Queensland bohemia

LEST WE FORGET the soldiers on our family tree.

I have been an Australian for 44 years, and every ANZAC Day (April 25), I am in a regular turmoil; I swing from respect for the defence serviceman or woman(e.g. my neighbours), to rage of how the public are manipulated by Parliamentarians,to support the lies e.g. lying about weapons of mass destruction, being conned by munitions lobby, even getting a job with them.

Click one catastrophe: HUMAN LIVES AT WAR body counts.

Political incompetence within the hierarchy which make conflicts worse, even unto generations (eg Middle East & WW1) continue. Wouldn't it be great if we kept the Peace instead of warmongering, fostering the arms industry, the illegal occupation of lands...Imagine!

Melbourne became my culture lab from 15-21years. My baptism was walking into my first English class to read an Australian play about the conflicts between generations, One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour pub. 1960)

Towns across Australia are disciplined with military memories, in the centre of the street, sculpted reflection on wars and the sacrificed soldiers, who left hearth and farm.

Young men crave change, free adventure, want to be tested, body and soul, so with one chorus, the Germans were threatening their Mother Country, the smart arsed Zeppelins for a start.

Bloody oath, they trust one another, orders by political masters like men in Whitehall(don't mention Churchill) willing pawns to the Lord's deluded ambition to get Turkey and their oil.

There is an institutional silence about the truth of History. At the War Memorial nobody mentionsWinston Churchill's non-heroic stunts, or the Frontier Wars with Aboriginal people. Hopefully this education is changing.

It stays in the background of public awareness, until an academic, citizen journalist and historians reveal it. Finally years later, generations admit the massacres of the blacks in their backyard.

BONOBO lesson

Bonoba or Chimpanzee? One of the biggest differences between our evolutionary relatives is that in bonobo society females are in charge. This is possible because female alliances work to prevent any male aggression, making up for size with numbers.

The females ensure peace within their community and between their neighbours, contrasting with the often hostile interactions between chimp groups. Male chimps live in a society ruled by competition exhibited through sexual aggression and conflict that is sometimes deadly. Bloodshed is a trait shared by chimp and human society, but rarely seen with bonobos.

Lest we Forget: Instead of France the ANZACS were turned towards Gallipoli by a Churchill obsession. Many a current politician likes to try on a W.C. style speech, from the 2nd world war.

However during WW1 the aristocrat Lord of the Navy was insistent on invading Gallipolli. The Australians were in the middle of the ocean. Floating pawns, in an undiagnosed manic-depressives board-game fantasy.

At this point in British Imperial history their Parliamentarian was "extraordinarily optimistic". It can be contageous.

There were professional and powerful men who foresaw a military catastrophe, but in the end P.M. Asquith let the champing at the bit Churchill have his way. In a time of slow and censored communications, Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher was in the dark...

8, 709 Australian fatalities at Gallipoli Dardanelles (Gallipoli) campaign (April 25, 1915 to January 8, 1916).

Total Australian deaths WW1 161,522

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SAILOR RICHMAN POORMAN BEGGARMAN THIEF - a skipping song in primary school. I've landed on SOLDIER - the private ones/the Irish ones/the Imperial forced ones.

A Boy who is used to getting his own way....was Sir Winston, and I wonder how many Australians know this revered WW2 leader know the backstory?

EXPLORING MY MILITARY FAMILY TREE WW1 continues...

Richmond Barracks, Dublin

To be born a boy is to learn quite quickly, if there is a War it will be a great expectation you will be in it.

My great grandfather, Thomas Clarke age 17yrs didn't go to the trenches of France, instead he was to be shipped over the Irish Sea to put down an Irish Rebellion, oh and stop the Germans sneaking into Ireland with boat full of armaments to help them!

It's a man's world and the wives and mothers carried the strain and the hunger, and many times the husband would return with the Syphillus (Clarke/Ross)

Thomas' sister Margaret married an Italian immigrant/hairdresser. During WW1 they had to live with the uncertainty of switching alliances, and how Westminster saw it.

Margaret's youngest brother Herbert had emigrated to
Canada, now he and his sons were in London, part of the Commonwealth forces.

MURPHY & CONNOR

When the Writer Robert Graves faced the German enemy on the battlefields of France WW1 he couldn't shake the idea that he was fighting his family. Like the Royal Family and officer classes, cousins who holidayed with each other only the year before, were ordered to shoot to kill.

Great Grandfather Thomas Clark born in Soho 1893, son of Tailors, signed up to brave the battle fields of France, but instead he was sent to Dublin!

I can imagine his father Henry saying, Son you'll be visiting the land of your Irish Grandmother, Margaret Murphy. Her father was Matthew Murphy and his wife Bridget Connor.

Who was Thomas' enemy?
Republicans and Roman Catholics? The fellas he drunk with the Marylebone pubs? (My research so far shows the Irish branches were of service to HRM and pay conditions).

4th Great Grandfather Matthew Murphy

The Murphy's got a boat to London to escape the Potato Famine 1847 - Margaret was 16years old. Within ten years she was married to Henry and dealing with Carnaby St. customers! 5 children later they would be at war.

You never know what Fate has in store for you Thomas. It's a matter of proving your mettle!

A mixed marriage, flexible clergy.

Margaret Murphy was an Irish Catholic so it may have been a hurdle to go to the Priest to say she was marrying an Anglican in 1857. A compromise may have been to bring the 5 offspring to St. Mary's in Soho Square.

St James, Piccadilly C of E

Matthew Murphy did something different to his father Matthew and grandfather Matthew, not joining the British Army, and successfully escaping the Irish Famine. He was a labourer, strong and versatile.
Irish labourers in London c 1850

The worst year of the period was 1847, known as "Black '47". During the Great Hunger, about 1 million people died and more than a million fled the country, causing the country's population to fall by 20%–25%

19 & 45 Carnaby St: Margaret's mother was Bridget Connor, born in Ballyadam, County Laois. They could have met at the local tavern after he had worked at the limestone quarry, or coal mine.
Another possibility is that Bridget, being a daughter of a soldier from the 2nd Battallion/21st Regiment of Foot they had socialised, and didn't agree with being an 'army brat' either!

Great Great Grandparents,
Matthew Murphy to Bridget Connor Witness John & Ruth Green,
Ballyadams, County Laois 1827

A spailpín or spailpeen or "wandering landless labourer" was an itinerant or seasonal farmworker in Ireland from the 17th to the early 20th century. Conditions for such workers were very harsh.
They endured hard physical labour, low wages and maltreatment by landowners.

MATTHEW MURPHY 1782-1841 5TH Granddad born TYNAN, COUNTY ARMAGH, ULSTER & THE 6TH GF Matthew Murphy 1757-1804.

In 1799 Matthew married Elizabeth McCormick in Dublin, a very busy Garrison town. The Admission record shows her husband was 36years of age when he signed up to the 81st Regiment of Foot. By trade he was a weaver.

Their son Matthew was christened at ATHY RC

The Chelsea invalids/pensioners, London.

He was buried 1841 age 60 at St. Peter's Burial Ground, having resided in Kevin Street Dublin.

Matthew Murphy born in Tynan, County Armagh, 1757, recovered from his soldiering at the Royal Chelsea Hospital. He was with the 64th Regiment of Foot and literally lost one leg with the foot, but at least he got to go home to his family.

It is likely he was sent to the American War of Independence!

For Irish soldiers taken to the Chelsea they would then be sent back to Ireland to the ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM DUBLIN.

7th Great Grandfather Matthew Murphy

born 1727 Tynan, Armagh, Ulster

Baptised St. Michan's RC Dublin

1747 St. Catherine's Dublin marries

Mary Malloy.

18th June 1815 Belgium Of the Duke of Wellington’s British soldiers, 30% were Irish (including Wellington himself). Approximately 2,000 Irishmen would have been killed or wounded at this decisive battle.

Private Matthew Murphy came home after a stay in hospital.

SOLDIER'S WIVES AND DAUGTHERS would be a saga...Perhaps another Lynda la Plante type of thriving in the patriarchy!

Brigid Murphy nee Connor arrives in Marylebone 1848 and finds herself investigating the murder of .......? and setting up her own grass-roots detective agency - very postmodern.

The reality was after their babby's flew the tenement nest - the pauper parents relied on medical care at the St Marylebone Workhouse/Infirmary. Maybe Charles Dickens went to visit as part of his advocacy to improve attitudes to the working class.

Bridget's mother - Bridget Connor nee Donoghue

Name:	Michael Connor
Gender:	Male
Marriage Date:	15 Feb 1841
Marriage Place:	Roman Catholic,Glen Flesk,Kerry,Ireland
Spouse:	Bridget Donoghue
	Her husband was discharged from the 2nd Battallion in 1816.

ROYAL HOSPITAL Kilmainham Dublin, Pensioner admission 1816