Museum hosts talk on The Female Orphans of Newry Workhouse

On 8 June 2023 at 2.30 pm local historian, Hugh McShane will visit Newry and Mourne Museum to give the talk, “Australia Bound - The Female Orphans of Newry Workhouse 1848 - 50.”

Between 1848 and 1850 thirty-five female orphan girls aged 15 - 18 left Newry Workhouse to travel to a new life in Australia. The Earl Grey Scheme provided the girls with free passage, a travel box containing the essentials for the journey and the prospect of a job on arrival in Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne. 

The afternoon will be an insight into what life was like for the girls in the workhouse at the time and how conditions worsened as the famine in Ireland deepened.  They were then given the opportunity to travel to Australia under the Earl Grey Scheme, which provided them with free passage, a travel box containing the essentials for the journey and the prospect of a job on arrival in Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Michael Savage said, “This fascinating story tells how the young girls left Newry in search of a new life away from the famine that was raging in Ireland. I would encourage everyone of all ages to take some time out to hear how our ancestors became nation-builders, leaving a legacy of hard work, enduring determination, and hope for a future outside their troubled homeland.”

Over the two years of the scheme, more than four thousand girls from Irish workhouses were persuaded to make the journey, to help balance the population of New South Wales, where men outnumbered women by 8:1, and where there was a need for female domestic and farm servants. 

This is the story of the girls who left Newry Workhouse in search of a new life away from the Famine that was raging in Ireland, and who became nation-builders, leaving a legacy of hard work, enduring determination, and hope for a future outside their troubled homeland. 

The lecture will commence at 2.30pm and there will be an entrance fee of £2.18 per person.

To book or for more information contact Declan Carroll at Declan.Carroll@nmandd.org