Irish Australians
Irish Australians (Irish: Gael-Astrálaigh) are an ethnic group of Australian citizens of Irish descent, which include immigrants from and descendants whose ancestry originates from the island of Ireland.
Irish Australians have played a considerable role in the history of Australia. They came to Australia from the late eighteenth century as convicts and free settlers wanting to immigrate
from their homeland. Some of those who were transported to Australia were prisoners of war, many of whom had fought in the 1798 Irish rebellion for independence, whereas others were settlers who struggled to establish their lives during the Irish famine and the harsh years in Ireland that followed. They made substantial contributions to Australia's development in many different areas. In the late 19th century, Irish Australians constituted up to a third of the country's population.[9]
There is no definitive figure of the total number of Australians with an Irish background. At the 2021 Australian census, 2,410,833 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry.[10] This nominated ancestry was third behind English and Australian in terms of the largest number of responses and represents 9.5% of the total population of Australia. However this figure does not include Australians with an Irish background who chose to nominate themselves as 'Australian' or other ancestries. The Australian embassy in Dublin states that up to 30% of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry.[11]
Media[edit]
The Irish Echo (Australia) is a newspaper available in print and online, covering Irish news and other matters of Irish interest.[41]
Tinteán is an online journal directed chiefly at Irish Australians. Its stated aim is to provide serious comment and an independent perspective on a wide range of Australian/Irish topics. It publishes some material in the Irish language.[42]
An Lúibín is a fortnightly Irish-language newsletter, distributed online in Australia and overseas. It deals with language matters and also contains articles on folklore, literature and current affairs.[43]
Sports[edit]
Irish Catholics have been the nation's largest minority throughout most of Australia's history. Their resistance to the elite Anglocentric establishment has keenly marked the development of sport. Mostly working class, the Irish played sports such as rugby league and Australian Rules football, while the Protestant majority often preferred cricket, soccer, rugby union and boxing. The tensions and contrasts between these two sporting cultures eventually built the attitudes and beliefs toward games and sports that Australians share today.[44] Many Irish in Australia play gaelic games and the local gaelic athletic association is the Australasia GAA. Only Irish Australian soccer clubs they have helped to establish in Sydney Eastern Suburbs clubs Phoenix FC. [1]
Popular culture[edit]
The Riverina priest "John O'Brien" (Fr Patrick Hartigan) celebrated rural Irish Australian Catholic culture in his popular poems of the early twentieth century such as 'The little Irish mother' and 'Said Hanrahan'.[50] They formed the basis of a 1925 silent movie Around the Boree Log.
The Australian miniseries and historical drama Against the Wind deals with both the British rule of Ireland, and the development of New South Wales and Australia. Ruth Park's 1948 book The Harp in the South portrays the life of a Catholic Irish Australian family living in a Sydney slum. Other shows relating to Irish Australians include The Last Outlaw and Brides of Christ.[51]
Australian rapper
Iggy Azalea
Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and Australian cultural icon, first Australian to have a No. 1 international hit song with "A Pub with No Beer" originally adapted from a poem by Irish Australian poet Dan Sheahan.
Slim Dusty
Australian rock and roll singer.
Johnny O'Keefe
Australian pop and rock singer.
Doug Parkinson
Australian author.
Colleen McCullough
Australian murderer
Katherine Knight
Australian cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
Australian-American singer, actress, and activist.
Helen Reddy
Irish born Australian rebel and, later, politician who rose to fame for his leading role in the Eureka Rebellion.[52]
Peter Lalor
Australian-American actor.
Errol Flynn
27th Prime Minister of Australia, first female Prime Minister of Australia.
Julia Gillard
31st Prime Minister of Australia
Anthony Albanese
25th Prime Minister of Australia
John Howard
Australian Rules Footballer and Brownlow Medallist. Born in Ireland and emigrated to Australia in the 1980s.[54]
Jim Stynes
Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife expert and environmentalist.
Steve Irwin
20th Prime Minister of Australia
William McMahon
Australian actor
Julian McMahon
Australian actor.
Luke Hemsworth
Australian actor.
Chris Hemsworth
Australian actor.
Liam Hemsworth
Australian actor and comedian.
Paul Hogan
Irish-Australian comedian and actor.
Jimeoin
10th Prime Minister of Australia, legislated the creation of the Australian broadcaster that is now known as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1932, the first prime minister to have an Australian-born parent.
Joseph Lyons
13th Prime Minister of Australia
Arthur Fadden
Australian lawyer, Royal Commissioner and social justice activist, who presided over the Costigan Commission combating organised crime.
Frank Costigan
16th Prime Minister of Australia, expanded state welfare, increased Post-war immigration to Australia, established the Australian National University, established the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, established the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
Ben Chifley
former Premier of New South Wales, championed and organised the idea and construction of the Sydney Opera House.
Joseph Cahill
Australian prelate of the Catholic Church, headed the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews, promoted positive theological ties with Jews.
Edward Cassidy
Music composer, appointed Acting Head of Trinity College (University of Melbourne) in 1872, collaborated with Alfred William Howitt in the transcription of three songs performed by William Barak, the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan
George William Torrance
known as the "Wicklow Chief", rebel leader fighting for religious freedom and Irish independence in and after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, former Chief of Police in Liverpool, NSW.
Michael Dwyer
Australian Heavyweight Champion boxer.
Les Darcy
Australian former world No. 1 tennis player, first man in the Open Era to win Canada Masters, Cincinnati Masters and the US Open in the same year.
Pat Rafter
Australian ASP World Champion surfer and shark attack survivor.
Mick Fanning
Australian musician, singer-songwriter and actor.
Michael Hutchence
Australian-born American businessman, media proprietor, and investor.
Rupert Murdoch
Australian actor.
Geoffrey Rush
26th Prime Minister of Australia, gave the first national government Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples in 2008.
Kevin Rudd
journalist, welfare worker, compiled a dictionary of several Australian Aboriginal dialects.
Daisy Bates (author)
Australian actress.
Rose Byrne
American and Australian actress and producer.
Nicole Kidman
Australian actress.
Elizabeth Debicki
Australian explorer, leader of the 1860 Burke and Wills expedition with the objective of crossing Australia from the south to the north.
Robert O'Hara Burke
Australian explorer, sole survivor of the completed Burke and Wills expedition, first surviving non Aboriginal to cross Australia from south to north.
John King (explorer)
gold prospector whose lucrative discovery on 14 June 1893 set off a major gold rush in the area now known as The Golden Mile, the richest square mile in the world in Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.
Paddy Hannan
14th Prime Minister of Australia, WWII Australian war time leader, extended pensions to cover Aboriginals.
John Curtin
known as Doc Evatt, Australian politician and judge, former President of the United Nations General Assembly, helped to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was prominent in the negotiations that led to the creation of the State of Israel.
H. V. Evatt
15th Prime Minister of Australia.
Frank Forde
18th Prime Minister of Australia.
John McEwen
Australian High Court judge, wrote the lead judgement on the Mabo decision, which gave rise to the Native Title Act.
Gerard Brennan
Aboriginal Australian public administrator, inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
Lowitja O'Donoghue
Australian television and radio presenter.
Melissa Doyle
Australian former Justice of the High Court of Australia, appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea.
Michael Kirby (judge)
Australian actor and music video director.
Heath Ledger
Australian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racing World Champion, who won five consecutive 500 cc World Championships.
Mick Doohan
Australian politician of English, Irish, Indian and Indigenous Australian descent, the first Indigenous Australian elected to the House of Representatives, the first Indigenous Australian to serve as a government minister and the first Indigenous Australian appointed to cabinet.
Ken Wyatt
Australian folk figure, former Anglican lay reader, soldier, public speaker and bushranger.
Captain Moonlite
Australian journalist, radio and television presenter.
Geraldine Doogue
Australian former international cricketer.
Glenn McGrath
Australian former rugby union player.
Michael Lynagh
known as "Bluey" Gilroy, first Australian-born Roman Catholic cardinal, first cardinal to be knighted since the Reformation, discouraged anti-communist Cold War hysteria in 1950s and helped ensure that there was no split in the New South Wales Labor Party.
Norman Gilroy
Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. Author of non-fiction novel Schindler's Ark. The first novel by an Australian to win the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List.
Thomas Keneally
retired Australian Army General, former Governor-General of Australia, commander of the International Force for East Timor that prevented the ongoing slaughter of East Timorese Christians and enabled a democratic referendum and free elections and national independence in East Timor.
Peter Cosgrove
Australians
Anglo-Celtic Australians
Australia–Ireland relations
European Australians
Europeans in Oceania
Immigration to Australia
Irish Americans
Irish people
Welsh Australians
Irish diaspora
English Australians
Scottish Australians
Cornish Australians
Irish New Zealanders
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Haines, Robin F. Emigration and the labouring poor: Australian recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831–60 (Springer, 1997).
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Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore. London: Routledge (1987)
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Arthur Patchett Martin
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Noone, Val
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O'Farrell, Patrick
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online
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"Irish in Sydney from First Fleet to Federation"
Kildea, Jeff (2012). . Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
"Celebrating St Patrick's Day in nineteenth-century Sydney"
. Australian Catholic Historical Society. 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
"Irish Catholic Australians"
Documentary: