The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #149083   Message #3470648
Posted By: dbranno
24-Jan-13 - 12:19 AM
Thread Name: Ned Kelly to Have a Funeral
Subject: RE: Ned Kelly to Have a Funeral
You just don't get it do you?

Regardless of what you or I or anyone THINKS about Ned Kelly, he IS a legendary iconic figure in Australia. His story is there to read if you want to, the (uncomfortable? inconvenient?) facts of persecution of a whole slew of people for whom Ned was a hero, and those to whom he is now and for always.
If he were not a legend, youse mob wouldn't be so hot under the collar! Unless you are a policeman or a relative (the presently living Michael Kennedy is both) I suggest you go upstairs and turn the light on. Unless of course you like it in the dark.

The diggers in WW1, for example (to reiterate for the hard of hearing), held him in the highest esteem as embodying all the qualities of courage, leadership and sticking by your mates that those boys from the bush most admired. Some POWs in WW2 convinced their German captors that they "needed a holiday for Ned Kelly's birthday"!!!
Thus the expression common among these very men for whom bravery was their daily bread, "as game as Ned Kelly". Even the poltroon Supt. Hare, who fled from Glenrowan with a mere scratch, reckoned Ned Kelly to be "the greatest man in the world". It's there in the literature folks.Official.

As for the 'murder', both Kelly's account of the events at Stringybark Ck. and McIntyre's ORIGINAL statement next day tell essentially the same story. A re-trial of Kelly enacted by members of the Melbourne legal establishment some years ago had a very different outcome to the original. It was, however, held at The Celtic Club and some of the legal eagles have Irish names, so perhaps not good enough for you naysayers, sighs... I have no idea how far the prejudice goes. A bloody long way so far!

To simply put Ned into the same category as @nager has done is just plain stupid. And being an Australian is no excuse.