Maria left Ireland aged fourteen. According to the Irish Famine Memorial’s orphan database, she left Portumna as a Roman Catholic orphan of James and Margaret Maher (both deceased), sailing on the Thomas Arbuthnot to Sydney in 1850. Continue reading
Filed under Catholic church …
Ireland’s Daughters: The Earl Grey Orphans Who Shaped Australia. How a Generation of Irish Girls Transformed Exile into Endurance and Survival into Legacy
Maria left Ireland aged fourteen. According to the Irish Famine Memorial’s orphan database, she left Portumna as a Roman Catholic orphan of James and Margaret Maher (both deceased), sailing on the Thomas Arbuthnot to Sydney in 1850. Continue reading
A Family that Thrived
The story of an Earl Grey Scheme arrival, Margaret Walsh, and her brother, and subsequent generations in Purrumbete South. Continue reading
Newman College to host two leading Irish language scholars
In January 2026, Melbourne will host two outstanding scholars of Irish Studies, Louis de Paor and Brian Ó Conchubháir. Both are leading experts in the history of the Irish language and its contemporary use. Continue reading
Generation Emigration Here for Good? An Increase in Irish Migration to Australia
A research manager at the University of Adelaide, her profile notes that ‘Her interest in migration, particularly the global movement of the Irish, stems from a lived experience of repeat and frequent migration.’ Continue reading
Small Things Like These
The world of the film is a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, and yet no-one ever speaks of what happens just down the road. Continue reading
The Brothers O’Shea: becoming stardust
We are struck by the extent of the brothers’ influence on both their adopted countries. They made a difference. They added to the community and to the culture. Continue reading
Reflections on Saint Brigid
He tells us that Patrick was a powerful, diligent, and determined man. After reading the Lives of Brigid, you could espouse this forceful but patient woman with the same attributes and above all piety and humility. Continue reading
Eureka 170: a grandson remembers his grandmother
However, that story of liberation and democracy continues. Peter at the stockade and Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, was not the closing chapter. Continue reading
What we are reading at the moment
Her interior monologues also allow for literary and philosophical references that catch the reader’s heart as the originals do…We learn that Ireland is the result of the collision of two giant rocks (chipped off from ancient continents, Gondwana, Queensland, and Laurentia, Canada) now fused together …This book held a mirror to me with its stark reminder of how lucky I’ve been to have stepped back from the precipice that I’d also found myself standing on. Continue reading
Tinteán 