Kerry Girls Read Online Free PDF

Commissioner of Railways, a local mayor and a Prime Minister’s secretary. Margaret Cronin has significantly contributed to the fabric of Australia.
Listowel – Second Group of Emigrants
    In Listowel, the Board of Guardians were apparently unaware of the situation building up in Australia. On 7 March 1850 an excerpt from the Minutes of their meeting reads:

    Resolve that we deem it a matter of incalculable advantage to the Union, to promote by every means, the emigration of the paupers, who are now crowding the Workhouse, not only as a means of providing for the most deserving of those persons, but as to the ultimate relief to the Union and as Lieutenant Henry has selected from among the female orphans of this house, 20 named underneath whom he considers eligible for emigration to Australia, we hereby consent to provide them with necessary outfit as decided upon by the Emigration Commissioners and to defray their expenses to the port of Embarkation … and the Matron hereby directed to provide the necessary outfits for the following girls. 45
Mary Courtney
Catherine O’Sullivan
Anne Buckley
Julia Daily
Ellen Leary
Bridget Griffin
Mary Griffin
Margaret Ginniew
Mary Daly
Johanna Scanlon
Deborah Kissane
Catherine Mullowney
Mary Sullivan
Mary Stack
Honora Brien
Mary Creagh
Catherine Connor
Johanna Sullivan
Margaret Connor
Ellen Relihan
    Minutes of Listowel Board of Guardians, 7 March 1850

    Again the same system of selection and medical checks were carried out. On 8 April 1850 they sailed from Plymouth on the Tippoo Saib , an ageing barque of 1,022 tons. The master was Captain W. Morphew. There were 297 orphans in total on board.
    Four months later, following brief stops for supplies and water in Tenerife and Capetown, the Tippoo Saib was escorted into Sydney Cove on 29 July 1850. Captain Morphew’s report to the health authorities in Sydney stated that, of his total passengers, ‘one was suffering from lunacy, one had consumption and another hysteria’. Three had died on the voyage from ‘exhaustion, nervous irritation and infection of the brain respectively’. 46
    Grave doubts would have to be cast on the selection process, however well-meaning Lieutenant Henry was. Regrettably it would appear that apart from physical appearance, he would have had little choice in matters of the personal attainments of the unfortunate, virtually uneducated girls. The subsequent shipping records show that on arrival a large number of the Kerry orphans were unable to read or write. They were totally untrained in housework, needlework or ‘washing’, though a few may have had the rudiments of farm work. At least three of the orphans were not natives of their Unions. There is no reason to believe that some of the Guardians would not have interfered in the process, thereby promoting the emigration of unwanted orphans from within their own families or communities.

    Tippoo Saib arrivals, 29 July 1850.
    The Tippoo Saib , with these Listowel girls, was the last of the Earl Grey Scheme ships bringing Irish orphans to the colonies of New South Wales, Moreton Bay, Port Philip and South Australia.

Notes
       1    Tralee Chronicle , 7 April 1849, quoted in Kieran Foley, ‘Kerry During the Great Famine’, Unpublished Phd Thesis, UCD 1997, p. 294.
       2   Ibid.
       3    The Nation , 26 February 1848, quoted in O’Farrell, The Irish in Australia 1788 to the Present (Cork University Press 1966), p. 74.
       4   Ibid.
       5   Third Report from Select Committee on Poor Laws, p. 157.
       6   Letter from Poor Law Commission Office, Dublin sent to the Clerk of each Union entitled Emigration of Orphans from Workhouses in Ireland, 7 March 1848 Appendix (ii).
       7   Letter from W. Stanley, Secretary to Poor Law Commissioners, 7 March 1848.
       8   Minutes of Board of Guardians Killarney Workhouse Union, 29 April 1848 (held in Kerry Local History Library, Tralee).
       9   Ibid., 29 January 1849.
    10   Ibid., 13 February