The Irish Emigrant Experience in Australia

Who were the Irish in Australia? Where did they come from? How did they fare in Australia and how did their experience differ from those of other emigrant groups, if at all? Does ethnicity matter or does the migrant army transcend nationality? These and other questions are addressed by a distinguished group of international scholars in this collection of essays which represents major contribution to our understanding of Irish and Australian history. By investigating the Irish origins and Australian outcomes of Irish emigration to the antipodes since the departure of the first Irish convict ship from Cork in 1791, this book vividly illustrates the way in which emigration responded to circumstances at both ends of the emigrant chain. It also demonstrates more clearly than before the heterogeneity of Irish emigration and the diversity of the emigrant experience.