THE PINK GRANITE HOUSE NED KELLY IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BUILT NEAR GLENROWAN IN 1875 ( Image from Ned : The Exhibition ) Here is another Guest Contribution from Dr Stuart Dawson, this time challenging the notion that in 1875, when he was 20 years old Ned Kelly won a contract and built […]
Thomas Newman McIntyre didn’t lie but Ned Kelly and his supporters did – and still do.( Part Two)
Thomas Newman McIntyre : A decent brave and honest man, disgracefully abused by the lies of Kelly and his supporters past and present. McIntyres third encounter with Kelly was two months after the meeting at Glenrowan, in the middle of winter, at Kellys Committal in Beechworth. To protect him from sympathiser attack, McIntyre […]
Thomas Newman McIntyre did not lie but Kelly and the myth makers did. Part 1
Sarcasm is the ‘lowest form of wit’ according to Oscar Wilde, a description that applies perfectly to the attempts at humour to be found in “A letter to Thomas” by Kelly Conspiracy Theorist and ‘Keep Ya Powder Dry’ author Alan Crichton. Crichton’s ‘letter’ is a mocking, sarcastic and cruel attack on the character of yet another honourable […]
Red Sash at SBC, Ned Kelly and the Green Sash at Glenrowan : does this mean anything?
As is often the case on this Blog, the Discussions are where the interesting stuff happens, but this discussion is worth a Post of its own, because, for one thing we are hoping someone out there might have the answer to the question asked – how do we know that the green sash taken from […]
The Kelly Story for 2021 and beyond : PART TWO
There are some central facts about the Kelly story that nobody disputes such as these ones: In the short space of twenty months between October 1878 and June 1880 Ned Kelly killed three policemen at Stringybark Creek and stole from their corpses, he robbed two banks of a lot of money, he sanctioned the murder […]
The Kelly story we should be telling in 2021 and beyond. Part ONE
Until recently it was common to have the Kelly story presented as a dilemma that couldn’t be resolved. Wherever you looked, whenever the Kelly story was mentioned, the question would almost always be asked “Ned Kelly: hero or villain?” If you wanted to believe he was a hero, you could make a case for it […]
Ian Jones has gone: the Kelly story needs to be un-re-written: Discuss.
Ian Jones was regarded as Australia’s ‘foremost Kelly expert’, and even though he had a long career writing and directing many popular TV series, it’s his role as a champion of the bushranger Ned Kelly that he will mostly be remembered for. His influence on the existing body of Kellyana was huge, and since he […]
The Rockets : How come only one person saw them?
Ian Jones re-invented the Kelly story about fifty years ago by inserting into it the vision of a Republic of North East Victoria, transforming Ned Kellys life story and the history of the Outbreak from a murderous tale of colonial criminality into a much more appealing morality tale. This new view became the new orthodoxy, […]
The Jerilderie Letter was not a Manifesto. It was a letter.
The other day the seemingly endless torrent of Kelly-related trivia that streams past on the Best Bloody Man FB page was interrupted momentarily by a link to a curious article about the Jerilderie Letter: “Outlaw Ned Kelly left behind a manifesto for the Ages” by left wing journalist Daniel Lopez. If it was hoped an […]
BOOK REVIEW : The Story of Ned Kelly (Translated from French)
“The story of Ned Kelly” by Marie-Ève de Grave (text) and Jean-Jaques de Grave (linocut etchings). Five Mile Press, October 2020. Reviewed by Stuart. Browsing my library’s catalogue I spotted this recent illustrated book and thought I should have a look at how the Kelly story was being presented in France in 2017.This 2020 English translation sells […]