In 1934, Czechoslovakian activist Egon Kisch, an anti-war, anti-fascist campaigner who had escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany was invited to speak at an anti-fascist rally in Australia. He was stopped at the border by Australian immigration officials and prohibited from entering the country.

Kisch was not the kind of man to go down without a fight, however, and through a series of legal maneuvers he was finally able to speak and lecture to adoring crowds. The government's attempts to keep him out had turned him from a relatively unknown overseas activist into a national celebrity. But what did Australia's infamous "White Australia Policy" have to do with Kisch and how on earth does Scottish Gaelic fit into this story?