Delaneys return to the Royal Botanic Garden

Today’s post about Nicholas Delaney and the 200th anniversary of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden is more of a news item.

The Delaneys are coming back!

There’s going to be a gathering of Nicholas’s descendants on 13 June, 2016, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, exactly 200 years to the hour after our ancestor told a delighted Governor Lachlan Macquarie that he and his road gang had finished building Mrs Macquarie’s Road.

Lachlan Macquarie’s journal for 13 June, 1816

One of my Delaney cousins tells me that the family will reunite at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair at 1pm ‘to re-enact the dedication of Mrs Macquarie’s Road by Governor Macquarie’. Isn’t that a brilliant idea?

Here’s a link to what else is going on to celebrate the garden’s 200th birthday.

I’ll pass on the details as soon as I know more. I’ll probably tweet them, so if you’re on Twitter, please check my moniker, @ARebelHand.

Inscription on Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, CC via Wikimedia

I can’t be there, so the least I can do is join in the spirit of the occasion and celebrate by announcing this:

Special offer on A Rebel Hand

From today until the end of June, I’m offering 25% off the price of a copy of A Rebel Hand, the biography of Nicholas Delaney, Irish rebel, transported convict, roadbuilder and farmer – a man who left his mark on the early colony and whose work can be seen in Sydney to this day.

I hope you’ll come back soon for the next Botanic Garden bicentenary celebration post.

Get your special offer of A Rebel Hand for £5.99 here.

Update: Delaney descendant Denis O’Brien, who’s organising the reunion, will be interviewed on 702 ABC Sydney, a local radio station. You can listen live at around 0620 Sydney time. It’s a little early in the morning, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it.