Peter Gavin provides a history of the Celtic Club in Melbourne which was established in 1887 as an organisation for those who supported an independent Ireland.

Kevin Molloy speaks about the State Library Victoria’s collections of Irish and Irish-Australian materials which includes personal papers, book collections, manuscripts, records of clubs and societies, newspapers and journals. The SLV is looking to expand its collections with correspondence, diaries, photographs, and oral histories.

In this presentation Margaret Vines examines the migration of people from Ireland to Australia. She considers the choices, the push and pull factors and other reasons for their decision through the eyes of her family ancestors.

Val Noone tells the story of immigration of families from Limerick to Victoria during the gold rush era and afterwards through the lens of Michael O'Donnell and Johanna Barry.

Carmel McEvey introduces the topic before Claire Dunlop's talk on ship newspapers. Graham Thorley gives an account of the voyage of the Golden Empire in 1863. Paul Harris speaks about the journey the California in 1853.

Handouts:

Critically analysing a diary 

Ship Diaries & Journals of voyages to Australia: Golden Empire 1863, Diary of Daniel Baldwin (from Graham Thorley talk)

Ship diaries

Dr Mollenhauer describes her researches into the history of Irish Step Dancing in Australia

Michael Reynolds, a resident of Nenagh in County Tipperary, speaks about the military history of the town from the 19th century to the War of Independence. He discusses two case studies on the Hennessy and Doran families, which were the focus of his postgraduate research on Irish garrison towns. Michael covers the Irish Army Census of 1922, and discusses other useful historical and genealogical sources.