Welcome

We take our name from the traditional folk ballad, "The Wild Colonial Boy" - the story of Jack Duggan who left Ireland for Australia where he robbed the rich to feed the poor. At Jack Duggan's time, and well before, the terms "wild" and "colonial" were used as terms of racist derision, meant to belittle the native Irish who lived "beyond the pale" - where our families come from - and to thereby justify the taking of their lands. By applying these terms to Jack Duggan, whom they described as at once "a terror to Australia" and a "tribute to all Ireland," the balladeers are reclaiming those terms, turning them from things of which to be ashamed and into things to be celebrated. Our logo features a figure, taken from a 1610 map of Ireland, which was captioned, "The Wilde Irish Man." The cartographer meant to portray him derisively but, like the balladeers did with Jack Duggan, we're reclaiming The Wild Irish Man. We have taken the name and the figure as our own because we believe that The Wild Irish Man and Jack Duggan were forbears of whom to be proud.

Thank you for joining us here at the Wild Colonial.