110 Girls

What a day! It started grey and humid and ended sparkling and hot! First to Skibbereen to hear about an interesting project involving 110 Girls. These girls were chosen from Skibbereen workhouse during the Famine and were selected to go to Australia to a) civilise the men and b) marry a few of them and breed. The girls were mainly between the ages of 14 and 19 and had to be of good moral character. They were provided with a woollen dress, a gingham dress, five pairs of stockings, a wooden bowl and a spoon and then sent down to Melbourne. Toma is working with residents in Skibbereen Hospital (built on the site of the former workhouse) in a commemorative project. A spoon was made for each girl out of beeswax and this will be cast in copper and then placed on one of the remaining sections of the workhouse wall.

We each took an apple from the basket and each apple had the name of one of the girls on it. Toma then told us a little about each girl - some had happy stories, some did not. In the middle of all this she received  phone call from Australia from one of the relatives of one of the girls!  We then all went up to the graveyard of the former workhouse - now a beautiful spot enclosed with oaks and hawthorn, but the resting place of to 600. It was all incredibly moving and I want to know more. In all 4000 girls from Ireland  were transported under this scheme and over 10,000 Australians are descended from them! There's a Facebook page if you're interested

Later we went down to Baltimore where I put some cards on the ferry! It was such a beautiful evening we, and a million others, enjoyed an al fresco meal overlooking the harbour.