Throughout history, the practice of shipping individuals from one country to another against their will has been a dark stain on humanity. One such instance is that of young girls from Newry, Northern Ireland, who were sent to Australia as part of a scheme to populate the nation with “good and pure stock.” This practice, which saw thousands of children shipped across the world, has come to be known as the Child Migrant Programme. In this article, we’ll dive into the heartbreaking history of these young girls who were taken from their families, shipped off to a foreign land, and subjected to unimaginable abuse and neglect.
Between 1848 and 1850, more than 4,000 young Irish female orphans left workhouses and were transported to Australia as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. The scheme aimed to reduce overcrowding in workhouses and provide labor for Australia, whilst reducing a big gender imbalance there. As part of the scheme, 35 girls from Newry were transported to Australia, and they are now the subject of a new exhibition at the city’s library.
One of the girls who left Newry workhouse was Lucy Ellis. She was 16 when she travelled on the Derwent and arrived in Melbourne on 25 February 1850. “They come to Australia and they had to be inspected by the immigration officer before they come ashore,” said Sue Jacques, Lucy’s great-great-granddaughter. “They make their way to a depot where they stay. Employers come to the depot. Lucy was employed by a Mr. George Hollis.”
It was probably in a horse and cart that his man came down to collect her so you are really at their mercy. “I’m really hoping that she was treated quite well. I feel she must have been treated reasonably well or she wouldn’t have prospered the way she did,” Sue Jacques said. And prosper she did. Within a year, Lucy married, had nine children and when she died of influenza in her late 50s it was in her own home, which still stands.
The exhibition at Newry has been curated by historian Hugh McShane, who said many of the girls who left workhouses would have felt they had nothing to lose. “Conditions in the workhouse by 1848, which was at the peak of the famine, were absolutely dire,” he said. “I suppose this was one of the incentives for the girls to take up the option of moving to a faraway land that they knew nothing about. Newry workhouse had been built for 1,000 inmates as they were called – but by 1848 there were 1,500. There was a great deal of disease and a high mortality rate. It was either go to Australia or probably die in the workhouse. It was a long journey. It began here in Newry. They travelled to Dublin then to Plymouth by steamship and then they embarked upon a three-month journey to Australia.”
As part of the exhibition, special bonnets have been made with the names of each of the Newry girls who made the journey. The ship they sailed on is also listed along with the date of their arrival in Australia. Mr. McShane said he hoped the exhibition would ensure their stories are not forgotten. “There is a saying that we die once, but if we die unremembered we die twice,” he said. “For those 35 girls, the majority of them drifted into obscurity. Some of them may have prospered, some of them may not. But we do know from some of those girls we were able to identify that their lives were changed for the better. That they had a good life and some lived to a great age. And when you consider the 4,000 orphans, their descendants now form more than 1,000,000 of the current Australian population.”
The Newry exhibition runs throughout April, and it is a touching tribute to these young Irish orphans who left their homeland in search of a better life. Despite the hardships they faced, many of them flourished in Australia and helped to build the country we know today. Their stories are a reminder of the strength and resilience of the human spirit and of the enduring legacy of those who came before us.
