This blog is a personal take on Listowel, Co. Kerry. I am writing for anyone anywhere with a Listowel connection but especially for sons and daughters of Listowel who find themselves far from home. Contact me at listowelconnection@gmail.com

Tag: Australia

Emigration once again

https://www.facebook.com/notes/jimmy-moloney/minutes-listowel-town-council-meeting-051211/10150575025531042

This is the link to the minutes of Listowel Town Council’s December meeting. The councillors addressed issues like dog-fouling, which is particularly bad on the footpaths in town, parking and the septic tank controversy. I am glad to see the imminent reforming of a traders association.

Thank you, Jimmy Moloney, for keeping us up to date on the issues exercising our town councillors. Jimmy has opened the doors of the council chamber to us all.

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From The Kerryman a story of success for a horse with a Listowel connection

Wednesday January 04 2012

FORMER Listowel natives Patricia and Maurice Regan, proprietors of the Newtown Anner Stud Farm at Clonmel, commenced the new year in the best possible style at Fakenham on Sunday where their hurdler, Joan Darc, trained at Newmarket by Bill Quinlan and ridden for the first time by Matt Crawley, won the 2ml 4f selling hurdle impressively by seven lengths from the favourite Group Leader.

The winner was challenging the leader when making a serious blunder at the third last as her rider went out the side door, but he somehow managed to cling on and get back into the saddle, before going to the front two out, and being heavily eased on the flat to race home a most impressive winner.

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Jimmy Halpin and his doorman provide passers by on Church St. with an amusing commentary on the economic state of the country.

Santa has returned to the North Pole and now Rico has taken up his post at the shop door.

Jim introduces Rico to some curious little girls.

Rico’s grim warning.

Speaking of the parlous state of our dear country’s economy, emigration has become a fact of life for rural communities like ours. I want to take this opportunity to wish Bon Voyage to a dear friend, Mairead, who, next week, is heading out on her great Australian adventure. My photo shows her bidding farewell to her friend, Jim.

Mairead is going to join a young North Kerry diaspora who have relocated to the Perth area down under. Like so many others, she is “only going for a year”. But, like so many others, will she fall in love with the lifestyle and find a better future far away from our shores?

In the days before the internet, mobile phones, Skype and easy air travel we knew the phenomenon of the American wake. In the 1930s, 40s and 50s the neighbours gathered in the house of the soon -to -depart emigrants and held a hooley of singing, storytelling and dancing. The atmosphere had the air of the traditional wake,  great sorrow mixed with reminiscence. The family and neighbours knew that it would be a very long time before they saw these young people again. The ageing parents were often afraid that they would never again see their children this side of the grave. 

Partings nowadays are just as sad. The hooley is usually in the local pub. The departing young people are looking forward to a new sunny and prosperous life. Australia and Canada have replaced the U.S. as the preferred destinations and young people tell me that you are as likely to meet a Listowel person on the street in any big city in Australia as you are to meet them in Dublin or Cork.

Bon Voyage, Mairead! May you realise your dreams and come back safely to us. You will be missed.

Where have all the flowers gone?

It’s December 21st. The weather in Listowel is balmy, mild and damp and I have just been listening on the radio to a past pupil of mine describe how she is going to spend her first Christmas in Australia, far away from her native Listowel. I fell to thinking back to the fifties of my youth when some of our brightest and most hard working were living in immigrant communities in England and the U.S.

Since famine times, emigration has been part of our culture. It has connected our little island to the big world. It has enriched our knowledge of the world and our gene pool. I don’t deny the great heartache and loneliness it has caused but I acknowledge the positive effects it has had on us all.

I am now retired and so have time to join lots of local clubs. I am struck by the number of people I encounter who have spent many years abroad.  They now live in Listowel and its environs and are the backbones of these groups.  Some are returned emigrants; some the descendants of emigrants; some have very little Irish in them at all.  They all contribute to the fabric of the rural Irish community they now call home.

Enough philosophising!

This is Presentation Convent Listowel. Over the years it housed many powerful women. The contribution of these women to Listowel life is largely forgotten by historians.

Doesn’t this old photo take you back? This was when nuns were nuns. I recognise Sr. Gemma and Sr. Cyril but the rest are unknown to me. I’ll seek out their names today.

This photo was taken in 1994. By then nuns had become sisters and were allowed a certain individual identity.

Today there is no-one in the convent. The remaining sisters are scattered and a way of life is no more.

more of Bridget Ryan’s story

## The following information came from Michael Lynch, the Kerry County Archivist, in 2008.

The Listowel Workhouse took in its first admissions on 13 February 1845.  The former building is now a part of the local Listowel District Hospital.There are no admissions registers surviving for the Listowel Workhouse.  However, the records of the governing body (The Board of Guardians of Listowel Poor Law Union) do survive for much of the relevant period.  There is a gap from November 1845 to November 1848, but the Minutes for the 1850s are substantially complete.

The Board met weekly, and discussed the administration of the Poor Law area more so than individual cases. These records are held in Tralee in the Archives Department of the County Library. 

There are (5) references from Listowel BG Records relevant for Bridget Ryan:

1. Ref: BG/112/A/2, 11 September 1849:  “Lieut. Henry (Local Poor Law Inspector?)this day examined the several orphan girls in the Workhouse and selected the following for emigration to Australia”.

The appended list of 19 names included Catherine Ryan (Tarbert), Mary Ryan (Listowel) and Biddy(sic)Ryan (Listowel).

Also on this date: “Ordered that the requisite outfits etc. for the girls be at once provided”.

2. Ref: BG/112/A/3 (p.20), 29 September 1849: “Ralph Brown’s proposal – he was declared contractor for the supply of 38 pairs of shoes for the orphan girls about being sent to Australia.  Prices – 2s. 10d. per pair for shoes and 1s. 3d. for pumps”

3. Ref: BG/112/A/3 (p.36), 11 October 1849: “Letter 64829 (10 October) The Workhouse orphan girls emigrating to Australia to be in Dublin before the 20th Instant”.

4. Ref: BG/112/A3 (p.37), 11 October 1849 “Ordered that a cheque be drawn in favour of Daniel Griffin for twenty pounds to defray the expenses of Emigrants to Dublin”.

5. Ref: BG/112/A/3 (p.56), 25 October 1849: “Letter from Lieut. Henry 20th October informing Guardians of the arrangements made for the maintenance of one of the Emigrant girls taken ill of fever in Dublin”.

This is as much as exists in the Minute Books, but at least it confirms that Bridget (Biddy) was among those sent at that time.

Bridget arrived in Sydney, Australia on 3 February 1850.According to the Thomas Arbuthnot passenger list from New South Wales State Records we know the following details:

Ryan, Bridget

Age16(Comment from Julie Evans: Bridget’s age is given as 16 but if we accept that her family knew her age at time of death then we accept her birth year of 1835, meaning that she would have been barely 15 when she arrived in Australia.)

Calling:Nursemaid

Native Place and County:Bruff, Limerick

Parents names and if alive their residence:Anthony and Johanna, Father living in Sydney

Religion:Church of Rome

Read and write:Both

Relations in Colony:Father in Sydney

State of health, strength and probable usefulness:Poor

Any complaints respecting treatment on board the ship:None

Remarks by Immigration Board:From Listowel UnionSee below ##

It is interesting to note that despite being described officially as “orphans”, one third of the girls on the Thomas Arbuthnot did not fit the modern definition of that word.  In many cases their parents were unable to look after them and, according to research in the book A decent set of girls: the Irish famine orphans of the Thomas Arbuthnot 1849-1850  by Richard Reid and Cheryl Mongan, the girls who came out on the Thomas Arbuthnot had a higher than average percentage of living parents. Bridget was one of these girls though we have no record of any family reunion between Bridget and her father, Anthony, said to be in the army in Australia when Bridget left Ireland.

On their arrival in Sydney, Bridget and the other girls were housed in Hyde Park Barracks (http://www.hht.net.au/museums/hyde_park_barracks_museum). Bridget remained there for only ten days before going to work for D MacKellar. There was only one D MacKellar living in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, at this time and it was Captain Duncan MacKellar who was renting a home called Waterview House. Captain MacKellar was a Master Mariner and was originally from Elgin in Scotland.

It is not clear how Bridget met James Murray. He had arrived in 1848 from Scotland, part of a large family and another long story! Some family lore suggests he was working in Sydney at the time though his brothers were farming in the Manning River area of New South Wales. Family records say they were married in Sydney in December 1850 though I cannot locate a copy of their marriage certificate. By December 1851 James and Bridget had had the first of their thirteen children (one did not survive infancy). They were living north of Sydney on the Manning River.

What a great story! 

Now for something completely different

A small snippet of Listowel Church Choir at the recent funeral mass for Mons. Leahy R.I.P.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWukF31eFdA&feature=related

&feature=related


From The Workhouse in Listowel To Australia at the age of 15

Today I have a great story from a lovely lady, Julie Evans.  She is pictured below with her huband, Glyn on a recent trip to Turkey.

First I have to make a few minor announcements;

1.  Thanks a million to everyone who has sent me material. I am really grateful to people who are helping me write this. Without your help I would have to rely on the own meagre resources and we would have more stories culled from the newspapers and less of the real meat like today’s post. I will get round to using all the stuff eventually so please be patient with me. And do keep it coming!

2.   I’m thrilled to see that I have a few new “followers” BUT, be warned, you won’t get email alerts unless you put your email address into the little feedburner box underneath the followers pics. I have no access to the email addresses of followers unless you email me at listowelconnection@gmail.com

3. Don’t forget tonight in The Family Centre. Bring whatever details you have and we’ll see what we can achieve.

4.  Keep plugging away at the quiz. This could be won on a small score, I feel.

5.  If you have any ideas for NKRO, email them to me or to nkreachingout@gmail.com

Now, as promised, the story of Bridget Ryan

This is Bridget as an old lady. We have no photo of her from her time in Ireland.

Bridget Ryan’s Story (by Julie Evans)

(I am so proud of my grt-grt grandmother, Bridget. She crossed the world as

little more than a child, left all that was known and familiar, made a newlife in a very different country, became the mother of 12 children who tooktheir places as well established Australians and was loved and respected byher community – what more could one seek? )

Bridget was born in County Limerick. Her obituary says “native of Limerick, Ireland”. Her obituary also says she died (10 November 1909) just before her 74th birthday which would have fallen on Christmas Day 1909. From this I assume she was born 25 December 1835.

Bridget’s New South Wales Death Certificate gives her father as Anthony Ryan, soldier and her mother as Johanna Hynes.

Re Johanna:Records in Bruff show that Johanna was the daughter of Timothy Haynes and Anne Hogan. Her baptism was 29 December 1808. Only marriage record for her parents is possibly one found for Timothy Hynes and Ellen Hogan on 25 October 1795.

Re Anthony and Johanna:A Limerick researcher found a marriage record giving the groom’s name as Lanty and then crossed out and replaced as Lancelot. The bride was Johanna Hynes and marriage took place 2 July 1831 in the Roman Catholic Church of Bruff. Witnesses were James Gavin and Anne Power. After Lancelot’s name were the words miles keeper. Miles is Latin for soldier but not sure of meaning of keeper in this context.

I assume that Johanna died before Bridget left for Australia (there is a record of a death in County Limerick in 1833 but I do not know if it is the correct record).

According to family lore, Bridget claimed to have been educated by French Nuns. It is interesting to note that The Faithful Companions of Jesus(founded in Amiens n France in 1820 by Marie Madelaine de Bonnault d’Houet)came to Ireland in 1842 and, as the original site at Oughterarde was too remote, they moved their school to Limerick in 1844 and opened a school on the Laurel Hill property in 1845. Could this have been where Bridget received her schooling? The Sisters also opened a school in Bruff in 1856 but this was after Bridget left Ireland for Australia.

According to NSW State Records, Bridget left Plymouth 28 October 1849 on the vessel Thomas Arbuthnot and arrived in Sydney, Australia on 3 February 1850. Her departure papers say that she came from Listowel Union ##see below. The Thomas Arbuthnot was carrying a number of girls as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. She must have been on one of the last vessels as the Scheme was suspended in May 1850. Below is some information about the Scheme.

http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/discoverycentre/your-questions/earl-grey-scheme/)

The Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s was a time of great change for the people of Ireland. The population of Ireland reduced significantly during this time with many people making the voyage to Australia.

Among those making the journey were approximately 4000 Irish female orphans under the Earl Grey Scheme. The immigration scheme was the brain-child of Earl Grey. He was the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and designed the program to meet an Australian demand for domestic servants and marriageable young women. It would also serve to reduce overcrowding in Irish workhouses.

In the late 1840s many ships came to Australia bringing young girls travelling alone. Ships carrying orphan girls included the William Stewart in May 1848 with 51 aboard, followed by the Mahomed Shah in July 1848 with 12 orphan girls. The largest number of orphans arrived on the Pemberton in May 1849 as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. 305 orphans disembarked from this ship after a voyage of 113 days.

The orphans arrived in Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Port Phillip and from these ports were spread across eastern Australia. Many suffered at the hands of their employers and husbands with beatings and violence. Others found their experience in Australia to be prosperous. Many married successful gold miners, landowners, farmers and shop keepers and led happy and fulfilling lives in Australia.

The scheme was relatively short-lived and only lasted two years as many ‘anti’ groups saw Australia being flooded with Irish immigrants. These young women were condemned in local newspapers as being unskilled, untrained and useless, and a financial strain on Australia. The Earl Grey scheme, although the brain-child of the Irish Secretary of State for the Colonies, was funded by the Australian people. In May 1850 the scheme was suspended. With the beginning of the gold rush, discussions surrounding assisted immigration passages were dropped as many migrants were now willing to pay for their own journey in the hope of making it big on the gold fields of Australia.

As you can see Julie has done some very thorough and painstaking research on her ancestor’s story. Tomorrow I will post more of Bridget’s story, including some material provided to Julie by Michael Lynch, archivist in The Kerry County Library. 

This story is very interesting, in the light of what is happening today with so many of our young people emigrating to Australia. What was once the largest prison in the world is now the resort of choice for so many.

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