Book Launch – Irish South Australia: New histories and insights

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Book Launch of

Irish South Australia: New histories and insights

on Friday 1st Feb from 5.30pm

at the Irish Club, 13-15 Carrington Street, Adelaide

 

Launch by Irish Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Breandán Ó Caollaí

Its capital is named after German-born Queen Adelaide, its main street after her English husband, King William IV, so it is not surprising that little is known about South Australia’s Irish background. However, the first European to discover Adelaide’s River Torrens in 1836 was Cork-born George Kingston who was deputy surveyor to Colonel Light; the river was named in turn for Derry man Colonel Torrens, Chairman of the South Australian Colonization Commission. Adelaide’s first judge and first police commissioner were immigrants from Kerry and Limerick.

These are just some of the intriguing facts in Irish South Australia: new histories and insights that charts Irish settlement from as far north as Pekina to the south-east and Mount Gambier. It follows the diverse fortunes of the Irish-born elite such as George Kingston and Charles Harvey Bagot, as well as doctors, farmers, lawyers, orphans, parliamentarians, pastoralists and publicans who made South Australia their home, with various shades of political and religious beliefs: Anglicans, Catholics, Dissenters, Federationalists, Freemasons, Home Rulers, nationalists, and Orangemen.  There is something here for all readers from the casual browser to the family historian.

Formal proceedings will start at 6pm. There will be a cash bar from 5.30pm along with nibbles and wine tasting from Coriole wines. All welcome, but please RSVP for catering purposes.

The book’s editors are twentieth-century Irish immigrants from Dublin (Dymphna Lonergan), Portadown, (Fidelma McCorry-Breen), Trim (Susan Arthure), and by descent from eight Irish-born great grandparents (Stephanie James).

Copies available at the launch RRP$39.95. If you cannot attend but would like a copy of this publication you can order here: http://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/pages.php?pageid=39

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