Irish surgeons and Australian history.

IRISH blood, flowing in the veins of the Australian nation, makes it different from other races of the old Empire. Much of the Irish heritage of courage, warmth, good humour, love of song and poetry, and argument, and Irish hospitality, permeates our national character. It has seemed to me that we do not appreciate each other as close relatives and members of a family as we should, and that we miss much by not doing so. Our peoples share the same blood, the same language and much of the same history. We should seek and nurture intimate ties of friendship. The world is no longer separated by an insuperable barrier of distance. We should build human bridges across the seas between our countries so that we may know each other as friends and neighbours.