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FROM 1848 – 1850, hundreds of young girls aged between 14 and 18 were sent by boat from Ireland to Australia.
It was during the Famine, and they were orphans, or had no family to support them. Many of them had no siblings.
They lived in workhouses.
Here in Ireland, their story isn’t widely told, according to Barbara Barclay, who is researching what happened to the girls, and who their descendants are. But in Australia, she says, they are remembered, and there are even memorials to mark their impact on the colony.
Barclay is from Australia – with one set of great-grandparents from Ireland – and has lived in Ireland for 20 years. She first came across the story when she worked at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, where the girls were housed in the immigration depot after their arrival.
She originally looked at their stories for her fourth-year dissertation while carrying out her heritage studies degree in GMIT. The Mayo local now has a scholarship for a research masters so she can continue her work.
‘They have thousands of descendants’
In her research, Barclay is trying to find out the fate of the girls who left Mayo. There were 4114 girls who left Ireland overall, from 118 workhouses. Of these, 137 were from Mayo. They travelled on different ships, including The Panama, The Lady Kennaway, and Inchinnan.
“They have literally thousands of descendants,” says Barclay of the girls. The descendant of one orphan told her that her relation alone had around 800 descendants in Australia.
“They are quite well known – they were mothers of colonial Australians. They are really forgotten about here [in Ireland] but the reason they are forgotten is the time and manner in which they left,” says Barclay.
Once the girls got into the workhouse “there really wasn’t a future for them to get out”, says Barclay. Travelling to Australia gave them a chance to try and start afresh.
An Australian monument to the Great Irish Famine is located at Hyde Park Barracks, and includes a glass wall etched with the names of 400 of the girls, including 14 Mayo girls.
The challenge
Because the girls and young women were orphans, many had few, if any family members to remember them.
“My challenge is to try and find where they came from and try and find family and extended family,” says Barclay, who thinks that at some point she may use DNA testing to connect the women with their descendants.
Understandably, people’s surnames are helping make connections – like the Gillard sisters, who were found to be related to a Frenchman who came to Mayo in 1798, fell in love with a local woman and stayed. Or Maria Lyons from Westport, who Barclay feels is probably related to some of the Lyons family members living in the town today.
Trying to find out more about the young women is “a challenge”, says Barclay. It certainly is, as primary documents are hard to find. But she has found out a lot about what they could expect on arrival.
“Some of the girls had a life they didn’t dream of,” she says. “But some ended up on the streets, in prostitution, or jails. The majority did marry and had many, many children.”
The scheme was seen as a way of addressing the gender ratio imbalance in Australia, which was 70 years a colony by this stage. It was emerging from its penal colony past and the new middle-class were setting up life. They wanted domestic servants, and the girls from the workhouses were deemed to be suitable.
And so they were able to apply for this scheme, which would see them being given clothing, and their passage on the ships paid for. They were supervised during their three-month journey from Plymouth to Australia.
It was an assisted migration scheme that was different to the tragic coffin ships that travelled from Ireland to the USA, says Barclay – the death rate on these ships was less than 1%. And there were certain requirements for the girls who wanted to take part.
“Every now and then there are newspaper reports about them – they are a feisty bunch,” she says. “They survived a famine, they got themselves through the workhouse.”
She says their trip was really highly regulated, and the young girls were “minded start to finish”.
Barclay says they were taught skills on the ship. “It was a well-managed scheme with all the best intentions,” she says. “Not everything works out perfectly. It was nothing like the coffin ships. There was a parliamentary inquiry at the time and it was commented that the scheme had none of the problems seen on American passages.”
The fact that the trip was paid for by the Australian colony was why the British government agreed to take part, says Barclay.
Stereotypes
When they arrived at Australia, the girls went to Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide, with the Mayo girls in particular being sent to Sydney and Melbourne.
“When they arrived they were housed,” says Barclay. “They were put into an immigration depot, dormitory-style. They would have hiring days that were very relegated – they weren’t allowed to work in pubs. They were hired out with official agreements that had to be dealt with by the courts if there was a problem.”
News reports about court appearances related to those problems shed more light on the girls’ fates. These court reports often show the girls’ feistiness, says Barclay. “They might have been petty complaints but the girls knew their rights, if they weren’t treated properly they went to the court to sort it out. Or their employer might have taken them to court.”
She says that the fact the girls came from workhouses and were then sent to work for the burgeoning middle class itself might have led to issues. Their new bosses “were probably not used to having servants”, while the girls were paid decent wages but were effectively “thrown in the deep end” into a new world.
“They were Irish and they were Catholic and this was a very Protestant colony,” says Barclay. The girls no doubt heard stereotypes about “these are lazy Irish Catholics”.
“There was an Irish element in Australia,” says Barclay.
There are other articles of employees defending the girls. So the general opinion was these girls weren’t considered to be very good and that’s why the scheme was ended because they felt there were too many coming out and not enough jobs.
Barclay says that the majority of the women married, had children, and “worked really hard” all their lives. She says people in Australia are very proud if these young women were their descendents – an attitude that has changed over the decades.
Life on the moon
But as much as moving to the Australian colonies represented a new life, it also meant moving to an at times harsh environment.
The difficulties they would have encountered included “the weather, different seasons, the temperatures, the bugs, the spiders ” says Barclay.
Everything was different – it was like being sent to the moon, it was a just a completely different life.
She has never heard of any of the girls getting to return home, although in Maria Lyons’ 1922 obituary it said that she was delighted that she had lived long enough to see the Irish Free State.
The fact that there are a lot of people in Australia researching their family history has helped Barclay, who makes contact with people through the website Ancestry.com. She also combs through birth, death and marriage records in Australia, and newspaper archives.
There are limited church records for this period in Ireland, with no birth, death and marriage records from the Famine times. So far, she’s only been able to find a handful of townlands connected to the girls, because when they arrived in Australia they often gave their address as the workhouse. Most of the workhouse records have been lost or destroyed.
However, as the shipping records were “excellent” in Australia, these have been extremely helpful to Barclay.
“I’m trying to find the story of how it all worked, how it was actually done and then I’m trying to find the families and make connections between the descendants in Australia and where they came from in Ireland,” says Barclay of her research.
“One [descendant] to visit last year and I didn’t have any relatives, so that’s where I might look at in the future,” she says, adding that the popularity of ‘genealogy tourism’ in Australia means people are often looking to visit the land their ancestors came from.
A memorial was erected to the girls who left the workhouse in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, thanks to the work of local historians, and Barclay would love to raise a memorial for the Mayo orphan girls, to commemorate what they went through.
For more information, visit Barbara Barclay’s website.
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I’m afraid to give my opinion incase they start taxing my comments…
Your comment is taxing, Paperboy2:-)
Per keystroke, so keep it short.
How droll
Water tax !!!!
The rest is bull shit.
Paperboy
They do need to pay their trolls so dont be surprised if they tax your comments.
Worst country in the world to work!!!
Budget day is going to be a day of election bribery, everyone dont get fooled by this, remember how disgracefully our government have treated us all in past ! Especially dont forget we are still fighting to abolish the new water tax, a tax that we are all paying for already through general taxation !
I just know I’m not going to get any work done today. I’m going to spend my time reading all the comments on thejournal.ie
Noonan and Kenny or Nooenny are too old to worrie about consequences its the historical aspect, always remember for the wrong reasons but remember all the same. Their mark on the world when their gone…let’s hope they go soon……
Happy with the budget overall very pro business which is great. What suspect is that it’s very similar to the give away budgets of FF. DL and SF must be disappointed with the welfare increases which will play into Labours hands and increase their vote.
After all that I’m not even up €30 per month. And my water charges will cost me more than that, so still, nett result is I have even less than last year.
So, yes..you’re buying!
Kenny has bought out journal and set up a team of red tumbing dopes. Are you frightened of social networking Enda. Will you just ends it. Red tumb me to confirm.
I hope the German parliament has approved this budget. We wouldn’t want to be upsetting our masters.
If Sinn Fein had their way the germans certainly would have been our masters
http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/new-evidence-on-iranazi-links/
That’s desperate Tom, even for a blueshirt.
I’m not any coloured shirt, I find the continual silly irrelevant comments irritating. Is my comment a stupid irrelevant comment….yes, but it’s in keeping with the comment I was replying to.
Do I support the Government ? in some things yes & in others no. But no matter who is in power I’m never going agree with all their policy but that’s what democracy is, a compromise. I do detest opposition parties that knock for the sake of knocking.
Labour were every bit as bad during the last governments term as Sinn Fein are this term.
I never in my life voted Labour but I intend giving Ged Nash a vote next time.
Simply because although it hurted their support base they were mature enough to make the tough choices.
Probably change again after that, The only party I will never vote for are FF, but I am a floating voter
You lost when you starting comparing the current labour party to the shinners. No one will ever be compared to the lying treacherous animals. You are voting for Ged Nash, you deserve everything you get. Oh and before you call me a shinner, i was a card carrying member of labour from 1997 to 2012
Well there you go thetruth, I never give them a vote 1997-2012, however they are having to live a little more in reality these days, but that grating/condescending voice of Burton is hard to listen to.
Why is The Journal taking the piss out of the protester? He’s perfectly intitled to do that.. Power to him I say!
The only thing I want to hear today from noonan is how he plans to dissolve irish water and clean up the mess fg has made everything else is irrelevant
If the finance minister knows what’s good for him he would abolish the USC, HOUSE HOLD TAX AND THE WATER CHARGES THAT WAY, The people of Ireland wouldn’t feel the pinch as much. And maybe we would spend again. Who knows.
And then we would be broke again, extremely smart thinking
Nothing of significance there to increase take home pay. I’ll be cutting my own spending to counter the continued austerity/theft.
it’s going to do next to nothing for ordinary people. the rich will get a tax break we’ll get feck all
That degree in Human Rights not raking in the millions you thought it would?
never wanted to be rich mo chara
Who you calling mo!
mo as in my
I shall name you Sherlock.
Mo Chara, is he not the British athlete?
Is it too soon to change the hash tag “As it happens” to “Sh*t happens”?
Here is everything you’re going to see today:
1. The govt acting like they’re doing you a favor giving you tax cuts hoping you won’t notice that with all the taxes they’ve newly introduced and charges they’ve hiked you’re actually at a major MAJOR NET LOSS.
2. FF are going to pretend that the govt is somehow doing something other than following the policies they started in office, they will be trying to square an impossible circle of saying that those policies are the reason for recovery but are also terrible bold policies that hurt the needy that they’d never have done.
3. The fragmented left, will come into the dail looking disheveled and shabby and make bellicose over the top speeches about how they’d have free chocolate ice cream and Swedish hookers for all and would manage to do this without anyone other than cartoon rich people with monocles paying taxes. The highlight of this will be two upper middle class brats who came from privilege acting as crusaders for the working class.
4. SF will try to square their own circle of trying to make the press see how mainstream and moderate they are while trying to send the exact opposite message to their constituents.
5. Labour ministers will stand up and try to make a highly regressive conservative reactionary agenda sound like something Hugo Chavez came up with, while at the same time leaking to the press that FG wanted 20euro a week dole and would have got it but for the valiant red crusaders in Labour standing up for the little guy
6. The tiny number of people in the house actually qualified in economics will get very little attention and will continue to say ”hey that’s another iceberg were heading for there…see it?” as smug ministers laugh thinking were in a recovery.
I’m really looking forward to this budget. Good things are beginning to happen again. Workers will be rewarded for their hard work/sacrafices over the last few years.
I agree but bear in mind that some people will never be happy. :)
True..if we get any reprieves it will be ‘THEY’RE BUYING THE ELECTION’ and if they take anything else it’ll be ‘CAN’T PAY WON’T PAY’.
Gets tiring after a while…
Abolish the USC as promised, and I will dance a jig with delight!
Those pizza suits are another fine example of the job bridge scheme in action.
I can just imagine the job description
“The Intern will gain valuable experience in wearing an outfit resembling a takeaway product, dealing with the public and being chased by hungry stoners”
Camel Lights are still €8.60 that means they’ll go up to 9 quid? might hafta start buying rolling tobacco to mix with my joints . would like to just smoke blunts but at €500 an ounce I simply can’t afford it . of coarse tens of millions of euro are being lost to the exchequer due to cannabis being illegal
400 euro thought I just don’t have that disposable income but yeah it would be a wise investment
5 euro Increase in child benefit ? Well it’s going to take more than five euro to buy my vote at the next election .
Post the fiver back if you don’t want it, Catherine, and maybe tone down the histrionics, will ya?
Histrionics ? Led a very sheltered life have you ? Must have if you think that comment constitutes histrionics lol
Absolutely sick of all the government bashing. We all played a part in this economic mess. The government has brought us back from the brink. Have some respect and educate yourselves.
FG fool, this will be you last stand with general Enda Custard Kenny leading the charge.
I’ll tell you what shouldn’t exist … Ministers !! Especially out of touch ones with scary smiles and big fat salaries and pensions . ( which basically covers the lot of them )
Yeah the accountants and economists should be the ones running the country.
The proposed/suspected cut in the private pension levy will have no effect on workers pockets – scheme providers will just tell you it will reduce the burden/pressure on the scheme. So nothing really there for workers in that respect.
An increase in child benefits – FFS, could we not scrap this social welfare payment an introduce a proper children’s tax credit and/or at least try to means test it. Sick of contributing to the costs of bringing up other people’s children.
Top tax rate to be cut – middle to low income earners are not really going to benefit as much as high earners.
I have no kids and don’t earn enough to be effected by the 1% top rate cut. I’m in the verge of insolvency, if the USC bands aren’t widened far enough to give me 10-20euro at least a week extra take home I’m screwed. But sure, I’m not in the select demographics (lab for the social welfare and FG for the top layers) so I don’t matter.
Sorry, bit of a rant. Carry on
Buying votes?
They were elected on the campaign of lies we were subject to at the time. They then screwed us over at every turn. A reversal is the least they should do.
But as with every “vote buying budget” for every five euro joe soap benefits, higher earners benefit by twenty.
“for every five euro joe soap benefits, higher earners benefit by twenty.” – That is how percentages usually work, yes.
sure because the reason the AAA wants to keep giving us Dubliners clean water from our taps for free is not electioneering, no sirree
That’s because the higher earners make 40 euro, pay 25 to the government in tax, who then give 5 to joe soap.
What’s not to like if you are a socialist?
I understand percentage perfectly.
Most people dont earn enough to reach a higher tax bracket so they are gettng no benefit from a reduction in that.
Everyone would get the benefit of a lowering of the lower tax bracket. Both higher and lower earners.
Giovanni Giusti, Have a look at the link below.
Please stop making a fool of yourself by saying Irish people have free water.
Budget budget mo mudget bana nana fo fudget
Me my mo mudget
BUDGET!
A bloody Nespresso store….when will we learn.
Aspirational, rubbish, snob coffee. You get better and cheaper from a good bag of ground coffee in a plunger.
But…. you have to wait a few minutes for it to be ready….. AHHHHH
You will have. Heard of the Boston tea party ? Well in protest ye should have the Dublin Nespresso party and feck all the Nespresso in to the Liffey . In protest against notions, the budget , taxes and fog .
How about a “Knob Tax” on anyone who brags about how well off they are on The Journal?
That scam that is the Universal Social Club sandwich charge should of been wiped out years ago!!
Protesters already outside the Dail, giving out about the budget and the EU omg.
Oh one of them is in the article already, didnt see that, lol I’m like a journalist.
The 11% USC on high earning self employed is disgusting. Of course they wouldn’t levy it on the high earners in the public sector.
They should give us back €30 euro that they already took from us for child benefit. €5 is nothing to what they took from us (€30).give us back the amount you took from the child benefit.
The sense of entitlement is strong in this one. Just be grateful you get any payment at all for them. There are those of us who don’t have kids, that don’t have the luxury of state payments every month and have had a lot more than €30 taken from us.
Here’s another one. Typical moaner. Moan when there’s tax hikes. Moan when you get a little back. When deciding if you could afford to have children did you honestly take into account the monthly child benefit?
Should be made into a tax credit instead encourage more back to work
For the record for most the 30 euro was taken away with a hell of a lot more as no one just has kids in isolation. Most have had cuts or charges to deal with alongside child benefit cuts . That is unless you are super rich . For the record we are very much entitled to moan . Especially about our elected representatives . Child benefit has been factored into the household income and it is missed when cuts are made . its not our fault other havent produced children. Also I paid taxes for 30 years paying taxes that no doubt covered a lot of the child benefit paid for a lot iof the people on here who havent had kids themselves . They were kids themselves once. Also child benefit should not be a tax credit as not everyone can work outside the home. Some of us ( carers) work very hard for our benefits and can’t take outside work as much as we would like to.
One of the parents should be working Tax credit can go to them. No need to be married to transfer it I personally think it would be more beneficial as a tax credit those who really need it can claim it would make doing something like means tested much easier etc as well. Also means that it can’t be “taken out of country” so to speak foreign parents would have to be working in Ireland to claim it.
“We can go and face people on the doors now,” one Labour senator says
Just don’t come to my door liars
The double payment should be an illegal in EU. Also making you pay for something you are not using. First you have to pay the annual charges (even if your house is empty an you use 0 liters of water) and then you pay 4.66 per m3 (1000 liters) what is over the yearly allowance.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/water_services/water_charges.html tells us for single person they yearly charge is 176 euro and for this they get 30000 liters “for free”.
How can they claim it is free??? You pay 176 euros for 30 m3 of water, making the m3 price 5,87 euros per cubic meter (and even more if you don’t use up your 30000 liters in a year)
Water charges
http://www.citizensinformation.ie
Ha ha ha Joan thinks by giving people €5 extra on childs allowance they can go onto the doorsteps with confidence…….LABOUR party are going the way of the greens….lying to the people…..screwing us with all your taxes……I hope you come to my door in person…
Noonan has a frog in his throat and a German in his ear
Also if you have aspirations of joining An Garda Siochana the Communications Clinic can offer you the skills to ace the test. And it will only cost you €200.
So all comments about Terry Prone / Communications Clinic / Irish Times Apology / Karagh Fox / Govt advisory payments to Savage/ Prone are acceptable on this blog?
Very good speech by Mary Lou McDonald. I’m not a member of Sinn Fein, never even voted for them (mainly because of their IRA connections) but she made some very very good clear points. It was totally unnecessary for Sean Barrett to interrupt her for simply looking at Enda Kenny, surely anyone speaking about the budget today would do that at least every now and then. Mary-Lou was right to comment this was biased on his part. And then for him to say: withdraw the remark or leave?? Would have loved to hear the rest of her speech. Sean Barrett’s should resign and be replaced with a truely impartial Ceann Comhairle!
Here’s my budget predictions… Bullsh!t, bullsh!t, bullsh!t, PR equipped statements followed down the road by u turns on some unpopular decisions
That’s not accurate, you’ve misread how it all works.
There is no standing charge, and a free allowance for a household of 30 kL. If you use less than this, you pay nothing.
The €176 figure is an assessed charge for people with no meters, and is based in an average consumption of 66 kL. If you have a meter you pay €4.88 per kL over 30kL used.
In the event of your unoccupied house with 0L usage, there’ll be no charges.
Hope this helps.
The water charges “double taxation” argument kinda goes out the window now with these tax cuts…
Will someone please pass Michael Noonan a spit bucket… I think he’s about to hock over Brendan Howling..
PRIVATE SECTOR Pension Levy is gone!
Happy Days!
He should have gone with the red tie, that’s my favourite colour.
Poor nurses….any hint of a raise? :(
Public pension levy remaining the same??
‘Lads, lets bribe the elderly vote with €100 for water charges, that’ll keep us popular’
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