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Immigration from Britain and Ireland
Irish immigrants came to England fleeing poverty and the Great Famine in Ireland. By 1861, 600,000 people, or 3 per cent of the English population, had been born in Ireland. In 1830, the British army was 40 per cent Irish. The Chartists Feargus O'Connor and William Sharman Crawford, were Irish immigrants. -
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Growth Years
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Cardinal Moran
Moran came from Ireland to be Catholic Archbishop of Sydney in 1884. He worked hard to strengthen the church and, though Catholics were a minority, he hoped for the day when the Protestant churches would disappear and Australia would become a Catholic country. In 1885, Moran was made cardinal. -
Archbishop Mannix
Mannix studied at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare, where he was ordained priest in 1890 and where he taught philosophy (1891) and theology (1894); from 1903 to 1912 he served as president of the college. -
Establishment of the Maronite Eparchy
On 8 May 1893, the Maronite Patriarch sent two priests to Sydney, having realized the need to establish a Maronite Mission in Australia. In 1894, a Maronite chapel was set up in Waterloo and served until 1897. -
Marist Brothers and Fathers
Founded by Saint Marcellin Champagnat, the Marist community has been part of Australian society since 1896. Starting with a small school, the Marist Brothers were dedicated to providing care, accommodation and an education to all young people, regardless of their circumstances. -
Federation
Nothing did more to draw Australia-wide attention to the 1896 Bathurst People’s Federal Convention than the presence of the Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Moran. -
De La Salle brothers
The De La Salle Brothers is a worldwide religious teaching congregation within the Catholic Church. The De La Salle Brothers arrived in Australia in 1906 to establish Catholic schools. By 1932 a De La Salle school was established in Roma, Queensland, and in 1955 they set up a school and community in Scarborough. -
World War 1
World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead. -
Conscription Debate
Conscription was also a debate about the obligations of citizenship. Those supporting conscription argued that: military service should not be an individual choice. the supreme duty a citizen owed to their country was to fight for it. -
The Depression Years
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across the world; in most countries, it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. -
Bob Santamaria
In 1941, Santamaria founded the Catholic Social Studies Movement, generally known simply as "the Movement" or Groupers, which recruited Catholic activists to oppose the spread of communism, particularly in the trade unions. -
Cardinal Gilroy
Gilroy was created Cardinal on 18 February 1946, becoming the first Australian-born member of the College of Cardinals, becoming Cardinal-Priest of Santi Quattro Coronati. Gilroy was knighted in 1969. He was the first Roman Catholic Cardinal to receive a knighthood since the Protestant Reformation. -
The Labor Party Split
In 1955 the Australian Labor Party (ALP) split for the third time in its history, this time over anti-communist sentiment. The split helped keep Prime Minister Menzies' government in power for another 17 years.