Ned Kelly is finally to be laid to rest in his adopted homeland of Australia – 132 years after he was hanged for murder.
The Irish outlaw’s descendants have received his remains after they were exhumed from a mass prison grave in Melbourne.
The notorious bushranger came from a Tipperary family with his relatives set to hold a private church memorial service on Friday before the burial in an unmarked grave on Sunday.
Kelly has been an iconic figure thanks to the homemade armour and helmet he wore during his last violent shootout with police.
The Irish Independent reports that his reported final words before he was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880 - ‘such is life’ - helped make him an iconic figure in Australian history.
The report adds that Kelly’s Gang became a symbol for social tensions between poor Irish settlers and the wealthy Australian establishment at the time.
Read more: Famed Irish Australian rebel Ned Kelly’s remains returned to his family
Kelly himself became a folk hero to many for standing up to the Anglo-Australian ruling class.
Now his descendants have said that their private farewells are in keeping with the outlaw’s requests.
A statement from the family said: “The descendants of the Kelly family wish to give effect to Ned Kelly’s last wish and that he now be buried in consecrated ground with only his family in attendance in order to ensure a private, respectful and dignified funeral.
“The family wish for their privacy to be respected so that they may farewell a very much loved member of their family.”
Australian media have reported that Kelly will be buried at Greta, near Glenrowan, north-east of Victoria, where his mother is buried in an unmarked grave.
The report in the Irish Independent adds that his remains have made a circuitous journey to their final resting place.
He was first buried in a mass grave at Melbourne Gaol and when that closed in 1929 his bones were exhumed and reburied in another mass grave at the newer Pentridge Prison.
After all the bones buried in Pentridge yard were exhumed in 2009, Kelly’s skeleton was positively identified in 2011 by scientists after DNA tests against a descendant.
The Victoria state government announced last August that it would return the skeleton to the family but Kelly’s skull remains missing.
Police believe the skull was separated from his skeleton during the transfer.
Kelly’s life story inspired the novel ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ by author Peter Carey, which won the 2001 Booker Prize.
A 2003 movie on his life featured the late actor Heath Ledger in the lead role.
Read more: People with Irish gangster Ned Kelly tattoos more likely to be murdered or commit suicide
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Towngate | Jan 21, 2013, 11:20 AM EST
"I say, Mick, old chap,here are the reins... lets see just how big a stinking bloody bog you will drive your country into! ~ Oh,and by the way,try and stay sober and don't swank around in any open-topped cars!"
Towngate | Jan 21, 2013, 09:35 AM EST
"I say, Mick, old chap,here are the reins... lets see just how big a stinking bloody bog you will drive your country into! ~ Oh,and by the way,try and stay sober and don't swank around in any open-topped cars!"
seanomelb | Jan 20, 2013, 06:47 PM EST
Take my sword Collins --------------- WE surrender
Towngate | Jan 20, 2013, 05:12 PM EST
In the words of the Authorities: FIRE! ~~~~~~~~~~ In the words of Pearse: WE SURRENDER!
redhand32 | Jan 20, 2013, 04:54 PM EST
We need an army of Ned Kellys today to render swift justice to the super-wealthy parasites who nearly stole the American Presidential election thru their "Citizens United" anonymous Corporate, and individual slush money millions greased by nationwide voter suppression. However, the People United Will NEVER Be Defeated by the parasite class. Ned Kelly is a hero. God Bless his soul. In the words of Pearse, "Beware of a Risen People !"
Towngate | Jan 20, 2013, 08:21 AM EST
No Fear ... on your account anyway!The more i read about the kelly Thugs - the more convinced I am! No doubt the aauthorities and the police got personal anf vivious with them ... but you need desperate cures are needed for desperate diseases. Like the shelling of Dublin by the 'Helga'....
seanomelb | Jan 19, 2013, 11:02 PM EST
Steady on son don't burst your boiler.
Towngate | Jan 19, 2013, 08:42 PM EST
It seems that the vicious murdering robber facist racist Kelly Gang legacy is that you now get a free sense of humour by-pass aliong with your lobectomy. Read comment below for further details. It seems that in this case they also 'threw in' an English Language and spelling by-pass for good measure!
seanomelb | Jan 19, 2013, 07:13 PM EST
TG11 Kelly was a murderer! patrick Pearse was a fascist racist! one surely has to doubt your judgement or appreciation of history. "He's(he'd) still be alive today" Now that would be a feat considering he'd be Over 150 yrs, of age. All I can say clowngate is 'Facts! 'apppreciation of history' and "commonsense"
Towngate | Jan 19, 2013, 07:12 AM EST
If this cold-blooded robbing murderer spent more time writing instead of killing - he's still be alive today!
seanomelb | Jan 18, 2013, 06:47 PM EST
Maybe TG should read Neds 'Jerilderie letter" to understand his position in Victoria. Or how his family were harrassed by the police (f that is what you could call them)
IrelandNorth | Jan 18, 2013, 03:43 AM EST
Geez! There's more shrapnel flyin' on this website on this issue between SM on the one hand and AN/TG on the other than there was between outback bushranger NK and those fine fellows(?) of the RAC (Royal Australian Constabulary). Ar dheis Dei go raibh a h'anam - Ned!
anglo-norman | Jan 17, 2013, 08:17 PM EST
sean is a real aussie now
Towngate | Jan 17, 2013, 07:50 PM EST
Ned's father was convicted of stealing pigs - not to feed his family - he was caught selling them in the next market town. Ned was ten times worse. Don't try to instil heroism into his criminal,murdering activities. Just Bad blood. 'The Apple doesn't fall far from the Tree!'
seanomelb | Jan 17, 2013, 06:13 PM EST
dream on punk
anglo-norman | Jan 17, 2013, 12:26 AM EST
Ned Kelly was a man, you are not son...
seanomelb | Jan 16, 2013, 09:20 PM EST
whose bed!!
anglo-norman | Jan 16, 2013, 08:21 PM EST
seanomelb- back under the bed son...
3rdpolicewoman | Jan 16, 2013, 06:01 PM EST
Irish Central can never bother actually doing a bit of research on Ned Kelly. It's disappointing. Kelly did not 'adopt' Australia. He was a proud native-born Australian of proud Irish Catholic descent. He was a Tip-Antrim man! His father's family came from Tipperary. His much-loved, strong and influential mother's family, the Quinns, came from Co Antrim. And since the Quinns play a much greater role in Kelly's life than his father, that is not to be ignored. Kelly was a boy when his Tipperary father died. As I have posted here in the past, the full story of social inequity and the replication of the Anglo-Protestant Ascendency of Ireland in Victoria, Australia is engrossing. Even a Google search will be more helpful than reading Irish Central's tabloid rehash. I send my respects to the Kelly family at this the burial of Ned Kelly's remains. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to be descended from a man who has become a legend, a myth. It's the man and his times which are far more interesting.
cillowen | Jan 16, 2013, 05:22 PM EST
What the Saxon wrought and keeps on giving - In recent centuries crime and punishment linked Great Britain to America and Australia in a most curious way: the actual crimes occurred in England, Ireland and Scotland but for punishment thousands upon thousands of the criminals were banished to the American colonies and later to Australia. In the case of Ireland, social protest and political dissent were sometimes construed as criminal activity and the court's harshest sentence – transportation to the colonies - could be handed down for dissent as well as for common theft Though most of the Irish felons were convicted of crimes against persons or property, the offences of a substantial minority of them were of a political nature. Hughes writes that "Australia was the official Siberia for Irish dissidents... Between 1800 and 1805 their influx began in earnest, swollen by political exiles transported for their role in the rebellion of 1798, when Ireland tried unsuccessfully to ally with France in revolt against England."
seanomelb | Jan 16, 2013, 04:09 PM EST
torytory and butlerreport your arrogance is only superseded by your ignorance.
ToryTory | Jan 16, 2013, 02:13 PM EST
Christ Almighty, trust Irish Central to turn this non-story (tawdry story, if anything) into Anglo Vs. Irish baiting. Pathetic.
butlerreport | Jan 16, 2013, 12:06 PM EST
Only in Australia do they celebrate criminals and murderers. A reflection perhaps of their collective past?
ePHraimAg | Jan 16, 2013, 11:23 AM EST
I See That a few Of The Irishmen receive rest even in OZ and probably sustaining through THe Hymns Of The SHannonDoaGH.