With the passage of time Irish Catholics eventually did become part of the fabric of Australian society. With the coming of each generation, they moved along and some of them, up the social scale. But their ascent was neither rapid nor easy. Continue reading
Filed under 19th Century Irish Settlement …
Feisty Irish Women and Irish National Foresters
Susan has had international recognition with her interview on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio1…The Irish National Foresters were a Friendly Society that commenced in Ireland and then started in Melbourne in 1886 … Continue reading
God in a Bottle
they were usually ‘a reused glass spirit, wine or mineral bottle often containing a carved wooden cross, with a ladder leaning against it inside, sometimes (but not always) filled with water’. The water was usually holy water, or at least marketed as such. Continue reading
Irish-Australian Gothic
McKinty’s The Island is a page-turner, and often quite chilling and surprising in the turns it takes. Continue reading
St Patrick’s Day in South Australia
From the beginning of European settlement, St Patrick’s Day in South Australia has been commemorated annually as a rallying call to express Irish identity in a new land. Continue reading
Irish dust devils
My poem was written in English and in Irish, so I needed to find a suitable Irish term for a Dust Devil. Continue reading
A Tale of Two Malahides
Fortunately for Rose Talbot, there was a backup Malahide – in Tasmania, Australia – to which Rose now moved. Continue reading
Sunburnt Irish A-Z
The Irish language thriving in Australian soil. Continue reading
From Swirling Cark Mountain Mists
For those Scottish Pattons who arrived in NI at the Plantation and remained loyal, life could be rewarding. Yet many loyalists ran afoul of monarchs who wished to assert the supremacy of their Church of Ireland Continue reading
The Detail is Where Angels Lurk
The sense of life’s possibilities that this family history suggests is intoxicating. Continue reading