Australia farmer hands over 'Ned Kelly's skull'

bury ned with honour,he was as much a hero against imperialism and despotism as any any irish patriot.

carrickcourt questioned whether the photo shown depited Ned or his younger brother. There was more than one photo of Ned courtesy of HM Prison Service. The one shown is a 16 year old Ned when he served hard labour (meaning, breaking rocks with sledge hammer and they hoped breaking his spirit too)in Beechworth Jail on trumped up charges of horse stealing. Only a few years earlier Ned was hailed and feted as a hero for saving the son of a local hotel owner from drowning in a river. From hero to villain in such a short time.

Irish Central folks, are you sure you have the right photo of Ned Kelly with this item on the finding of "Ned Kelly's" skull? To me the photo looks more like Ned (Edmund) Kelly's younger brother Daniel (Dan) Kelly (1861-1880). As far as I know the only photo of Ned Kelly's was one taken just before his execution in 1880, the photo you have posted does not look like that photo at all. I recently found that my Irish great great uncle James Babington (1832-1881) had dealings with a 15 year old Ned Kelly in 1870. James Babington was a sergeant in the Victoria Police Department. The only know letter in Ned Kelly's own hand is a letter to James Babington dated 28 July 1870. By the way all the members of Ned Kelly's gang were native Australian born while about 80% of the Victoria plice were Irish born.

My greatgrandfather and his 4 brothers from Skibbereen weren't able to learn to "dance" to English tunes. As a result, they stowed away on ships bound for New Orleans and swam ashore in the middle iof the night. As they say, the rest is history! Patrick Peters

To quote Ned Kelly's last words before he was hanged "Such is life". He was degraded in life and the same in death. Some years ago, a world famous Australian Lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, conducted a very popular TV show called "Hypotheticals". The TV show conducted a realistic reconstruction of Ned's 'Trial', in an authentic court room of the era, actors playing police, witnesses, lawyers dressed in authentic clothing of the era and utilising original court procedures, transcripts of the original court hearings as the text etc . When presented with the evidence dispassionately (the outcome of the original show trial was a foregone conclusion) the modern jury of 12 found Ned 'Not Guilty' of the capital crimes. The Irish were taught to dance for Sean Davis (old 18th century Irish slang term for the hangman's noose) by the British over many centuries, not only in Britain and Ireland but all over the widespread British Empire.