A New History of the Irish in Australia

In 1986, Patrick O'Farrell published a landmark book, The Irish in Australia. This was an important volume given that after the English, the Irish were the largest population in Australia between 1788 and 1945, comprising nearly 25 per cent of all non-Indigenous Australians by 1901. Drawing on source materials unused until now, A New History of the Irish in Australia focuses on key areas previously ignored, including race. Indeed, the Irish were seen as a different, inferior ethnic group, despised and feared. Catholic Irish were often seen as a threat to the empire in their supposed failure to show loyalty to the crown. Their alleged recklessness and moral shortcomings meant Irish men and women were perceived as a threat to good manners and society, often the butt of jokes in popular culture. This important book also looks at the Australian-Irish experience in the context of the worldwide Irish diaspora, revealing much about what Irish-Australians shared with Irish communities elsewhere and showing that the Irish-Australian experience was unique.