Mayo's Forgotten Famine Girls - From Workhouse to Australia ( 1848 - 1850) and Convict Journal

Between 1848 and 1850, as the after shock of the Irish famine continued to roll across the landscape, over 4000 Irish orphan girls, aged mainly from 14 to 18, were sent from over crowded disease - ridden workhouses to Australia. There, men outnumbered women 8 to 1. As on critic put it, they were like 'Circassian beauties sent to Turkish towns'......destined to become wives and mistresses of bushmen or savages'.

Over 600 were from the province of Connacht in the west of Ireland, and of those, 137 were from Mayo. They did not have a voice, their opinions were rarely if ever sought or entertained. In this factual telling of what became of them, their tongues were finally loosened. They speak. As a backdrop, the ravages of the famine are described in chilling detail, and we also meet some of the Mayo convicts sent earlier to Australia.

This wonderful and most important story is presented in a beautifully presented hardback book.