Date/Time
Date(s) - 12/09/2018
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Location
Lackagh Parish Centre
Categories
Bridget Costello, Moylough and Tuam Workhouse
Frances Kelly-Madden
The September lecture of the Western Family History Association takes place on on Wednesday 12th September at 8pm in Lackagh Parish Centre. Frances Kelly- Madden will give an account of the life of a young Moylough girl, Bridget Costello, who was a resident of Tuam Workhouse, and emigrated from there at the age 0f 17. She was one of 153 girls sent to Australia from various workhouses, many of them from Tuam and the surrounding areas.
They were sent to Australia under the Earl Grey Scheme, named for Earl Grey, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies. The scheme was designed to populate the Colony and find marriage partners for men there. Many of these men were convicts, deported to Australia for various crimes.
Bridget, or Biddy as she was called, sailed on the Lady Kennaway to Australia in 1848. The lecture will discuss Bridget’s arrival, her employment and her life. She married Patrick Holian, the son of a Moylough man who emigrated to Australia with his wife and family in 1841.
A Holian reunion was held in 2011 in Yarrawonga, Australia, when thousands of descendants of the Holian family gathered to celebrate the arrival of the family in Australia 170 years before.