Few in Ireland may know about it, but as Bobby Sands and the other 22 men in Long Kesh were in the middle of, and dying because of their hunger strike, there was a one-man strike going on down in Sydney.

Ned O’Connor sat on the first floor of Sydney’s Gaelic Club, refusing food for 37 days as a mark of solidarity.

They hoped to force the Aussie government into pressuring Britain to bring the strikes to an end.  There’s a commemoration on in Sydney next week, on May 12, the day Francis Hughes died in 1981, organised by Friends of Sinn Fein.  More details in the next Irish Echo.

One of the best things about living in Sydney is the mornings. The sunrise was a glorious gold this morning, peeling off the horizon towards Manly Beach from around 5.50am. Living one street back from the strand means I can get up and go for a quick surf before heading in to the Irish Echo in the mornings. Catching a sunrise surf is possibly the best way to start the day, and I love it. That is, if I can wake myself up.

If I can’t, (like this morning, still aching from kickboxing the day before) the good folks from aquabumps.com in Bondi show me what I missed with a mid-afternoon mail containing pics like this and a detailed report on the surf that was. And the guilt sets in.

The sun pouring through the shutters nearly got me out this morning.

Nearly. No waves now for several days.

When it’s good, though, it’s very good.

Better waves than I am a surfer.

More: aquabumps .com