Irish in Australia
1788 to the Present, Third Edition
Patrick O'Farrell
In 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 clichés, 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 factor 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.
The book’s progress is magisterial …sheer intelligence and analytical rigour and sense of evidence can open out into passages of uncontrived emotional force …grand resonant judgements …this finely tuned epic. The Australian 8 November 1986
This extraordinary study – a big, rich, barm brack of a book …flourishing hid formidable historical virtues (love for truth and his more enticing hares leap from each of his pages than any book I’ve read. The Age 22 November 1986
It should be read by all students of Australia as a challenge to present historical assumptions …A fundamental search for meaning and constant acerbic observation combine to make The Irish in Australia a delight _National Times on Sunday 7 December 1986 _ “O’Farrell has long pursued an interest in Irish history. The result is The Irish in Australia. It is a very important work of Australian historiography, for it investigates the primary sources of the country’s development toward a separate national identity…. It is a book that teems with ideas, insights, hints, uncommon information, fertile guesses, and novel approaches that will fuel historical arguments for years to come.”-The Catholic Historical Review
Reviews
“The book’s progress is magisterial . . . sheer intelligence and analytical rigour and sense of evidence can open out into passages of uncontrived emotional force . . . grand resonant judgements . . . this finely tuned epic.” — The Australian
“. . . This extraordinary study—a big, rich, barm brack of a book . . . flourishing his formidable historical virtues (love for truth and his subject, zest for ideas, expressed inimitably, and impatience with error) . . . more enticing hares leap from each of his pages than any book I’ve read.” — The Age
“[A] magnum opus. Not only the readers but the Irish nation is deeply in Dr. O’Farrell’s debt.” — Cork Examiner
“It should be read by all students of Australia as a challenge to present historical assumptions . . . . A fundamental search for meaning and constant acerbic observation combine to make The Irish in Australia a delight.” — National Time on Sunday
“It is a superb piece of writing . . . the best study by far of the migrant experience in Australia . . . It will develop a life of its own.” — The Advertiser
