ABSTRACT Using the Limerick lace veil as a case study, this article argues that Irish female religious orders used Catholic materiality to maintain connections between former students and the wider Irish Catholic community within Australia. The ownership, manufacture and consumption of Limerick lace was predominantly shaped by women in Ireland and in Australia. Fashion provided a particularly feminine way of engaging with ethnic identity, separate from the male-dominated pulpit and the clubs of ethnic associational culture. By moving our focus to fashion choices, we can shift our exploration of religious and social power in the Irish Catholic Church to encompass more fully the diverse influences on ethnic and religious identity creation. Examining the practices of religious orders and how they engaged with the material culture of faith and ethnicity, this article presents a new perspective on the Irish Catholic diaspora which is currently missing from scholarship on the ‘spiritual empire’ during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

中文翻译：

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借来的东西：澳大利亚爱尔兰侨民中的女性、利默里克蕾丝和社区传家宝

摘要 本文使用利默里克蕾丝面纱作为案例研究，认为爱尔兰女性宗教团体利用天主教的物质性来维持前学生与澳大利亚境内更广泛的爱尔兰天主教社区之间的联系。利默里克蕾丝的拥有、制造和消费主要由爱尔兰和澳大利亚的女性塑造。时尚提供了一种特别女性化的方式来参与种族认同，与男性主导的讲坛和种族协会文化俱乐部分开。通过将我们的注意力转移到时尚选择上，我们可以改变对爱尔兰天主教会宗教和社会权力的探索，以更全面地涵盖对种族和宗教身份创造的不同影响。