Maureen Whelan photo
Sydney Irish histories

Interviewer: Ben Stephenson for National Library of Australia

Irish dancing has been at the centre of Sydney-born Maureen Whelan’s professional life for more than 50 years. But for one of the founders of Sydney’s renowned Dwyer-Whelan Academy of Irish Dance, it’s perhaps pure chance it all turned out that way. Read more…

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Sydney Irish histories

Interviewer: Siobhán McHugh for National Library of Australia

Between 1951 and 1961 approximately 412,000 men and women, mostly between the ages of 15 and 34, emigrated from the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland, an outpouring not seen since the post Famine decades of the 19th century. Among those leaving, effectively forever, was Denis Foley, who grew up in a two-roomed labourer’s cottage in Fieries, out in the country 20 kilometres south of Tralee in the County Kerry. Read more…

Trish and Pat McGrath photo
Sydney Irish histories

Interviewer: Ben Stephenson for National Library of Australia

Irish dancing has been at the centre of Trish McGrath’s life. … it’s a delight, it’s making music with your feet, it gets the blood up, and you feel yeah … if you can’t play a musical instrument there you go you can play music with your feet, you can dance away, it’s just absolutely brilliant. Read more…