David Elliott: Here’s to the luck of the Irish this St Patrick’s Day, and everything they brought to Australia

At last count only 10 per cent of us really have Irish DNA in our bloodstream but somehow on this day we all seem to be able to find a bit of Gaelic in the family tree.

It’s St Patrick’s Day. When every Australian claims to have Irish ancestry as an excuse for drinking at breakfast.

At last count only 10 per cent of us really have Irish DNA in our bloodstream but somehow on this day we all seem to be able to find a bit of Gaelic in the family tree.

Hell, even my bank manager calls himself “O’Singh” and shouts the bar a round of Guinness every 17 March and normally he’s so tight we reckon he’s building his own coffin.

I must admit though, I do like to get in on the occasion.

In fact, not only am I a descendant of the Moys of Donegal I married a very proud woman carrying a significant number of Celtic genes. Tragically, however, I entered the arrangement not knowing that she was the only Irish Catholic in Christendom who doesn’t drink, a fact I only discovered after promises had been made and assurances given.

Celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day with a parade in Sydney. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Here in Australia we have a lot to thank our Irish immigrants for on this Feast of St Patrick.

Starting with the 7000 who came chained to the bottom of a prison hulk in the first century of white settlement they certainly did make their mark.

Former MP David Elliott, who retired from politics in March 2023, will be among those Australians celebrating St Patrick’s Day. Picture: Richard Dobson

Yes, some of them were refugees from the potato famine that wreaked havoc across the Emerald Isle (although I never understood why my ancestors didn’t put a hook and sinker into the sea to get a decent feed, it was an island for goodness sake!) but they quickly made the most of the opportunities the colony offered.

One of the first headlines from the Irish diaspora came from a bloke named Ned Kelly. Not satisfied with the criminal record his father came out with, Ned decided to pursue the family tradition only to meet the wrath of, amongst others, a Catholic Irishman turned prosecutor named Bryan O’Loghlen whose refusal to help Kelly must have put a dampener on his claims of sectarianism.

Bushranger Ned Kelly was, for better or worse, one of Australia’s earliest famous Irishmen.

Then of course we had Robert O’Hara Bourke who perished walking from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a boat but no bush skills.

And what about the playboy actor Errol Flynn? Flynn’s father was a Belfast Professor and joins the great authoress, Colleen McCullogh, proving that the land of our ancestors truly is one of “Saints and Scholars”.

Happy St Patrick’s Day. May the road rise to meet you.

David Elliott is a former Parliamentarian