get there; but the question is when?

Tonight I say let us seek our “tryst with destiny” as did India in 1947 on the eve of independence from colonial rule.

Australia’s adolescence has lasted more than 100 years since Federation. This is one world record we shouldn’t be proud of.

By way of personal background, I was born in Ireland to an Irish Catholic father with strong “West-Brit” tendencies. His father had served in the old RIC, his brother had fought for the British Army in WW1, and he himself had worked in England as a doctor and had served in the British Navy as a Surgeon-Lieutenant in WW11. My mother was born in Australia to an Irish Protestant mother and English father (who had fought in the Boer war and with the AIF at Gallipoli and Palestine) but had grown up in Dublin in the early years of the Irish Free State immediately post independence. My family moved to Wales when I was 2 in the mid 1950s, and later to Australia, when I was 15, in 1968.

Despite this relatively anglophilic family atmosphere, my earliest sympathies were totally republican and nationalist, and I read Irish history with a passion from middle childhood. My first political party membership was of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party in the 1960s.

From my first days in Australia I vividly recall finding it aversive to gaze upon the Union Jack on the Australian Flag. It was only a growing love of Australia during the inspiring and heady days of the Whitlam government which overcame my reluctance to accept the Queen as Head of State when I became an Australian citizen in Randwick Town Hall in May 1975.

Australia, like America, has had very profound influences early in its settled history shaping its national psyche. Dr. Tony Moore, in his wonderful recent book “Death or Liberty”, has reminded us of Australia’s magnificent history of republican martyrs and heroes who were brought here in chains.

He reconnects us with this unique essence of the Australian nation and argues that its failure to appeal to the heart and not the head has seriously weakened the Australian Republican Movement. We have heard too much in recent years from constitutional lawyers on the republic and not enough from the heart and soul of Australia. From the martyrs of the Scottish Enlightenment, the United Irishmen, the English Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Canadian Patriots, the Chartists, the Young Irelanders, the Fenians, and the spirit of Eureka.

Australia has enormous wellsprings of egalitarian and republican spirit, but is has been suppressed and half-forgotten.

We must disperse this amnesia. The Governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, arguably the Father of Australia, whose bicentennial we celebrate this year, and who gave us the gift of the “fair go”, is another precious, again newly rediscovered, influence:

“It has been My Invariable Opinion…that, Once a Convict has become Free Man, either by Servitude, Free Pardon, or Emancipation, he should in All Respects be Considered on a footing with every other Man in the Colony, according to his Rank in Life and Character. In Short, that no Retrospect Should in any Case be had to his having been a Convict. Lachlan Macquarie to Lord Bathurst, 28 June 1813

America was suffused with high ideals flowing from flight from religious persecution and the Enlightenment, and fired in the forge of armed revolution. Australia’s early years were a crucible in which freedom and a second chance beckoned beyond brutal repression. Both countries now struggle to match reality to the myth and many would argue have seriously lost their way. This week as a disillusioned nation struggles to recreate its national government, perhaps we need to look more deeply into our history and values to rediscover Australia’s secret and her mature future.

My own life course and my work with young people has allowed me glimpses into what is required to make a successful transition to maturity and independent adulthood. There are a number of threats to this process.

If someone’s early years have been blighted by a chaotic environment, or by systematic abuse and neglect, this may undermine a sense of self-esteem and confidence. If one has a dominating and overbearing parent who inhibits the child’s emerging sense of self and independence than that is clearly a problem. If the child idealises the parent and fails to establish a sense of separate identity then that also can be a barrier to independence. This is known as identity foreclosure.

If the child feels unprotected and isolated a long way from home, then there will be a natural tendency to adhere tenaciously to old parental ties or search for surrogates. If there is illness, external threat or disaster, then this can derail a healthy process of maturation and cause regression or stagnation. All of these influences can have effects either to promote or undermine the development of a strong and independent sense of self. Many have previously speculated on how these influences have affected Australia’s development as a nation up until the mid 20^th century. Some indeed may be valid reasons for a cautious approach. However sixty five years after the the end of the Second World War and the involution of the British Empire, we are way beyond reasonable caution.

Hence I am more interested in how Australia, having achieved a good measure of self-government in the 19^th century and, in contrast to Latin America, federated successfully, could become stalled as it has in its march to nationhood.

It has been a clear case of identity foreclosure. There were early signs of separation anxiety during the 1926 Imperial Conference, which gave us the (second) Balfour Declaration of 1926, defining the evolving rights of the Dominions.

Australia by all reports was the most immature of the children, and was most reluctant to accept these increasing measures of independence.

Not surprisingly, South Africa, the Irish Free State and Canada were much more keen.

As an aside, the term Commonwealth of Australia should have set us on the right track. However this term was selected in 1901, but it is a form of proto-republic (the term “res publica” means something like common wealth) having been used when England itself was briefly a republic under Cromwell. Interestingly, during the 1990s, the British MP Tony Benn sought to end the monarchy by peaceful means and re-establish a Commonwealth of Britain via a series of failed private member’s bills in the House of Commons. Well the Commonwealth of Australia is still pretty “proto” if not “retro”.

Returning to the subject of adolescence, it is interesting to note that during the period since the 1960s, in which Australia could have conceivably matured, overcome cultural cringe and become a genuine republic, we have seen a slow down in the rate and quality of maturation of recent cohorts of adolescents.

While children start on the road to adulthood earlier these days in a precocious way as “tweens”, the road itself has been stretched out and the trek is a much longer one. It is easy to lose one’s way, to lose heart, to turn back and regroup. Some fall by the wayside, many are damaged or disabled, or just take time out, but most make it in the end if belatedly.

Oddly enough, just like Australia herself, even though in all practical aspects they seem adult, recent research clearly reveals that young people in the early 21^st century describe themselves subjectively as not fully mature or independent. So Australia is like the 27 year old who just won’t leave home!

A Gen Y nation! The key tasks of this long transitional period of emerging adulthood are to develop a sense of identity as an individual person, to physically separate from the family of origin and live independently, to obtain meaningful employment and support oneself financially, to develop a strong peer network of friends and evolve an adult to adult relationship with one’s parents. Threats to this these days include rising family discord and chaos, rampant materialism and the widespread availability of alcohol and drugs. What is Australia’s excuse?

While disadvantage can blight lives during this transitional stage, we often see the offspring of the very privileged and affluent struggle with these tasks.

This provides a clue to Australia’s maturational arrest.

We have not had to fight for our sense of identity in our own right. Historians have often pointed out that, the major wellsprings to this aspect of our national identity are either battles fought on behalf of our parent (Britain) or ones fought side by side with a surrogate parent or much older sibling (the USA) who had come to our rescue in time of huge threat.

As with the children of the rich we have had less motivation to fight for ourselves. That is an old argument, which compares us unfavourably with Ireland, India and the US, as well as a host of successful and not so successful post-colonial nations. I would say however that the early post-colonial period can be very harsh since the colonial experience is like being a ward of the state.

The state, just like the colonialist, is all too often a bad parent. We are well aware of the sad fate of so many children during state care and beyond, that is the graduates of orphanages and statutory care.

The second modern force eroding our initiative and independence is the affluence and materialism that has taken hold in recent decades in Australia and the developed world. The comfort zone that we now inhabit has sapped much purpose, meaning and values from life in general.

This makes it hard for us to find direction in life as individuals and collectively as a nation. The thirst for maturity and authenticity that has been created by this sad trend was on view in recent days as the public gave its verdict on what has been on offer during the election campaign. It is from this depleted soil that springs the prevailing orthodoxy that the republic, while supported in principle, is not a priority.

Like so many other national priorities, the republic has no real champions.

Other, grubby materialistic and hedonistic issues are more pressing, progress is deferred and thus denied, and we are repeatedly told and meekly accept that we cannot focus on multiple agendas. Meaning and symbols are not important. Our buried and potential identity is a peripheral issue. I sense from last week’s election result that this is a serious misreading of the peoples’ deeper needs and desires. We now see these aspirations being projected onto a small band of independent MPs. It is a big ask. Leaders will not promote the issue of the republic, nor other issues of principle for fear of offending the focus groups, so where will the momentum come from. This is where we need to return to the example of the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell MP, and adapt it for the 21^st century.

How can the republic become a mainstream issue?

Let’s consider all the various strands of our multicultural Australian society and see how they can be woven together to securely embrace maturity. Let’s start with Indigenous Australians. Larissa Behrendt points out in her 2005 National Republican Lecture: “The Australian Dream: Indigenous Peoples in an Australian Republic” that the republic must capture the hearts and minds of Australians and encapsulate the very values that make us uniquely Australian. She includes among these the “ fair go” and, drawing on Mark McKenna’s work, sees reconciliation as essential to the creation of the republic.

Paul Keating, arguably our greatest Australian republican, in his iconic Redfern Park speech of 10^th December 1992, some 15 years before the national apology of 2008, stated:

“They have shaped our identity. They are there in the Australian legend. We should never forget – they helped build this nation. And if we have a sense of justice, as well as common sense, we will forge a new partnership.”

He also went on to say that: “The message should be that there is nothing to fear or to lose in the recognition of historical truth, or the extension of social justice, or the deepening of Australian social democracy to include indigenous Australians.”

This latter message resonates with the integration of the egalitarian tradition of the fair go of Macquarie and the related anti-authoritarian legacy bequeathed from the convicts and especially the cohorts of political prisoners and dissenters. Even those states without a convict history took in the dissenters, the dispossessed of Ireland and the poor of Britain.

In the wake of Kevin Rudd’s apology of 2008, the key unresolved issue is revealed as the original British claim to the sovereignty of Australia. While the apology may have facilitated some resolution of the many atrocities and humiliations committed during the course of colonisation, it is hard to see how the unextinguished claims of the Aboriginal peoples to sovereignty of this country can be responded to while the Union Jack still has pride of place on our flag and the Queen of England is head of state. Only a republic can transcend this problem.

Once again the Irish experience seems relevant to me in trying to understand the Aboriginal perspective. Last year I spent a period of sabbatical leave in Ireland, the first time I had actually lived there for an extended time as an adult. While I probably felt things very much from the standpoint of the exile or “plastic Paddy” as we are sometimes derided, I read Irish history in depth again, but with a different insight and during the crash of the Celtic tiger. It is a long colonial history of genocide, ethnic cleansing and cultural vandalism similar in style to what beset the Aboriginal people of Australia and other new world countries. The effects were similar for a long time during the colonial period and even after independence in 1921, it has taken 90 years to begin to overcome these.

There are still residual stains in the national psyche of Ireland, marking a subtle lack of self-belief under stress and to an Irish-Australian an unexpected respect for authority disconcerting to an exile, who idealises the egalitarianism and fighting spirit which have been gifts of the Irish to the new world. The healing and cleansing of these colonial stains centrally involves reconciliation of all strands of Irish life. In the Republic of Ireland, for example, there is a belated recognition of those Irishmen, Catholic and Protestant, like my relatives, who fought, not with the venerated IRA heroes who liberated Ireland during the War of Independence from 1918-21, but for the British Army in WW1 in much larger numbers. I learned that even republican independence from the long hated colonist did not rapidly or fully resolve the hurt and the humiliation for the long dispossessed, but that time and reconciliation were needed for this to approach completion. How challenging and central will this process be for Aboriginal people in the new Australian republic? The republic will be necessary, I think essential, but not sufficient, for reconciliation with the indigenous people of this land.

Turning to those migrants and refugees of the post war period with no connection to England or Britain, it is likely that they will feel much more at ease within a multicultural Australian republic. I have carefully read Huy Truong’s 2004 National Republican Lecture which supports this point of view, emphasising how a republic would overcome the insecurity of the guest mentality that many still feel. This insecurity feeds and is fanned by the hysteria of recent years flowing from the asylum seeker debacle and the related tide of primitive nationalism which culminated in the Cronulla riots where the current Australian flag was misused and tarnished. An Australian republic and I believe a new flag will clearly build confidence of non-Anglo migrants as stakeholders in the future of Australia.

For those descendants of what was one the Irish Catholic underclass of the 19^th and early 20^th century, subsequently the counter-establishment and ultimately now a seamless element of the establishment and mainstream society itself, perhaps it no longer matters to most of them. However the connection with the past, while largely amnesic, still matters in symbol, tone and spirit, and these ancestors would rest more comfortably within an Australian republic.

In the present day, the power of this unconscious bond is felt by Irish and Australians alike when they visit each others’ countries for the first time. For a long time the Irish-Australian contribution to Australian republicanism has been furtively denied for fear of frightening the old sectarian horses.

Those horses are long dead in this country and it is safe to tap into this valid vein of republican support. Finally, for what is still by far the majority of Australians, those of British birth or descent, what is their position? Some perhaps, especially more recent arrivals, retain understandable affection for the link with Britain and are comfortable with the Union Jack on the Australian flag. For others the passage of time, some dilution effects and the failure of national maturity has spawned a surly dissonance reflected in antipathy to English sporting teams and the perjorative term “Pommy bastard”. The Anglo-Australians are at greatest risk of contributing to maturational arrest. But I would argue that their mature option is to throw in their lot with the Indigenous, and those of Irish, other European and non-European background.

Indeed what is so heartening is how many Australians of Anglo origin do in fact support the republic. They should have a central place in a new Australian republic. The solution.

I wonder if the leaders have truly learned something from the reaction of the public to the recent election campaign. We need an awakening of spirit, an acceptance of historical truths, and a rediscovery of original Australian values.

The youth of Australia have not only helped in the diagnosis of the malaise of delayed maturation but in their endeavour to deal with this challenge, they may have also shown us the solution. If Daniel O’Connell were alive today (and under 25) he would be CEO of Getup! These young people have helped to ignite our political and social world. We need the 21^st century equivalent of Gandhi’s Indian Independence Movement or the Polish Solidarity Movement to galvanise and mobilise the Australian people.

The Australian Republican Movement could re-energise itself, assume this mantle and embrace the techniques and strategies of Getup and the politics of the street and the town hall.

We need to surge forward to an Australian “tryst with destiny” as reflected in this quote from Milan Kundera:

“The best progressive ideas are those that include a strong dose of provocation to make its supporters feel proud of being original, but at the same time attract so many adherents that the risk of being an isolated exception is immediately averted by the noisy approval of a triumphant crowd.” Kundera 1978: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Let’s provoke and inspire Australians to finally face up to the test of maturity, our own tryst with destiny, and become adherents to the seriously progressive idea and reality of Australia as a truly independent republic with its own unique and complex identity.

Two young Cavan men have been remanded in custody at Hakea Prison in Western Australia after admitting to drug importation charges at Perth Magistrates Court.

As reported in the Irish Echo, Christopher Michael Murtagh, 24, and Alan Farrelly 26, both understood to be from Bailieborough, were arrested in August after police seized up to 2,000 BZP or “party drug” tablets and about 35 grams of cocaine.

The drugs had been posted to a number of addresses in the Perth suburbs of Scarborough and Port Kennedy.

Murtagh, who recently got married and is living in Port Kennedy, pleaded guilty to two charges including conspiracy to possess MDMA, or ecstasy, with intent to sell/supply.

While Farrelly, a former Dundalk IT student now living in Scarborough, was also charged with selling cocaine. Both men appeared in a packed courtroom via video-link from prison.

They were remanded in custody for a further court appearance on October 22.

It is understood the two friends have been in Australia for most of 2010 and have been granted legal aid.

Another Irish national caught up in the drug bust has also been charged in court with conspiracy to possess an illegal drug, and to another charge of possessing stolen or unlawfully obtained property.

Garry David Black (38), who’s application for home detention was yesterday declined by a Judge, has been remanded in custody until September 29th, when the case will be up for mention in court.

A judge is expected to hand down a decision on his case within weeks.

Australian Of The Year and mental health reform advocate, Professor Patrick McGorry, has spoken out about the negative impact that prolonged detention can have on asylum seekers on Christmas Island.

Speaking on the 7PM Project news programme, the Dublin-born psychiatrist said that his visit to Christmas Island had not changed his position on the policy of offshore processing.

“Detention is wrong. There are alternatives to detention. Community-based processing is a viable option as we see in many, many countries around the world,” said Prof McGorry.

He told the 7PM Project that the centre is very crowded, holding five times more people than it was designed to hold.

“Despite that the staff are doing their very best to humanise the situation so it’s a lot better there as a culture than the old detention centres under previous governments,” said Prof McGorry.

“At the moment it is calm but it is very difficult to operate that centre thousand of kilometres from Australia.” He said that the idea that the people on Christmas Island are economic migrants is ‘a fiction’ and that they have mostly come from war zones in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq.

“They have got the signs of war zones not just on their physical presence but on their psyches as well.

“There’s really good evidence now that prolonged detention is very bad for your mental health.”

In a recent opinion piece in The Age newspaper Prof. McGorry called for a more pragmatic approach to offshore processing.

“I heard Christmas Island described as a logistic miracle, yet it is a fragile one, purchased at huge public expense.

“The whole endeavour mirrors the extreme demands placed on professionals working in disaster zones. It is not sustainable. We need a regional solution in which Australia faces up to its responsibilities in a mature way — as it did in the 1980s,” he wrote.

“This has been an emotional and divisive debate in Australia. [Prime Minister] Gillard is right to say that we can be much better than this.

“We have lost our way and need to restore the core Australian values of frankness, pragmatism and the fair go.”

McGorry appealed to the main political parties to tone down their language about asylum seekers and endeavour to diffuse fears in the community instead of inflaming them.
“Both sides of politics are stressing the need for fiscal rectitude,” he wrote.

“Why then are we spending many times more than we need on a policy that is really about managing fear?

“Why not spend those precious taxpayers’ dollars on services that are seriously lacking in many parts of Australia, especially the outer urban growth corridors and regional and rural communities? Middle Australia is entitled to ask why there is so little money for vital mental health services for Australians but unlimited funds to support a policy driven by emotion and optics. Why not inject some hard-nosed pragmatism into the discussion and take the paranoia out?”

Prof McGorry has been lobbying for a major increase to funding for mental health services.

Speaking on ABC’s Four Corners programme last Monday, he condemned the failure of governments to properly fund and resource mental health services as a “national obscenity”.

by Luke O’Neill

Irish rock trio The Script have just announced plans to perform in Australia this October in support of their upcoming album Science & Faith They have been compared with some of the biggest names in the music industry such as U2, Van Morrison and Maroon 5.

Their self-titled debut album, released in 2008 went to number one in the Irish charts and has produced hit singles all over the world. It achieved Platinum status here in Australia and launched the band head first into the spotlight with the highly popular single Breakeven. It was also a hit in America with Breakeven featuring for the last 34 weeks in the US Billboard Hot 100.

Dubliners Danny O’Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power have achieved not only commercial success but also huge critical acclaim worldwide with an addictive blend of hip hop rhythms, flowing melodies and story-spinning lyrics.

In 2009 the band were handpicked to open for U2 and Paul McCartney and continued to win hearts across the globe with their charisma and crowd-pleasing live performances.

With Danny’s mellifluous soulful vocals riding high over huge, anthemic choruses, Science & Faith is far from a difficult second album.

It is due for release in Australia next month. The first single from upcoming album Science & Faith will be For The First Time.

General public tickets for the upcoming Australian dates will go on sale from 9am (local time) on Friday, August 13.

They play the Palace Theatre in Melbourne on Tuesday, October 5 and the Big Top at Luna Park, Sydney on Wednesday, October 6. The Sydney show will be an all ages gig.

Tickets can be bought through Ticketek on 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

The rumour mill is in over-drive as to whether U2 are indeed set to tour Australia and New Zealand this summer.

While promoters are staying tight-lipped on a trip down under, word on the street is that the Dublin legends may play here in November or December.

Tour dates on U2’s official website leave a gap between the last European gig in Rome on October 8th, and the first of the American leg in Denver on May 21st.

Music reporter Nui Te Koha says this could leave room for gigs in Australia and New Zealand.

“They’re going to do Europe, South America and that’s where Australia fits in before they head back to America next year,” said Nui. Meanwhile, The Courier Mail has reported that the second week of December is firming as the window of U2’s return to Brisbane.

“It’s understood police licensing have signed off on the event, however, a well-placed industry insider said U2 management were still awaiting a medical report on Bono’s back before locking a date in,” the newspaper reported.

The Irish Echo is keeping a close eye on the story…stay tuned.

Dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Dermot Weld will return this year to try to win the great race for a third time. The master Irish trainer has four horses in contention this year, with Rite Of Passage being tipped to come out in front. He also intends to bring back Profound Beauty, who ran fifth behind Viewed in the 2008 Melbourne Cup.

Renowned for helping turn the Melbourne Cup into a truly global event, Weld won the iconic race in 1993 with Irish horse Vintage Crop, the first overseas trained horse to win the Cup.

The only northern hemisphere trainer, Weld experienced Melbourne Cup victory again in 2002 with Irish horse Media Puzzle. This victory is now the subject of the movie The Cup, which is currently being filmed around Melbourne.

One of the most revered trainers in the world, Dermot Weld holds the record for the greatest number of winning horses in Ireland.

An official launch for the Melbourne Cup was held in Flemington, where a stellar line up of racing royalty, including Weld, assisted the proceedings. The nominations are now closed and the countdown is on to the milestone 150th race. which will take place on Tuesday, November 2 this year.

It’s steadily gaining notoriety as the greatest day on the Australian sporting and social calendar and Dale Montieth, CEO of Victoria Racing Club, has said that ticket sales are already up 150% compared to this time last year.

On race day, Weld will be joined by many international trainers who have accepted the challenge to try to win the $6 million race. The competition is expected to be harder that ever with 45 European, Japanese and Hong Kong raiders entered.

The only notable international absentee is Irish trainer Aidan OBrien, whose emerging stayer, Age Of Acquarius, broke down at Goodwood Cup in England and has been retired to stud.

Weld made the promise to contend the race immediately after Rite Of Passage scored a famous win in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup 4000m at Royal Ascot early in June.

“I suppose we’ll have to take him to Melbourne now,” Weld said immediately after the six-year-old delivered his first success in England’s most famous staying race.

Interestingly, Rite Of Passage is owned by Dr Richard Lambe, an Irish research scientist whose daughter Kate is currently attending university in Melbourne. Weld’s son Mark said Dr Lambe was a regular visitor to Melbourne to see his daughter and was very keen to have a runner in the Melbourne Cup.

Boyzone singer Ronan Keating’s marriage is back on track, following a period of reconciliation in Australia with his wife Yvonne, according to the Sunday Independent.

Keating arrived here in June with his 12-year marriage in tatters, amid revelations that he had had an affair with 26-year-old blonde backing dancer Francine Cornell. But Keating said that being away from home and the constant headlines had given them both room to see if their love could win through.

“We’ve been left to our own devices but we are now a happy family,” he said. “It’s all good, thank God.”

The comments follow weeks of speculation that the couple were “talking things through” and trying to get their marriage back on track.

A meeting of the Young Irish Executives was held in Melbourne at the beginning of July.

[Show as slideshow]

This coming weekend, the Irish government will host the first Global Irish Economic Forum.

A new initiative, it laudably sets out to harness the power and creativity of the diaspora.

“I believe that the Global Irish Economic Forum has the potential to be … a platform for the development of a long term strategy which will channel the enormous potential of this global community,” Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin said last week about the conference.

So, this is Ireland reaching out across the globe to its emigrants, right?

Well no, not exactly.

This is Ireland reaching out to the US and UK with token representation from other regions. Over 80 per cent of delegates will be drawn from these countries and, of course, Ireland itself. At least 20 delegates will not have the inconvenience of getting on an aircraft to get to Dublin as they are already in the country.

This in itself would not look so ridiculous if there were not just four representatives from Australia. The ‘most Irish country in the world outside of Ireland’ will occupy about two per cent of the seats at this Global Irish Conference.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Australian quartet attending the conference are fine ambassadors for this country and will make a valuable contribution, it is difficult for Irish Australia to see this as anything other than a snub by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

Forget the fact that Australia has, for the past 10 years, been the number one destination for young Irish people and that the Irish are the highest earning Europeans in Australia.

Forget the fact that cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Perth represent the future of the diaspora as much as cities like Boston and Liverpool represent its past.

Forget all those things.

Consider Australia’s strategic economic position as a springboard into the key Asian markets and the fact that it is the only western economy to avoid recession during the current financial crisis. Ireland has plenty of friends in America. It needs friends in Asia.

All of these considerations point to the fact that Australia is drastically under-represented at this event.

More broadly, it clearly demonstrates that Irish Australia is very much the poor relation in the eyes of the decision makers in Dublin.

Consider emigrant funding.

In 2008, Irish community groups in Australia received just over one per cent of Ireland’s total emigrant funding. Groups in Britain and the United States received over 90 per cent. Even groups based within Ireland itself were given over €1m from the emigrant funding budget while Australia received a sixth of that.

Among those who benefited from emigrant funding last year were the GAA (€400,000) and the Football Association of Ireland (€50,000).

While funding is confined almost exclusively to welfare in Australia, the Irish government funds a broader range of activities in other parts of the diaspora including support for Irish clubs and festivals, St Patrick’s Day parades, GAA competitions and political lobby groups.

In the current circumstances, such funding is under review in any case but in our view, Australia has been short-changed by the Irish government in favour of other (nearer) parts of the diaspora.

Irish community groups should remind Irish politicians of the apparent inequity when they next come to visit.