Australia’s Irish Factor

The contribution of an Irish sensibility to Australian irreverence, rebelliousness, and egalitarianism—or desire for flatter hierarchies—is evident in such Australian practices as “knocking,” “cutting down tall poppies,” and the social phenomenon of “mateship.” These Australian cultural features distinguish Australia from Canada and point to a historically significant “Irish factor” that Canada does not share. In contrast, while the Scots also represented a sizeable immigrant community in Australia and Canada, there does not appear to have been an equivalent “Scottish factor” despite their cultural significance. For economic and ethnocultural reasons, the Scots in both countries tended to align with the British establishment far more than did the Irish, whose numbers in Australia were particularly large. As Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are useful indicators of national variation,1 this chapter explores power distance and individualism—collectivism to attribute Australia and Canada’s salient cultural characteristics to particular regions of Anglo-Celtic origin.