St Patrick's Day: From Ireland to AustraliaPart 1: 1788-1914Mike Cronin and Daryl AdairWhat, then, was the Irish-Australian experience of St Patrick's Day in the fledgling colonies? For the Irish, whether they were convicts, emancipists, or free settlers, St Patrick's Day was a time of merriment. The Judge-Advocate of NSW, Englishman David Collins, an ecumenical observer, recorded in his journal on March 1795: 'On the 17th St Patrick found many votaries in the settlement … libations to the saint were so plentifully poured that at night the cells were full of prisoners'. In a similar vein, Irishman Joseph Holt, a landowner and farmer, wrote in 1803: 'my usual time to commence sow was the first Monday after St Patrick's Day: it requiring a few days to get my men sober'. By 1810 the Governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, had given formal recognition to St Patrick's Day. As the Sydney Gazette of 17 March reported: 
His EXCELLENCY was this day pleased to give an entertainment to a number of the Government artificers and labourers, in honor of the day, being Saint Patrick's; on which occasion British hospitality displayed itself; and every heart was filled with sentiments of respect and gratitude.This official sanction can be explained in two ways. First, it was a time for the colonial elite to feast together on a day that had patriotic connections to the Emerald Isle, but was in no way considered subversive to the union of Britain and Ireland. It was deemed as a nostalgic and innocuous ritual that simply warmed the hearts of Irish emigrants; the support of the English colonial establishment, therefore, was a goodwill strategy. Even the Bank of NSW was closed specifically in honour of St Patrick's Day. Second, Macquarie saw St Patrick's Day as an opportunity to bring Catholics and Protestants together in a common cause. And celebrate they did. The phrase 'keeping up St Patrick' became something of a euphemism for getting blind drunk. Indeed, for some revelers, it was a case of St Patrick's week. A Bathurst farmer complained to his Catholic priest that his labourers were incapable of work at this time: 'They have been keeping St Patrick's Day since the 12th inst. and not ended it yet'.  
|
This webpage © 2002 Simply Australia