Edenderry girls sent to Australia during Famine to be remembered

Fifteen young girls from the Edenderry area who were sent to Australia during the Great Famine will be remembered at an event in the town on Wednesday next, August 23.

The event, to take place in Edenderry Library, involves an exhibition of handmade 'Stars' by members of Edenderry ICA, a lecture by historian Dr Ciarán Reilly and a poetry reading.

Dr Reilly, an historian of 19th & 20th Century Irish History based at the Department of History, Maynooth University, has been working with members of Edenderry ICA on the project. He will speak about the Earl Grey Female Orphan Scheme, which involved 15 young girls being sent from the Edenderry Workhouse to Australia between 1848-1850.

The event will also include a reading by local poet Dr Philip Brady.

In the decade prior to the Great Famine, 130 workhouses were the built across Ireland to offer sanctuary for the poor. The building of workhouses was a direct result of the 1836 Poor Law Inquiry which examined the causes and extent of poverty in Ireland. It became law in 1838 when Irish Poor Law Act was passed. The country was divided into 130 Poor Law Unions.

The Edenderry Poor Law Union catered for an area which amounted to 172,410 acres, and which was valued at £95, 659. Catering for parts of counties Offaly, Kildare and Meath, the Union comprised the following townlands in Offaly: Ballaghassan, Ballyburley, Ballymacwilliam, Bracknagh, Clonbullogue, Clonmore and Croghan, Edenderry, Esker, Knockdrin and Monasteroris.

Edenderry Workhouse was opened on December 21, 1841 and received its first paupers in March 1842. It was initially built to 600 paupers. During the Great Famine, 1845-1852, the numbers in the workhouse rose rapidly. In 1849, Sir William Wilde (father of Oscar) noted that there were 1,800 people in Edenderry workhouse, three times the number it could accommodate.

During the course of the Great Famine, almost one-fifth of all deaths occurred in the Irish workhouse, amounting to 200,000 people.

In an effort to reduce the burden on Irish workhouses during the famine, a scheme was devised by Earl Grey, British Secretary of State for the Colonies, which would also seek to meet the demand for domestic labourers and single young women in the colonies.

Under the scheme, a total of 4,114 Irish orphans were sent to Australia on 20 ships over a two-year period.

The exhibition commemorates the fifteen young girls who were sent from the Edenderry Workhouse to Australia as part of the Earl Grey Female Orphan Scheme . The young girls, aged between the ages of 15 and 19 came from Edenderry, Clonmore, Rhode, Carbury and Castlejordan.

They were :Mary Browne, 18, Edenderry; Rosanna Cartwright, 19, Edenderry; Anne Connell, 17, Edenderry; Bridget Maher, 18, Edenderry; Jane Adderley, 17, Clonmore; Mary Adderley, 16, Clonmore; Mary Hyland, 16, Rhode; Bridget Connor, 17, Castlejordan; Margaret Cooke, 16, Carbury; Margaret Lowe, 17, Carbury; Mary Seery, 17, Rhode; Margaret Connor, 15, Castlejordan; Mary Flynn, 15, Broadford; Mary Ann Doyl,e 15, Oldcourt, Carbury; Sophia Lindsay, 18, Thomastown, Carbury

More details on the girls and all of those who were sent to Australia can be seen at https://irishfaminememorial.org/

Today, the girls are commemorated in Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, Australia on a glass memorial wall which lists a sample of 400 names.

For more on the August 23 event which was due to take place during Heritage Week but has been rearranged see https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/edenderry-workhouse-and-the-earl-grey-orphan-scheme-to-australia-during-the-great-famine