http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/billy-cantwell/ Billy Cantwell is editor of the Irish Echo, a Sydney-based newspaper for the Irish in Australia en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-irish-want-australia-to-be-free-of-england/ I emigrated here in 1987. As many as one million Irish had made the same trip before me and quite a few have since. Among them were convicts and radicals, priests and judges, nurses and nuns, saints and scholars. I became a citizen in June, 1994, alongside 90 other Irish expats at the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney – a building that how houses a beautiful monument to the Great Irish Famine. It was an emotional day. The significance of embracing a new citizenship was not lost on any of us. Irish and Australian songs were played and sung. The Department of Immigration wondered why so many Irish had suddenly decided that they would become Australian citizens. It was not an impulse move. The Irish had waited patiently for Australia to change. Weeks earlier, the Labor government had gotten rid of a certain oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, the English monarch. Now, almost 20 years later, we are waiting for Australia to change again. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Billy Cantwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-irish-want-australia-to-be-free-of-england/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-irish-want-australia-to-be-free-of-england/#item5380 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:00:29 +0000 Billy Cantwell | Author bios | The Punch