The Irish In Australia by Patrick O’Farrell (Secondhand Book)

SECONDHAND BOOK

The names of the Irish-born, high and low, peppered the manifests of the first and second fleets in 1788 and 1790; by 1791 the direct shipping link with Ireland had begun. While some of these Irish were protestant, some free (settlers, crew, guards and officers), and some rich or middling prosperous, most were poor, catholic and convicts.

They were the beginning of a central, colourful and profoundly influential element in Australia’s evolution into a nation different and separate from Britain. Commencing with Irish convicts, feared and despised – ‘nearly as wild themselves as the cattle’ – following free Irish immigrants and settlers into the often hostile texture of colonial life, they came to see themselves as patriotic Australians, integrating into all levels and facets of national life and character, many occupying the highest positions in the land in government, law and commerce.

Cutting across the barriers of class, religion and state of origin, Patrick O’Farrell, doyen of Irish-Australian historians, has looked past the Irish cliches, and presented a fascinating and complex picture not only of the big names such as the contrasting heroes of Mannix and Ned Kelly, but also the wives, sweethearts and children, not only the important and influential like Sir Gavan Duffy and Sir Redmond Barry, but also the nursemaids, labourers, farmers and shopkeepers.

Written with pace and authority, the book argues that the Irish were a dynamic force in our history, a constant galvanising force; and that the Australian Irish can be properly understood only in their real complexity, Catholic, but also Ulster Protestant and Anglo-Irish.

Specifications:

Condition: Good – general wear.

Publisher: New South Wales University Press

Year: 1987

Format: Paperback

Pages: 335pp

ISBN: 0868401463

$18.00

Out of stock