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Remaking an ‘Old Tradition's Magic’: The Irish Strain in Early Queensland Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2013

Belinda McKay
Affiliation:
b.mckay@griffith.edu.au
Patrick Buckridge
Affiliation:
p.buckridge@griffith.edu.au
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Extract

The themes of cultural dislocation and the struggle to feel ‘at home’ in a new land figure prominently in Australian literature, and considerable critical attention has been devoted to the distinctive articulations of these preoccupations by well-known writers of Irish birth or descent, such as Victor Daley, Bernard O'Dowd and John O'Brien. Queensland's Irish writers, however, have been largely forgotten or overlooked — both individually and as a group.

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Articles
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

Endnotes

1 Hornibrook, J. H., Bibliography of Queensland verse with biographical notes (Brisbane: Government Printer, 1953)Google Scholar.

2 O'Doherty, Eva, ‘My voice of song’, Poems by ‘Eva’ of the ‘Nation’ (Dublin: M.H. Gill, 1909), pp. 20–1Google Scholar.

3 Kellow, H. A., Queensland poets (London: Harrap, 1930), pp. 107–8Google Scholar; Mrs Connolly, Hope, Thomasine's poems: wild flowers from the wayside (Dublin: James Duffy and Sons, [1883])Google Scholar.

4 Mrs Hope Connolly, ‘A remonstrance: To “Eva”‘, in Thomasine's poems, pp. 21–3.

5 Mrs Hope Connolly, ‘Mater dolorosa’, in Thomasine's poems, p. 111.

6 Mrs Hope Connolly, ‘The contrast: II’, in Thomasine's poems, p. 120.

7 Including ‘The boomerang,’ ‘“L. L.”’ (on Ludwig Leichhardt) and ‘Storm in the bush’.

8 Eva O'Doherty, ‘Queensland’, in Poems, p. 92.

9 Eva O'Doherty, ‘Queensland’, in Poems, pp. 92–3.

10 Ross and Heather Patrick, Exiles undaunted: the Irish rebels Kevin and Eva O'Doherty (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1989), p. 174Google Scholar. See also Buckridge, Patrick, ‘Two Irish poets in colonial Brisbane: Eva O'Doherty and Cornelius Moynihan’, in Wooding, Jonathan (ed.), Old myths and new lights (Brisbane: Queensland Irish Association, 1991), p. 22Google Scholar.

11 Mulry, Mary Egan, ‘My dream’, in Glorious Australia: the land of my adoption (Brisbane: Crofton Print., [ca 1926]), n.p.Google Scholar

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18 See Ingamells, Rex, ‘Conditional culture’ [1938], in Barnes, John (ed.), The writer in Australia: a collection of literary documents, 1856–1964 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 245–59Google Scholar.

19 ‘Another presentation book’, The Brisbane Courier, 14 June 1901, 6. See also cutting, n.d., from Brisbane Telegraph in The Bunyip of Wendouree, Fryer Library.

20 A manuscript copy of the poem exists in the Queensland Parliamentary Library, together with the correspondence between Moynihan and Ward Lock & Co.

21 ‘The Goth’ [Henry Barkley], ‘Learning’ in Lyrics from the line (Ipswich: Railway Times Office, 1898), p. 31.

22 Henry Barkley, ‘Retrospect of the year 1893’, in Lyrics, p. 24.

23 Henry Barkley, ‘Address to her Majesty, the Queen’, in Lyrics, p. 55.

24 Henry Barkley, ‘The Wreck’, in Lyrics, p. 35.

25 The four volumes by Thomas Watters Boyce are Evening reveries (Brisbane Exchange Printing Co., 1928); The reply (Brisbane Exchange Printing Co., 1928); Whispering echoes (Brisbane Exchange Printing Co., 1928); and The battle of life and other verse (London: Stockwell, 1930).

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34 Clarke, ‘Rosa Praed's Irish connections’, 123. Praed had met and been charmed by Boyle in Boston in 1886.

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36 Meaghan Morris, ‘The fairies of the day: Ernestine Hill's education in Brisbane’, unpublished paper presented at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Griffith University, 21 May 1999. In this paper, Morris also discussed the ‘knowingness’ of Hemmings's early poems.

37 J. J. Stable, foreword to Curran, Margaret, The wind blows high and low and other verses (Brisbane: Carter-Watson, [1928]), p. [7]Google Scholar. On Curran and Crist, and specifically their leading roles in the Toowoomba Ladies’ Literary Society, see Lee, Christopher, ‘A society of country women and the functions of literary property’, Journal of Australian Studies 52 (1997), pp. 138–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Curran, The Wind, pp. 25, 30.

39 Dornan, Dimity, Alice with eyes a-shine: seedlings of an Irish-Australian childhood (Brisbane: Church Archivists’ Press, 1998), p. 142Google Scholar. Crist began writing for the Catholic Advocate on 10 June 1927, and produced 95 poems, short stories and serial instalments selected in the first six months.

40 Crist, Alice Guerin, When Rody came to Ironbark and other verses (Sydney: Cornstalk 1927)Google Scholar. The work of John O'Brien is advertised on the back cover of When Rody came to Ironbark.

41 Dornan, Alice, p. 155.

42 Alice Guerin Crist, ‘Himself’, in When Rody, p. 21.

43 Alice Guerin Crist, ‘O'Shea’, in When Rody, pp. 47-49.

44 Alice Guerin Crist, ‘Homesick’, in When Rody, p. 63.

45 Alice Guerin Crist, ‘When Rody came to Ironbark’, in When Rody, pp. 35–7.

46 Crist, Alice Guerin, Eucharist lilies (Sydney: Pellegrini, [1928])Google Scholar.

47 Crist, Alice Guerin, ‘Go it! Brothers’ (Sydney: Pellegrini, 1932)Google Scholar.

48 Forrest, Mabel, White witches (London: Hutchinson, [1929]), pp. 247–8Google Scholar.

49 Forrest, Mabel, Gaming gods: a novel (London: Hutchinson, [1926])Google Scholar.

50 Forrest, Mabel, The wild moth (London: Cassell, 1927 [1924])Google Scholar.

51 Forrest, Mabel, ‘The little black man’, in The green harper (Brisbane: Gordon and Gotch, 1915), p. 20Google Scholar.