From stamps
to movies to the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Ned Kelly
has become one with the Australian psyche. He's had more written
about him than anyone else in Australian history. As our greatest folk
hero Ned Kelly has become one of the unsuspecting fathers of Australian
nationalism, and with each passing year Ned's myth grows stronger.
But was Ned Kelly just another crazed bushranger or a victim of the
system – a
desperate young man forced to shoot and steal to protect his own? Come
with us on a journey as we delve into stories from the past 150 plus
years and on the way discover for yourself the true history
of the Kelly Gang.
Originally
published in 2004, A.N. Baron's Blood
in the Dust not only became an instant
hit, it also sold out in record time. Now we
can announce a reprint is finally here! With
a new cover and revised history section, Baron's
book is a must have, especially for anyone who
missed it the first time around. We've set up
a new section dedicated to the book which includes
a download in PDF of the Introduction. Within
Australia you can order your copy here or
for International readers click here. [blood
in the dust]
KEEP YA POWDER DRY
Alan
Crichton likes to write, just take a look at
our Feedback section.
And seeing Alan's got so much to say ironoutlaw.com decided
to give him his own section. While I'm sure
he'll continue to fill up our feedback pages
he's now got somewhere else to 'Keep
ya Powder Dry'. [keep
ya powder dry]
FREE KELLY TOURS
AT THE STATE LIBRARY
While
it's always fun to watch the pigeons crap all
over the hanging Judge Redmond Barry's head
outside the State
Library in Swanston Street, apparently
it's also worth a visit inside. Seems not only
is there lots of book to read but every Tuesday
from 10.30am Ironoutlaw.com's
very own (now that she's written a story for
us) Airi Repetti takes punters on a Kelly inspired
tour of the establishment. And best of all
it's free! [how
a finnish girl ended up as a kelly tour guide]
HAVE YOUR SAY
Have
a question or opinion on Ned and the boys you
would like to share with the rest of us? Then
head over to our Feedback section
where you can send in your thoughts or read through
what's been said before. We also have a Feedback
Vault with an archive of thousands of letters
from the past ten years. There's enough words
here to keep you busy for the next few months... [feedback]
IRONOUTLAW.COM ON
YOUR iPHONE
Now
you can take Ned
Kelly where ever you go with Ironoutlaw.com
Wireless. The first two sections in
our Hand Held Edition include A
Short History and The
Jerilderie Letter. This exclusively designed
web site allows easy access from your iPhone,
iPod Touch, Pocket PC, PDA, WAP phone, Blackberry,
Symbian OS, Candybar or Sony PSP. [wireless]
SO WHAT'S NEW?
With
a web site this big you tend to lose track of
what's going on, so in this section
we'll list all the new and updated stuff from
the past 7 days:
• Feedback
• Real Villains
• Documents
A CASE OF HISTORY
REPEATING?
When
I read this quote from 'UN
to hear of Victorian woman's brutal bashing' it
sounded strangely familiar, '...The
disgrace of this situation is the Government
gives the power to police to arrest, to carry
firearms and to charge people, yet denies they're
servants or agents when they do the wrong thing ... They
need to take responsibility for the actions
of their police, their employees; or they're
sending a message to the coppers that they
can get away with anything...'Familiar
because 128 years ago Ned
Kelly wrote, 'If
my lips teach the public that men are made
mad by bad treatment, and if the police are
taught that they may not exasperate to madness
men they persecute and ill-treat, my life will
not entirely be thrown away.' Horribly ironic... [real
villains]
THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF NED KELLY
Why
did Ned Kelly live
such a larger than life existence, one that has
enthralled millions of people over this past
century? Why didn't Ned just take what was dished
up? Live a poor, honest, harsh life and die a
broken man like thousands of other peasants throughout
time? Well, if Ned did we would never have heard
of him, nor spent countless hours debating his
legacy. It's time to read the facts of his life
and decide for yourself. But before you pass
judgement, remember you should never impose 21st
century sensibility onto harsh 19th century reality. [about
ned kelly]
BACK TO THE FUTURE
With
all this digging around what better way to bring
back the virtual past than a visit to the Internet
Archive WayBack Machine. Our site has impressions
dating back to August 17, 2001. So if you're
feeling a tad nostalgic but can't afford the
time to whip up a flux-converter simply click
the link below and relive the glory days. The
Internet Archive was founded with the express
aim to build an Internet library, with the purpose
of offering permanent access for researchers,
historians, and scholars to historical collections
that exist in digital format (like us). [wayback
machine]
NED
KELLY ON YOU MYSPACE AND YOUTUBE
To
keep our readers entertained (we hope), each month we
will source a Ned Kelly related MySpace or
YouTube clip.
This month click, sit back and enjoy Peter
Finlay's The
Jerilderie Letter by Ned Kelly. Jerilderie Productions
brings to life an Australian national treasure, Ned Kelly,
who through the voice of Finlay, passionately articulates
his pleas of innocence and his desire for justice for
his family and other poor Irish Catholics. Protesting
their treatment by the police, banks and English settlers,
ably backed up by the music of Malcolm Hill. [nedtube]
TEACHING
HISTORY
While
not
everyone wants to read about Ned Kelly or the ANZAC's or
even The Great Depression, we hope they
want to learn something about
Australian History. Politicians from the now ex-Prime Minister
John Howard to a confused NSW Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt
have jumped on the teaching history bandwagon. But at what
cost? From the Right Wing Liberals
(remember them?) to the multitude of State Governments, seems
everyone has an agenda. We'd like to let the readers decide
what is worth learning. Here at ironoutlaw.com we
present the facts, the fiction and everything in between. It
all adds to the experience and hopefully makes History an exciting
place to be (and it needn't always be written by the victors).
[site map]
GO SHOPPING
The
184 page book 'Blood
in the Dust: Inside the minds of Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne' is a graphological analysis
of the handwriting of Ned Kelly and Joseph Byrne. It contains
three complete psychological studies based on an adult sample
of Joe Byrne’s
handwriting, and both an adolescent and adult sample of
Ned Kelly’s handwriting. The analyses build a complete
personality profile of both men, including detailed descriptions
of their intellect and mental processes, emotions, physical
attributes, social outreach, and sexuality.
$34.95Australia inc.
postage $44.95Worldwide inc.
postage
