2006 - August

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

There's a strong connection between Tasmania and Ireland and its troubles due mostly to the Irish political prisoners who were transported (exiled) to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) in the 1840s. To this day you can still visit the cottage at Port Arthur that William Smith O'Brien was exiled to in the bad old days. I've also visited places such as Maria Island, perhaps the worst (and probably least known) of the convict sites over here. As if it wasn't bad enough transporting your political opponents on a hulk to the far side of the planet, they then sent them to the southern most island at the end of the planet, then to an even smaller, more remote uninhabited island (Maria), then frog marched them 20 kilometres to an isolated, barren peninsula at the furthest end of Maria, then at the end of that peninsula, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, they incarcerated the poor bastards in tiny, solitary confinement cells barely long enough to lie down in. When you visit that place (and hardly anyone does due to its remoteness), you understand that hell is probably something like that (see attached pic). Very remote, very, very pointless and unspeakably cruel. Smith O'Brien spent time there before being sent to Port Arthur, perhaps to make him better "appreciate" the relative luxury of "cottage arrest" in the penal station.

Senseless cruelty.

The photo shows the cells on Maria Island, surrounded by barren land and shark-infested, freezing waters. Just one row of cells for ten of the "worst" convicts, a day's walk from the nearest other human. Why they had to incarcerate them in such tiny cells when there was nowhere for them to escape to is probably beyond the comprehension of all but the most evil of minds.

Well, it eludes me anyway.

But if that's how the Brits treated the Irish, it's no wonder there was trouble. Of course, why groups like the IRA had to retaliate in such brutal fashion beggars belief. Nothing is simple I suppose when contemplating "the troubles". Except for those cells on Maria Island. Nothing complicated there...