To Tara via Holyhead: The Emergence of Irish Catholic Ethinicity in Nineteenth-Century Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract

This paper explores historical processes of becoming in everyday social lives of Irish Catholic immigrants in nineteenth-century Christchurch, New Zealand. My central argument is that newcomers effected a transition to colonial life by creating and sustaining durable social networks based on ethnic ties which transcended pre-existing affiliations and represented a powerful means to domesticate a new environment. The formation of ethnic consciousness was a complex phenomenon shaped by constantly evolving interaction of Old World forms, cultures and expressive symbols with colonial social settings. In Christchurch, ethnic identification turned upon a number of critical factors, including local opportunity structures, patterns of migration, external discrimination and intra-group conflict. Notwithstanding diversity of outlooks and interests among immigrants, religious identification offered a useful resolution of ethnic tensions and traditions, while ensuring continuing vitality of a separate spiritual, educational and social life alongside dominant local system. In this sense, the shortest way to Tara was via Holyhead because it led to development of a shared identity that fused potent elements of Irishness and Catholicity.