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Hero or villain, freedom fighter or murderer, Ned Kelly’s reputation has long been a source of dispute in Australia, particularly in his home state of Victoria.
His name and image are used and abused to this day. At an anti-immigrant protest in Sydney two years ago, one participant wore a Ned Kelly outfit. I thought about telling him Kelly’s parents were immigrants, but there were neo-Nazis carrying pro-Hitler banners nearby so I bit my tongue.
Australia's government website leans towards the legend view of Kelly, describing him as 'one of Australia's greatest folk heroes'
A better use of Kelly’s legacy is the annual Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s top crime novel. Adrian McKinty, originally from Carrickfergus but living in Melbourne for years, was a recent winner.
Australia’s government website (australia.gov.au) leans towards the legend view of Kelly, describing him as “one of Australia’s greatest folk heroes. He has been memorialised by painters, writers, musicians and filmmakers alike. More books, songs and websites have been written about Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang than any other group of Australian historical figures.”
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‘Flawed’
Further on, the entry hedges its bets, a little, saying he was "a flawed hero". But it tries to explain some of Kelly's actions by saying Catholics were "specifically excluded from holding public office or government positions until after 1900". Dr Doug Morrissey, author of Ned Kelly: A Lawless Life, points out this is plain wrong. "Sir John O'Shanassy, twice premier of Victoria and Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, also a Victorian premier, were staunch Irish Catholic nationalists, who held high public office well before the Kelly outbreak in 1878," Morrissey writes. O'Shanassy was born in Tipperary in 1818, two years before Kelly's father John, also known as Red, was born in the same county.
Kelly and his gang became Australia’s most wanted in October 1878 when they killed three policemen in Stringybark Creek. All three – Thomas Lonigan, Michael Scanlan and Michael Kennedy – were Irish immigrants.
The government website spells Scanlan’s name wrong, as Scanlon, but that’s the least of its mistakes. It says of Kennedy’s death that he “reached for his revolver [and] was mortally wounded”. But according to Morrissey, the reality was more complicated and brutal. “Sergeant Kennedy drew his revolver and was pursued for approximately a mile before Ned shot him under the armpit. Kelly then pumped the wounded man for information for two hours, before placing a shotgun against Kennedy’s chest as he pleaded ‘for his life to be spared for the sake of his wife and children’. Ned paid no attention and pulled the trigger,” Morrissey writes.
In 2013 one of Kennedy’s great-grandchildren, Leo Kennedy, spoke at a ceremony to rededicate the restored graves of his great grandfather, Lonigan and Scanlan. “The Kennedys have an untold story. It is a much better story than that of a bully, a cattle thief, a murderer, an economic terrorist,” he said.
“Sergeant Kennedy and mounted troopers Lonigan and Scanlan were three Irish migrants, three good and honest police, three respected men . . . We are proud of them and their place in history, as true heroes.”
Within ten days of the murders at Stringybark Creek, the Victorian government enacted the Felons’ Apprehension Act, which authorised any citizen to shoot a declared outlaw on sight. The Kelly Gang’s days were numbered.
Their last stand was in the small town of Glenrowan, in 1880, where they took 60 hostages in a hotel.
Kelly planned to derail the expected train carrying police to the scene, but this was prevented by a school teacher, freed from the hotel, who flagged the train to a halt.
The judgment prevailed and Ned Kelly was hanged on November 11th, 1880
Morrissey says what happened at Glenrowan was proof Kelly was just a criminal. “[It] was an act of lawless terror designed to derail a train and slaughter its passengers. It had nothing to do with the fight for Irish Catholic political freedom either in ‘the old country’ or colonial Australia.”
Murder
Kelly was tried and convicted of the murder of Lonigan at Stringybark Creek. The trial judge was Redmond Barry, a Cork-born, Trinity-educated Anglican.
From Melbourne Gaol, Kelly wrote a long letter about discrimination against poor Irish immigrants. There were public protests calling for his life to be spared.
But the judgment prevailed and Kelly was hanged on November 11th, 1880. Barry died suddenly 12 days later, and his reputation is perhaps Kelly’s final victim.
He gave money to Irish famine relief and towards the building of both Protestant and Catholic churches, and did pro bono legal work for Aboriginals with nobody else to turn to. But he'll forever be remembered for one thing only; he sentenced Ned Kelly to death.