Welcome to my view from abroad page. On his bio page
here at Glenrowan1880, Dave refers to me as: "an American who has fallen
in love with the Kelly story." That is surely the understatement of the
century! :) From time to time I will be putting bits here or linking to
things I have written about the Kelly Gang from my different cultural
perspective. As usual, any opinions I have are mine, and mine alone, and
do not necessarily reflect those of the "management"!
November
30, 2006
REPORTS OF THE KELLY GANG IN LATE 19TH & EARLY 20TH
CENTURY
NORTH AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
This is a link to an article I have written about some very interesting
reports about the Gang found in some American newspapers between 1880
and 1912 and in a Canadian one from 1946. I have to wonder about where
they got some of the information they cited, though! Things they
reported on include an "odd court incident" involving a knife from the
gallery falling at Ned's feet while in the dock(!), as well as info
about Kate Kelly's stage appearances, an exploding gum tree caused by
the Gang's gunpowder cache, and a report of Jim Kelly's death and lots
more.
April
19, 2005
AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: W.H. FITCHETT
This is a link to my article about the Rev. Mr. W. H. Fitchett who was a
prolific writer and historian. He had written about the Kellys in Life
Magazine where he served as Editor, and those articles were later
included as chapters in various books he authored. A couple of the Life
articles were first-person narratives from two Glenrowan witnesses,
Sergeant Steele and Constable O'Dwyer and they detailed the capture of
Ned Kelly. One of these, the Steele narrative from the February 1910
edition of Life, is offered in full and is linked into the Author
Spotlight article.
March
24, 2005
THE CONVICT HULK "SUCCESS" AND HER KELLY GANG
CONNECTIONS
This is a link to an article I wrote about the convict hulk "Success."
The "Success" had been a trade ship, an emigrant ship, a convict hulk
and ultimately a floating "convict ship" museum. I detail both the
history and the controversy and give a few Kelly Gang connections along
the way.
February
18, 2005
THE NED KELLY CENTENARY FESTIVAL
This is a link to an article I wrote about the Ned Kelly Centenary
Festival. Seems there had been some doubt and some conflicting reports
as to if this event actually went on as planned back in 1980. I managed
to track down the festival director, Peter Galvin and got the scoop!
October
12, 2004
STEEDS OF GLENROWAN
This link is to an article detailing, to the best of my available
resources, what has been chronicled about the horses of the gang, the
traps and the prisoners of the Inn during the Siege of Glenrowan. Some
of the "facts" are quite contradictory, since we are talking about the
Kelly Gang that should come as no surprise!
September
27, 2004
NED KELLY'S HELMET
This is a link to an interview with Paul Stafford, author of "Ned
Kelly's Helmet," a children's novel that is a delightful read even for
adults. Paul is involved with creative writing workshops for students
and encouraging youngsters to enjoy reading. He is a very gifted and
witty man who really likes what he does and it shows!
May 23, 2004
COOKSON ENIGMA
This is a link to an article entitled THE COOKSON
ENIGMA in which I give
some background info on B.W. Cookson and on the "Kelly Gang From
Within"
newspaper series which he authored. For so long, everyone always had the
name of B.W. Cookson on their lips, as they sought the "elusive"
Cookson
articles. Being as curious as a cat, I finally decided I wanted to know
just who was B.W. Cookson? To me, when I find out things about an
author, it gives me better understanding and enjoyment of his writings.
I set out to find out more and I did, thanks to the kind help of Roselyn
and her cousin Celia in England, both Cookson descendents. I was
supplied with everything I needed to pull this article together and the
ladies also graciously granted this website exclusive rights to display
photographs of Brian William Cookson.
May 6, 2004
MR. NOLAN
This is a link to an article entitled MR. NOLAN
GOES TO GLENROWAN about
the artist Sidney Nolan and his unpropitious 1945 visit to Glenrowan. An
interesting juxtaposition of the Glenrowan of then and now. Tourists
were far from welcomed back then as Nolan was not long in finding out!
March 28, 2004
HARVEST MOON
This is a link to an article I wrote called SHINE ON HARVEST
MOON...OR DID IT? disproving the notion that the moon was full just
before or during the siege of Glenrowan
SHARON'S BIO.
I am an
American and I have fallen head over heels in love with the Kelly gang
and their saga. Nothing much more to say in a bio since that pretty well
sums me up quite nicely and defines my life right now! Yet I guess I
will have to try to give a little of my background and how I arrived at
being U.S. Kelly Girl #1 (an in joke!) and working as an assistant at
this website. I am from the United States and live on the outskirts of a
small town in North Carolina and I am married (no children, but I have
over a dozen cats!). I never went to university, having misspent most of
my youth following rock bands around, which, believe me, is quite an
education in and of itself! The bulk of my knowledge has come from
personal study and reading, most of it is down to having a natural
curiosity and thirst for learning and a great deal of innate
perceptiveness. So how did I wind up at this particular juncture in time
as a researcher, writer and editor for a website about a 19th century
outlaw who is as alive to me today as he was back in the late 1870s? To
begin at the beginning (always a good place!), I had heard about Ned
Kelly before in the early 1970s and that was only because of the Mick
Jagger movie, which, incidentally, I only saw for the first time a few
months ago. I never knew anything else beyond the fact that Ned Kelly
wore some sort of armour and was active in the late 1800s. That was it.
Never gave him a second thought at all (and look at me now decades
later, Ned and the gang are nearly all I can think of!). Not like one
would hear the name of Ned Kelly being tossed about in the U.S. in the
70s, 80s, or 90s at least where I lived! You would hear about Jesse
James and Billy the Kid, and a host of other western badmen but never
Ned Kelly! But in late 2002 I began to get curious about Ned Kelly after
it was announced that Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom were making the
film about the gang. The only thing I could find in my library was the
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. I now know it was, as
everyone likes to jest, neither true nor history, but I was enthralled
and genuinely moved by the book and fell hook, line and sinker for Ned
then and there. I suppose if I had of grown up hearing all about Ned and
his exploits I would have disliked the book like others did who felt
cheated by Carey's fictionalized distortion of the events. But I
approached it from a different cultural angle, and while realizing it
was a novel, I was able to get into it and enjoy it without prior
prejudice to cloud the experience. To put in perspective of how much
this book affected me, after reading it I went out and paid FULL PRICE
at the bookshop for a copy of my own. Out of around 4,000 books I have,
most coming from op shops, used book stores and yard sales, for me to
pay $14.00 US for a book is saying a whole heck of a lot! That would buy
me nearly 28 paperbacks at the Goodwill store! But would any of those 28
books have changed my life the way this one did? :) Of course, I
wound up having to unlearn a few things, but that did not take long as I
discovered Ironoutlaw.com and through that site (and a strange quirk of
fate) Dave White became my mentor and friend. Dave is the busiest man I
have ever met (I like to joke that he is busier than a one-armed apple
picker at harvest time with the sun going down) with a demanding job and
large family, but he very astutely recognised my potential and quickly
recruited and tutored me in all things Kelly and has turned me loose on
an unsuspecting world via his latest and greatest endeavour (thus far to
date), Glenrowan1880.com.
Sharon Hollingsworth.