TRANSPLANTED IRISH INSTITUTIONS - University of Canterbury

increased numerically as a result of immigration in the 1870s. 30 Hibernianism's arrival in
51
New Zealand is surrounded by an air of romanticism.
Davis states in his thesis that an
unreliable document claimed that a branch of the Fenian Society was established in
Addison's Rat in 1869 to work for the release of the Fenian John Boyle O'Reilly who was
imprisoned in Western Australia. 3l
In response to the Addison's Flat initiative the Ballarat Hibernian Society sent over
their secretary F.H. Byrne in 1869, who landed at Hokitika.
A local mining magnate
Martin Kennedy (who later became the first president of St Patrick's branch No. 17,
Greymouth) noted Byrne's arrival and after a discussion with some other Irishmen,
Kennedy asked Byrne to establish a Hibernian branch in Greymouth.
The inaugural
meeting was held at Brian Boru Hotel on 16 December 1869.
Byrne also established
branches in Charleston, and Addison's Flat. 32
The Hibernians maintained closer institutional links with Australia than the
Orangemen. 33 The Orangemen dealt with their New Zealand wide business through their
own annual Grand Lodge sessions. From the time of the amalgamation of the Catholic
benefit societies in 1871, the Hibernians had their Executive Directory based in Melbourne.
It comprised the districts of New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia,
Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand. The Hibernians were governed by an Executive
that included a president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary and they were controlled by
3~chard P. Davis, Irish Issues in New Zealand Politics 1868-1922, Dunedin, University of Otago
Press, 1974, p. 67.
31The document claimed that "this society was disowned by the Church, who refused its members the
benefit of the sacraments. They therefore abandoned Fenianism and decided to substitute the new
organization rising in Victoria under the auspices of the Hibernian Society, hoping to be a pioneer branch
in New Zealand." in Richard P. Davis, 'The Irish Catholic Question and New Zealand Society 1868-
1922', Otago University, Ph.D, 1968, p. 61. Davis says that although the account was inaccurate it was
accepted by Irwin Faris and 'appears substantially correct.' Document from Daniel Moloney Papers at
Turnbull Library. This reference is not in Davis' book.
32According to Irwin Faris in, Charleston- its Rise and Decline., Wellington, A.H. & A. W. Reed, 1941,
p. 167, Byrne called it "No. I, The First" because Addison's Rat had initiated the whole process. The
amalgamation of the Hibernians in New Zealand with Australia in 1871 meant that these branches in
New Zealand carne under the H.A.C.B.S. in 1872. Using J.1. Wilson as his source, Davis claims that
the St Joseph's branch established in Dunedin in 1873 was the fourth Hibernian branch in New Zealand.
Official records show however that there were at least another three branches fonned in addition to those
already mentioned- Waimea 1870, Hokitika 1870, Greenstone, Kumara 1871. These were established
before the Dunedin branch. See Op. cit., Davis, Irish Issues, p. 65. Davis quotes Wilson p. 3. Lists of
branches in A.J.H.R., 1881, H 7, pp. 25-26.
330p, cit., Davis, Irish Issues, p. 68.