Irish Community
The Irish Community has been an essential part of society in New South Wales since the beginnings of European settlement in 1788. Apart from providing the penal colony with large numbers of convicts - mainly from London and directly from Ireland after the 1798 Rebellion - free settlers arrived from Ireland to build a new life in a community on the other side of the world.Today, the Irish Community still plays an important part in the daily life of New South Wales. Follow the links below for links to the many businesses, clubs and associations that comprise the Irish Community in New South Wales:
(Portrait courtesy of State Library of New South Wales. GPO 1 - 08608)
William Charles Wentworth (13 August 1790 – 20 March 1872), son of a Surgeon from County Armagh, was an Australian poet, explorer, journalist and politician, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales. He was the first native-born Australian to achieve a reputation overseas, and a leading advocate for self-government for the Australian colonies.
In 1813, Wentworth, along with Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson, led the expedition which found a route across the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and opened up the grazing lands of inland New South Wales. He later became Vice-President of the Australian Patriotic Association and founded a newspaper, The Australian, the colony's first privately owned paper.
In 1853, Wentworth chaired the committee to draft a new constitution for New South Wales, which was to receive full responsible self-government from Britain. He was a leader in the development of modern Australian democracy.
Read article at Australian Dictionary of Biography.
(Portrait courtesy of State Library of New South Wales. GPO 1 - 01382.)
John Hubert Plunkett (1 June 1802 – 9 May 1869), born at Mount Plunkett, County Roscommon, Ireland, was the first Irish Catholic appointed to high public office in New South Wales. He arrived in Sydney in June 1832 to take up the newly-created role of Solicitor-General of New South Wales. In 1836 he became the colony's Attorney-General and was associated with Governor Richard Bourke in bringing about a new church and schools act, establishing the public and Catholic education systems in Australia along the Irish model.
He was determined to establish equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists and he then extended legal protections to convicts and assigned servants. Finally he attempted to legally protect aboriginals, and twice charged the perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre with murder eventually securing a conviction. His Church Act of 1836 disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists.
He was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1857 and remained an imortant member of the NSW government until 1866. He was also vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney from 1865 to 1867.
Read article at the Australian Dictionary of Biography
