Just two generations ago, before the term multiculturalism became the norm, Australian society was polarised between two main groups: Protestants and Catholics. Religion was code for identity, with tensions fuelled by historical grievances that dated back long before the First Fleet. 'Catholic' meant Irish, and to an English Protestant Establishment, that meant trouble.
Until the 1960s, job vacancy advertisements might include the stipulation that 'Catholics Need Not Apply'. Irish Catholics were an underclass -- Australia's first ethnic minority. When a Catholic married a Protestant (one in five marriages until the 1960s were 'mixed'), conflict and family fatwas often ensued. Catholics are no longer the underdogs in Australia, but bigotry and prejudice remain, directed against a new 'other'.
In Part One: in the sectarian atmosphere of pre-multicultural Australia, to marry across the Protestant/Catholic divide was, for many families, to consort with the enemy. Mixed marriage couples describe how they bridged the gap, despite conflict with family and church authorities.