Irish Migration to Rural Eastern Australia: a Preliminary Investigation

Authors

  • Terry G. Jordan University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A.
  • Alyson L. Greiner University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55650/igj.1994.442

Abstract

Australia, regarded by many as housing a largely undifferentiated Anglo-Celtic composite culture, received a great many Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century, amounting to over one-fourth of the total population of United Kingdom births by 1901. Testing the thesis of an homogeneous Australia, we reconstruct specific Irish source-to-Australian destination migration flows, in large part through an analysis of graveyard epitaphs. We identify foci of emigration, particularly in Munster, and link them to four major Australian destination clusters along the axis of the Great Dividing Range. Our findings, though preliminary, question the validity of a culturally monolithic Australia and lead us to speculate concerning regionalized Irish cultural imprints.

Author Biographies

Terry G. Jordan, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A.

Department of Geography

Alyson L. Greiner, University of Texas, Austin, U.S.A.

Department of Geography

Published

2015-01-15

How to Cite

Jordan, T. G., & Greiner, A. L. (2015). Irish Migration to Rural Eastern Australia: a Preliminary Investigation. Irish Geography, 27(2), 135–142. https://doi.org/10.55650/igj.1994.442

Issue

Section

Original Articles

URN