Our skin might be super-sensitive to the sun but in this age of easily taking offence, the ranga has proudly become almost impervious to insults.

Why? A defence system honed over centuries by redheads everywhere is doing what other minorities in society find hard to do.
The gingers of this world have learnt to let jibes slide harmlessly to the floor like freshly cut hair in a barber’s chair.

Clumsy teasing is sometimes exactly that. Try a bit harder with your wordcraft or the laugh is on you, not the Fanta pants of the world.

Gingers don’t even get picked on like they once did in the playground, in working life or in episodes of South Park. Where’s the government inquiry into that neglect?

Julia Gillard was even asked if she would ban redhead jokes when she took the highest position in the land as Prime Minister. As a card-carrying redhead, she took the high road with a laugh. There was the ultimate chance for a statute to be slipped through to protect the overly-freckled who walk amongst us at high noon.

Why the sudden interest in the red-haired race? It’s not sudden. It’s a path you proudly walk for life as this writer has done.
Watching the Matildas and marvelous Mollie O peaked fresh interest.

In every match played by Australia at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the pride rises when Clare Polkinghorne stands tall to sing the national anthem. The Matildas are green, gold and ranga whenever she runs on for a valuable cameo.

Every sporting team of substance has a ranga, or needs one. It’s top of the dias stuff. Certainly, it was at swimming’s World Championships in Japan thanks to Queensland’s Mollie O’Callaghan.

Imagine? Redheads represent just 1-2 per cent of the hair colour in the world yet we 100 per cent represent the fastest woman in the world over 100m freestyle. Her stunning winning time over 200m freestyle also established a world record for redheads and the rest.

The famed Brisbane Lions of 2001-03 won three straight AFL premierships. Historians will wise up one day and look beyond a gun midfield or Alastair Lynch’s goalkicking. The twin ginger turbos of Michael Voss and Justin Leppitsch separated them from all-comers in the three-peat years Forget Taylor Swift. Join the ticket queue for the next Ed “Sherrin” tour.

Gingers now embrace their uniqueness like never before. There’s a team in the local rugby sevens circuit called the Red Hot Chili Steppers. You’ve never seen more broad-brimmed hats, suncream and long-sleeved warm-up shirts in one talented group. You have to be a ginger to get a start, even a 60 per center.

There can’t be an obscure law that brands this as non-inclusive, surely.

The Australians looked bereft of a ginger ninja during the Ashes.

Only coach Andrew McDonald has red under his cap. Of course, he’s copped the “Ronnie” McDonald nickname forever. Original? Nope but what ginger gags are.

Now the Poms. You can’t get a deeper, truer red than keeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow, who carries the nickname “Bluey” as did his late father David.

When I started work as a teenager in Sydney, former rugby league international Frank “Bumper” Farrell was the security guard on the front desk. Every morning, the former policeman would growl a friendly welcome, “Gidday, Blue.”
It always intrigued.

Bumper was of Irish stock. One origin story is that Irishmen would arrive in the Australian colonies with a thirst for drinking and fighting. The local term for a fight was a “blue.” “Blue” became an easy tag for a redheaded Irishman because a potential fight was walking by.

Prejudice in England was established long before. Red hair was the badge of the Irish they looked down on.  Red-haired Australian soldiers were often tagged “Bluey” during the world wars and it filtered into civilian life.

Gingers do have their own airline. Ever wondered about Virgin Blue? Red livery on planes to tie in with “Blue.”

State of Origin folklore worships copper-tops like Paul Vautin. With no Kalyn Ponga, balance was restored this year when Caboolture-bred blood nut Corey Horsburgh was selected.

Everyone is looking for the secret to the Brisbane Broncos’ rise. Perhaps, the shade to Tom Flegler is being missed in all the analysis.

Even the Wallabies’ newest captain Tate McDermott has a touch of strawberry blond to add to the deeper red of fullback Andrew Kellaway. “You need a ranga in every team and not just to throw sunscreen tubes at,” Kellaway said with a laugh.

If you wondered, on and off, whether the ginge-brush touched former Australian fast bowler Craig McDermott, you only had to wait a generation. Pace bowling son Alister was flame red with the recessive gene when bowling for the Brisbane Heat in their Big Bash 2 triumph a decade ago.

Aaron Wilkin waved the red flag by winning golf’s Queensland PGA in full Sunday sun last November just as Mark Woodforde did years ago as a doubles expert on Wimbledon’s centre court.

Redheads have smashed through the red ceiling after walking the red carpet Jessica Chastain, Tilda Swinton, Nicole Kidman are among the redheads who have won Academy Awards.

How famous carrot-top Rupert Grint missed out on an Oscar for playing Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies is another story if you ask his fan club.
Forget that old joke. Why are the Harry Potter films unrealistic? Answer: A ginger kid has two friends.

COVID killed off many of the state’s biggest events or put them on pause for several years.
Thankfully, the prestigious title as Queensland’s Hottest Ginger was revived amid fanfare in late July at Finn McCool’s Irish Bar in Fortitude Valley. Dublin blow-in Arthur Henry won the $1000 grand prize after a catwalk strut.

As he told delighted podcast listeners back in Ireland, “I’ve never seen so many ginger people in one spot in my entire life.”
Everything is good in the world of gingers.

JIM TUCKER has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media. He is a proud ginger.