Aspects of sectarianism in New South Wales circa 1865 to 1880

Abstract

This thesis is a modest attempt to accept Professor O'Farrell's challenge. Its conclusions may not exactly please him. Like all historians of the Australian Catholic Church before him, Professor O'Farrell assumes that Catholics were very frequently objects of persecution. Sectarianism he more or less equates with anti-Catholicism. He sees Catholics as the innocent victims of anti-Catholic and, up to a point, anti-Irish feeling. This thesis argues that Catholics were very largely responsible for bringing hostility upon themselves. Much of that hostility was a reaction against Catholic sectatianism, rather than the expression of an anti-Catholic predisposition.