The Fenians and Australia c 1865-1880

Abstract

In the years focussed upon in this study, Irish Catholics comprised at least a quarter of the population of nearly all Australian colonies. Given the circumstances of British rule in Ireland, it was virtually inevitable that this high proportion of Irish convicts and free settlers in Australia would provide a key influence in the emergence of a distinctive Australian ethos, in much the same way that they influenced American nationalism in the United States. ... This thesis is directed principally at the complex interaction between a dominant Anglo-imperial culture and a minority Irish nationalist culture in the emergence of Australian nationalism. By this I do not infer that some degree of Irish nationalist influence was a necessary prerequisite for the growth of Australian nationalism, but only that it appears to have played an important shaping role. To put this another way, had Australia received no Irish convicts, or no Irish settlers of any kind, some form of Australian nationalism would obviously have emerged in time. What is worth considering therefore, is the degree to which our Irish influx may have influenced the inevitable growth of an Australian national ethos. Within this context then, attention is focussed on the ways in which Irish nationalism merged with and strengthened Australian nationalism. In particular, emphasis is placed on a specific Irish nationalist influence in Australia: the impact of the Fenian movement.