"Two different worlds": Post-war Irish Migration to Australia, 1947-1972

This thesis examines the migration of the Irish from both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland to Australia, in the post-war years, 1947-1972. The work covers their arrival, settling and their establishing of extensive network groups. Based on a set of 40 oral history interviews undertaken in Victoria, South Australia and the ACT, and drawing upon Irish and Australian government archival sources and other documentary records, the work explores the reasons migrants left Ireland from the late 1940s and early 1950s, and why they chose the longer journey to Australia rather than the more established routes to the United Kingdom and North America.