Article Alert: Peter FitzSimons - Good Man, Bad Man: Why Ned Kelly Still Splits Public Opinion

In the November 4, 2013 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald Peter FitzSimons (author of the newly released NED KELLY) has an article entitled "Good Man, Bad Man: Why Ned Kelly Still Splits Public Opinion."

It begins with:



There it was again just the other day. An impassioned man on the television was arguing that far from being a hero, Ned Kelly was nothing but a murderer who devastated lives and acted out of pure evil criminality.

The man in question was Leo Kennedy, the great-grandson of Sergeant Michael Kennedy - one of the two policemen shot by Ned Kelly at Stringy Bark Creek. As someone who has just released a biography of the famed iron outlaw, I was more than usually interested in the discussion, and not surprised by it.


In the course of researching his life I found myself in Glenrowan in early May. I visited the dining room of the local pub, where there is a replica of Ned's armour. I had just finished trying on the extraordinarily heavy helmet - his whole suit weighed a staggering 44 kilograms - when a couple of kids came in, a seven-year-old lad and his five-year-old sister.

''Do you know who this is?'' I asked. ''Ned Kelly!'' they replied in happy unison.

''Was he a good man or a bad man?'' ''Bad man!'' cried the little boy, even as, at exactly the same time, his sister shouted with equal conviction ''Good man!''

It is much the same answer that two halves of the Australian population have given for the past 135 years, with just as much certainty - and sometimes fury.....


To read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/good-man-bad-man-why-ned-kelly-still-splits-public-opinion-20131103-2wuol.html