Surely accusing the miners at Eureka of being racist is a bit of an anachronism? Society at large in those days was incredibly racist in comparison to our own still less than perfect time. You have only to go to the archives of any newspaper of the 1850s to see that.

Perhaps its true that the Irish miners were just out to 'have a go' at the hated English, and not all that interested in democracy or liberty, but then it would have to be conceded that Irish experience of obtaining justice from the imperial power was probably different to that of other colonists from more favoured parts of the United Kingdom. Could it be that the Victorian colonial parliament of the day, controlled as it was by large landholders and elected on a property franchise, were reluctant to grant democracy to the miners because so many of them were 'Irish riff raff'and dubious types from other countries? Was Eureka then, one more instance of the Irish, having apparently no choice but to be part of Britain's empire, showing their determination to not accept second class status within it?