Book review: A New History of the Irish in Australia

Abstract

scholarly organisations sit uncomfortably side by side. The focus of the volume as suggested by the title and the introduction seems to fit well under the auspices of the Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement. In that regard, there are some wonderful and potentially very important contributions which make Church and Settlement in Ireland a notable contribution to scholarship (and, given the affiliations of the contributors, one cannot help but remark on the very high quality of research clearly being undertaken in and around the Department of Archaeology at University College Cork). By contrast, the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies seems to be embracing different aims and perhaps the contributions focusing on medieval Irish literature, its date and its historical value, would have been better placed elsewhere.