For sure, I agree with that influencing factor. But in saying that I note that my mother in law is from staunch Irish Catholic roots. Not the same antipathy among her clan. Wouldn't say they love them or hate them - apathetic really. But you'd have different quirks within each region of Australia depending on their generational experiences. Victoria for example had far more conflict between the Irish Catholics and the blue blood establishment than most other parts of Australia throughout it's history, which would fuel antipathy.I'd say the Dismissal was definitely a contributing factor, Pantsman. But it would have built on the greater influence, that being the large amount of Irish in our national DNA, with around 30% of the population having some Irish heritage compared with 13% for Canada (most of whom are Protestants) and 15% for New Zealand.
I'm from Irish Catholic stock, and antipathy towards the royals has been passed down the generations for hundreds of years. With good reason - they murdered and/or dispossessed our people, going back to Henry VIII but also including the attempted genocide that was the Potato Famine.
It's no coincidence early Irish settlers in Australia formed affinities with the blackfellas, nor that many Irish Catholic Australians (including Richmond footballers) refused to join the lemmings at Gallipoli when their own homeland was being brutally occupied by the country they were supposed to now go and fight for.
But in Tasmania, it was said when she was growing up, that the north of Tasmania was run by Protestants and the south by Catholics. And the settlement patterns probably explain this. Southern Tasmania far higher convict concentration than the north, that was more weighted to free settler farmers. You can see it in voting patterns too. The north is the centre of the landed gentry Liberal Party, the south is very ALP and GRN voting. In the south, the state public service was for many years a Catholic (largely Irish Catholic) closed shop. So I suppose they have long since buried their antipathy by carving out a sphere of influence in their pocket of Australia over many generations, that they don't really care either way about the royals.
My family background was mainly English convicts (although crossed with Scots and Irish married in, plus a bit of Bavarian). Non-conformist Protestant rural poor and working class. Locked out of the Catholic closed shops while at the same time, felt no affiliation with the blue blood Protestants they felt disdain from. I suppose we have a chip on our shoulder and view all groups with suspicion
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