General Blog - Dally Messenger III |
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Ken McDonell, Waterboard Union official, ALP militant, and local government activist turns 70. Ken McDonell has achieved the big 70. Decent people do not usually last in politics. They usually leave the political party in disgust at the ruthlessly immoral behaviour of those strange beings who have a single-minded ambition to achieve power at any cost. The same can be applied to Kenny McDonell. I flew up from Melbourne to honour Ken, my long-standing friend (Actually he has had a bit of trouble standing lately !). Laurie O’Malley, my other close friend, who is also an ALP activist, picked me up at Sydney airport. Somehow Lawrie got me across the water to the Bundeena RSL, where Ken was in for a his little dose of astonished stupefaction. (organised mainly by wife, Yvonne, and daughter, Fiona) And the party was a complete surprise ! Central to the event were the speeches. Speakers were, Kenny’s brother, Des McDonell, his sister, Cathy, His friend in the local government bureaucracy, Hazel. There was a great tribute from one of his mates in the union. Alison, one one of his children had written a song, and and she sang it. Another son, Gerard, provided the music. Also present were his Walkley award and Logie award winning journalist son, Stephen McDonell well known to viewers of the ABC, who watch his reports from Beijing. An essential that came across was that here was a man who, lifelong, had been loved, supported, and admired by his intelligent, talented, and oh so capable wife, Yvonne. She was originally Yvonne Firkin and I first met her when she was a beautiful young teenager. Yvonne is also the mother of their six children. The feelings between them are obviously mutual. As someone thrice married I am one of the few, I imagine, who can appreciate what that means. She said beautiful words about her husband. Lawrie O’Malley told me later that they were the best two hours of speeches he had ever heard.
The Catholic Your Organisation (CYO) We, are of course, talking of the 1950s and the 1960s, when many teenage girls became pregnant and when the average age of brides was 19. As there was no effective birth control — a bit of parental concern was quite defensible. We lived very consciously in the shadow of the atomic bomb. We were very aware of social and religious conflicts — such as the rise of communism. The CYO was our social infrastructure of friendships. It was there, in our discussions, we wrestled with concepts like the dignity of the human person, the notion of justice, the rights of workers, and the importance of involvement in the political process. Our clergy, like Monsignor John Leonard (and Fr Kevin Toomey of the YCW), were our gurus. We were stimulated by the writings of Tielhard de Chardijn, Pierre Cardijn and the social encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. In the midst of basketball, rugby league, annual balls, seasonal talent quests, and debates we also learned meeting procedure. I now deeply appreciate what this meant. Every CYO member had a Handbook, which included meeting procedure. From the age of 15, the age most of us left school, the budding “bush lawyers” knew how to move and second a motion, move and second an amendment, move a motion of dissent in the ruling of the Chair, move that the question “be now put” and how to record minutes, approve minutes and run an election with preferential voting. Ken McDonell cut his teeth on all this stuff. I would guess that he and I and Lawrie, Angela and Tony Gould and our other CYO mates, under-appreciate the grounding this gave us. Most of the speeches related how Ken McDonell progressed his ideals into the Water Board Union, and as Mayor of the large Shire of Sutherland. They spoke of how, in his quiet, decent, and resilient way, he worked a power of good by his achievements and added, in a real way, to the sum total of human happiness. Happy Birthday, Ken !
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