Full Metal Jacket

We finally made it to Ned Kelly country. I say that because we were in Beechworth today, one of those well-preserved frontier towns that tourists flock too. This one has a famed bakery plus the claim of being where Ned Kelly - he of iron armour fame - was first held for his committal proceedings, before being taken on to Melbourne to be tried and hanged.

Now there are various accounts of Ned Kelly’s life. He is made out to be a either hero or villain depending on the writer's prejudices, or perhaps one that went bad despite his efforts to go straight. The odds were certainly stacked against him. Being Irish in Australia, or indeed England or Ireland, at that time wasn’t easy.

It’s likely that the true history was much more complicated than any simple narrative. For you can be sure that it involved different agendas, including those of the the forces of law and order who seem to have made a pigs ear of catching him, alienated much of the local populace in the process of bringing him to justice.

Having said all that, he did steal horses and kill a police sergeant. And he did have the Irish gift of the gab, suggesting at his trial that he wouldn't have been found guilty if he had just thought to cross examine the witnesses but he didn't want to appear 'full of bravado'. He likely had his own agenda with a view to posterity.

And it almost worked for it resulted in a petition, containing around 35,000 signatures, for clemency just before he was hanged. But of course it failed, the Authorities feeling the need to make an example of him. Execution does not seem to be a democratic process.

So when reading history or even newspaper accounts of current day events I have decided to adopt a position of 'healthy skepticism' and assume that the truth is probably not what I am being told. Then I will make my own decision, to fit my own agenda.