A LONG LASTING PROBLEM

OLD PROBLEMS

• There are two main parts to the problem of understanding the place of Catholics in early Australia.
• Understanding the argument between Protestants and Catholics.
• And the English and the Irish.

Protestantism

• Protestants are any of the churches that have split with the Catholic Church.
• This is important to know because the state Religion of the United Kingdom is the Church of England.

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• The CoE split with the Catholic Church under the reign of Henry VIII.
• Since then Anglicans had been trying to drive the Catholics out of England.

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• The Anglicans had many problems with the Catholic Church, like most Protestants they thought it was corrupt and had been lead astray from God’s path.

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• While the CoE had become very popular in England, it was not as popular in other parts of Britain.
• One of these places was Ireland.
• (Here it is important to understand about the countries of the United Kingdom)

IRELAND

• Ireland was not an equal part of Britain. It was occupied by British soldiers, nearly all the good land was owned by England landlords, and the Irish could not vote for their leaders.

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• This unfairness and the often cruel way that the British dealt with the Irish lead to rebellion, which is were the Australian Catholic Church comes into the story.

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• There were a number of violent rebellions through out Ireland in the last years of the 1700s, including a large rebellion in 1798 - inspired by the American War of Independence.

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• After this rebellion failed, a lot of prisoners were taken, nearly all of whom were Catholic.
• Guess where a lot of them were sent?

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• This meant that most of the Catholics that came to Australia were not popular with the British Government.