Catholics vs Protestants in Old Australia | Chapter 11 | Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts

At five years old, I tried to save my best friend's soul by acting out the crucifixion. She screamed. I ran. This is Chapter 11, "Catholic, Catholic, Go to Hell!", a funny, sharp and moving memoir of growing up Catholic in 1950s Armidale, Australia, where Catholics and Protestants lived in "parallel universes" and even the cemeteries were divided. In this chapter: The childhood scene that started it all: Susan Fitzgerald and the grapevine Footy parties, beer kegs and a bicycle with square wheels Schoolyard taunts, exclusion from the professions and a Catholic-free university The Masons, the Knights of Columbus and the Irish convict legacy How the Catholic–Protestant divide melted away almost overnight Senator John Faulkner's 2006 speech on Irish Catholics, and why it still matters A headscarf experiment on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne Did tolerance grow because we stopped caring about religion, or because we started seeing each other? If bigotry can fade once, it can fade again. 💬 Did you grow up on one side of a divide like this? Tell me your story in the comments. 👍 Like and subscribe for more stories from the book. [Add book title, author name, and purchase or website link here] #Memoir #AustralianHistory #Sectarianism