The time setting for this story is about six weeks before the referendum as to whether Australia was to become a republic or not.
I was living in Wangaratta at that time and was accosted by a woman with pamphlets advocating for a republic. After listening for a couple of minutes, I then asked her to listen to my argument for retaining things as they are.
I found out her parents migrated from Ireland not long after World War II ended. I then asked her why people from republics wanted to come to a country governed by the Westminster system and that the Queen, at her coronation, took a sacred oath to serve her subjects and preserve their liberty. I also pointed out to her she could express her views about the government and the Queen with impunity.
After listening to what I had to say, she got up from her seat and said 'She's never done a day's work in her life' and walked off with her pamphlets. I read the one I had, then put it in the nearest rubbish bin. She obviously had a personal dislike, probably learned as a child, because people from the Irish republic blamed the English for a lot of their problems.
They chose to forget that an Englishman, Sir Walter Raleigh, had introduced the potato to Ireland, and their Patron Saint, Saint Patrick, was a Romanized Briton. It's a bit like the English and the French - prejudice implanted in minds are completely irrelevant in this day and age.
I have a book called The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent. An Irish history, it's not about what the English did to the Irish, but what the Irish did to the Irish. I've always thought prejudice was not a good argument to change the status quo.
I really did try but really felt I had failed dismally to get my point across.
I consoled myself with the adage, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink'.
Shirley Roberts,
April 2017
I was living in Wangaratta at that time and was accosted by a woman with pamphlets advocating for a republic. After listening for a couple of minutes, I then asked her to listen to my argument for retaining things as they are.
I found out her parents migrated from Ireland not long after World War II ended. I then asked her why people from republics wanted to come to a country governed by the Westminster system and that the Queen, at her coronation, took a sacred oath to serve her subjects and preserve their liberty. I also pointed out to her she could express her views about the government and the Queen with impunity.
After listening to what I had to say, she got up from her seat and said 'She's never done a day's work in her life' and walked off with her pamphlets. I read the one I had, then put it in the nearest rubbish bin. She obviously had a personal dislike, probably learned as a child, because people from the Irish republic blamed the English for a lot of their problems.
They chose to forget that an Englishman, Sir Walter Raleigh, had introduced the potato to Ireland, and their Patron Saint, Saint Patrick, was a Romanized Briton. It's a bit like the English and the French - prejudice implanted in minds are completely irrelevant in this day and age.
I have a book called The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent. An Irish history, it's not about what the English did to the Irish, but what the Irish did to the Irish. I've always thought prejudice was not a good argument to change the status quo.
I really did try but really felt I had failed dismally to get my point across.
I consoled myself with the adage, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink'.
Shirley Roberts,
April 2017
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