Hongkong's Irish Policemen - talk this evening, Monday, 24th Jan 2011

Submitted by David on Fri, 01/21/2011 - 14:13

Next Monday evening there's an RAS (Royal Asiatic Society) talk. You may recognise the speaker, Ms Patricia O'Sullivan. She's asked a couple of questions on Gwulo's forum, and also helped typing up the 1905 Jurors list.

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, but the talk looks interesting. Here's the RAS announcement:

A talk by Ms Patricia O'Sullivan will be held on Monday, 24 January 2011 in the Harold Smythe Room at St John's Cathedral in Central.  I hope you will be able to attend.  The talk will start at 6.30 pm but the room will be open at 6.00 pm.  Due to the short notice of this announcement, payment for admission will only be accepted at the door.  Cash or cheques will be accepted and the cost is $50 for members, and $70 for non-members.

From the Emerald Isle to the Fragrant Harbour
Irish Families in a Colonial Police Force
by Ms Patricia O'Sullivan

In the last eighteen months Ms O'Sullivan has been uncovering the lives and careers of almost a score of men who, over an eighty year period, came from the tiny north Cork town of Newmarket to be policemen in Hong Kong.  It started out as a small bit of family history - but within a couple of days had snowballed, and has brought her to Hong Kong three times in that period.

The formal sources in both places initially appear prohibitively limited, especially for anyone who has had any experience of family history in England and Wales, but this only serves to send the searcher to tease out meaning from secondary sources and to sift, with a critical ear, the oral accounts that abound - this is, after all, about the Irish!

Ms O'Sullivan will attempt to present some of the many stories - of adventure, tragedy, scandal, humour and mystery - that she has uncovered, and give an idea, too, of the material used and the extent of help received from all over the globe.

In ‘real life’ part of the County Music Service in Hertfordshire (the county immediately north west of London), Ms O'Sullivan's working week is divided between teaching in schools and heading a music centre.  Academically, she has more recently completed a MTh in sacramental theology and has now had to put on hold research on links between fourth and sixth century Egyptian and Irish theology.