Save the date in your calendar: on Saturday 15th March, the Westbury St Patrick’s Festival will be on again at the Westbury Village Green. It’s a family-friendly, community event that celebrates Westbury’s historic links with Ireland – and there are many links!
In the 1840s, many Irish military pensioners settled in the eastern area of Westbury, known as Queenstown. The street names – such as Pensioners Row, Veterans Row and Five Acre Row – highlight the history of this area, and it’s said that Gaelic was spoken by these families for generations.
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Westbury locals played a significant role in the stories of the Young Irelander rebels – assisting individuals such as two of its leaders, Meagher and Mitchel, in their escape from Van Diemen’s Land to America in the 1850s. Meagher, of course, went on to become a pivotal figure by developing the idea for the Irish Tricolour national flag, with the green representing the Roman Catholics, the orange representing the Protestants, and the white in the middle signifying an everlasting truce between the two groups.
Other stories of the Irish free settlers and convicts are less well-known. For example, John Devirix was from Tipperary and worked as a blacksmith before he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to transportation for life to Van Diemen’s Land. He was held at Kilmainham Prison in Dublin before his transportation – the same prison where Thomas Meagher was detained. He was married with eight children, although no further details of his family are currently known. Sadly for Devirix, he died just one month after receiving his ticket-of-leave.
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The Westbury & Districts Historical Society will be at the St Patrick’s Festival, too, with much more information on Westbury’s historic links to Ireland. If you have a family story connected to Ireland that you would like to share, the Historical Society would love to hear from you.
The festival itself will have all the fun and entertainment that we’d expect of an Irish festival, with lots of music, maypole dancing by the local primary school students, food stalls and market stalls, and a mini parade. This year, the festival committee has also introduced a couple of new ideas, including a giant pumpkin growing competition and hobby horse races. The committee has some hobby horses that can be used by the public, but they would love to see people create their own hobby horses, too – sure to be a lot of fun!
If you are a market stall holder, a community group or an individual that would like to be part of the event, please send us a message via the Facebook page, or contact Amanda on 0467 097 791.
