Grafting Ireland onto Australia: some Literary Attempts

Abstract

A title such as this, that makes any mention of Irish-Australian literary mergers, raises a spectre that I want to lay immediately. I am thinking of that will-o’-the-wisp, the Irish character in the Australian landscape. I know that hunting the Irish element in the Australian character, and in Australian writing, has been a practice much honoured in the observance.[1] I do not wish to condemn the activity; it can be an invigorating and fruitful sport, but it can also be beset by so much circular argument and gratuitous assumption, that I want to make a definite, initial distinction between it and what I intend to do in this paper.