Most people in Australia know the name "Ned Kelly", sadly, few know the name "Michael Kennedy", his significance to the Kelly narrative and the impact his widow Bridget had that still resonates in today's world.

 

Michael Kennedy was a good man, who, like many in Ireland in the mid 1800's was deeply impacted by the devestating agricultural blight that raveged the emerald isle.

Michael, with what meager earnings he could save as a member of the Dublin Municple Police, bought passage to a new land for his family. A new beginning, a new life , a new hope.  The country they chose - Australia .

In Australia , Michael met Bridget Tobin. Bridget and her young, dashing policeman would soon wed and begin a family.

Michael rose through the ranks of the police in Colonial Victoria, earing respect, love, admiration and praise at every township he was stationed at .

In 1878, Michael was charged with bringing in the Kelly brothers and their associates.  October, 1878, he and three other constables would be ambushed by the Kellys.  Three of them, Michael  Kennedy, Michael Scanlan and Thomas Lonigan , would lose their lives at Stringybark Creek in the line of duty. Only Thomas McIntrye would elude the Kelly's and go on to be a key witness in the later trial of Kelly for the murder of Thomas Longian.

Such was the outpouring of grief and support for Bridget and her young family, that the entire community rallied behind her .   Gifts of food, assistance with daily life but more importantly, petitioning the government to step in and help these women and their families who lost so much.

 

By 1880, the Kelly Gang was destroyed, a monument erected in the town of Mansfield dedicated to the three murdered police (which still stands today) and, the government with the police force of Victoria stepped up to deliver to  Bridget Kennedy and Maria Lonigan (Thomas Lonigan's widow) what we now know as the "legacy pension" for police officers killed in the line of duty.

Bridget would go on to be a tower of strength for her young family. Forever keeping Michael's good name and memory alive in the extended family, so much so, that many of Michael's descendants have chosen to follow his footsteps and become officers of the law themselves.

This is the story that must be told.

 

Culturally significant. Historically important.

 

The story of two people from Ireland, a brave man and the incredible woman that stood with him, that changed society.