| > But even today, 60% of Australia is English or “Australian” (which is mostly English). 80% are from the British Isles From my perspective, you keep on wrongly downplaying the role that Irish Australians have played in Australian history. You acknowledge the significance of Irish Americans in American history, but ignore that Irish Australians are at least as significant in Australia's history, arguably even more so. By some estimates, 30% of Australians have Irish ancestry. [0] From the beginnings of British colonisation up until at least the end of WW2, the Irish have been Australia's single largest ethnic minority; in the US, I doubt they held that title for long (if ever), ending up being outnumbered by the Germans. The first substantial armed rebellion against British rule in Australia (there have not been many) was carried out by Irish convicts in 1804 near Sydney, many of whom were veterans of the 1798 United Irishmen Rebellion. [1] You seem to view Australia as a country which is mostly English, when the truth is that the majority of Australians have non-English ancestry (of course, English and non-English ancestry are not mutually exclusive categories). > the center-left party has largely been organized around mobilizing its ethnic factions to “turn out” to vote Irish-Australians have played a rather comparable role in the history of Australia's main center-left party (Labor) to what Irish-Americans have played in the Democratic Party. [2] > You’re certainly seeing more of that in Canada and Australia now given the mass immigration from Asia. But in the US this is been happening for 170 years or so. When you consider Irish immigration – in 1871, 25% of overseas-born Australians were born in Ireland [3] – it has been happening in Australia since the 19th century – which is significant given that modern Australian history begins in 1788. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Australians [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Hill_convict_rebellion [2] https://www.jstor.org/stable/23193797 [3] https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/mca/files/2016-cis-ireland.PD... |