Continuity and Change

Bringing together a multidisciplinary team of authors, this book relays the untold story of postwar migration between Ireland and Australia. Spanning the period 1945–2024, it explores the experiences of migrants from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and provides insights into the multiple reasons these migrants came to Australia, factors which prompted permanency or return, and the extent of continuity and change between recent arrivals and their historical predecessors.

Contemporary flows are examined through the lens of social, economic, policy, and technological changes occurring at the time in Ireland, Australia, and globally. Decades of economic boom and bust in Ireland, including the growth and demise of the Celtic Tiger, the impact of government investment in education in the Republic, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, occurred alongside marked changes in Australia’s immigration policy. During this time, an increased affordability of international travel and communication brought new dynamics to the tyranny of distance that characterised historical flows. How contemporary migrants from Ireland navigated these changes in terms of identity and belonging, homesickness, and transnationalism are the key themes which are explored. The role of Ireland’s Government in relation to its migrant community in Australia and the impact of COVID-19 are also considered.

This book not only fills a gap in Ireland’s diaspora research but also contributes to migration studies more broadly, particularly the experiences of invisible immigrants.

Patricia M. O’Connor is from the Republic of Ireland and has lived in Australia since 1993. She is Adjunct Fellow with the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University. Her PhD thesis titled The multiple experiences of migrancy, Irishness and home among contemporary Irish immigrants in Melbourne, Australia (2005) was awarded by the University of New South Wales and explored the experiences of migrants from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from 1980 to 2001. She has published multiple journal articles and contributed book chapters on topics related to this cohort of immigrants.

Fidelma McCorry (formerly Breen) is from Northern Ireland. She completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide in 2018 with a thesis titled Contemporary Irish migration to Australia, 2000–2015: Pathways to permanence. Her thesis was awarded a Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence in April 2018 and won the John Lewis Silver Medal for Geography 2018 awarded by the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia. She also held a university postdoctoral fellowship at the Hugo Centre for Migration and Population Research at the University of Adelaide. Her interest in migration, particularly the global movement of the Irish, stems from a lived experience of repeat and frequent migration. Her MPhil (History) thesis, Yet we are told that Australians do not sympathise with Ireland: South Australian support for Irish Home Rule (2013), investigated the presence of the Orange Order and various Irish Nationalist groups in South Australia between 1882 and 1912 and the widespread support and fundraising for the Home Rule movement from non-Irish and non-Catholic citizens in the colony.