Venue: Ballyshannon Workhouse
Date and Time: Sunday 18th May 2014 at 5
p.m.
On
Sunday 18 May at 5 p.m. a
memorial to 19 orphan girls shipped to Sydney Australia during the Great
Famine will be opened in Ballyshannon.
Everyone in the area is most welcome to
attend and refreshments will be served
Book cover shows the new Famine
Orphan Girls’ Memorial in Ballyshannon Co. Donegal. A limited edition book costing a nominal five euro with
lots of photographs describes how they survived in Australia and how their
descendants have reconnected with Ballyshannon.
The girls were from Belleek, Mulleek, Kinlough and the
Ballyshannon areas.
This memorial and book has
received substantial funding from Ballyshannon
Town Council along with generous donations from home and abroad. The book
will be available on the day or in the Novel Idea Ballyshannon and Ballyshannon
and District Museum. I will also have copies which can also be posted. Postage
details from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com
Background
From
1848-1850 a government scheme sent 4,000 orphan girls from Irish workhouses to
Australia, where they were short of females for domestic work and ultimately
for marriage. This resulted in 19 girls from Ballyshannon workhouse being
shipped to Australia. How the girls were selected and the journey via Plymouth
to Sydney in Australia is recounted in the publication “From Ballyshannon to
Australia. Memories of Famine Orphans.” How the girls felt at being separated
from siblings and going “down under” is discussed. Original research over the
past 30 years has resulted in many contacts with their descendants in Australia
and most orphans’ stories from first landing in Sydney are revealed. Not all of
them had happy endings. Nevertheless their descendants are proud of the
resilience of the 19 girls who all settled in Australia and indeed one great-
great grandchild of an orphan girl will be visiting the memorial in
Ballyshannon in September. We hope to mark the occasion and you are all most
welcome to attend. Other descendants plan to visit as circumstances permit.
This
project would not have been possible but for the support of Ballyshannon Town
Council and its Town Clerk Mary Daly. Their funding made the memorial possible
and also the publishing of the girls’ stories. In the book acknowledgement is
given to other generous sponsors in Ireland, U.S.A, Australia and elsewhere.
All who assisted in any way with the construction work etc. are recorded in the
book. There are lots of photographs from Ballyshannon and Australia in the book
as well as rare images from inside the workhouse and of descendants of the
orphan girls.
Spread the word: Please
tell people in Mulleek, Belleek, Kinlough, Glenade and Loughside and the areas
in and around Ballyshannon that this event and book are happening. Who knows we
may be able to create direct links for the orphans in their homeland. Ballyshannon
workhouse served Bundoran and Tullaghan, out as far as Rossnowlagh, Ballintra,
Cashelard, Garrison, Devenish and other areas in Fermanagh as far as Churchill.
Some of the orphans roots are there.
You are most welcome to attend the event and
in a sense show solidarity with these orphan girls who left Ireland through
circumstances completely outside their control. They were survivors.
