Peter Kiernan had a long association with Irish affairs in Melbourne – the Connolly Association program on Radio 3CR, the Famine Rock commemoration at Williamstown, and with both Táin and Tinteán magazines… Continue reading
Filed under Australian-Irish history …
Mary McConnell, a Belfast Girl
Mary Mc Connell entered the workhouse in Belfast in July 1847 as an orphan and a pauper. Continue reading
The Holly Bough – as Cork as Christy Ring
The Holly Bough is one of those unique publications that deserves a heritage rating: indeed, it may already have one. Seventy years ago in Cork and Kerry, it was as much part of Christmas as Santa and the candles perilously lit in curtained windows. Stories, poems, puzzles, games, it kept us busy for days. … Continue reading
Margaret Cooke (1833-?): from Carbury in Kildare to Gladstone in Queensland, and Monte Cristo Station on Curtis Island
Stories about women who made an indelible impression on their children are often preserved in family folklore handed down the generations, but memory of Margaret Cooke doesn’t appear to have survived in this way… Continue reading
Book Review: Bathurst welcomes the Irish workhouse orphans
Anyone who has dabbled in researching Famine Orphan girls will recognise the vast amount of work and skill involved in this collection of histories. Continue reading
Duffy House
Named for the original builders, it is a public acknowledgement of the part played by the Irish in early Perth Continue reading
Jane and Bridget: Shipboard Friends who ran foul of the Law
Life was not easy for Jane and Bridget, two of at least fifty famine orphan girls who were gaoled in NSW from the 1850s to 1900. Continue reading
From Armagh to Barrington: an Earl Grey orphan in Northern Tasmania.
Mary Ann McMaster came to Australia under the Earl Grey Scheme. Continue reading
130 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH – A REFLECTION ON PETER LALOR
A great-great-grandson remembers an unapologetic rebel and determined reformer Continue reading
A Woman Ahead of Her Time
It is easy today to forget the extreme ways that nineteenth-century British society divided along sectarian lines. Continue reading