tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post9104027662802835820..comments2024-03-26T10:03:51.827+13:00Comments on Karl du Fresne: CATHOLIC MISCHIEF - WHY WE DOOLANS WERE VIEWED WITH SUSPICIONKarl du Fresnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-33501745351303973752008-06-10T12:07:00.000+12:002008-06-10T12:07:00.000+12:00I never had a problem with my (collapsed) Catholic...I never had a problem with my (collapsed) Catholicism, although I came here long after the times when trouble was norm. I have read a bit about the bad old days, however, and it was clear that New Zealand was aiming squarely to be the most loyal of all dominions. Massey was not only a Freemason, but a member of the Orange Order, a virulently anti-Catholic organization that still exists here, I believe. I saw a van recently outside a retirement home and it said on the back that it had been supplied by the Loyal Orange Lodge (and rarely has LOL been such an incongruous acronym, given its modern meaning). There were traces elsewhere too. When I worked at the Manawatu Standard, I was asked what I was doing working for an “Orange rag” by an aghast old-timer. I like to think I was destroying the system from within.<BR/>What I found odd in NZ was the level of adoration for establishment among the Catholic family I married into. Fiercely loyal to the royals, they would wait in anticipation of the Queen’s speech at Christmas, while I – an Irish republican peasant – marched the kids outside to prevent contamination. This was done in jest, but the older folk really didn’t get the joke.Bearhunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06927373498537533968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-59754924185126297772008-06-03T16:20:00.000+12:002008-06-03T16:20:00.000+12:00I was half-heartedly raised as a Catholic (mother ...I was half-heartedly raised as a Catholic (mother was a Presbyterian, who converted to make my father's family happy...); I certainly don't consider myself one now, although there's a definite cultural legacy. <BR/><BR/>We never considered ourselves 'Doolans' - they were the 'Irish' Catholics (the dominant force in NZ Catholicism); we were 'English' Catholics...less overt mumbo jumbo, I was told and certainly no 'haitches';...but even more isolated because we were as anti-Irish Catholic as the protestants! The difference between Irish and English Catholics is rather like Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews (well, that's how I explain the difference to my Jewish friends, although it's hardly a parallel). <BR/><BR/>My father, born in 1913, encountered real anti-Catholic prejudice when going to job interviews (pre-war); many (in those blindingly honest times) made it clear - Catholics were not employable.<BR/><BR/>Michael King reckoned the Catholics were the Jews of New Zealand... correct, I think.Nicola Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14539480292167662145noreply@blogger.com