Irish mystery man to be revealed

THE Central Victorian Irish Association will reveal the identity of an Irish ‘mystery man’ with strong links to the region when it hosts its next event, The World’s Worst Jackaroo, on Saturday 22 June.

To be held from 2.30pm at the La Trobe Arts Institute in View Street, the session will detail the man’s story from his beginnings in Ireland, to a failed stint in Australia, to an ultimate appointment in the British government during World War Two.

“In 1916, a young juvenile delinquent was shipped out by his desperate mother in Dublin to Echuca, to a cousin of hers, an Augustinian Catholic priest,” said association vice-president John Clancy.

“The young man was employed by a local farmer as a jackaroo. He proved to be hopeless at this task, preferring to read history books under the shade of the trees.”

According to Mr Clancy, the boy moved to Sydney and worked a few jobs before returning to Ireland in late 1919 and moving to England soon after. “In England he changed his accent to an Australian accent and told everyone that his parents had died in Australia in a bushfire,” Mr Clancy says.

Elected to the British parliament in 1929, he became friends with Winston Churchill and eventually became a minister in Churchill’s wartime cabinet.

“I was aware of this man, as he was born only 30 miles from where I was born in Ireland,” Mr Clancy says.

“However, I did not know that he lived in our region of northwest Victoria for about a year as a teenager – this came as a complete surprise to me.

“There are few examples of a useless jackaroo becoming a high cabinet minister in any government, especially the British government.”

The man’s name will be revealed during a narrative on his life written and presented by Mr Clancy.

The event will also feature bush songs, World War Two songs, and bush poems by Banjo Patterson.

There will also be a visual display. Admission will be $5 cash at the door.