O'KIWI

Paul Kelly’s family links to Ireland, which began over a century ago, have taken on a modern twist through his sons.

Paul’s grandfather John William Kelly arrived in New Zealand in 1911. Within a few years all his siblings, four lads and their sister, had followed him. As Paul wrote in The Kelly Clan from Boyle in Roscommon, their Kiwi descendants now number in their hundreds.

A century after that first Kelly emigration, Paul was in a group of elderly O’Kiwi rugby fans including Martin Maguire, Pat Martin and the late Jack Doherty who, in a nod to their shared heritage, followed the Irish team during the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Jack christened the group ‘The Bench’, given their readiness to step in to any Irish or All Black team should they get the coach’s call. On part of that trip they were joined by Paul’s sons, Hayden and Sam.

Four years later, just before the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Sam invited his father to join him for the leg of a European trip that took in England and Wales where the World Cup was being held. Paul jumped at the chance.

They travelled through England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, where they visited the ancestral homeland in Boyle. There, the current owners of the Kelly home in Green Street in Boyle warmly invited them inside to see where their forebears once lived. 

Wonderfully fine weather accompanied the pair as they drove around Ireland, from Dublin to Belfast, Leitrim, Donegal, Limerick, Galway, the Ring of Kerry, Killarney, Cork and back to Dublin. Night stopovers were often in or near an Irish pub, frequently in locations that had links to friends and family back home.

It was essential that any pub had TV coverage of the World Cup. At the Muskerry Arms Hotel in Blarney, Paul and Sam settled in for the afternoon to view an evening game. As the crowd of rugby supporters swelled they joined a group of All Black fans. It was great to know they had a room booked upstairs avoiding any further travel that day, especially as a band started up once the games were over.

During the evening, however, Sam had more than just rugby on his mind. Earlier he had informed his father that he had been in contact with a young Irish woman from Cork who would be joining him. On arrival, the couple found a table towards the back of the hotel. This was Sam’s first face-to-face meeting with Jennifer Ní Éafaigh, Jen Heaphy.

Sam and Jen had a great time at the Muskerry Arms that evening. A challenge that featured a haka by Sam and Irish dancing by Jen even drew some attention away from the rugby.

The following day Paul and Sam returned to Dublin and squeezed in a visit to Temple Bar before the long journey home—Sam to Brisbane and Paul to Tauranga, where he had retired.

Sam kept in contact with Jen and, five months after their first meeting in Blarney, Jen visited him on holiday. Sam showed her around Brisbane and the Whitsundays. On returning to Cork, Jen applied for a visa to move to Australia.

In June 2016 Sam visited Cork to meet her parents, Caroline and Ron. A few months later, Jen joined Sam in Brisbane and found a job. By this time, the pair estimate they had sent 70,000 messages including long phone calls.

With Jen missing her family, she and Sam spent Christmas in Ireland in December 2018. On returning to Australia, they became engaged in October 2021.

In March 2024 Jen and Sam married in Tauranga, where his parents live and where friends from Wellington and Australia could easily visit. Jen’s parents and family from Ireland and the USA were also at the wedding, held at the Old Forest School near Te Puke. It was a memorable occasion in a perfect setting as Jen and Sam exchanged their wedding vows. 

On returning to Australia, Sam and Jen decided to move down to Geelong, just south of Melbourne. On frequent visits to their home, Paul can’t help but think about the story of how the couple met at the Muskerry Arms, the dedicated journey Jen has made to bring a little bit of Ireland closer to the Kelly gang, and how cultural connections can be rekindled over a century after his own family left Ireland.