Sick Transit – Frank McNally on the doomed Irishmen who were the first Europeans to cross Australia
When Tuesdayâs Health Supplement suggested that Queensland was âabout the size of Irelandâ, I presume that was a reference to population rather than territory. With just over five million people, it is indeed similar. But as John Doherty (Letters, April 21st) has pointed out, it is vastly larger in area: something that was learned painfully by an Irishman born 200 years ago next month. Robert OâHara Burke entered this world on May 6th, 1821, growing up in the pleasant surroundings of St Cleranâs, a Georgian house near Craughwell, Co Galway, which in later times wou...
Source: irishtimes.com