The Portal - Australia edition April 2014 | Page 8

THE P RTAL

April 2014

AU Page 1

Ned Kelly:
Love him or hate him

Australia
Pages

The third in a short series by Adrian Lanagan

When reading

the Ned Kelly story we discover his Christian faith began at his Baptism. The
large distances between settlements in the Australian out-back would have prevented regular contact
with the Church. Ned’s contact with the Christian faith would have been what he learned at home from his
parents which may have been very little.

pleas of innocence
for his family
Edward “Ned” Kelly’s life of
criminality ran its course and
is well documented, giving
him folklore hero status, yet he
killed three policemen and had
little regard for law and order,
as was evidenced in his eight
thousand word letter dictated
to his friend and ally Joe Byrne,
who re-wrote the letter in
February 1879.

driven about two or three miles
to the gaol.
Finally Ned would be made to
answer to Sir Redmond Barry,
the man who had his mother
placed in the same gaol some
two years before. The court
case ran over two days, 28 and
29 October 1880 and Ned was
found guilty of murder of one
policeman and was sentenced
to hang. He was locked up in
cell 38, the “condemned” cell.

It contains pleas of i