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Antipodean Identities: Violent Behaviors, Pugilism And Irish Immigrant Culture In New South Wales, 1830-1861, Matthew Aaron Schownir

Open Access Theses

This essay examines the spaces in which Irish immigrants renegotiated negative stereotypes of wanton violence that accompanied them to New South Wales in the Early Victorian period. This process occurred by way of legitimizing violence through an Anglicized cultural filter or by curbing violence in instances where it was expected and publicly denounced. As these immigrants adapted to normative notions surrounding "proper" forms of violence and masculinity, they contributed to an overall shift in Australian cultural identities that recognized the significant Irish minority as a viable and valuable component of colonial society.