Byrne and His Role in Creating The Kelly Legend
By writing the various letters that were issued in Kelly's names and the bush ballads and designing the armour, Joe Byrne was the man responsible with Kelly himself for creating the Kelly legend. In the following 125 years, the legend has grown. There have been a number of films made about the Kelly Gang including a 1906 film which was one of the first feature films ever made. In 2003, Orlando Bloom played the part of Joe Byrne in Ned Kelly.
Australian novelist Peter Carey won the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize the same year for the True History of the Kelly Gang. This was inspired by the Jerilderie letter drafted by Byrne.
Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang has been immortalised by Sidney Nolan wearing the armour designed by Joe Byrne in a famous set of paintings. This inspired a scene at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
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