denomination, and occupation, and the appeal of Orangeism is related to local political and religious contexts. In this case, Orangeism was primarily an export of organisational techniques rather than Irish personnel or bigotry. Catholic clergy and nuns The Catholic Church in Australia maintained a strong Irish identity. The first priests were Irish, beginning with Fr James Dixon who was permitted to minister in 1803. Irish Catholic separateness increased especially in the decades from the 1880s to the 1960s when state aid for church schools was withdrawn and the Church maintained a separate and separately funded school system. The leadership of the Australian Church was almost entirely Irish from 1883 to 1940, prominent Irish-born bishops including Cardinal Moran and Archbishop Kelly in Sydney, Archbishops Carr and Mannix in Melbourne and Archbishop Duhig in Brisbane. Many of the Catholic schools were run and staffed by Irish orders of nuns such as the Sisters of Mercy and Brigidines and Irish orders of brothers such as the Christian Brothers and Patrician Brothers. The Sisters of Charity worked in hospitals. Irish nuns such as Sr Mary Baptist De Lacy, Mary Gonzaga Barry and Mother Vincent Whitty were prominent in founding hospitals and schools. McGrath (1995) demonstrates the success of the Catholic nuns who arrived in Parramatta, New South Wales, from Ireland in 1888, noting their group's growth from nine newcomers into a flourishing congregation of over two hundred women within sixty years. By the 1950s this group of women religious was responsible for 24 primary schools, five secondary schools, and two orphanages. In Australia they carried on the Irish tradition of the Sisters of Mercy and lived a monastic lifestyle. Their sparsely furnished bedrooms were referred to as cells. There was little or no heating. The sisters' spiritual practices reflected the 17th-century school of spirituality. Their relationship to the clergy was one of devotion, dedication, and subordination, thus reflecting the status of women in the larger population. It was societal pressures from without that eventually led to the decline of the Sisters of Mercy as Australia moved into the 1960s. Radical re-evaluations forced a restructuring of the Catholic Church as a whole, and a rethinking of what kinds of service the Church would require in modern times. Media The Irish Echo (Australia) is a newspaper available in print and online, covering Irish news and other matters of Irish interest.Tinteán is an online journal directed chiefly