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 Irish Famine …
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
The Sad Tale of Eliza Fitzpatrick
Her story is one, initially, of normal native Irish family life, then blighted by the Famine, the workhouse, and being sent to Australia, where her marriage, children, and oversall loss apparently sent her into a downward spiral and a tragic death. Continue reading
The Shanahans and the Kearns: Tipperary to Australia Part 1
No, it was not the gold discovery that brought me out. In Corrigeen, Barony of Kilmarney, where I lived, seventeen houses were burnt in one day by way of eviction. I at once made up my mind to be under Parker, our landlord, no longer, and I came out here. Continue reading
A Chat with Ryan Kelly
Ryan Kelly reflects on the need to know our history and share our stories, including a need for this history to be spoken about and taught in schools. Continue reading
Land Ownership Part 2
It was the case, however, that the only crime of those arrested may have been to support the aims of the Land League but, in the eyes of the authorities, this amounted to conspiracy. Continue reading
Land Ownership in Ireland Part 1
The result of decades of land sub-division, as a result of the Act of 1704, and a rapidly increasing population, along with the suppression of the woollen and linen cottage industries which had once flourished, had resulted in the great majority of tenants, especially along the West coast, being left with tiny subsistence landholdings. Continue reading
New Irish Australian Research: Irish Women in the Antipodes
What struck me particularly about these stories was the spirit and fight of women in the face of discrimination and adversity. Continue reading
Mary Murphy’s Christmas Pudding
As I was growing up in Edenderry, near Tullamore, in Ireland, my mother always made a Christmas pudding. The smells of the pudding, wrapped in cloth, pervaded the house with the scent of Christmas approaching. Continue reading
Anne Casey Sydney Irish Poet
The bilingual poem below was commissioned as part of the Red Room Poetry Fellowship 2022 Continue reading
Tinteán 