Many Irish men and women have contributed to the emergence and development of Australia as a nation. Probably the greatest was my mother's first cousin, Herbert Vere Evatt, writes Eric Dunlop.
The Evatt family came from Smithboro, Co Monaghan. Herbert's father, John Ashmore Hamilton Evatt, left there for New South Wales in 1870, aged 16. He settled at East Maitland in the Hunter Valley some 60 miles north of Sydney. There he met Jeanie Grey. She was good-looking, intelligent and a strong character. They were married in 1882 and took over the Bank Hotel, an informal and welcoming hostelry. The whiskey bottle stood on the counter and was not abused.
Their fifth son, Herbert Vere, arrived in April 1894. He was a vigorous baby who had a strong mind of his own and as he grew was full of questions. Living in a hotel, he got used early to mixing with people and noting the variations of human nature. In early boyhood, he became aware of the difficulties of the underprivileged and ever after had a natural sympathy with them. He was never diffident, did not accept bad work, but recognised a task well done.
He went to Fort Street school in Sydney using the ferry boats run by a relative. He worked hard and gained every prize. At St Andrew's College of Sydney University he began with arts, but soon added law and graduated in 1915 with first-class honours in all subjects.
By now he was becoming aware that Australia was a deeply conservative country with a very marked divide between the classes. Those who ran the big businesses, the banks, the public corporations, not to mention the press, gave nothing away to those outside a "magic circle". Labour with either a big or a small "L" was treated with suspicion and hostility. Evatt had become aware of a lot of poverty and suffering among many of the lesser-paid and by instinct and deep feeling was committed to striving to bring about improvements. When the Irish Rising occurred in April 1916, he criticised the British government strongly for its extreme methods in dealing with it.
In 1918 he was called to the Bar. It was a very sad time for him, his mother and brothers. Ray, a brilliant athlete, had been killed at Passchendaele while Frank, a medical student, lost his life in the last weeks of the war. Bert's mother never recovered from the shock of the loss of her two sons.
Soon after the war ended, Evatt married an American girl, Mary Alice Sheffer, who had come to Australia when very young. When they first met, a fellow student of Mary's said to her about Bert: "Oh, you can't go out with him - he's a Bolshie and besides he's far too handsome!"
In 1925, Evatt joined the Labor party and was elected to the New South Wales Assembly. In 1929, he was appointed a King's Counsel and in the following year was made a judge of the High Court. He had reached the pinnacle of his profession. Little did he know that far greater achievements on the world stage still lay ahead of him.
By 1940, John Curtin, a hugely popular figure, had become leader of the federal Labor party and Evatt left the bench to join him, being elected to the federal parliament with a huge majority. A month before Japan entered the war, a Labor government was sworn in and Evatt whose great all-round experience had by now earned him the informal title of "Doc", became minister for external affairs.
Following the complete collapse of British power in the Far East, Curtin and Evatt were the right men to handle the sudden crisis facing Australia. After direct disagreement with President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, they got the 6th and 7th Divisions of the Australian Imperial Force home safely to Australia from the Middle East. Evatt flew to London to seek supplies. His doggedness was rewarded with the provision of two squadrons of fighters known afterwards as "Evatt's Spitfires".
At the San Francisco Conference of 1945, he made a huge contribution to the drafting of the United Nations Charter by pressing for fairness for small countries and underprivileged people everywhere. As first president of the General Assembly in 1948, he announced the Declaration of Human Rights. In 1951, back at home, he became leader of the Labor party, then in opposition.
With the arrival of the world-wide "red scare" in the 1950s, he was left to fight for the liberal and unpopular causes. His huge personal efforts defeated the Communist Party Dissolution Bill and also a referendum to ban that party. A break away occurred in 1952 when an organisation led by Mr BA Santamaria, indirectly associated with the Catholic Church, decided to infiltrate the trade unions and the Labor party with anti-Communist members. It secured a footing in the Victoria branch, which was suspended, and those affected left the Labour party. The "Doc's" loyal party supporters, Catholics to a man, backed him unflinchingly.
In April 1954, a man named Petrov defected from the Soviet embassy in Canberra and a popular view that a "spy ring" existed gained strength. The cumulative, hostile pressure harmed Evatt and destroyed his health. In 1960, he left politics for ever and was made chief justice of New South Wales. But the burden of his new job proved too great and he soon left it.
"Doc" Evatt died on Melbourne Cup Day, November 2nd, 1965. He was laid to rest in Canberra Cemetery. After death, Australians do not lie in places of honour, so the two buried beside him are migrants, one from Greece. On his stone are the words "President of the United Nations Assembly".
From being a remote land, Evatt brought Australia to the world stage and in doing so established her as an advocate and an upholder of "fair dos" for all, right down to the humblest individual everywhere.