Time, place right for launch, to be sure, to be sure

Sydney
25 May 2003

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Time, place right for launch, to be sure, to be sure

TV weatherman Mike Bailey (left) is pictured at the book launch with Bishop Chris Toohey, Bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes, and Mons Vince Redden

By Marilyn Rodrigues

What better day to launch a book about the Irish convict priest who celebrated Sydney’s first official Catholic Mass than on the actual 200th anniversary of that Mass?

And what better venue to hold the launch than the Consulate-General of Ireland?

And so it was that Dr Vivienne Keely’s book, Dixon of Botany Bay: The Convict Priest from Wexford, was launched at a reception hosted by the Consul-General, Anne Webster, on May 15, 2003.

Fr James Dixon celebrated the first Mass in Sydney on May 15, 1803, and the second in Parramatta on May 22 after being granted permission to do so by Governor Philip Gidley King.

Dr Keely’s well-researched book follows the circumstances of Fr Dixon’s arrest and transportation from Ireland, his ministry in the colony, his falling out of favour with Governor King and his return to Ireland.

Along the way, a picture emerges of Ireland and the colony of NSW at the time.

Author Thomas Keneally said as he launched the book that the story of Fr Dixon’s journey to Australia, as a convict arrested for his involvement in the Irish rebellion of 1798, held a lesson for today.

The idea that the Irish rebels were inherently volatile and “actually liked uprising and getting hanged” is “an insult to our ancestors and an example of the stereotyping of ethnic groups”, he said.

Fr Dixon, he said, was “a victim of the chaos of revolution, and his history here and in Ireland was a sort of litmus paper of what it was like to be caught up in a huge rebellion and pay some of the price of it”.

Fr Dixon’s place in Australian history is secure, he said, and he will always be remembered, “where this tragic band of united Irish are remembered”.

Dr Keely, a Sister of the Holy Faith and research officer for the Parramatta diocese, paid special tribute to the Bishop of Parramatta, Bishop Kevin Manning, whose idea it was to write about Fr Dixon for the bicentenary and who “supported, resourced and encouraged” the book.

Dixon of Botany Bay: The Convict Priest from Wexford - $19.95 plus postage from Parramatta diocese. Call 9683 6277.