Nothing drove Catholic identity in Australia in the early twentieth century as powerfully as the fight with the Government of New South Wales over education. From the 1880s when the Henry Parkes’ Government introduced compulsory schooling, Catholics began a campaign to keep their children’s education separate from the government-run system. They perceived it as a Protestant and secular plot to prevent the practice of the Catholic religion and Catholic social and economic advancement. Catholics were second class citizens, subject to overt racism. Education was their pathway to respectability. Their lowly social status was derived from their origins as poor Irish convicts and immigrants. Their grievance with their British overlords, and the Protestant religion they practiced, lasted well into the twentieth century.
Why Mary Madden Rescued Daniel Mannix’s Dinner tells the story of a letter from Mary wrote to her sister Elizabeth with instructions on how and what to serve Archbishop Mannix for dinner after his long trip to Casino from Melbourne. It is a small window into the world of Casino in the 1920s where Catholic identity and class-consciousness mattered a great deal.
Read Why Mary Madden Rescued Daniel Mannix’s Dinner
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