Jan 27 2008
Ned Kelly Armour
This suit of armour was worn by Ned Kelly at Glenrowan. It was made from mouldboards and boiler plate steel from an old plough, and weighed 44 kg - 97 lbs. Dressed in this armour, Ned Kelly burst out of the Glenrowan Hotel on a misty morning in 1880.
At first the dumbfounded police couldn’t understand why their bullets seemed to have no effect.
Even in the misty dawn light, they could see the helmet he was wearing, but when they aimed at his torso, nothing happened. Then they realised that under his long overcoat must be more armour, so they began firing at his legs. It wasn’t long before he was brought down in a hail of bullets.
At just twenty-five years of age, Ned Kelly created a wildfire of sentiment never before seen in Australia. He was the first ”media sensation’ of the time and recognised as a colonial example of demonisation.
The legacy he left compounded the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic attitude of the English Crown and the Colonial Administration, a legacy which is still being challenged over a century later. When the Queen of England visited Australia in 2006, her 3 day tour coincided with St Patrick’s Day and all parades and public festivities around that feast day were cancelled. Even local hotels were forbidden to advertise with green bunting.
To this day, we use the expression as game as Ned Kelly for a particular type of praise. It implies heroism of a reckless, audacious kind
Like to shout me a cold beer?
