BY MARIA LAMMERDING AND CAITLIN CEFAI
Australia’s connection to Irish culture dates back to British colonisation in the late 18th century, when Irish convicts were sent to Australia to form a penal colony.
Through tough times like the Potato Famine (1845–52), two world wars and The Troubles (late 1960s to 1998), people from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (now a constituency of Britain) have made Australia home, as Melbourne's Immigration Museum records show.
Today, more than 2 million Australians identify as having Irish ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
What's more, swells of backpackers are back in Melbourne (as Nine News reported late last year), travelling Down Under for the first time since the pandemic put a stop to international arrivals. One of their biggest parties? The celebration of St Patrick’s Day, an annual Irish holiday on March 17.
St Patrick’s Day began as a feast day held by the Roman Catholic Church for one of the three patron saints of Ireland, alongside St Brigid and St Columba.
According to Wiki, St Patrick’s tale goes that he taught Christianity to the pagan Irish through the symbolism of their national flora: the shamrock, also known as clover. The shamrock has three green leaves, and St Patrick is said to have used this to explain the Holy Trinity - where each leaf represents one of the three forms of God: the father in Heaven, the son Jesus on Earth, and the Holy Spirit all around. Today the shamrock has become a symbol of the holiday, and can be seen worn by politicians, royals and other high-profile people.
While the initial feast day was a time of reflection and reverence, St Patrick's Day evolved into a celebration of Irish culture around the globe. According to National Geographic, the modern traditions are mostly celebrated in the US.
The Chicago River, for instance, is dyed green every year to celebrate the large Irish population in the state of Illinois.
A lesser-known hotspot for festivities is the Caribbean island of Montserrat, where, as Lonely Planet reports, St Patrick's marks the day a group of local rebels took advantage of the distraction of celebrations and overthrew the island’s slavers in 1768.
While Melbourne may not have the same number of citizens of Irish descent as, say, Chicago, it does know how to throw a party. To explore the festivities and learn more about Irish culture, MOJO News reporters Maria Lammerding and Caitlin Cefai took to the streets and spoke to some locals and expats about their experience on St Patrick’s Day.