Runaway, sailor, miner, pound-keeper, pastoralist, vigneron, grazier and horse breeder ... Proud to be Irish is about Henry McIllree, a determined, enterprising, early pioneer of Wodonga and the Upper Murray, in colonial Victoria, Australia. Born in Belturbet, County Cavan, Ireland in 1824, McIllree was the youngest son of a large family. He achieved much after running away from home, aged just 14, to escape being sent into penury as a clergyman. By the time of his untimely death at Wodonga in 1882, McIllree had packed a lot into his life. He had sailed the high seas as an Able Seaman, toiled as a miner, run the Wodonga pound for 19 years, bought town blocks, set up a farm, a vineyard and a short-lived butchery business, served on local boards, appeared in court, leased and bought Upper Murray grazing lands, established a horse and cattle breeding enterprise at Biggara, taken horses to India for sale, and visited New Zealand's Rotorua spas for a heart disease cure. Perhaps the most important event in his life was marrying a young Irish girl, Isabella Johnston from Belfast, at Wodonga in 1855. Their marriage produced 11 children, seven of whom, in 2019, have descendants living in Australia, Europe, Indonesia, Kiribati, the Philippines, and the United States of America.

Contents: Belturbet, quiet, friendly town -- The McIllrees in Ireland -- Middleman and mitilia member: John Drope McIllree of Ballyhaise and Belturbet -- By sea by land to the Australian colonies -- South Australia and the Victorian goldfields -- Setting down roots in a new town: Belvoir (Wodonga), Victoria -- From pound-keeper to grazier and horse breeder -- Biggara -- The final days -- Born in the colony of Victoria: the children of Henry and Isabella McIllree -- Appendix 1. Henry McIllree (1824-1882), brief chronology -- Appendix 2. Descendants of John Wiggins -- Appendix 3. Children of John Drope McIllree and Margaret McIllree nee Quigly.

Includes bibliography (page 201-212) and index.