Mary and many of her fellow passengers – convicts – on board the Earl Grey, having left Dublin five months earlier in December 1849, and disembarking on a grey May day on the other side of the world in 1850.
Filed under emigration …
What we are reading, attending at the moment
Melbourne Hosts successful two-day symposium on Irish Language. Next is a review of Australian novelist and diarist Helen Garner’s How to End a Story, much appreciated by those of us who are Garner fans. ‘Priests in the Family’ provides Enright’s intriguing family connection to James Joyce, followed by an ‘Introduction to Ulysses’ where she talks about her personal experience of starting to read that famous book at the age of fourteen, ‘mainlining language, getting high on words’ Continue reading
What’s on February/March and beyond
Irish in Australia: Irish-themed Movies, Tours, and Festivals Continue reading
Part II of ‘Family’s Our Way of Life’, the final part of a series featuring Mary Walsh of Trentham.
Mary Walsh’s life in Australia as a wife, mother and nurse. 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
‘Family’s Our Way of Life’
At a young age, Mary Walsh evinced an interest in becoming a doctor or a nurse and she had several women role models. Continue reading
Leaving Drummock Moss
During the night, my brother Brian’s dog never stopped yapping. Early next morning my mother called out and she always used the Irish language pronunciation of my name.
‘Meehawl, your fry is on the table, and you’ll need it. You have a long day ahead of you.’ Continue reading
Once Upon a Time in Edenderry
I watched her through the process as her fingers moved so fast as to blur. Constantly she consulted the intricate pattern from a book by her side. Continue reading
Filíocht/Poetry: David M Reid, Rose Malone, Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Colin Ryan, Hugh Curran
Winter is coming by David M Reid Acrylics on canvas A Homeless Ghost by David M Reid 28 October 2025 In ’68 I left my troubled Belfast homeland.Friends, with only a hint of friendly malice,slyly suggested,‘You’re not emigrating.You’re deserting.’ In that divided city,one must pick a side.But I feltneither Irish nor British,neither Protestant … Continue reading
‘Family’s Our Way of Life’
At a young age, Mary Walsh evinced an interest in becoming a doctor or a nurse and she had several women role models. Continue reading
Tinteán 