18 Facts About Irish Australians

Irish Australians 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 part in the history of Australia.

At the time the Irish Australians made up about 27 percent of the immigrants from the British Isles.

Over four thousand young female orphans from Irish Australians workhouses were shipped to the Australian colonies at the time of the Great Famine to meet a demand for domestic servants.

An Irish Australians-speaking priest, Fr Stack, was appointed to minister to Irish Australians miners in the gold-rush locality of Bendigo.

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Irish Australians immigration was at its height in the 1860s, the main counties of origin being Clare, Tipperary, Limerick and Kilkenny, all of them areas where the language was still strong.

Irish Australians continued to be spoken in Australian country districts where the Irish Australians had settled, and there is some evidence of its being transmitted to the next generation.

The 1970s saw a renewal of interest in the language, chiefly among Australians of Irish descent, and there is a network of Irish speakers in the major cities.

Irish Australians Catholics comprised a quarter of Australia's population in the early 20th century.

Immediately after the War, Mannix's outspoken support for the cause of Irish Australians independence caused further division, culminating in his arrest on the high seas by the Royal Navy in 1920 to prevent his landing in Ireland.

Irish Australians have been prominent in Australian politics, primarily through the vehicle of the Australian Labor Party, whose support base was historically dominated by working-class Catholics of Irish descent.

In reality 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 rose to positions of wealth and power in the colonial hierarchy.

The first priests were Irish Australians, beginning with Fr James Dixon who was permitted to minister in 1803.

The leadership of the Australian Church was almost entirely Irish Australians from 1883 to 1940, prominent Irish Australians-born bishops including Cardinal Moran and Archbishop Kelly in Sydney, Archbishops Carr and Mannix in Melbourne and Archbishop Duhig in Brisbane.

Irish Australians Catholics have been the nation's largest minority throughout most of Australia's history.

Mostly working class, the Irish Australians played sports such as rugby league and Australian Rules football, while the Protestant majority often preferred cricket, soccer, rugby union and boxing.

Cities with the largest Irish Australians-born populations were Sydney, Melbourne and Perth .

Irish Australians Australian settlement patterns are not significantly different from 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 .