Paddy Kenneally

Paddy Kenneally (born February 7, 1916 in Youghal , County Cork , Ireland , † March 1, 2009 ), actually John Patrick Kenneally , was an Australian, Irish-born activist for East Timor , where he fought in World War II . He was also an active member of the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia .

Career

The Australian World War I Memorial in Dare

Kenneally arrived in Australia with his mother Mary and three siblings on St. Patrick's Day in 1927. Father Michael had emigrated here years before to escape the war in Ireland . He found a permanent job as a seaman in coastal shipping and was thus able to support his family, with whom he was now reunited. They now lived in Sydney 's Miller's Point neighborhood . Both parents were staunch Irish nationalists. Paddy Kenneally received his education at St Patrick's in The Rocks and with the Marist School Brothers in Mittagong , but left school at the height of the Great Depression . After various jobs in Sydney and in the bush, he got a job as a dock worker at No2 Wharf Circular Quay East in Sydney in 1937.

The violence in Ireland under the British occupation had a lasting impact on Kenneally. This was also the reason why he did not report to arms in 1939 when Great Britain declared war on Germany . But when his foreman Tom Ryan came in the port on December 7, 1941 with the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor , Kenneally climbed down his ladder and left his workplace with the words "I'm off Tom, get yourself another man" . Kenneally signed up for service in the Australian Army . According to his own statement, he wanted to fight for Australia, but not for the king, the Americans, British or Russians (during this time the Communist Party of Australia was well represented among the union members). Since shipyard workers were classified as essential to the war effort, it took Kenneally three days before he was admitted to the army on December 10th. The training lasted only a week, then he was sent north.

As early as January 20, 1942, Kenneally arrived in Dili in the actually neutral Portuguese Timor and was assigned to the newly founded 2nd Independent Company (the later 2/2 Commando Squadron). The Allies marched into the Portuguese colony with troops on December 17, 1941 to forestall a possible Japanese invasion. Timor is the closest to Australia from Asia. The Japanese began invading Timor in February 1942. Kenneally took part in the guerrilla warfare that successfully tied Japanese forces and thus prevented a Japanese invasion of Australia. He was one of the group of 13 men who carried out a raid on the Japanese headquarters in Dili on May 14, 1942 and escaped without losses. A week later, Kenneally and six other Australians ambushed about a hundred Japanese in the mountains near Remexio . 20 Japanese were killed, including the "Tiger of Singapore", a well-known Japanese major. The Australians themselves suffered few losses, thanks in part to the support of the Timorese and Portuguese people who suffered from war and occupation. The Australians received shelter and food from her. Timorese, called criados , served as guides, porters, and fighters. While the Allies counted around 450 dead and the Japanese probably had around 2,000 dead, a total of between 40,000 and 70,000 Timorese lost their lives in World War II. The population of Portuguese Timor before the war was around 450,000. On the night of December 11-12, 1942, Kenneally, along with most of the other Australian soldiers, was killed by the Dutch destroyer Mr. Ms. Tjerk Hiddes evacuated from Timor. The Criados had to stay behind. Kenneally then fought in New Guinea from June 1943 to September 1944 , where he was wounded. He carried a shrapnel into his body for the rest of his life. Kenneally experienced the end of the war in New Britain , where his unit fought from April 1945. After the war, Australian veterans erected a memorial in Dare to commemorate the Battle of Timor . From 1946 to 1958, Kenneally still worked on Sydney Harbor. In 1952 Kenneally married Nora Kelly, also from Youghal and whom he had met in London .

In 1975, Portuguese rule over East Timor ended. The country declared independence on November 28 , but just nine days later Indonesia openly began invading East Timor and declared annexation in 1976 . Australia did nothing against the invasion and later recognized the annexation of East Timor to Indonesia as the only country in the world. For Kenneally, what happened was devastating in two ways. On the one hand, he saw Australia in debt to the East Timorese who had helped them in World War II, on the other hand, the occupation awakened memories of his childhood in Ireland under British rule.

Kenneally began to campaign intensively for the independence of East Timor. He gave speeches at rallies and conferences, participated in meetings, contributed to books and films, supported the Catholic Church and Timorese communities in Australia, wrote in newspapers and pestered politicians. In 1990, at the age of 76, Kenneally traveled illegally to East Timor on an Irish passport, where he met with the resistance movement in the mountains. Kenneally smuggled information about the situation in the country into Australia in the soles of his boots. In Portugal, he gave a speech in which he called for an independence referendum for East Timor . This was carried out in 1999, but was again marked by great violence against the East Timorese. The Australian government's slow response disaffected Kenneally. It was not until three weeks after the successful referendum and massive retaliation by the Indonesians that an international protection force, the INTERFET, was deployed under Australian leadership. East Timor came under UN administration for three years and was finally given independence on May 20, 2002.

Kenneally was once again involved in public when there were disputes between Australia and East Timor over the sea border and the sharing of the profits from the oil and natural gas reserves in the Timor Sea . The previous contracts shifted the rights to the profits in favor of Australia. In a commercial on national television on the eve of ANZAC Day 2005, Kenneally and five other veterans urged Prime Minister John Howard to treat East Timor fairly. Kenneally said in the direction of the Australian head of government: "I'd rather that you did not come to my Anzac Day parade" ( German  : "I would rather that you did not come to my Anzac Day Parade" ).

Kenneally made one last trip to East Timor in April 2008. Two of his sons and a grandson accompanied him. Kenneally died the following year. He was the last survivor of the military unit that had served on Timor. Kenneally left behind his wife Nora, their children Gerald, Helen, Michael and Seán and seven grandchildren. The Sydney Morning Herald commented:

"Kenneally probably did more than any other person to remind Australia of its debt to the Timorese especially after the Whitlam government gave Indonesia the green light to invade in 1975."

"Kenneally has probably done more than any other person to remind Australia of its debt to the Timorese, especially after the Whitlam government gave Indonesia the green light to invade Indonesia in 1975."

East Timor’s President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate José Ramos-Horta stated:

“What an amazing man God gave us in Paddy; a man of courage, serenity, compassion, loyalty and joy. I sit here in a free and independent Timor-Leste and think how blessed we are to have had such great friends like Paddy Kenneally. ”

“What an amazing man God gave us in Paddy, a man of courage, serenity, compassion, loyalty and joy. I'm sitting here in a free and independent East Timor wondering how blessed we are to have had great friends like Paddy Kenneally. "

Awards

In 2015 Kenneally received the medal of the Ordem de Timor-Leste posthumously from East Timor’s President Taur Matan Ruak .

Web links

• Paddy Kenneally, a 'Foot Soldier' ​​from Miller's Point

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Irish Times: Soldier who became champion of East Timorese , March 21, 2009 , accessed November 15, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Australian Society for the Study of Labor History: Paddy Kenneally, a 'Foot Soldier' ​​from Miller's Point , accessed November 15, 2019.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Bio on John Patrick (Paddy) Kenneally , accessed November 15, 2019.
4. ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald: Fervent champion of Timorese , March 6, 2009 , accessed November 15, 2019.
5. ^ A Short History of East Timor . Department of Defense. 2002. Archived from the original on January 3, 2006. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
6. ↑ Decreto do Presidente da República n ° 43/2015 de 6 de Maio , accessed on September 18, 2019.