Free seminar in Laois on orphan girls sent to Australia during the Great Famine
Photographed beside the Mountmellick Famine Orphan Box in Mountmellick Museum were (l-r): Ann Dowling and Anne Sands (Mountmellick Museum), Lou Walsh (great-great granddaughter of Mary Millar), Ger Lynch and Dolores Dempsey (Mountmellick Museum) and Kev Walsh.
AS part of the 2025 National Famine Commemoration, a one-day history seminar will be held in Mountmellick Museum, this Saturday.
The event is free to attend and will take place on Saturday next 24 May from 10am to 4pm.
A week-long programme of events is underway across the country to mark this year’s National Famine Commemoration, which looks back on the catastrophic events of the Famine and how it affected every part of Ireland in the generations that followed.
The event in Mountmellick Museum will focus on the more than 400 Famine orphan girls who were taken from Irish workhouses and shipped to Australia as part of the Earl Grey Scheme between 1848 and 1850.
The seminar is hosted by Mountmellick Development Association with support from Laois Heritage Office and the National Federation of Local History Societies.
Speakers will include Dr Patrick Fitzgerald from the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies. Paddy’s PhD research was on poverty and vagrancy in Early-Modern Ireland (1550-1770). He will talk about the orphan girls who originated in Ulster.
Irish novelist and short story writer Evelyn Conlon’s 2013 novel ***Not the Same Sky*** tells the story of four orphan girls. It observes them on their voyage and follows them from Sydney as they become women of Australia.
Kay Caball, Kerry-based genealogist and author of ***The Kerry Girls: Emigration and the Earl Grey Scheme***, will also discuss her work Cathy Fleming from Celbridge Historical Society was part of a project to produce a short film on Celbridge orphan girl Bridget Dwyer. The film will be screened as part of the event.
Former governor of Arbour Hill Prison Liam Dowling will speak on the prison project to produce replica Famine Boxes to commemorate the Earl Grey Scheme orphan girls.
Famine boxes were wooden boxes given to each girl containing six shifts, a shawl, two pairs of shoes, two gowns, two wraps, two petticoats, one cloak, two neck scarves, two pocket handkerchiefs, two linen collars, two aprons, one pair of stays, one pair of mitts, one pair of sheets, I bonnet, day and night caps, two towels, two bars of soap, combs, brushes, needles and thread, a few yards of cotton or calico material, a bible, prayer book and rosary beads.
Between 1848 and 1850, over 4,000 orphan girls aged between 14 and 18 years were shipped to Australia from workhouses throughout Ireland as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. Thirty-seven girls from the Mountmellick Workhouse and 28 girls from the Abbeyleix Workhouse are listed as travelling under this scheme.
This seminar brings together academics, researchers and writers to discuss the Earl Grey Scheme and its impact on Ireland, Australia and especially on the lives of the orphan girls and their descendants. It will look at a selection of local projects designed to commemorate the lives of the orphan girls including the Famine Box Project of Arbour Hill prisoners and a short film on the Story of Bridget Dwyer, an orphan girl from Celbridge Workhouse.
Places are free, but booking is essential. To book your place, email annemcneill@yahoo.com
