In 2019 the Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand held a conference in Adelaide on ‘Foregrounding Irish Women: the Antipodes and beyond’. The organisers of the conference have just published a book Irish Women in the Antipodes Foregrounded which includes several of the papers presented at the conference. One of the chapters is my paper entitled ‘More than Mannix: Irish-Australian women who helped defeat conscription in WW1’.… Read the rest
Leo Varadkar Resigns as Taoiseach
The announcement on 20 March 2024 of Leo Varadkar’s decision to resign as taoiseach came as a shock to the press, the public and many of his colleagues in the Oireachtas. Having served in the Dáil as a TD since 2007, having held ministerial rank since 2011, and having held office as taoiseach from 2017 to 2020 and 2022 to 2024, Varadkar has decided at the relatively young age of 45 to quit politics.… Read the rest
Stormont restored with a Sinn Féin First Minister
For two years Northern Ireland has been without devolved government following the Democratic Unionist Party’s boycott of the Executive in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
On Saturday 3 February 2024 the Northern Ireland Assembly met and elected as First Minister Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, the first nationalist member of the assembly to hold that position.… Read the rest
The Dublin riot – Ireland’s wake-up call
On 23 November 2023 the Dublin inner city witnessed an outbreak of civil disorder not seen in decades. Shocking images of burning buses, a burning police car, and police in riot gear were reminiscent of Belfast during the Troubles. In an article I wrote for Pearls and Irritations I explore the context in which the rioting occurred, with particular reference to increased immigration.… Read the rest
‘The Missing Magdalens’: Phony Story Retold
Earlier this year, ABC Radio National broadcast in its ‘The History Listen’ series a program called ‘The Missing Magdalens’ about Australia’s Magdalen laundries. The program focussed on St Magdalen’s Retreat, Tempe, which the Sisters of the Good Samaritan ran from 1888 to 1980. In describing life at St Magdalen’s in the early twentieth century, the program relied on an article in the Watchman newspaper.… Read the rest
2023 International Famine Commemoration
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
Sectarianism Revisited: SMH on Sister Liguori
Recently a writer for the Sydney Morning Herald claimed to have solved the mystery of why Sr Liguori fled her convent in Wagga Wagga one frosty evening in July 1920. In its day the Liguori affair was one of the most sensational episodes in Australia’s sectarian history. In the Herald’s print edition of 3 April 2023, the article carried the salacious headline: ‘Pregnant to a priest, nun on run defied church over child’.… Read the rest
Will the Windsor Framework end the stalemate at Stormont?
For nine months following the elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly in May 2022, nothing much changed in Northern Ireland. Then on 27 February 2023 the sleeping giant awoke. On that day the British prime minister Rishi Sunak and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen jointly announced they had agreed to resolve their differences over the Northern Ireland Protocol.… Read the rest
Northern Ireland Elections
In the lead up to the elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly on 5 May 2022, opinion polls indicate that the issues of most concern to the voters of Northern Ireland are the cost of living and the crisis in the NHS. Nevertheless, dominating the campaign are two issues that the new Northern Ireland government will have no power to resolve: the Northern Ireland Protocol and a united Ireland.… Read the rest
Anzacs and Ireland
On 24 March 2022 I gave a talk to the online history site Trasna na Tíre entitled ‘Anzacs and Ireland: Exploring the relationship between Ireland and Australia during World War I’. The talk is available on YouTube.
Here is the description of my talk: The people of Ireland and Australia have much in common based on genealogy and a shared heritage.… Read the rest