Citation
Silent Impact – the Irish in the Richmond District, Tasmania, Peter MacFie, P & P Biennial Irish- Australian History Conference, Hobart, 1995.
Outline
The origin of the Irish Catholics who made their home at Richmond (Tasmania) and the fundamental difference it made to the development of the district.
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Silent Impact (2018-06-14).pdf
Excerpt
Tasmania is a state not traditionally remembered as having an Irish influence. Lloyd Robson’s History of Tasmania has no reference to Ireland or the Irish in its index. The number of convents located around the island – at Richmond, Cygnet, Deloraine and Burnie in addition to Hobart and Launceston – and a study of colonial and church records reveals a different picture. W.T. Southerwood was the first to note that the Richmond district contained the largest Catholic and Irish community outside the two centres of Hobart and Launceston. At Westbury (west of Launceston) – another Irish settlement – John Mitchell, Young Irelander, found Gaelic spoken in the 1850s when he was sheltered there by Irish sympathisers.
Apart from Port Arthur, one of the most popular images of Tasmania is St John’s Catholic Church built on a rise above the Richmond Bridge. The oldest Catholic church in Australia it is claimed, yet there is little in the town to immediately give a sense of an old Irish community. But within living memory, the ‘suburb’ near the Church was called ‘Irish Town’. Indeed, a strong Catholic tradition survives today. The former convent school still operates, attracting pupils from the district as the church traditionally attracted its flock.
A church suggests a community to support the buildings; this is borne out by evidence which reveals that by 1825 (11 years before the Catholic Church was built) the Richmond district had the largest Catholic population outside Hobart and Launceston. From its erection in 1837 until 1850, St John’s Richmond was the only Catholic Church in rural Tasmania.[1] As indicated later, Catholicism equated to Irish settlement. The Richmond district was in reality the only ‘heavily’ settled area in the new colony, and thus Irish Catholics were the predominant religious group in the interior. With the spread of settlement, the Irish Catholic community in the Richmond district became linked historically with other rural Catholic communities in Tasmania.
Archival and genealogical research in the Richmond and Westbury districts reveals a strong pattern of interlinked kinship ties based on Irish ancestry, with fellow transportees and their families marrying each other’s children, witnessing each other’s baptisms, weddings and funerals and naming children for each other. A similar pattern has been noted at Cygnet, another centre of Irish settlement, where emancipists from the Hyderabad (1850) also developed communal inter-relationships.[2] How long these links survived, and their influence and uniqueness are yet to be determined. In the Richmond district, the intermarriage pattern has been noticed among the first arrivals post 1818, and among the last of Irish transportees in the 1850s.[3]
Why there was a predominance of Irish around the Richmond and Coal River/Pittwater area of Tasmania remains to be explained. With the recent overlay of tourism, understanding the historical origins of Richmond village is not easy. The Bridge Inn, once the ‘Catholic pub’ and scene of many a fight, is now renovated as the ‘Bridge Inn Mews’, a series of boutiques, with the former bar – where a fight was easy to come by – now an ice cream parlour. One of the principal reasons for the development of an Irish character was due to the area’s relative isolation imposed by the Derwent Estuary and Pittwater, allowing a subculture to develop away from Hobart Town.
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End of excerpt
To read further, download the PDF as above.
References for this excerpt
[1] W.T. Southerwood Planting a Faith in Tasmania; the Country Parishes Hobart 1977 p. 12.
[2] Personal Communication, L. and T. Rainbird 1995.
[3] Peter H. MacFie ‘At That Time o’ Day’ – A Social History of the Richmond District, Tasmania’ unpublished manuscript 1995
Indexed items from pdf
| Aislabie, William John |
| alcohol |
| alcohol excess |
| alienation of land |
| Anstey, Thomas |
| Arthur, Lt. Gov. George |
| assignment |
| Atkinson ? |
| Bassett Dickson |
| Bennett family |
| Bennett, Bryan |
| Bennett, Catherine |
| Beston, Joanna |
| bigotry |
| Binnitt, Bridget |
| Boorowa |
| Bridge Inn Mews |
| Brighton |
| Burgess family |
| Burn, George |
| Burnie |
| Buscombe, Henry |
| Butcher family |
| Byrne, Jno |
| Cain family |
| Cash, Michael |
| Cassidy family |
| Cassidy, Hugh |
| Cassidy, John |
| Cassidy, Sarah |
| Catholic communities |
| cattle running |
| cattle theft |
| churches – St John’s Catholic Church, Richmond |
| churches – St Luke’s Anglican Church |
| Coal River, |
| Colebrook |
| Conolly, Fr Philip |
| convents |
| convicts |
| Cork |
| Cosgrove family |
| Cosgrove, Mary Ann (Mrs Michael) |
| Cosgrove, Michael T. |
| Cosgrove, Robert |
| Cotham, Fr J.A. |
| Cotham, Lawrence |
| Cotham, Sarah (Mrs Lawrence) |
| Coverdale, Dr John |
| Cox’s farm at Parramatta |
| Cruse, Thomas |
| Cullen, Monsignor John Hugh |
| Cullen, William |
| Cunningham, Francis |
| Cunningham, James |
| Cunningham, Johanna |
| Cunningham, Mary |
| Cunningham, Michael |
| Cygnet |
| D’Emden, Henri James |
| Delaney family |
| Deloraine |
| Dixon, Kitty |
| Dulcot |
| Dunne, Fr William J. |
| Eardley-Wilmot, Lt. Gov. Sir John Eardley |
| elections |
| Elizabeth Town |
| Espie, Robert |
| Farrell, Mary |
| Fitzgerald family |
| Fitzgerald, Rev ? (Hobart Town) |
| Fox, Bernard |
| Fringe Farmers |
| fund-raising |
| Gaby, Thomas |
| Gaelic |
| Galway |
| Gavin, Bridget (Mrs Roger) |
| Gavin, Roger |
| Gaynor, John |
| Gellibrand, Rev Tice |
| geriatric paupers |
| Grady, Thomas |
| Green Ponds |
| Griffin family |
| Guy family |
| Hannan family |
| Hannan, Miss ? |
| Hannan, Mrs ? |
| hard labour |
| Hatton, Michael |
| Hawkes, Robert |
| headstones |
| Herbert, Thomas |
| Holt, ? |
| Housego family |
| Hunt, Janine |
| inns |
| inns – Bridge Inn |
| inns – Lennox Arms |
| inns – Lennox Hotel |
| inns – Prince of Wales |
| inns – Richmond Arms |
| inns – Richmond Hotel |
| inns – Union Hotel |
| Irish communities |
| Irish Famine |
| Irish Town |
| Irish transportees |
| Isles, ? (Mrs ?) |
| Jerusalem |
| Jerusalem road station |
| Jinglin Johnny |
| Keane, John |
| Keane, Roger |
| Kearney, Kate |
| Kempton |
| Kildare |
| Kilkenny |
| Killarney |
| King, Alf |
| King, Dennis |
| King, Eileen |
| King, Joanna, (Mrs Dennis) |
| King, John |
| Knight, Mr ? (lawyer) |
| Lancashire |
| lashes |
| Launceston |
| Levi family |
| library |
| Limerick |
| Lord, James |
| Lord, Simeon |
| Lyons, Joseph |
| Macquarie, Gov. Lachlan |
| Martin, John |
| Mayo |
| McAndrew, Andrew |
| McAndrew, Ann (Mrs Andrew) |
| McAndrew, Mary |
| McCall family |
| McCann family |
| McCullagh, Simon |
| McCulloch, Johanna (Mrs Simon) |
| McCulloch, Simon |
| McCullogh, Ann (Mrs Simon) |
| McCullogh, Simon |
| McCullow, Simon |
| McGowan children |
| McGowan family |
| McGowan, James |
| McGowan, James jnr |
| McGowan, John |
| McGowan, Margaret (Mrs James) |
| McGowan, Martin |
| McGowan, Mary |
| McGowan, Mary (Mrs James) |
| McGowan, Mrs ? |
| McGuire, Michael |
| McMahon family |
| McNamara family |
| McNamara, Bridget (Mrs Thady) |
| McNamara, Thady |
| McShane, Francis |
| Meagher, Catherine (Mrs Thomas Francis) |
| Meagher, Henry Emmett Fitzgerald |
| Meagher, Thomas Francis |
| Meath |
| Meehan Ranges. |
| military |
| 102nd Regiment |
| 23rd Fusiliers |
| 46th Regiment |
| 4th Veterans Battalion |
| 62nd Regiment |
| 73rd Regiment |
| Minerva |
| Mitchell, John |
| Moltema |
| Moran family |
| Moran, Mrs ? |
| Mulligan family |
| Murdoch, Dr James |
| Murphy, Bridget (Mrs Daniel) |
| Murphy, Daniel |
| Murphy, Francis |
| Murphy, Mary (Mrs Patrick) |
| Murphy, Patrick |
| National Trust management plan |
| Neil, ? |
| Nelson, John |
| New Norfolk |
| Nichols, J.H. |
| Norfolk Island |
| Norfolk Islanders |
| O’Brien family |
| O’Brien, William Smith |
| O’Connell, Daniel |
| O’Doherty, Kevin Izod |
| O’Keefe, Michael |
| O’Mara family |
| O’Sullivan, Bridget |
| Oatlands |
| Ogilvy, David |
| O’Keefe, David |
| O’Keefe, Michael jr |
| Paddy’s Scrub |
| Paice, Henry |
| Pittwater |
| Plummer, Richard |
| Polding, Bishop John Bede |
| politics |
| Port Dalrymple |
| Presentation Sisters |
| properties |
| Craigow |
| Laburnum Park |
| Lowlands |
| Nugent |
| Woodburn |
| prostitutes |
| Protestant Irish |
| Reardon, Bartholomew |
| Reichenburg, Mr ? |
| Reid, Richard |
| Richmond |
| Richmond Bridge |
| Richmond Catholic Institute |
| Richmond Races |
| Runnymede |
| Ryan, John |
| Schaw, Charles |
| schools |
| Anglican |
| Catholic |
| public |
| sewing |
| Sharkey family |
| Shaunessy, ? |
| Sheehy, Rev ? (New Norfolk) |
| ships |
| Hyderabad |
| Lloyd |
| London |
| Minerva |
| Nereus |
| Sligo |
| Smith, Francis |
| Sorell |
| Southerwood, Fr William T. (Terry) |
| Spring Bay, |
| St Joseph’s Sisters |
| St Patrick’s Day |
| St Paul’s River |
| Standard, Mrs ? |
| Stynes, James |
| Stynes, Sarah (Mrs James) |
| subcultures |
| Sushames, Heather |
| Tea Tree |
| The Adoration of the Magi |
| Thomas, Frederick |
| Tipperary |
| tracker-men and women |
| Troy, Margaret (Mrs Richard) |
| Troy, Richard |
| Troy, Sarah Ann |
| Villeneuve Smith, Francis |
| Wallace, Laurence |
| Watkins, W. |
| Westbury |
| Wilkins, W.S. |
| Willson, Bishop Robert W. |
| Wilmot, Charles Octavius |
| Woods, Rev. Charles |
| World War I |
| Worledge, ? |
| Worledge, William |
| Wynne, Mr ? |
| Young Ireland Movement |
| Young Irelanders |
| Young, Lt.Gov. Sir Henry Edward Fox Young |
…..
Copyright Peter MacFie ©2018