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'Irish Australian' is the third largest ethnic group in Australia, after "Australian" and English. In the 2006 Census, 1,803,741 or 9.0 percent of respondents identified themselves as being "Irish".^[1] The Census recorded 72,050 people born in Ireland: 50,320 born in the Republic of Ireland and 21,730 born in Northern Ireland. In addition, 7,371,824 people in the Census identified as "Australian", an ethnic category which is generally considered to include some Irish Australians.

Contents

History

The present day

List of notable Irish Australians

References

History

Around 40,000 Irish convicts were transported to Australia between 1791 and 1867, many for political activity, including those who had participated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the 1803 Rising of Robert Emmet and the 1848 skirmishes in the midst of the Famine. Once in Australia, many of these prisoners continued to plan escapes from British military custody — for example, the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion, and continual tension on Norfolk Island in the same year also led to an Irish revolt. Both risings were soon crushed. In these decades, the Irish language was the main language of Irish prisoners, and many Irish were flogged or killed by fellow convicts for speaking what was seen as a conspiratorial tongue ^[3]. As late as the 1860s, Fenian prisoners were being transported, particularly to Western Australia where the Catalpa rescue of Irish radicals off Rockingham was a memorable episode.
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Irish Australians — particularly but not exclusively Catholics — were treated with suspicion in a sectarian atmosphere. The life story of Ned Kelly is often viewed romantically as the sort of treatment Irish Catholics in Australia could expect: in reality, however, most of the Irish were urban workers who experienced less official discrimination in Australia than they had at home in Ireland, and many Irish Australians — Catholic and Protestant — rose to positions of wealth and power in the colonial hierarchy. Many Irish Protestants, for example, entered the judiciary and politics, while in Ned Kelly's time 80 per cent of the Victorian police were Irish-born, and half of those had served in the Royal Irish Constabulary. The Irish settler in Australia — both voluntary and forced — was crucial to the survival and prosperity of the early colonies both demographically and economically. 300,000 Irish free settlers arrived between 1840 and 1914. By 1871, the Irish were a quarter of all overseas-born.
The number of Ireland-born in Australia peaked in 1891, when the colonial Census accounted for 228,232. A decade later the number of Ireland-born had dropped to 184,035. Dominion status for the Irish Free State in 1922 did not diminish arrivals from Ireland as Irish people were still British subjects. Though this changed after the Second World War, migration from the south of Ireland did not, as those born in Ireland before 1949 remained British subjects eligible for assisted passage. Only during the 1960s did migration from the south of Ireland reduce significantly. By 2002, around one thousand persons born in Ireland — north and south — were migrating permanently to Australia each year. For the year 2005-2006, 12,554 Irish entered Australia to work under the Working Holiday visa scheme.

The present day

According to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs ''White Paper on Foreign Policy'', there were 213,000 Irish citizens in Australia in 1997, nearly three times the number of Irish-born. Most Irish Australians, however, do not have Irish citizenship and define their status in terms of self-perception, affection for Ireland, support for Irish issues, visiting Ireland, and an attachment to Irish culture — for example, the Irish language, Gaelic games and Irish music.
In December 2001, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 10,000 Australian citizens resident in the Republic of Ireland. It is not clear what proportion of this number are returned emigrants with Australian citizenship and their Irish Australian children, and what number is simply other Australians in Ireland for business or other reasons — though there are an estimated 130,000 visiting Australians in the country, meaning Ireland is second only to Britain as a destination for Australians travelling overseas.
According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2004, Irish Australians are, by religion, 46.2% Roman Catholic, 15.3% Anglican, 13.5% other Christian denomination, 3.6% other religions, and 21.5% "No Religion".
Irish Australian settlement patterns are not significantly different to those of the Australian population as a whole — that is, a third live in New South Wales and a quarter live in Victoria — except that around 22 per cent live in Queensland (compared to only 18 per cent of the general population). Relatively few as a proportion reside in Western Australia (7.6 per cent of Irish Australians compared to 9.9 per cent of the general population).
The 2001 Australian census recorded that persons reporting an Irish Australian ethnicity accounted for 10.7 per cent of the population in the Australian Capital Territory (42,540 responses), 10.2 per cent in Victoria (469,161 responses), 9.9 per cent in New South Wales (622,944), 9.7 per cent in Queensland (433,354), 7.8 per cent in Tasmania (42,552), 7.6 per cent in Western Australia (171,667), 7.5 per cent in the Northern Territory (18,325) and 6.7 per cent in South Australia (119,063).
According to Census data,^[4] the Irish language was a home language in Australia for 828 persons in 2001, up from 782 persons in 1996 — an increase of 5.9 per cent.

List of notable Irish Australians

★ James Agnew: Premier of Tasmania (1886-1887; born Ballyclare, County Antrim)

★ Redmond Barry: prosecutor of Eureka Stockade rebels (born Ballyclough, County Cork)

★ Daisy Bates (born Daisy May O'Dwyer): journalist and anthropologist

★ James Beattie: Eureka Stockade rebel

★ Gerard Brennan: 10th Chief Justice of Australia

★ Louis Brennan: Inventor (1852 – 1932)

★ Dermott Brereton: Australian rules footballer

★ Joe Byrne: Bushranger

★ Thomas Byrnes: Premier of Queensland (1898)

★ Joseph Cahill: Premier of New South Wales

★ John Cain (senior): Premier of Victoria

★ John Cain II: Premier of Victoria

★ Ben Chifley: Prime Minister

★ Peter Costello: Federal Treasurer

★ Frank Costigan: Barrister, Royal Commissioner

★ Greg Craven: Academic

★ Frank Crean: Deputy Prime Minister (1975)

★ Simon Crean: Leader of the Opposition (2001-2003)

★ John Curtin: Prime Minister (1941-1945)

★ James Dooley: Premier of New South Wales (1921-1922; born Longford)

★ Charles Gavan Duffy: Premier of Victoria (1871-1872; born Monaghan) and Irish nationalist

★ James Duhig: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, 1917-65 (born Limerick)

★ Fanny Durack: Swimmer

★ Michael Dwyer: Chief of Police, Liverpool, NSW (1813-1820), Wicklow Chief in Irish Rebellion (1798-1803)

★ Edmund Dwyer-Gray: Premier of Tasmania (1939)

★ Edward Eagar: social activist (born Killarney, Kerry)

★ H.V. Evatt: jurist, writer and cabinet minister (1941-1945)

★ Joseph Furphy (Tom Collins): Father of the Australian novel

★ Vince Gair: Premier of Queensland (1952-1957)

★ Lisa Gerrard: Musician

★ Mel Gibson: film actor/producer; grandson of Irish-Australian opera singer Eva Mylott.

★ Margaret Guilfoyle: DBE: Federal senator and cabinet minister (1970-1987); born in Belfast

★ Roy Higgins: Jockey

★ H.B. Higgins: Politician and judge

★ Ned Hogan: Premier of Victoria (1927-1932)

★ John Howard: Prime Minister

★ William Irvine: Premier of Victoria (1902-1904); born Newry, County Down

★ Patrick Jennings: Premier of New South Wales (1886-1887); born Newry, County Down

★ Paul Keating: Prime Minister (1991-1996)

★ Ned Kelly: Bushranger (outlaw)

★ Thomas Keneally: novelist

★ Tadgh Kennelly: Australian rules footballer

★ Nicole Kidman: American-born Australian actress

★ Charles Kingston: Premier of South Australia (1893-1899)

★ Peter Lalor: Eureka Stockade rebel, Victorian politician (born Tinakill, County Laois)

★ Damien Leith: Singer (Winner of Australian Idol)

★ Norman Lindsay: Writer and artist. Brother of Percy Lindsay Lionel Lindsay Ruby Lindsay and Daryl Lindsay

★ Joseph Lyons: Prime Minister (1932-1939)

★ Daniel Mannix: RC Archbishop of Melbourne

★ James Martin: Premier of New South Wales (1863-1872; born Middleton, County Cork)

★ Patrick McCabe: Australian rugby union player

★ James Whiteside M'Cay: ANZAC general (born Ballynure, County Antrim)

★ Sir John McEwen: Australian Prime Minister

★ Glenn McGrath: Australian champion fast bowler

★ William Molloy: Eureka Stockade rebel (born Ireland)

★ Lucas Neill: Soccer player

★ C. Y. O'Connor: Engineer (born Castletown, County Meath)

★ Kevin Izod O'Doherty: Politician

★ Bernard O'Dowd: Poet and journalist

★ Robert O'Hara Burke: Explorer (born County Galway)

★ Sarah O'Hare: Model; wife of Lachlan Murdoch

★ Bryan O'Loghlen: Premier of Victoria (1881-1883; born County Clare)

★ John Boyle O'Reilly: Poet, novelist and Irish nationalist (born Dowth, County Louth)

★ John O'Shanassy: Premier of Victoria (1857-1861; born Thurles, County Tipperary)

★ James Scullin: Prime Minister (1929-1932)

★ Wayne Sievers: Political activist

★ Kevin Sheedy: Coach, Essendon FC and Australia

★ William Shiels: Premier of Victoria (1892-1893)

★ Ursula Stephens: Politician

★ Jim Stynes: Australian rules footballer, Melbourne Football Club (born Dublin)

★ George Throssell: Premier of Western Australia (born Fermoy, County Cork)

★ Robert Torrens: Premier of South Australia (1857)

★ Thomas Waddell: Premier of New South Wales (born in County Monaghan)

★ Frank Walsh: Premier of South Australia (1965-1967)

★ Sean Wight: Australian rules footballer

References

1. "2006 Census Tables : Australia"
2. "2006 Census Tables : Australia"
3. Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore. London: Routledge (1987)
4. "Table 1.4 Languages Spoken at Home — Australia: 2001 and 1996 Census"