This week, in Episode 170 of The Adelaide Show, Steve and Nigel recorded the show at The Irish Club in Adelaide, where the hunt is beginning for a new, South Australian representative for the Rose of Tralee International Festival.
Our two main guests were Rose coordinator, Gillian Drummond, and current SA Rose, Rochelle Melino. We discussed:
- The Rose Of Tralee is a tradition that started in Ireland in 1959 – and it started in a bar
- How last year’s Sydney Rose, Brianna Parkins, really brought the Ausse larrikin spirit to the party, mentioned the 8th amendment in Ireland which basically bans abortions, and calling for it to be repealled.
- The Rose Of Tralee experiment with a reality TV-style “your fired” moment
- The origins of the song, Rose Of Tralee
- The link between the Rose Of Tralee, Adelaide and Star Wars. Hint: Genevieve O’Reilly
Another couple of guests in the show were club chair, Kevin Neeson, and barman, Frank O’Reilly.
- Frank taught Steve how to pour an imperial pint (of Guinness) with the new 4-fifths, 1-fifth rule.
- Frank also explained how Guinness has a different mix of gasses in the bar system, compared to other beers.
- Kevin explained how Guinness really is a summer drink, unlike our other great stouts in SA
- Kevin staked his chairmanship of the Irish Club on getting the IS IT NEWS quiz right.
Is It News
Two Women Fight –‘Clean Punching’
NEWS February 1946
In the Adelaide Police Court today the Police Prosecutor (Inspector Harris) gave a graphic description of a fight between two married women outside a City hotel yesterday afternoon. He said, “Each of the women was knocked to the ground in turn by the other, but regained her feet and returned to the attack. They appeared evenly matched. and were punching cleanly. There was no scratching or hair pulling.” Plainclothes Constable Northcott saw the fight, which took place about 5.40 p.m. in Russell street, outside the Hotel Gilbert, and was watched by a large crowd, said Inspector Harris. The women were Catherine Agnes Maslow. 31, home duties, of Gilbert street. City. and Ambrozine May Dawson. 52. home duties, of, Salisbury. The admitted records of the two women were Dawson 57 previous convictions, and Marlow 11 previous convictions.
Irish Wireless Night
Southern Cross October 1930
The Irish National Association have organised and given four Irish wireless programmes, broadcast by Station 5CL, Adelaide, during the last three years. In response to many local and interstate listeners, and at the request of the Australian Broadcasting Company, the Association is arranging the fifth Irish programme, to be broadcast from 5CL on Wednesday, October 29, from 8 p.m. The evening’s programme will take the form of a farewell gathering to an Irish exile upon his return to Ireland to visit again the land of his birth.
Irish Potato Blight
Evening Journal October 1909
Mr. George Quinn, the Government Horticultural Instructor, has forwarded to the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. E. H. Coombe) a detailed report on the Irish potato blight, the discovery of which among South Australian crops was made on July I5. Since then Mr. Quinn has been engaged making enquiries, and his report states, inter alia:— Up to the present I have been able to identify the presence of the fungus on specimens from practically all over the Plains of Adelaide and at Salisbury, as well as all along the slopes and in the western gullies of the Mount Lofty Ranges The seed potatoes from which the infected crops on the plains of Adelaide were grown were nearly all of the variety known as Bismarck, and can almost without exception be traced to recent importations from Ireland.