The story of the Irish in Melbourne, Australia, is often told through the lives of great men associated with politics, commerce, or the church. One figure that looms large is Archbishop Daniel Mannix (1864-1963). But there are other lesser known stories, including that of Celia Curtin, an ethnic entrepreneur who carved out a distinct career as a singer of operatic, religious, and, in particular Irish nostalgic and sentimental song (including ‘The Little Green Shamrock’; ‘Mavoureen’; ‘The Last Rose of Summer’, ‘Erin My Country’ etc.). Miss Curtin sang at weddings, funerals, social clubs and fund-raising concerts for catholic schools and charities patronized by Mannix during his episcopacy. Curtin-related ephemera initially uncovered by the author in Newman College Library at the University of Melbourne is supplemented by advertisements and articles featuring Curtin from the Catholic newspaper 'The Advocate' (the official newspaper of Mannix’s Archdiocese from 1919). What emerges is a compelling story that underscores the dynamic, mobile and globalized nature of Irish musical forms which travel and are (re)performed in cosmopolitan centres, as locally and historically situated manifestations by particular individuals. To study Cecilia Curtin’s career is to uncover what Irish repertoire was popular at the time for a semi-professional female singer and her local audiences, as well as to appreciate how Irish music was not performed just for entertainment purposes. This was a means of under-girding expressions of solidarity amongst Irish Australian Catholics in early twentieth century Melbourne, something which Miss Curtin appears to have understood very well.