Irish Women’s Networks on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, 1864–1922

Abstract

This article explores the ethnic incorporation of Irish women on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island from 1864, when the gold rushes began, until the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The central argument is that these newcomers did not choose ethnic solidarity as a means to pursue their goals and, for most, an ethnic or religious category sufficed in an environment where local communities, churches, trade unions, kinship ties and non‐ethnic political parties had far more social relevance. The small‐scale structure of West Coast localities, the relative economic homogeneity of its inhabitants and the absence of entrenched anti‐Irish elites militated against the rise of sectarian animosities and the maturation of intensified ethnic consciousness. As a consequence, Irish women did not construct and sustain informal social networks based on ‘principles of ethnic categorisation’ in which they distributed resources and channelled interaction among group members.