The term “sectarianism” tends to call to mind the long-standing religious divide in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. Yet a century ago, this term was equally applicable to the community rifts that existed in Australia.
In 1788, the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Cove, delivering not just convicts and prison wardens, but also a centuries-old legacy of religious and ethnic animosity between British Protestants and Irish Catholics.
Despite religious contention often lying beneath the surface in Australia, it occasionally exploded into full view. This is particularly demonstrated through incidents like the shooting in Melbourne in 1846 on 12th July, marking the Battle of the Boyne anniversary, or the riots that took place on St Patrick’s Day in Sydney in 1878.
For the most part, Australia’s sectarian conflict presented itself in rhetoric, typically sparked through Catholics voicing their issues, the most notable being government funding for Catholic educational institutions, as well as the intensified campaign waged by Ireland’s Irish populace for independence.
There was a particular tension when Australian Catholics of Irish heritage demonstrated support for the Home Rule movement, leading many to question their loyalty to the state. A Protestant publication in Australia, ‘the Australian Christian World’, suggested in 1910 that Catholic loyalty to the British Crown may be doubtful, and could potentially destabilize Australia in the future.
However, bias wasn’t limited to one denomination. Numerous Protestants felt confronted by notions of the Catholic Church’s deliberate separation from elements of Australian society, inclusive of promoting its own religious certainty to the exclusion of other denominations, enforcement of marriage laws that hindered cross-religious unions, and the persistence of a separate educational system.
This growing anti-Catholic sentiment in Australia heightened post-Archbishop Daniel Mannix’s description of the war as a mere ‘trade war’.
At the onset of World War I, Australia set religious differences aside, with both Catholics and Protestants rallying to back the war bid and join the Australian Imperial Force. But this unity fell apart following the sectarian conflict triggered by the Easter Rising in 1916, and further aggravated by the Australian government’s bid to implement conscription – a move that was fiercely resisted by the Australian Irish populace.
Accusations of treachery and schemes to overthrow the Empire surfaced. Anti-Catholic sentiment in Australia surged when Melbourne’s Archbishop Daniel Mannix labelled the war as a mere “ordinary trade war”. The conclusion of World War I saw Australia polarised along cultural, religious and socio-economic lines. This division deepened further with the eruption of the Irish War of Independence in 1919, worsened by the involvement of the Black and Tans in 1920. The escalating turmoil in Ireland mirrored the rise in local sectarian clashes in Australia.
During this period, a dramatic string of events took place that resulted in the surge of sectarian tension in Australia to its pinnacle – a status it has not reached before or since. Amid a chilling July night in 1920, an Irish-born nun of the Presentation order, Sister Liguori (real name Bridget Partridge), deserted her convent in Wagga Wagga, a provincial New South Wales township, attired merely in her nightgown, out of fear that she was on the brink of being assassinated by her Mother Superior. Her seeking asylum in the Orange Lodge ignited a sectarian conflict that was aired in the media, discussed in parliament, and protested against nationwide, tearing a rift in the Australian society still healing from the acrimonious debates over the war and conscription, and torn by the brutal fight for Irish autonomy.
Taken into custody as an alleged lunatic at her bishop’s behest, Sister Liguori was proved sane by the Lunacy Court and subsequently released. She proceeded to sue the bishop for compensation in the Supreme Court, a trial which spanned two weeks and captured media attention domestically and globally.
Calls by opposition parliament members for a probe into Catholic convents led to threats of aggression between Catholic and Protestant MPs. When the nun was forcefully taken by her brother on a Sydney suburban street, with the goal of taking her back to Ireland, the police intervened. However, the failure to press charges against the brother led to the opposition filing a disapproval motion that threatened to oust the Labor government.
Peace was ultimately reestablished, and beginning from the mid-1920s, Australia began seeing a reduction in sectarianism. This occurrence could be credited to the Catholic church ending its pursuit for state aid and the resolution of the Irish issue to the pleasure of the Australian Irish, who were heavily in favour of the Treaty. These factors halted the ethno-religious rivalry from further impacting the Australian public discourse.
Bridget Partridge spent her remaining years in the company of her Protestant compatriots. Her life ended in 1966 at the Rydalmere Psychiatric Hospital and she was laid to rest at the Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
The lone person in attendance at the funeral service of the nun who had once been a divisive figure in Australia was a past student of the Wagga Wagga convent school.
Dr. Jeff Kildea, an honourable professor specialised in Irish Studies at the University of New South Wales, is widely recognised for his extensive writings on the history of the Irish in Australia. “Sister Liguori: The Nun who Divided a Nation” is his latest publication, obtainable at connorcourtpublishing.com.