In 2024 I began researching sectarian rioting in Australia, building on work that I had previously done on sectarianism generally. During the year I gave a lecture, presented a conference paper, and wrote two articles on the topic that were published in historical journals.

The lecture was the 13th annual Plunkett Lecture given under the auspices of the Francis Forbes Society on 10 September 2024 in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the presence of the Chief Justice and chaired by the Attorney General. The lecture entitled “Liberty not licence: The law’s response to the challenges of ethno-religious sectarianism in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia” was published in Australian Bar Review, Vol. 55, 2024, pp. 16-32.

The conference paper, “Asserting Their Identity: Sectarian Rioting in Australia”, was given at the University of New Caledonia at a conference ‘Pacific “Celts”? Diasporas, cross-cultural dialogue and revitalized identity’ held on 23-25 October 2024.

The two articles were “Liberty not Licence: The Hyde Park Riots of 1878” published in the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 110 No. 2, 2024, pp. 120-140 and “Sectarian Rioting in Australia” published in the Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, Vol. 45, 2024, pp. 51-69.

Currently I am researching 20 sectarian riots that occurred between 1843 and 1922 across all six Australian colonies or states, some of them with fatal consequences. For the most part, those riots occurred in the context of Catholics of Irish descent reacting to what they regarded as provocations either by members of the Loyal Orange Institution celebrating the anniversary of William III’s victory at the battle of the Boyne in 1690 or by ultra-Protestant preachers denigrating in public the beliefs and practices of the Catholic church. I hope to give more lectures and publish more articles on the subject  in 2025 and beyond.