Melbourne’s Celtic Club has a proud and turbulent history that reflects in many ways the history of Australia during the second half of its period of European settlement. To do justice to the Club’s history, it is necessary to include the long and bloody struggle for Irish Home Rule but that is not the purpose of this overview.
At the time the Celtic Club was established in 1887, the Home Rule Campaign in Ireland was at an all time low. There was every indication for Home Rule sympathizers that that ideal would remain unrealized for many generations to come.
On September 20th, 1887, at the Imperial Hotel, Bourke Street in a rather more colorful Melbourne of top hats and morning suits, of gas lamps and hansom cabs, and hotels that did not clear their bars before midnight, the Celtic Club was born. It was the year of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and the first Colonial Conference in London of delegates from each of the self-governing British Colonies.
The late Dr M. O’Sullivan presided at the first meeting of the provisional committee to establish the Club and from the beginning, its raison d’être was to unite, regardless of creed or Australian party politics, men who sympathized with Ireland’s aspirations for Home Rule.
In the Melbourne of the late 1880s, Ireland’s aspirations for self- government was supported by many people without Irish ancestry. As a result, the Club was called the “Celtic” Club rather than “Irish” for the specific intention of providing a meeting place for those people who supported the Home Rule Movement. As a result, the membership over the years has been representative of practically all Celts – Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish and Breton however, understandably, the balance is Irish or of Irish descent.
From the beginning, the Club’s constitution declared that it was to be “strictly and irrevocably” nonsectarian and non-political in the sense that it did not support any specific Australian political party.
On the rear wall of the Tara Bar is a magnificent collage painting that was designed to celebrate the foundation of the Club. In each of the four corners of the collage is one of the four ancient provinces of Ireland and in the middle top is an artist’s representation of the old Irish Parliament facing Trinity College, the Parliament of Grattan that was abandoned after the Act of Union in 1801. The centerpiece is the Club emblem that shows the Southern Cross above a harp and shamrock and the Latin motto “Pro Patria et Pro Libertate” that proclaims the aspirations of the founders. Underneath is a picaresque scene of the Irish countryside and below it two emblems side by side: Erin Go Bragh and Advance Australia Fair. Dotted around the collage are photographs of the founder, Dr O’Sullivan and a number of early presidents of the Club.
On another wall of the Tara Bar is another early painting that is simply titled “The Men of ‘98″. Depicted in that painting are groups of fighting men led by Fr Murphy of Kilmarnock, a single sword, a pile of stones nearby which are scattered papers. On the left and right hand of the centerpiece are six names and portraits: Wolfe Tone, Michael Dwyer, William Orr, E. Fitzgerald, R. Hamilton-Rowan and Thomas Emmet – the men of ‘98.
To enter the Club is to enter history – of this country, this city and Ireland. Since 1887 the Celtic Club has responded to the needs of its people, the vagaries of politics – local, national and international – and survived the effects of a rapidly changed world. It is to the credit of the Club that it has remained open to all and accommodated conflicts of class, religion and politics with tolerance, affection – and a sense of humour.
