Friday, April 29, 2016

GRAVE ROBBERS /GALLIPOLI PRISONERS / TERRITORY IRISH

The quarterly journal of the  Genealogical Society of the Northern  Territory always contains  interesting  articles , book reviews  and  valuable  information  on research  sites far  and  wide . The latest  edition contains information about  Allied prisoners during the  Gallipoli war , with  a  group photograph ,  and details  of  the  only Territorian   captured  there  by  the Turks .

The society's secretary and  public officer, June Tomlinson ,wrote a fascinating article about  Dublin's Glasnevin  Cemetery, which she  visited as part of her extensive research , and  was  taken  on  a tour , shown the last resting places of Daniel O'Connell, the tower in which his lead lined coffin was placed    bombed by loyalist terrorists in 1971,  and that of Charles  Parnell , some 60,000 attending  his  burial.

June included  blood curdling information about 19th century grave robbers   who used large hooks to  place about the necks  of  the dead  to  drag bodies out of graves , the parts  sold , some for a thriving  export  market. These robbers were known as the Resurrectionists . At the cemetery bookshop she bought two volumes  by  a  former  cemetery    guide , Shane MacThomais, who committed suicide by hanging himself on March 20, 2014 in the very cemetery  in which he worked.

There is a  review  in  the earlier volume of A FAR CRY  Town Crying in the Antipodes , which included one in Launceston , named Chequers, who sounded like a  combination of  a crow and a  laughing jackass (kookaburra) . Many were extroverts  displaying degrees of  drunkenness, vagrancy, petty crime, wit  and abilities   that  included   clowning, singing, with a  deep understanding of  their communities.    

Another  article  dealt  with  the isolated Territory  township of  Lake Nash , 600km east of Tennant Creek ,  and the influence of early Irish  in the region .