‘John O’Brien’ was born Patrick Joseph Hartigan in O’Connell Town in 1878, just around the corner from the Yass Convent Church – now, Lovat Chapel, but once St Augustine’s Church, where he was baptised. Elements of Irish and Irish-inspired local culture, had, by that time, been ‘drip fed’, (and sometimes heartily injected), into Australian life. There were, of course, both Catholic and Protestant elements present and from time-to-time sectarian differences erupted into physical violence. From the earliest days following European invasion, Irish music, words, attitudes and customs are evident, evolving beside other cultural influences that helped to shape Australia’s national European character. John O’Brien’s verse sits, perhaps, at the pinnacle of the bell-curve of Irish-Australian balladry growing out of the Catholic community he served and of which he was an important part. His work is brimful of this Hibernian ethos and Catholic values that a substantial part of Australia’s people shared. In the early 20th century, as filmmaking flourished and evolved in Australia, his highly conspicuous poetry had been available in religious and secular journals for almost twenty years. After 1921, much of this poetry was gathered into a volume entitled Around the Boree Log.  The collection, in essence, ‘The book of the film’ saw a rising film maker take an interest in how this pervasive and popular material might be adapted to the screen.