The Irish connection to Australia’s most bizarre series of scandals

ONE of the more intriguing files in the State papers opened this week concerned the appointment of Senator Vincent Gair as Australian ambassador to Ireland in 1974.

His appointment became the first of a series of GUBU-type scandals that rocked the government of Gough Whitlam and ultimately led to the greatest constitutional crisis in Australian history.

Vince Gair was coming to the end of his political career. Born in Queensland on February 25, 1901, he had strong Irish connections. His mother was from Enniskillen, and both of his wife’s parents were Irish - her father was from Clare and her mother from Kerry. Vince went to a Christian Brothers school and some 60 years later still recalled two Irish teachers - a Br Ryan and a Br Hogan, from Clonmel.