A Christmas Memory of two Ballyshannon orphan sisters separated by the Famine.

Famine Orphan Girls' Memorial at Ballyshannon the only one in Ireland.

A LOCAL BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS

This book is available in a limited hardback edition with dust jacket as above, in A Novel Idea Ballyshannon and for postal delivery from Anthony Begley anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

The book is also available in softback in A Novel Idea, Local Hands  in Ballyshannon and the Four Master's bookshop Donegal Town.

Ballyshannon has the only Orphan Girls’ Memorial in Ireland remembering 19 girls aged 14-18 from the area who were shipped to Australia at the height of the Famine. They left   Ballyshannon in October 1848 and arrived in Sydney Australia in February 1849.  They went to make up for a shortfall of females in Australia for domestic work and ultimately for marriage. Below you will find the true story of two sisters, Jane and Margaret Carberry who were to go. But first a visualisation of what the departure of the 19 orphans might have been like. Soinbhe Lally is a well-known author who published “The Hungry Wind”  (1997) an historical novel based on the orphans from Ballyshannon, and, although a work of fiction, it contains a very moving and realistic account of the hardships the girls encountered. Soinbhe described the   departure of the orphans, including one called Marya,:

“On the morning of their departure they put on their new clothes. Marya’s dress was of coarse brown linen, made with a full skirt and loose sleeves which were gathered at shoulder and cuff. The coarse material did not rub her skin because underneath it she had a fine cambric vest, and there were five more cambric vests in her sea chest. She had a choice of petticoats one of white linen and one of red flannel. The ward was chilly, so she chose the red petticoat and packed the white one into her sea chest. Her new brown boots came above her ankle and buttoned up the side. Under the boots she wore long woollen stockings which reached above her knee. She wished she had a mirror to see herself. A long mirror like the one in the Master’s rooms. Never before had she worn such fine clothes.They walked two by two through the town, across the bridge and down the lane to the harbour. A cart laden with their sea chests had gone before them. Curious townspeople came to doors and windows to look at the orphans who were going to Australia. Some young men cheered and wished them luck.

“The blessing of God with you, children,” an old white-capped woman called out in Irish from an upstairs window. Marya waved back to show her that she understood.”

       Ballyshannon workhouse today showing the  well-preserved admission block
through which the girls were first admitted to the workhouse

The separation of the  Carberry Sisters

Two sisters were to go together to Australia but unfortunately fate intervened. These were the two Carberry sisters. Jane Carberry was born in Ballyshannon and arrived in Sydney, aged 14, along with a shipload of orphans from Ireland, including the other 18 girls from Ballyshannon workhouse. They landed in Australia from a ship called ”The Inchinnan" in February 1849. Jane Carberry was said to be a nursemaid and could read and write. She had no relatives in the colony. After assessment at Hyde Park Barracks she was sent to Yass to work, where she met Henry Gibson Kemp and they were married in the Church of England at Gundaroo (or Tumut) on 23 June 1850. Jane was in Australia less than a year and a half when she was married. Between 1851 and 1874 they had a total of 13 children about half of whom died in infancy. Jane died in Tumut New South Wales in 1917 and she is buried there.
Margaret Carberry was in Ballyshannon Workhouse and was originally to go with her sister Jane to Australia. However she took sick and was too weak to travel. She died in Ballyshannon Workhouse and was buried in St. Anne's Church in Ballyshannon on St. Stephen’s Day 1849. Their parents William and Ellen Carberry were both dead and in  the burial records at St. Anne’s Church in Ballyshannon are the following entries: William Carberry aged 65 was in the workhouse and was buried on 28^th January 1847, his wife Ellen Carberry was buried in St. Anne’s on 14^th May 1847.  
Christmas 1849 and the Carberry sisters were separated with Jane in Australia and her sister Margaret dying in Ballyshannon Workhouse. Jane was aged 14 when she landed in Sydney and Margaret was aged 15 when she was buried in Ballyshannon, the day after Christmas Day.  One wonders when  Jane heard of her sister's death?

One of the information plaques on the Famine Orphan Girls' Memorial 

in Ballyshannon

  Margaret Carberry an orphan from the workhouse was unable to go to Australia 

 with her sister Jane and she was buried with her parents at St. Anne's graveyard

 in Ballyshannon on St. Stephen's Day 1849.

The memory of the 19 orphan girls shipped to Australia is today remembered in Ballyshannon with a fitting memorial opened in 2014, and well worth a visit as it is open all the time beside the ruins of the workhouse.

The orphan girls could be forgotten, again, if their memory is not kept alive, by people visiting the memorial and remembering.

A LOCAL BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS

This book is available in a limited hardback edition with dust jacket as above, in A Novel Idea Ballyshannon and for postal delivery from Anthony Begley anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

The book is also available in softback in A Novel Idea, Local Hands  in Ballyshannon and the Four Master's bookshop Donegal Town.