Australia has had an historically difficult
relationship with the festival of Halloween, which can trace its origins back
to the Celtic ritual of Samhain.[1]
This occurred despite considerable Irish and the Scottish migration
historically to Australia.[2] In
the 1980s Halloween in Australia was still a mistrusted, foreign institution. Yet
more recently, Dr Paul Harrison of the Business School of Deakin University has
argued that Halloween has at last ‘caught on’ in Australia.[3] So
what happened then? Why did it take so long for Halloween to become popular
in Australia? And equally, what has changed so recently that could account for
its increased popularity?
A Jack-O'-Lantern, Toby Ord, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
There were many Irish convicts transported to the Australasian
colonies and between 1791 and 1867 it is estimated that 40, 000 Irish convicts arrived.[4]
Several thousand Irish alone were transported to Van Diemen’s Land between 1803
and 1853 presumably bringing their cultural practices with them.[5] The
Irish born population of Australia peaked at 230, 000 in 1891, representing
more than a quarter of the total foreign-born population, second only to the
English.[6] A
much smaller amount of Scots, approximately eight thousand, were also transported
to the Australian colonies.[7] Additionally
though, 175, 000 Scottish immigrants
arrived in Australia between 1860 and 1914. As they represented a largely
‘urban industrial working class’, the Scots tended to settle in cities,
particularly in Victoria. Scottish migrants had a proclivity to cluster in
urban settings and their most obvious cultural impact was to dramatically
increase the level of Presbyterianism in their new country.[8] There
appears to be a clear disparity though between the level of Celtic emigration
to Australia (either forced or free) and subsequent evidence of the adoption of
the Halloween ritual in Australia.
As mentioned, Halloween developed out of the
traditional Celtic ritual of Samhain and was in fact likely a Christian attempt
to recycle and sanitize what was considered inherently pagan. The ritual was
developed by the Druidic order who had emerged in Gaul during the Second
Century BCE; the druids were known to have had extended contact with the Greeks
who celebrated their own festival for the dead—although it was in February.[9] To
the Celts, Samhain coincided with the end of summer and the onset of their new
year.[10] Originally
it may have been a cultural benchmark for the annual agricultural cycle;
Samhain marked the time of the year by which all crops needed to be harvested,
and farms secured by storing all produce and moving livestock from the moors
and mountains so they could be handfed.[11] Traditionally
celebrated between sunsets from the 31 October to 1 November, to the ancients
it represented a mystical ‘time between times’, a time when the normal physical
laws of the world were suspended. As such it was a time when the living and the
dead could commune.[12]
However, after the departure of the Romans and the
arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, the animal sacrifices (particularly of cats and
horses) common during the feast of Samhain became notorious and evidence of
pagan depravity.[13]
Pope Gregory I in a letter to Abbot Mellitus - famously quoted in Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History - indicated that he desired existing pagan places and rituals be
adapted to a Christian purpose. The creation of the ‘Allhallows Eve’ ritual on 31
October in preparation for All Saint’s Day on 1 November during the early Middle
Ages to honour Saints, seems suspiciously opportune and synchronous then with
church policy; the ritual involving prayers and fasting in preparation for the
measured Feast Day seems a stark contrast to the traditional wild festivities
already described yet they built on the cultural foundations of Samhain.[14]
The meaning and practice of what became known as “Hallowe’en”
and later ‘Halloween’ continued to evolve over the centuries. Reinvention under
Christianity saw it become identified with predictions of the future, closely
associated with pairing for marriage and of course a time for pranks. One of
Robert Burns’ longer poems is ‘Halloween’ and its copious 252 lines document
many of the practices and traditions which had become associated with the
festival by his lifetime. Burns describes the first ceremony which involved
couples going out blind and pulling the first kail plant they encounter, which
itself was believed to have prophetic properties. The practice called the
burning of the nuts also gave insight into the future of courting couples. According
to Burns, ‘sowans’ with butter rather than milk was a traditional Halloween
supper treat.[15]
Halloween enjoyed fertile ground in the New World,
transmitted by waves of Celtic migration. According to the United States Census
Bureau in 2021, more than 35.1 million Americans claim descent from Irish
migrants.[16]
While some contemporary discrimination was open and documented during the
period of the famine, it can be argued that the US particularly better embraced
its Celtic heritage than Australia. In a country initially settled by Puritans,
eventual waves of Irish emigrants entered the land that had hosted the Salem
witch trials and therefore enjoyed a pre-existing awareness and perhaps even
belief in witchcraft.[17] The
first St Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York as early as 17 March 1762. This
sense of Celtic pride has been maintained and in 1991, Congress declared the
month of March to be Irish American Heritage Month.[18]
In contrast celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day in Australia are arguably much more
muted.
New Orleans Charity Hospital School of Nursing Halloween Dance, 1950, Uncredited for the 'Caps and Capes', Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Considerable Irish emigration helped to ensure that
Halloween became a permanent feature on the American calendar. The American
tradition of trick or treating on Halloween can be traced directly back to the
figure of Muck Olla who was represented by a man, adorned by a horses’ head,
who during Samhain paraded through a settlement begging for food – the meaning
of the tradition having been long lost by those who transplanted it.[19] It
was in Scotland that the practice of carving demonic faces in turnips began. By
the time the festival reached America it became common practice to carve
‘jack-o-lanterns’ from pumpkins and illuminate them from the inside with
candles.[20]
Americans even found that their pumpkins were ideal for carving.[21]
Halloween became a harvest holiday almost as important as Thanksgiving and
therefore in the eyes of the world, distinctly American.[22] Halloween
has persisted in Ireland, although there is more emphasis on fireworks and
bonfires. In fact, during an atrocity in Northern Ireland on 31 October 1993,
the Loyalists responsible shouted the American phrase ‘trick or treat’. Although
opinions differ on why this occurred, it certainly reinforces the American
appropriation of the concept of Halloween.[23]
Professor John Maloney of the ANU argued in the 1980s
that in Australia at least, the Irish were discouraged from practicing that
which their English overlords considered to be pagan practices among them
funeral wakes and of course, Halloween. This seems a more likely scenario than
the alternate argument that the custom died out because Australian pumpkins were
hard to carve![24]
I have been unable to find any evidence of suppression and even very little
derision of the concept of Halloween in the colonial period. Queen Victoria
herself appears to have hosted Halloween balls at Balmoral.[25]
Denis O’Donoho typified those attitudes in his story ‘The Irish Peasants:
Halloween’ published in the Dublin Penny Journal in 1834. Implicit in
the title is the idea that Halloween was common to the simple peasantry. While
focusing on a more harmless interpretation of the festival the story describes
those involved to have commonly shared a child-like belief in the reality and
power of magical conjugations and fairies.[26]
There is no doubt though that as a festival it was regarded as quintessentially
Celtic and therefore probably as the creation of an inferior people and culture
who often represented a threat to the established order.
It was the Irish settlers in Australia, rather than
the Scottish, who were seen to be collectively difficult and rebellious despite
evidence to the contrary. This may have simply related to the fact that as
discussed, the Scottish were Presbyterians and therefore at least Protestant in
inclination as opposed to their native Irish kin. Lloyd Robson demonstrated in The
Convict Settlers of Australia that most Irish male convicts at least were
first offenders with shorter sentences than their English and Scottish
counterparts.[27]
Before 1840, all Irish transports were sent to New South Wales. There was
little Irish migration to Tasmania before 1845 and they represented only 4,492
in a population of 58,902—however thanks to transportation, the Irish nearly
tripled their numbers by 1851 growing to 12, 444. Although still a minority,
the Irish were now a sizeable one.
In his 1972 thesis on Irish convicts in Van Diemen’s
Land, John Williams argued that the Irish settlers faced widespread social
prejudice with regard to their ‘religion, occupations and illiteracy.’ Increasingly
then, the Irish were seen to be a ‘problem’ specifically their lack of practical
skills and education.[28] The
Rebellion of 1798 was likely a contemporary event that hardened pre-existing
prejudices. Manning Clark observed that a line had been drawn between
Catholicism and rebellion. To the British mainstream, Protestantism encouraged
liberty and wealth, while Catholicism was associated with poverty and
despotism. The concentration of Irish convicts in New South Wales may have played
a factor in two uprisings that took place in 1804 aimed at freeing the
disaffected from their Anglo-Saxon oppressors; although small, these incidents
likely further cemented an impression of the Irish as ‘disloyal’.[29] Certainly
in 1911 only 29% of the Irish born population in Australia was Protestant.[30]
Predictably, the tradition of the Irish wake became
very common among the large Irish Catholic population in Sydney.[31]
This was an example of an Irish tradition that was arguably discouraged for
reasons of hygiene rather than for the hijinks that often accompanied it after
the body had been prepared.[32] At
the same time, distrust of anything ‘Irish’ in Australia does not account for
the persistence of other Celtic concepts such as St. Patrick’s Day and
Valentine’s Day.[33]
But these traditions were Christian in origin and therefore while Celtic, they
were tolerated as they did not suffer the additional stigma of being ‘pagan’.
The sectarian divide remained strong in Australian
during the interwar period. It had possibly been sustained by the toxic conscription
debate during the Great War.[34]
Sectarianism even permeated the Australian national cricket team. Catholic Jack
Fingleton had a habit of sprinkling Holy water on his bat before an innings.
When on one occasion, he was out early, Bradman commented that they would see
what a dry bat could accomplish.[35]
As late as 1983, only the third Australian Catholic Captain of the national
side, Lindsay Hassett, was publicly denying being a party to the tension that
had existed between fellow Catholic cricketers Bill O’Reilly and Stan McCabe
and the then team Captain Don Bradman in 1937.[36]
There clearly were then, distinctive lingering tensions during the period
within an institution that should, and normally did, represent a unifying
force.
So, a combined Celtic-Catholic prejudice may answer
the question as to why the Australian antipodes did not provide fertile ground
for Halloween, but it does not explain its continued abandonment amidst a
sustained century of infatuation with the emerging United States. An
infatuation with US culture in Australia had been brewing for a good century
before the Second World War. Famously at the outbreak of that war former Prime
Minister Billy Hughes commented in relation to our Pacific neighbour and
cousin: ‘What we are, you were; and what you are we hope to be’.[37]
The war torn Twentieth Century arguably drew the two
nations, Australia, and the United States, closer politically by necessity and
perhaps also uncomfortably close culturally. The decision by the Churchill
government during that War to effectively disown Australia and adopt a policy
to ‘Beat Hitler first’ in the face of growing concerns over Japanese aggression,
forced our young nation to make some hard decisions. The fall of Singapore and
the bombing of Darwin both of which occurred during February 1942 prompted the
Curtin Government to reassess its loyalties. When the US were forced out of the
Philippines in March by the Japanese, we leapt at the chance to form an
alliance; although it was in truth only a practical strategic decision on their
part. The ANZUS treaty of 1951 was an attempt to make the arrangement permanent
and it coincided with the final decline of what was left of the British Empire.
Australia has followed the US into every one of its conflicts from that time.[38]
While the defence and trade relationship with the US
has remained the cornerstone of foreign policy, it could be argued that it is
one based more on practicality than affection. Perhaps one of the earliest
indications that the forced marriage between Australia and the United States
had soured was the infamous ‘Battle of Brisbane’ in November 1942, which saw
open conflict between Australian and US Service men.[39]
Over the next half century or more there has existed a lingering affection for
the ‘mother country’ that is offset by the economic realities of the modern
world which made it an increasingly indifferent but not irrelevant parent.[40] In
2019-20 the UK was still Australia’s fifth largest trading partner although it
ranked behind the US which was second behind China. The UK also remains
Australia’s second largest source of investment, after the United States of
course.[41] The
ties to America are clearly practical while the ties to the United Kingdom
appear more familial. It could be argued that the recent AUKUS treaty between
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, designed to deal with the
potential threat from China is a modern expression of the nation working to
balance its practical and familial impulses.[42]
Children trick or treating in costumes, Jarek Tuszynski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Our changing relationship with the United States in
the Twentieth Century may have inadvertently influenced Australian attitudes to
Halloween. Indeed, Phillip and Roger Bell have argued that: ‘The power of the
US abroad is increasingly understood as a consequence of its cultural and
ideological authority or appeal.’ In relation to all popular culture (including
literature, film, radio, music) the American influence on Australia during the
post-war era was increasingly pervasive. However, this ‘penetration’ of America
into Anglo-Australian culture was not universally admired and did provoke some
resistance.[43]
The contemporary concern about the hegemonic influence of American culture on
Australian society – at least among the intelligentsia – could explain a
tendency to ignore the tradition of Halloween. It may have served to exacerbate
a prejudice against it that had originally arisen from its ethnic and pagan
genealogy. Even in 2013 an ABC radio special indicated that many callers felt
that Halloween represented ‘American commercialism’.[44]
The Australian mainstream media were consistent in
their negative interpretation of Halloween in the second half of the Twentieth
Century. Halloween trick or treating was described as dangerous because in the
US razor blades were being inserted in apples and sweets were laced with poison.
The resilient Americans however were foolishly persisting with the tradition;
hospitals even provided free x-raying of children’s loot.[45] There
was some truth to all this: Jack Santino had observed in 1983 that these concerns
had been given some corroboration by the ‘Tylenol scare’ of the previous year.
But criminal incidence appears to have been rare.[46]
Regardless, this does not seem to have phased the Americans in their enthusiasm
for the tradition over the next generation or more. In 2020 US citizens
reportedly spent 9.1 billion on Halloween paraphernalia (ranging from costumes
to sweets).[47]
An article in the Canberra Times in 1986 described Halloween as trivial
and nonsensical, the implication being that it was crass and certainly echoing
sentiments that it was ‘not our culture’.[48]
Within the last decade Halloween has become popular
among young adults. It is thought that the rise of social media has encouraged
the uptake of Halloween across the globe, including Australia. This newfound
popularity has little or nothing to do with Celtic heritage as it has become
just as popular in areas with no such connection. According to a YouGov poll in
2017 about 18% of all German young people aged 18-29 dressed up for the
festival. It has also become popular in Japan who have adapted it to indulge in
alter-ego costume play as there is less emphasis on the supernatural elements
of the tradition. The older demographic seems to have proven less enthusiastic
as demonstrated in Devon and Cornwall, England where the police have been known
to supply ‘no trick or treat signs’ for concerned householders.[49]
Halloween at Waikiki in 2012, Kyle Nishioka, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Halloween has continued to increase in popularity in
Australia where it is estimated that the figure of 50% of adults that
celebrated it in 2005 rose to 76% in 2020; the most engaged demographic appears
to be the 18-34 year olds. Yes, it has become a youth (read ‘social’) thing! Psychologists
and sociologists explain this recent uptake by what they refer to as ‘emerging’
adults. Traditional markers of successful independence such as career, family
and home ownership have increasingly been delayed and this has created a longer
transitional phase that can extend through a young adults’ twenties into their
thirties. Halloween was often a festival for people (originally the Irish and
Scottish) who had not been fully integrated into society. As a cultural space
it has also historically been claimed by the LGBT communities as a means of
celebrating their differences. Most holidays represent some form of social anxiety,
and it could be that Halloween has become a way for this disaffected generation
to express both its solidarity but also its anxiety about an uncertain future.[50]
The explanation for Halloween’s loss and rediscovery in Australia then is multi-faceted. While there is no evidence for Maloney’s suppression theory, it is very clear that with its links to Samhain, Halloween was widely considered from the time of European settlement in Australia, to be at least subliminally pagan. The overt Catholicism of the native Irish population in Australia, with whom Halloween was so closely identified, may have also inadvertently served to discourage its uptake. Furthermore, it seems likely that an increasing resentment of our political and economic reliance on the United States and their subsequent hegemonic penetration into Australian culture post WWII, may have further extended collective resistance to Halloween. However, over time these hegemonic concerns appear to have largely gone the way of the secular divide, over into the pit of cultural irrelevance. In the modern, interconnected world of ‘emerging adults’ there are few, if any, disincentives towards embracing Halloween. While my own generation grew up reading American comic books, millennials (including my own children) are clearly just as fascinated with Japanese manga. The increasing adoption of Halloween by the youth of Australia, appears to have no deeper cultural significance beyond the desire to have fun. Their interest in Halloween could be dismissed as being shallow, insincere, and fleeting. However, youth culture today inhabits an increasingly borderless, global world that cares little or nothing for nationalism, hegemonies or, as ever, the past, only fun. Perhaps they and the world they are creating are all the better for that?
- Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 29 October 2021 (revised 29 October 2022).
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Australian Government,
Australian Trade and Investment Commission, ‘Export Markets United Kingdom:
Market Profile’, https://www.austrade.gov.au/australian/export/export-markets/countries/united-kingdom/market-profile/market-profile accessed on 22 October 2021.
Burns, R. ‘Halloween’,
URL: https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/robert-burns/halloween-9914 ,
accessed 19 October 2021.
Canberra Times, 10 September 1983, p. 2. URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116405687?searchTerm=Hassett%20cricket%20catholic , accessed 21 October 2021.
Canberra Times, ‘Halloween’, Good Times supplement, 30 October 1986,
pp. 1-2. URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/13032123 , accessed 21 October 2021.
Mercury, 7 January 1878, p. 3. URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8958623?searchTerm=Halloween , accessed 21 October
2021.
National Archives of
Ireland, Irish Convict Transportation Records, 1787-1868 Reels M2125-229
(Australian Joint Copying Project), p.3. URL: https://www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/blogs/m_2125-2229_national_archives_of_ireland.pdf ,
accessed 12 August 2021.
O’Donoho, D. The Dublin Penny Journal,
3, 121 (October, 1834), pp. 129-131. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30004083 ,
accessed on 21 October 2021.
Secondary Materials
Beckett, J.C. A Short History of Ireland
(Melbourne, 1986).
Bell, P. & Bell, R. ‘ "Americanization":
Political and Cultural Examples from the Perspective of
"Americanized" Australia ’, American Studies, 37, 1 (Spring,
1996), pp. 5-21. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40642780.pdf?ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Af4f54bc36c0bb7170f2ed9032be038b3 ,
accessed 22 October 2021.
Clark, M. A Short History of Australia, 2nd
Edition (Sydney, 1980).
Brian Handwerk. ‘Love it or Hate it Halloween is Going
Global’, National Geographic, 28 October 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/halloween-world-costumes-germany-uk , accessed 21 October 2021.
David Fitzpatrick, ‘The Irish in Australia’, Encyclopedia
of Irish History and Culture, https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/diaspora-irish-australia , accessed 28 October 2021.
Harrison, P. ‘Should we really be celebrating
Halloween in Australia?’ Deakin University, URL: https://this.deakin.edu.au/society/should-we-really-be-celebrating-halloween-in-australia , accessed 5 March 2021.
Hartcher, P. ‘Why was Washington so ecstatic about
Morrison’s AUKUS pact?’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 2021,
URL: https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-washington-was-so-ecstatic-about-morrison-s-aukus-pact-20210927-p58v3c.html , accessed 22 October 2021.
Karskens, G. The
Rocks: Life in Early Sydney (Carlton, 1997).
Linton, R. ‘Halloween’,
Scientific American , 185, 4 (October 1951), pp. 62-67. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/24945292
, accessed 21 October 2021.
McTigue, E. "Transgressive Events." Circa,
89 (Autumn 1999), pp. 34-38. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25563466
, accessed 9 March 2021.
Moore, D., Vasquez, G. & Dolan, R. ‘Residents With
Irish Ancestry Are in All 3,142 U.S. Counties and Make Up 20% of the Population
in Some’, United States Census Bureau, 16 March 2021. URL: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/happy-saint-patricks-day-to-one-of-ten-americans-who-claim-irish-ancestry.html ,
accessed 28 October 2021.
Niall, B. ‘Daniel Mannix
and Billy Hughes: the Odd Couple’ edited extract from Mannix from Australian, 21 October 1921. URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/daniel-mannix-and-billy-hughes-the-odd-couple/news-story/5175eaefdd0a538921424b6e1b811d36 , accessed 21 October 2021.
Nelson, R. ‘The Irish Wake’, Pure Local Australia’s Business
Directory, https://www.purelocal.com.au/articles/the-irish-wake-1211 , accessed 28 October 2021.
Linus Owens. ‘Why has
Halloween become so popular among adults?’, The Big Smoke, 31 October
2020, https://www.thebigsmoke.com.au/2020/10/31/why-has-halloween-become-so-popular-among-adults-halloween/ ,
accessed 21 October 2021.
‘March is Irish American
Heritage Month’, Prince William Living, 3 March 2021. URL: https://princewilliamliving.com/march-is-irish-american-heritage-month/ , accessed 12 August 2021.
Ray, M. ‘Battle of
Brisbane’, Britannica Online, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Brisbane accessed on 22 October 2021.
Robson, L. L. The
Convict Settlers of Australia (Melbourne, 1965).
Santino, J. ‘Light up the Sky: Halloween Bonfires and
Cultural Hegemony in Northern Ireland’, Western Folklore, 55, 3 (Summer,
1996), pp. 213-31. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1500482 ,
accessed 21 October 2021.
Santino, J. ‘Halloween in
America: Contemporary Customs and Performances’, Western Folklore, 42, 1
(January 1983), pp. 1-20. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499461 ,
accessed 21 October 2021.
Sellar, A. M. Bede's Ecclesiastical
History of England A Revised Translation With Introduction, Life, and Notes
(London 1907).
Sengupta, A. ‘Cricketing
Rifts-1: The Bradman-centric and religion-fuelled Australian feuds’, Cricket
Country, 2014, URL: https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/cricketing-rifts-1-the-bradman-centric-and-religion-fuelled-australian-feuds-11838 ,
accessed 21 October 2021.
Wilkie, B. ‘Scottish
convicts in Australia’, History Scotland, 14, 6 (2014), pp. 22-27. URL: https://thescottishaustralian.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/wilkie-scottishconvicts-2014.pdf ,
accessed 21 October 2021.
Wilkie, B. ‘Lairds of suburbia: Scottish migrant
settlement and housing in Australian cities, 1880-1930’, Journal of Scottish
Historical Studies, 36, 1 (2016), pp. 81-102. URL: https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30081073/wilkie-lairdsofsuburbia-post-2016.pdf
, accessed 28 October 2021.
Williams, J. ‘Irish Convicts and Van Diemen’s Land’, unpublished Masters’
Thesis, History and Classics, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 1972. URL: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/21799/1/whole_WilliamsJohn1972_thesis.pdf , accessed 21 October 2021.
[1] Ralph Linton, ‘Halloween’,
Scientific American, 185, 4 (1951), p. 63. The link between Samhain and
Halloween is sometimes debated but that is not the focus of this essay; I
assume there is a connection. Even if that isn’t the case, historically there
was a perception of a link. So even if the connection is not an
actuality, the widespread belief that Halloween had pagan origins can be
evidenced and arguably provided grounds for cultural resistance in Australia.
[2] While the term Celtic naturally refers
to both Scottish and Irish people, it is the latter term ‘Irish’ that can be
problematic if not contentious. Scotland exists as a definable region sharing a
distinct nationality, albeit within a wider political union; in contrast, Ireland
remains a politically partitioned and contested land with multiple Irish
identities. In this article I define the term ‘Irish’ to be what J.
C. Beckett more specifically referred to as the ‘native Irish’ who descended
from Gaelic people who themselves conquered and settled Ireland probably around
the first century BCE. Therefore, my use of the word ‘Irish’ refers to both the
peoples and the cultural practices of those Celtic settlers who inhabited
Ireland from that time and who became almost universally Catholic from the
Fifth Century CE. The subsequent colonisations of Ireland arguably began during
the Ninth Century CE with the Vikings and persisted into Tudor times in various
forms (including a Scottish invasion in the Fourteenth Century CE) before
culminating in the plantations established in six counties in Ulster during the
rule of James I and involving largely Protestant English and Scottish settlers.
See: J. C. Beckett, A Short History of Ireland (Melbourne, 1986), pp.
9-90.
[3] Paul
Harrison, ‘Should we really be celebrating Halloween in Australia?’, Deakin
University, https://this.deakin.edu.au/society/should-we-really-be-celebrating-halloween-in-australia
, accessed 5 March 2021.
[4] National Archives of Ireland, Irish
Convict Transportation Records, 1787-1868 Reels M2125-229 (Australian Joint
Copying Project), p.3.
[5] John
Williams, ‘Irish Convicts and Van Diemen’s Land’, unpublished Masters’ Thesis,
UTAS (1972), p. 1.
[6] David
Fitzpatrick, ‘The Irish in Australia’, Encyclopedia of Irish History and
Culture, https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/diaspora-irish-australia
, accessed 28 October 2021.
[7] This
equates to about 5.6% of the total 162, 000 convicts transported to the
Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868. Benjamin Wilkie argues that this is
because the Scottish legal system used transportation more sparingly only
inflicting it on the worst class of criminals. See: ‘Scottish convicts in Australia’, History
Scotland, 14, 6 (2014), p. 23.
[8] Benjamin
Wilkie, ‘Lairds of
suburbia: Scottish migrant settlement and housing in Australian cities,
1880-1930’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 36, 1 (2016), pp. 1,
5-6, 22.
[9] Ralph Linton, op.cit., pp. 63-4.
[10]
Canberra Times, ‘Halloween’, Good Times supplement, 30 October 1986,
pp. 1-2.
[11] Jack
Santino, ‘Halloween in America: Contemporary customs and performances’, Western
Folklore, 42, 1 (1983), p. 4.
[12] Eoghan McTigue, ‘Transgressive
Events’, Circa, 89 (1999), p. 34.
[13] Ralph Linton, op.cit., pp. 63-4.
[14] A. M. Sellar, Bede's
Ecclesiastical History of England A Revised Translation With Introduction,
Life, and Notes (London 1907), pp. 102-4.
[15] Robert Burns, ‘Halloween’, https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/robert-burns/halloween-9914 , accessed 19 October 2021.
[16]
Derick
Moore, Gerson Vasquez & Ryan Dolan, ‘Residents With Irish Ancestry Are in
All 3,142 U.S. Counties and Make Up 20% of the Population in Some’, United
States Census Bureau, 16 March 2021. URL: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/happy-saint-patricks-day-to-one-of-ten-americans-who-claim-irish-ancestry.html , accessed 28
October 2021.
[17] Jack
Santino, op.cit., (1983), p. 13.
[18] ‘March is Irish American Heritage
Month’, Prince William Living, 3 March 2021. URL: https://princewilliamliving.com/march-is-irish-american-heritage-month/ , accessed 12
August 2021.
[19] Ralph Linton, op.cit., pp. 62-3,
66.
[20] Canberra
Times, ‘Halloween’, Good Times supplement, 30 October 1986,
pp. 1-2.
[21] Ralph Linton, op.cit., p. 66.
[22] Jack
Santino, op.cit., (1983), p. 14.
[23] Jack
Santino, ‘Light up the
Sky: Halloween Bonfires and Cultural Hegemony in Northern Ireland’, Western
Folklore, 55, 3 (Summer, 1996), p. 229.
[24] Canberra
Times, ‘Halloween’, Good Times supplement, 30 October 1986,
pp. 1-2.
[25] Mercury, 7 January 1878, p.
3.
[26] Denis O’Donoho,
The Dublin Penny
Journal, 3, 121
(October, 1834), pp. 129-131.
[27] Lloyd
Robson, The Convict Settlers of Australia (Melbourne, 1965), p. 189.
[28] John
Williams, op.cit., pp. 8, 264, 276, 282.
[29] Manning
Clark, A Short History of Australia, 2nd Edition (Sydney, 1980), p.
37.
[30] David
Fitzpatrick, op.cit.
[31] Grace Karskens, The Rocks: Life
in Early Sydney (Carlton, 1997), p. 48.
[32] Robert
Nelson, ‘The Irish Wake’, Pure Local Australia’s Business Directory, https://www.purelocal.com.au/articles/the-irish-wake-1211
, accessed 28 October 2021.
[33] Paul
Harrison, op.cit.
[34] Brenda Niall, edited extract from Mannix
from Australian, 21
October 1921.
[35] Arunabha Sengupta, ‘Cricketing
Rifts-1: The Bradman-centric and religion-fuelled Australian feuds’, Cricket
Country, 2014, https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/cricketing-rifts-1-the-bradman-centric-and-religion-fuelled-australian-feuds-11838 , accessed 21 October 2021.
[36] Canberra
Times, 10 September 1983, p.2.
[37] Philip and
Roger Bell, "Americanization":
Political and Cultural Examples from the Perspective of
"Americanized" Australia, American Studies, 37, 1 (Spring, 1996), p.
7.
[38] Ingeborg van
Teeseling, ‘The relationship with Britain and America’, Australian Explained,
https://australia-explained.com.au/history/the-relationship-with-britain-and-america , accessed 22
October 2021.
[39] Michael Ray, ‘Battle of Brisbane’,
Britannica Online, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Brisbane , accessed 28 October 2021. Indeed,
the US forces were famously referred to as being ‘overpaid, over-sexed and over
here.’!
[40] Gregory Melleuish,
‘No longer tied to Britain, Australia is still searching for its place in
the world’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/no-longer-tied-to-britain-australia-is-still-searching-for-its-place-in-the-world-70407 , accessed 22
October 2021.
[41] Australian Government, Australian
Trade and Investment Commission, ‘Export Markets United Kingdom: Market
Profile’, https://www.austrade.gov.au/australian/export/export-markets/countries/united-kingdom/market-profile/market-profile , accessed on 22 October 2021.
[42] Peter Hartcher,
‘Why was Washington so ecstatic about Morrison’s AUKUS pact?’, The Sydney
Morning Herald, 28 September 2021, https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-washington-was-so-ecstatic-about-morrison-s-aukus-pact-20210927-p58v3c.html
, accessed 22 October 2021.
[43] Philip and
Roger Bell, op.cit., pp.
6-7.
[44] Brian
Handwerk, ‘Love it or Hate it Halloween is Going Global’, National Geographic,
28 October 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/halloween-world-costumes-germany-uk
, accessed 21 October 2021.
[45] Canberra
Times, ‘Halloween’, Good Times supplement, 30 October 1986,
p. 1.
[46] Jack
Santino, op.cit., (1983), p. 1.
[47] Paul
Harrison, op.cit.
[48] Canberra
Times, ‘Halloween’, Good Times supplement, 30 October 1986,
p. 1.
[49] Brian
Handwerk, op.cit.
[50] Linus Owens, ‘Why has Halloween
become so popular among adults?’, The Big Smoke, 31 October 2020, https://www.thebigsmoke.com.au/2020/10/31/why-has-halloween-become-so-popular-among-adults-halloween/ , accessed 21 October 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd love to hear any feedback. Thanks for commenting, Colin.