G'Day From Downunder

Mike Bowen Reports From The Other Side Of The World

This is based on the second of my series of interviews with prominent Irish Australians.

It was a beautiful sunny Tuesday when I caught up with Jim Keogh for a long lazy lunch and a chat about him and his Irish roots. Jim Keogh runs a law firm in Melbourne and also holds qualifications to practice in Ireland. Now isn't that a great excuse to visit the land of your ancestors a couple of times a year!? Nod, nod, wink-wink, say no more.

Of course I can't say this isn't all above board. No doubt he would be doing research for some very important cases that he would be working on and there is no better place on earth than Ireland to be doing a bit of research. Not too far from a fireplace, a good bar and good company.

Jim is second generation Australian, but when speaking to him he has all the passion of an Irishman that arrived here only yesterday. His great-great grandfather Jim was a blacksmith in Dublin. Two of his sons Joseph & Tommy and their cousins the Quigleys from Co Meath took the long-long journey to Australia to become potato farmers in a place called Steiglitz between Geelong and the gold mining town of Ballarat. This was around 1840 when Australia was pretty primitive - you have to remember the country was not populated by Europeans much before 1800.

The gold rush was on and people were flocking to Ballarat in their thousands hoping to make their fortune from the yellow nuggets. Hungry mouths had to be fed and the Keogh Brothers were on hand to supply lots and lots of spuds. After all hungry miners needed lots of carbs. So you could say they were digging up their own gold in the form of potatoes. People who grew vegetables made much more money than most of those who dug for gold. By the 1870s Melbourne had grown rapidly and was enjoying the highest standard of living in the world. Pity it was only turf in Ireland!

Not long after, the Australian government made land available in hundred acre lots called selections. Tommy headed off to Bendigo, another gold mining town, to take up his allotment while Joseph, now married to Annie and their six children headed for Yinnar in Gippsland about a hundred miles South East of Melbourne by horse and cart carrying all their worldly possessions.

The Quigleys and the Keogh's became neighbours when the Quigleys were allotted land next to the Keogh's. Years later when the government decided to run the railways adjacent to both their lands, a feud brook out between the cousins. Jim says it made the Hillbillies look like altar boys. They fought over the land and who owned the part that the railway line was going through and to add fuel to the fire the two families then fought over the first licence to build a pub in the area. The most notable fracas was famously settled by 'Ma Keogh' taking to Mr Quigley Snr with a pick axe handle.

Time is a wonderful healer and finally the feuding ended. Naturally this was celebrated in the customary manner over many beers which probably led to another fight!

Jim's grandmother Jane, on his mother's side, was a wonderful character. You could tell in an instant she was born in Kingsland Co. Roscommon, a wise old matriarch and a wonderful musician. She came to Australia in 1910, and 10 years later she also married a potato farmer, Tom Somerville.

She held court every Saturday night after dinner at her piano with an extraordinary repertoire of Irish songs. She constantly reminded Jim in his youth that, 'Australia is our country and it gives us everything we have. After that we must never forget we came from Ireland and we love it.'

But the call to the Bar was too strong for Jim to resist. (No not your sort of bar, the legal bar!). So the driving took a backseat and the football got put in the closet until Jim qualified as a Lawyer and took his position in the world of commerce. Jim is an active member of the Irish - Australian Chamber of Commerce and was President from 1999 to 2000. The Chamber is the premier organisation for Irish Australian businessmen and promotes trade both within Australia and between Ireland and Australia.

He regularly visits Ireland. On his first trip in 1991 his first sight of an Air Lingus plane was at Birmingham Airport and he swears that as soon as he saw the Shamrock on the tail of the plane his heart started racing at a million miles an hours. The expectation was too much for him, he couldn't hold back the tears of four generations. Jim was the first of the Keogh's to return to Ireland and felt he carried the emotions of all his Aussie clan.

As everyone in Ireland knows someone who knows someone it didn't take Jim long to track down his family. Mickie Ward who lives in French Park Road, Kingsland is Jim's second cousin. As soon as Mickie opened the door Jim introduced himself as his long lost cousin from Australia. Mickie's first words were "will you look at the state of me". After Mickie composed himself he took Jim to see his Great-great grandfathers' grave and then straight down to the local to introduce Jim to all the locals and a magic night of music and Guinness. Just what Jim needed to slow down his heart rate!

Jim's only regret was that his mother Catherine and his father Dan didn't get to share his overwhelming joy of reconnecting with his Irish roots. Jim and Mickie have since become soul mates and Jim jumps on a plane to Ireland every time he can get a break from his flourishing Law firm. He just loves to hear Mickie say "welcome home Jim" and that comment never fails to bring a tear to his eye.

Jim is married to Geraldine and has four daughters. If you wish to know more about Jim's law firm visit www.keoghlegal.com

Keep the kettle boiling and I'll be back again in another few weeks.

Slainte from Downunder.