- pail pourna1 t is not an easy task to explore the links between Limerick and Australia over the past two cen- turies in a short arti- cle. For manv lrish but you ought all to have /beep hanged long ago! fl C schoolboys, one of the first times that *i. the name of Australia cropped up in The discovery of gold in Australia print was in John Mitchel's book Jail suits of yellow and grey, and with caused Mitchel further distress. 'The Journal. In the first decades of this cen- their hair close cropped, their close late discovery of gold mines in tury a copy of this work was to be found leathern caps, and hang-dog counte- Australia, which tempts multitudes of in many lrish households, and the book nances, wear a most evil, rueful, and Tasmanian ruffians over the strait, was cdmpulsory reading for most abominable aspect. They give us a interests the colony of Fort Philip very nationalist families at thattime. vacant but impudent stare as we ride vehemently in the same cause.' He wrote: John Mitchel was a man of strong by. I wish you well, my poor fellows; I am prosecuting my hay-harvest dili- opinions (to put it mildly), and was gently, with the aid of two or three noted for his dislike of the British. He horrible convict cut-throats, all from was transported to Van Diemen's Land Ireland - and all by their own with the other Young Irelanders, and account, transported for seizing Jail Journal contains an account of his arms. This is considered amongst impressions of the colony. As he pre- these fellows a respectable sort of pared to leave Van Diemen's Land on offence. The rascals could earn ten 20th July, 1854, he summed up his English shillings per diem, at harvest impressions: time; and they live all the year round ... we are fast shuttling down the like lrish kings, not to speak of lrish coast of Van Diemen's Land below cut-throats. They don't like to work the red horizon, about to stretch too hard, and require a good deal of across the stormy Bass Straits. The wine. They come early from their last of my island prison visible to me, work, smoke and chat with one is a broken line of blue peaks over the another all evening in the yard, and Bay of Fires. Adieu, then beauteous go to sleep in their opossum rugs in island, full of sorrow andgnashing of the barn. Yet, with all this high teeth,!-Island of fragrant forests, and reward they receive for their crimes, bright rivers and fair women! - Island this paternal care to make thievery of chains and scourges, and blind, happy, and munificent endowment brutal rage and passion! of rascality, the creatures are not Mitchel strongly disapproved of trans- utterly bad - not half so bad, for portation as a form of punishment: example, as the Queen of England's The British transportation system is Cabinet Councillors. They are civil, the very worst scheme of criminal good-natured with one another, and punishment that ever was contrived not thievish at all - partly because ... One main feature in convict life I they are so well off that there is little have ascertained to be a deep and John Mitchel '... Wild and menacing words' in a temptation, and partly because the heartfelt respect for atrocious villainy paper he called 7he Unitedlrishman'. punishments are savage. It would be - respect the more profound as the villainy is more outrageous. If any- thing can add to the esteem which a man in the felon worldsecures by the reckless brutality of his language and manners, the extent of his present thievings, and ingenuity of his daily lying, it is the enormity of the original offence for which he is supposed to be suffering ... And then I curse, Oh! how fervently, the British Empire. Empire of hell! When will thy cup of abominations be full? John Mitchel had little sympathy for the plight of his fellow convicts. One day, while travelling on horse-back to Brown's River, he came across a party of convicts working on the roadside. This is how he described them: And as we follow the winding of the road through the romantic glen, we meet parties of miserable wretches harnessed to gravel carts and draw- ing the same under orders of an over- Conditions on board sometimes as appalling as anythi&iIreland, 'Would more than two-thirdsbe alive seer. The men are dressed in piebald on arrival?' pleasant enough to see these crea- tures comfortable, and tolerably decent in their behaviour, but for the thought that this whole system is in truth a fruitful "breeder of sinners, " and that the same hateful Govern- ment and state of society in England, which so richly reward these men for their villainies, punish, starve, and debase the poor and honest, for being poor and honest. Many a time, therefore, as I look upon these quiet, well-behaved men reaping, not too arduously, singing or smoking in the fields, or cheerfully "following the plough upon the mountain side," or tending thejr masters' flocks in the far forest pastures, like human hus- bandmen and simple Arcadian shepherds - instead of rejoicing in their improved conditions and behaviour, I gaze on them with hor- ror, as unclean and inhuman monsters, due long ago to the gal- The entrance to the River Derwent, the destination of the emigrant ships which took months to get there. lows-tree and oblivion... One of the convicts engaged in the hay- saving was a Limerickman. The lure of a lament for his Polly, 'who lives in the gold, however, was to prove more Limerick town': attractive to the convict than the pas- In the county of Limerick, near the toral life: town o'Ramshorn, Although John Mitchel and the ... the hay was all stacked, and the My own native country wherein I was anonymous author of 'The lrish Trans- men came to be paid. One of them, a born, port' complained bitterly about their civil and hard-working cut-throat, But to some foreign country I was fate, there is ample testimony that from the County Limerick, asked me sent for a slave, other lrish people settled happily into to sign a printedpaper for him. It was Since in my own country I could not their new surroundings in Australia. a certificate that he had been in my behave For instance, the story of the Presenta- employme,nt, and had behavedmod- tion Sisters from Sexton Street, erately well. "I'm off for the diggin's It's not those long travels that is a Limerick, who travelled to Victoria in in Port Philip, " said he, "to-morrow; trouble to my mind, 1873, provides a contrasting picture. my 'conditional pardon' had come to Nor yet those foreign islands where I Responding to the invitation of the hand, and I must have this paper to am close confined, Limerick-born priest, Fr. James Francis show the magistrate to-morrow But if we are on ship board and my Corbett, who was then private secret- morning, when I go to take out my Polly with me, ary to the Bishop of Melbourne, J. A. free papers. " Bound down in strong irons I should Goold, seven pioneering nuns, led by "I wish you luck, Mike; don't spend think myself free. Mother Paul Mulquin, set out on the all your money in Maskell's public- long journey. An account of this ven- house to-night," "By my soul, sir," Oft times have I wonder'd how young ture and the nuns' settlement in Vic- said Mike, "I must drink to-night to women love young men, toria is to be found in the book Adven- ould Garryowen, and the sky over it. And oft times have I wonder'd how ture in Faith by Kathleen Dunlop Kane, Good night, sir. To-morrow I ride young men love them, published in 1974 in Australia. down to Hobart Town, and am to Since a woman has been my ruin and In his letter of 28th January, 1873, return by New Norfolk. " my sad downfall, from St. Mary's, St. Kilda, Victoria, Fr. Writing to the Nation on 25th January, Which has caused me to lie between Corbett wrote: 1851, Mitchel recorded his order of pre- lime and stone walls. Dear Reverend Mother, ference for Tasmania and its inhabit- From the ends of the earth I write to ants: 'First and best ... the women; sec- God bless my 09father that lies in you for help ... You can contribute ond, the dogs; third the horses; fourth, cold clay very materially ... by sending three or the kangaroos; fifth the men, and sixth, Likewise my dear old mother that is four Sisters, to whom I shall give my the opossoms and wallabys.' living until this day, house, which is sufficiently com- But the time is approaching when I modious for even six Sisters ... I am shall be set free. directed by the Bishop to ask you for Then I'll go straight home to lreland four Sisters also for Melbourne, for my Po!ly for to see. whom his Lordship will provide a house and schools in the city. Cork My Polly lives in Limerick town, a girl recently sent several Sisters to the But the women at home in Ireland held that I love dear, neighbouring colony of Tasmania more attractions for some of the other And when Iget my liberty with her 1'11 and I S all be very disappointed convicts.