'The Irish In Australia' is highly readable and controversial account of the extraordinary influence of a network of Irish graduates on law, learning and politics in nineteenth-century Australia.
The meticulously researched narrative weaves elegantly in and out of the established Australian colonial story, negotiating major events and characters, and arcane byways, with equal assurance. Jarlath Ronayne writes with an engaging irony and wit, and offers a radically different perspective on the inexhaustibly interesting subject: the Irish in Australia - and on the Australian story generally.