John Durack: And now I give you the husband of the luckiest woman in the world! Dad, over to you.
Bill Durack:
Thank you, Chairman John, and welcome again to all of you here. It's certainly a wonderful day for Noni and I. I feel that I could retire here, and having welcomed you all, could have said, 'Well Noni has said it now for us all; there's nothing much left for me to say. But I think it's expected that I'll keep here for a little while. It was suggested that two minutes was the limit, but then I was told later, 'No, that didn't apply to Mother and Dad.' So I had to review the situation and see if we could come up with something else.
I think some of you might feel if you reflected back on the fact that Noni and I collectively (we won't go into any detail), but Noni and I collectively have been on the planet for 160 years and that this is all the friends we could have accumulated in that time? Or are these the only ones who have been left? But I can assure you that that's not so, and I think John has filled in, by saying that there were quite a number of others who would like to have been here today, but it's just not possible for them to be around.
Now Noni and I were not given much indication of the format of today's proceedings, and no matter how much we plied the boys, we were told nothing. They said it had nothing to do with us, apart from the fact of being here. So we are here, and this rather reminds me of a conference that Noni and I attended some six or seven years ago in Ireland. It was held in both Dublin and Galway, and the convenor of that conference, when we arrived, I said to him, 'Well it's great to be here, but we've never received a program. What is it to be all about?' And he said, 'Oh Bill, you haven't got much idea of Ireland or the Irish.' He said, 'It will develop over the proceedings of the conference. It will develop.' I said, 'Well at least could you tell me what's on the program for today?' He said, 'Oh Bill, today should be a very interesting day: you're going to be talking in half an hour.' So that was how the program 'developed'. It is possible that's the way the program is going to be played here.
On a more serious vein, it is a delight for Noni and I to have our five boys and their families here. We often sort of felt the good Lord did not see fit to provide us with a daughter, but we have since then, been provided with just (we won't go into too much detail) but I think if one calculates, somewhat more than five daughters-in-law. So could we hope for more? But as Noni has said, all of our five boys in their different ways, have been a joy and a delight to us; and what has perhaps most impressed us with them, they have all in their characters been blessed with such different propensities. This morning we missed Father Leonard at Mass (I think he was having a sleep-in to prepare for this luncheon!) but we had Father Peter Murphy there. And Father Peter Murphy made the point, if I got it, with my rather poor hearing these days, that we all should look to developing our own particular God-given talent. And I think this is such an important point, and I do feel that our boys in their various ways, have developed those talents.
John, like his maternal grandfather and grandmother, had a tremendous love of words and of literature. He proceeded from them to a legal career, and I feel has been able to achieve a lot of his potential in that way.
Michael, our inventor. Michael was always, when Noni would like to have been involved with the housekeeping, 'Where is our vacuum cleaner?' 'It is being used by Michael on his latest invention.' So our vacuum cleaner never really worked.
James, I think it's hard to exactly pinpoint James, but he had his own particular interests, and went on from strength to strength to be a little bit like his father’s profession, in being a structural engineer.
Patrick, we often had doubts about Patrick. Patrick usually had his nose in the innards of a broken down clock or a radio, and we felt 'But where is this going to lead him to get a living?' But he went on from there, on and on, and Patrick eventually became an electrical engineer, of some very considerable note, as we understand, in Sydney, which allows him to be here today.
Matthew is perhaps a little bit difficult, as Matthew and I run a business together, not far from here, and I am instructed in every shape and form as to how I behave in that business. But I think we're nearly adjusting.
It so happened that three of our boys at one stage became involved with the university and some of their projects. And three of them had to front up, Michael, Matthew and James, on these particular projects involved with the university. And I said to James, 'But James, the three of you are going to speak at the university.' I said, 'How are you going to handle the situation if someone raises the dreaded word, 'Nepotism'? And James said immediately, 'Proudly is how I will handle it.' So as far as I know, they did and continue to do it in that way.
As I say, as the day develops, Noni and I might have to demand the right of reply, but we'll see what is said, or how it goes from there. I think I've covered the family; John has said how much I would like to have had my brother and my sister here, but we must eventually wind to a close. I'm so pleased that Noni was able to have, and cover the most important and serious topics.
And in conclusion I'm sort of a little bit renowned for having the odd quote. One of them some of you must know almost off by heart:
'If maybe we could reach the happy isles and see the great Achilles whom we knew, though much is taken, much abides, and though we are not now, that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are'
“It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew,
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
- no, that's not my quote. I think it might be more appropriate to move on to the (it might be known to Father) the one by Francis Thompson:
“In a little dust, in a little dust.
Earth thou retrievest us
Who have all our lives
Sought not nought but Egyptian villeanage.
Thou dost this body .
This enhavoked realm
Subject to ancient and ancestral shadows
Descended passions sway it
It is distraught with ghostly usurpation
Dimmed and fretted with the still tyrannous dead.
A haunted tenement
Peopled from barrows and outworn ossuaries'
No, that again is not my quote. That is not my quote. But I was only the other day reflecting on some of my Latin prose as a schoolboy. Father would probably know it in its original Latin. I think Brian too might know it in the Latin. But it was Virgil's Epic, the Aeneid, and Aeneas fleeing from Troy, with his father on his back. And the words were:
“Then come, dear father, arms around my neck
I'll take you on my shoulders, no great weight.
Whatever happens, both will face one danger,
Find one safety.”
This, the Roman attitude of filial respect was there, and I think Noni and I are so delighted and so proud that we have received it from our five boys. I hope they don't have to take both of us on their neck. I rest my case.
APPLAUSE.
Some better Photos of Dad over the years.
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