Irish music, dance, language and history for the Sydney Irish community
The National Library of Australia and the INA recorded oral histories from over a dozen Irish-Australians, hearing their stories of the life of the Irish community in Sydney from the 1950s and, for those born in Ireland, their lives before coming to Australia.
You can read here a short synopsis of each interview by Dr Richard Reid. The audio files are held at the NLA, though some may become available with the synopses here over time.
Dr Reid and NLA Oral Historian Siobhán McHugh have also provided an overview of the stories (see Irish Memories/Sydney Lives and Recording INA Histories).
If you have any historical photos or stories of Irish Australian people that you would like to add to our Sydney Irish Histories project, please send us an email at info[at]irishassociation.org.au
Recently we were contacted by Cathy Dunn who explained her family’s background in Ireland and Australia. Cathy’s dad, Sean O’Carroll was at Waverley on Easter Sunday 2016 and laid a wreath for the 1916 Easter uprising which his mother, May, was part of. Sean’s parents John and May O’Carroll were also involved with the INA
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Interviewer: Ben Stephenson for National Library of Australia Irish dancing has been at the centre of Sydney-born Maureen Whelan’s professional life for more than 50 years. But for one of the founders of Sydney’s renowned Dwyer-Whelan Academy of Irish Dance, it’s perhaps pure chance it all turned out that way.
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Interviewer: Siobhán McHugh for National Library of Australia Born in 1957 to parents with a small 20 acre farm in the heart of rural Ireland, Eugene McCague had, in most respects, a normal and typical country childhood.
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Interviewer: Siobhán McHugh for National Library of Australia Between 1951 and 1961 approximately 412,000 men and women, mostly between the ages of 15 and 34, emigrated from the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland, an outpouring not seen since the post Famine decades of the 19th century. Among those leaving, effectively forever, was Denis Foley,
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Interviewer: Ben Stephenson for National Library of Australia Irish dancing has been at the centre of Trish McGrath’s life. … it’s a delight, it’s making music with your feet, it gets the blood up, and you feel yeah … if you can’t play a musical instrument there you go you can play music with your feet,
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Interviewer: Siobhán McHugh for National Library of Australia Tomás de Bháldraithe was accustomed to the sounds of the Irish language before his official appearance into the world. His Dublin based family, in order to immerse themselves in an Irish speaking environment, used to holiday in the Gaeltacht of Connemara for three months every year.
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Interviewer: Ben Stephenson for National Library of Australia There are not many oral history interviews that set your feet tapping, but Pat McGrath’s does just that!
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