The annual Great Irish Famine commemoration was held at the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney on Saturday 16 August 2025. At the event, I gave the keynote address entitled “‘This monstrous injustice’: Colonial resistance to the Earl Grey famine immigration scheme“.
As usual, the master of ceremonies was Gerry Faulkner and the Consulate General of Ireland was represented this year by the new vice consul general Ciarán Claffey.… Read the rest
On 21 July 2023 the annual international commemoration of the Great Irish Famine was held in Sydney at the monument to the Great Irish Famine at Hyde Park Barracks. I had the privilege of giving the address to the assembled crowd, which included Irish Minister of State, Thomas Byrne, the Irish ambassador to Australia, Tim Mawe, and the Irish consul general in Sydney, Rosie Keane.… Read the rest
On Easter Sunday 2021 I was given the honour of addressing the Irish National Association’s annual gathering at the 1798 monument in Waverley Cemetery. For more than 90 years members, supporters, and friends of the INA have assembled at the monument to commemorate the men and women of 1916. This year marks the 105th anniversary of the Easter Rising, but it is also marks the centenary of the partition of Ireland, that unwanted outcome of the revolution begun in 1916.… Read the rest
The Australian Irish community in Sydney celebrated the St Brigid’s Day Festival in 2020 with readings, music performances and poetry showcasing the historical and cultural contribution of Irish-Australian women in shaping modern Australia.
As part of the celebrations the Aisling Society of Sydney, an Irish-Australian cultural organisation founded in 1955 (http://aislingsociety.org.au) hosted the Aisling 20/20 Vision colloquium at the State Library of New South Wales under the auspices of the Consulate-General of Ireland.… Read the rest
Having written books and articles dealing with sectarianism in early twentieth-century Australia, I have been intrigued by the fact that Western Australia seems to have escaped its worst excesses. A conference in Perth under the auspices of the Archdiocesan Archives Office gave me an opportunity to explore whether that was true and, if so, why.
The conference was held on Holy Thursday 18 April 2019 in collaboration with the Centre for Faith Enrichment to celebrate World Heritage Day.… Read the rest
On my recent visit to Ireland to attend the centenary commemorations of the sinking of RMS Leinster (discussed in the post below), I took the opportunity to travel through Germany to research a couple of aspects of the Irish involvement in the First World War. In doing so, I visited the Deutsches U-Boot Museum and archive at Cuxhaven on the North Sea coast to obtain information on the German submarine UB-123 that sank the Leinster and to view the U-Boat memorial at Möltenort near Heikendorf and the naval memorial at Laboe, both on the eastern shore of the Kiel inlet.… Read the rest
On 10 October 1918 RMS Leinster, the mailboat from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) to Holyhead in Wales, was sunk by a German submarine UB-123 with the loss of 564 lives, the greatest loss of life in a single event in the Irish Sea. At the time the mail boat was carrying 803 persons – 75 crew, 22 postal sorters, 200 civilians and 506 military personnel.… Read the rest
On 9 June 1798, during the rebellion in Ireland, a force of about 1000 rebels ambushed and defeated 300 government soldiers under the command of Colonel Granville Stapylton near the town of Saintfield, County Down. To mark the 220th anniversary of the battle the ABC’s Nightlife program devoted its This Week in History segment to the 1798 Rebellion with a discussion between host Sarah Macdonald and myself about the rising and its ‘sequel’ in Australia with the Castle Hill rebellion of 1804.… Read the rest
On Wednesday 16 May 2018 I had the privilege of giving the 2018 Knox Lecture under the auspices of the Catholic Theological College, Melbourne. The lecture is held each year in honour of James Robert Cardinal Knox, fifth Archbishop of Melbourne. With 2018 marking the centenary of the end of the First World War I was requested to reflect on the way the Catholic Church in Australia related to and was affected by that war.… Read the rest
Saturday, 18 November 2017 saw a long day of celebrations at Warwick, Queensland to commemorate the centenary of the Warwick Egg Incident (WEGGI), when a couple of local lads egged the Australian prime minister, Billy Hughes. While it might be a little known incident today, 100 years ago it excited the nation.
The egging occurred on 29 November 1917 when Hughes, on his way back from Brisbane to Sydney by train, stopped at Warwick to deliver a pro-conscription address at the railway station.… Read the rest