Ned Kelly Script Final

136 years have passed since Ned Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne Gaol and
his fellow gang members, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne were killed at the
horrific siege at Glenrowan. During the passing of this time, Australia has been
conflicted in their opinions of Kelly; was he a hero or a villain? Some describe him
as a quintessential Australian hero who stood up for his rights and what he
believed in, others, preferring to label him a cold-blooded killer whos villainous
actions have stained our history. However, this common perspective of Ned Kelly
being a "villain" is not completely accurate, as the discrimination that Kelly faced
at the hands of the corrupt police force of the time lead to a chain of events
triggered by his victimisation that resulted with him becoming an accidental
hero.
Ned Kelly was a victim of the Victorian Police Force's corruption and
discrimination. At the time, the Irish were greatly oppressed as a direct result of
their Catholicism due to its confliction with the dominant Protestant views of the
English. Kelly himself was acutely aware of this situation, highlighted in his
Jerilderie letter, which he dictated from prison in 1879 (Thompson, 2007). Kelly
states that they were doomed to Port Macquarie Towering Abbie and Norfolk
Island and Emu Plain and in those places of Tyranny and condemnation many a
blooming Irishman rather than subdue to the Saxon yoke were flogged to death
and bravely died in servile chains but true to the shamrock (Kelly, Ned via
National Museum Australia, 1879). Adding to the ethnic and religious
discrimination that Kelly faced, there existed a rift in society, separating the
wealthy squatters, from the poorer selectors- with the Kellys belonging to the
latter group. This class division within society was a hangover from European
society where there existed a long history of violence and fighting in Ireland- "the
history of Irish resistance to English oppression"(n.a., 1973). Due to the
squatters elevated social standing, the police didnt target them and rather
focussed their attention on the less influential selectors, hence making the Kelly
gang an even more prominent target for police brutality. Criminal practices were
a significant part of Ned Kellys life. "Ned Kellys family was part of a wider clan
with a history of horse theft and clashes with the police, while the authorities for
their part conducted a campaign of harassment against the Kellys."(Thompson,
2007). The family's criminal history left them prime targets for the already
prejudiced Police force. Growing up as the son of a convict- John (Red) Kelly, who
supplemented the family income by horse stealing which led to his arrest and
eventual death in prison in 1866, eleven year old Ned was left the family
breadwinner (Australian Dictionary of Biographies, 1974). Superintendent
Nicholsons statement in an official report suggests that the Victorian Police
were, in fact, corrupt in their beliefs, as he states "The Kellys must be rooted out
of the neighbourhood and sent to Pentridge gaol, even on a paltry sentence. This
would be a good way of taking the flashiness out of them." (Convict Creations,
n.a). The cause of this statement was the Kellys defiance; their refusal to bow
down to social norms and accept their class and religion determined position
within society. It is evident from the knowledge of the views and prejudices of the
time as well as the actions of the police that the Victorian Police force, alongside
many members of the community, held personal prejudices against the Kelly
family. Kelly reciprocated these actions by becoming the embodiment of
everything that society believed him to be from a young age, a bushranger and a
criminal, but also a man who refused to yield to prejudice and the social norms
that were accepted at the time.
As a result of the widespread corruption of the Victorian police force at the time
and their consequent actions, Ned Kelly was driven to lawless ways in order to
survive. The Kelly's, like the majority of selectors at the time, saw illegal means
as their only option of an income and decent life. At the time selectors were
deprived of land and the strict laws in place banned them from farming livestock.
In the face of such restrictions, selectors inevitably turned to stealing cattle and
horses from rich landowners. In turn, the squatters set the corrupt and brutal
police force, essentially their private armed force, on the selectors. The Kelly's
suffered greatly from the persecution of the Victorian Police force, a prominent
example being the Fitzpatrick incident which occurred on April 15, 1878.
Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick accused Kelly of shooting him- a charge that the
Kelly's flatly denied. A common perspective on the incident, supporting
Constable Fitzpatrick, claims that it was an attempted murder- the Constable was
brutally attacked by the Kellys, and shot in the wrist by Ned after coming to
arrest Dan Kelly for cattle rustling. However, Ned Kelly's account in his Jerilderie
letter states otherwise. He claimed that Fitzpatrick came to arrest his brother
without a warrant, and then threatened to shoot his mother, Ellen Kelly, when
she protested. The letter then goes on to state, "The trooper left and invented
some scheme to say that he got shot which any man can see is false." (Kelly,
Ned via National Museum Australia, 1879).
Despite the contrasting perspectives surrounding the incident, Constable
Fitzpatrick's unreliable and corrupt reputation leads many historians to believe
that his account was largely inaccurate and driven by his personal prejudice
towards the Kellys. Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick was later discharged from
the police force. Although his behaviour, described as being generally bad and
discreditable to the Force (Standish, 1879), was well known amongst his fellow
officers, it was never mentioned in any of the trials regarding the incident. Such
episodes of prejudice and questionable conduct on the behalf of the police force
were not occasional, but rather typical of the police force at the time As a result
of the false accusations against Kelly, his family's only source of income would
have been lost and they would have struggled to survive with Ned in jail.
Consequently, Kelly escaped to the bush in hope of allowing his family to survive.
Many are of the opinion that it was the corruption and injustice within the
Victorian Police Force that ultimately drove Ned Kelly into the bush.
As Ned Kelly had been declared an outlaw, he was deprived of all his civil
liberties and could be shot on sight. For six months Ned and Dan tried to
preserve their lives by hiding in the Wombat Ranges. (Convict Creations, n.a).
During his time on the run, Kelly's negative actions were heavily publicised and
exaggerated by the wealthy squatters. Being the only form of media at time, the
newspaper depicted him in a bad light. In spite of this, the publicity ultimately
gained him support, although little was known about him within the community.
In his book 'Ned Kelly', Historian William Heinemann comments on the extent of
Kelly's support, "At a time when the average wage was a pound a week, the
Victoria and NSW government soon put an extraordinary 8000 reward on their
heads, for information leading to their capture. But despite that, the Kelly Gang
was still protected by their own community for the next 2 years as they evaded
capture." It wasn't until after Kelly's capture that the sheer extent of the public's
support for him was revealed. The media coverage that he received was
immense and people began to relate to him and his story. The government and
squatters were alarmed at the degree of public sympathy for this gang of
outlaws. One local paper estimated that eight hundred men were ready to
support the Kellys and the sympathy cut across racial divisions, with local
Chinese helping to supply the gang. One witness to the events, Inspector
Montfort, frankly stated in his testimony: ''A great deal of the difficulty with these
men would be got over if they felt they were treated with equal justice.''
(FitzSimons, 2013) His statement suggests that, had Kelly been treated with
justice during his early life, his later actions may not have been as extreme.

Though Ned Kelly was primarily motivated by his need to survive in the face of
discrimination, he became an accidental hero as a direct result of his
victimisation. The most predominant reason that Ned Kelly has come to be
regarded as a hero is how his story, and the response that it brought, changed
the society in which he lived for the better, even after his death (Australian
Dictionary of Biographies,1974). It is almost ironic that the failure of the Kelly
Gang's Last stand immortalised Ned in a way that would never have occurred if
the attempt had been successful. Instead of bravely dying a death in an iron suit,
he was caught and received a death sentence, where, ultimately, his moving
response brought over 60,000 people to sign a petition for his sentence to be
removed (Tungjung, A. 2014). The support that Kelly received during the trial
validates the claims of William Heinemann, that during his life he stood as an
inspirational figure to those in his community, for they demonstrated their
support in spite of the negative stigma that had been created about Kelly by the
wealthy squatters (Fitzsimon,P. 2013). The overwhelming reaction that occurred
caught the attention of the Victorian Royal Commission, and for the first time in
Australian history, the Victorian Police Force came under scrutiny, which
ultimately ceased the oppression of Kelly's fellow selectors (Convict Creations,
n.a). It was only after Kelly's death that he was coined as the quintessential
Australian flawed hero,' so it is unlikely that he would have predicted the
immense revolution that his story brought about to society at the time. After his
death, the Victorian Royal Commission investigation of the Victorian Police Force
resulted in many changes to policing. Demotions, reprimands, or dismissal
occurred for a large number of members of the Victorian police, including
experienced and senior officers (Australian Government, 2016). Without the
revolution that Kelly created, historians have predicted that the Australian police
force would not be in the state that it is today, and may possibly even still exist
much in the same corrupt manner it used to (Convict Creations, n.a). Ian Jones,
a historian and expert on Ned Kelly, believed that "Ned was outspoken in his
criticism of the way the police had conducted not only the pursuit of the Kelly's
but the way they had handled the entire north-east. The Royal Commission of
1881 created a tradition of public accountability and self-examination which
exists in the Victoria police to this day and I believe it gave us the foundation of
what is arguably the best police force in Australia. This is what I consider as Ned
Kelly's greatest legacy (Jones, I. 2001). The fact that public accountability in
Victoria was only created after Kelly's demise supports the claims of Stephen
Thompson that the corruption of Constable Fitzpatrick was not an isolated case
but rather typical of police officers at the time. This, consequently, indicates why
the lives of the selectors were only bettered after the investigation of the
Victorian Royal Commission, as the corruption was effectively eliminated from
the force. On the contrary, however, others continue to believe that the legacy
Kelly left was one of destruction, typical of a villainous figure (Fitzsimon, P. 2013).
Leo Kennedy, a lawyer and the great-grandson of Sergeant Kennedy, one of the
policemen shot dead by Kelly, is of the opinion that "Ned Kelly was a murderer
and a bully. The effects of his murder still linger because of those that remember
him as an icon." However, those such as Kennedy who continue to believe that
Ned Kelly was a cold-hearted villain are narrow-minded, as they focus on only the
actions of Kelly and ignore the overall context of the situation. Kennedy does not
recognise the change that Kelly brought to society and ignores the corruption of
the police force at the time outlined by Jones. Although the fury of Sergeant
Kennedy's great-grandson is somewhat valid and the murder of the policemen
was tragic, there is no doubt that Ned Kelly himself was a hero to his people due
to the immense change that he caused to society, which suggests that
Kennedy's claims cannot be relied on. Ned Kelly in his armour came to symbolise
a fight by a flawed hero (Barry, J.V. 1974, pg. 63), a convicted criminal, for
'justice and liberty' and 'innocent people', a symbol of an underdog freeing his
people from oppression.

In conclusion, it is evident when examining the entire contest of the Kelly

situation that the common perspective of Ned Kelly as being a "villain" is not
completely accurate. The discrimination that Kelly faced at the hands of the
corrupt Victorian police Force resulted in a chain of events triggered by his
victimisation that eventuated with him becoming an accidental hero to his fellow
selectors at the time. Ned Kelly freed innocent people from the vicious cycle of
the police discrimination, and, for that, he deserves to be remembered as a hero.