‘Yet We Are Told That Australians Do Not Sympathise with Ireland’: South Australian Support for Irish Home Rule

Abstract

Breen offers a refreshing take on the colonial-Empire connection in researching South Australian support for Irish Home Rule. She investigates the relationships and networks of a number of Irish and Irish-Australian nationalists with some of the colony’s non-Irish businessmen and politicians which allowed, and indeed promoted, support for Irish self-government amongst those who led affairs in this most British of Australian colonies. This chapter follows the most recent trends of Irish-Australian historiography in that it offers a reversal of contribution history—instead of offering insight into the impact of Irish immigrants on South Australian society, it evaluates the role that society played in influencing the success of numerous fundraising missions by Irish parliamentarians between 1882 and 1912.