Mayo’s ‘hidden histories’ to be explored at museum seminar

REMEMBERING THE PAST The Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney includes the names of 400 Earl Grey Scheme girls – 14 from Mayo – etched on a glass wall.

Museum of Country Life to host free seminar on less-well-known chapters in county’s history

The remarkable story of the destitute Mayo girls who became colon​ial pioneers in 19th-century Australia is just one of Mayo’s ‘hidden histories’ to be presented at an upcoming seminar in the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar.
Mayo’s Hidden Histories is a free, one-day event from 11am to 4pm on Saturday, June 10 exploring a series of interesting, though not necessarily widely known, chapters from the county’s history.
The talks will be delivered by staff and graduates from GMIT on topics ranging from Mayo’s eagles to medieval orders, love and marriage settlements, Moore Hall and the Land War.
Barbara Barclay, originally from Australia but now living in Mayo, is one of the speakers. She will present some of her research on life and conditions in Mayo’s workhouses in Castlebar, Westport, Ballinrobe and Ballina, during the Great Famine. Ms Barclay’s talk will focus in particular on the​ period when​ ​137 young women and girls from Mayo were sent from workhouses to the Australian colony under the Earl Grey Orphan Scheme from 1848 to 1850.
“This is quite a well-known story in Australia but it is not as well-known here. These Mayo girls played an important part in Australia’s history and have thousands of descendants who are extremely proud of them. Although this is an awful period in Irish history, the story of these girls provides something of a chink of light because through the Earl Grey Scheme, they had the potential for a future that they wouldn’t have had in Ireland,” said Ms Barclay.
Other talks on the day include ​​Dr ​Fiona Wh​i​te speaking on the changing fortunes of the Moore Hall estate in the years following the Famine and through the Land War of the 1870s; Dr SeΡn Lysaght on the history and heritage of Mayo’s golden eagles and sea eagles; Dr Yvonne McDermott on the Franciscan Third Order in late medieval Ireland and Mayo friaries such as Rosserk and Killeenbrenan; Olivia Martin on love and marriage settlements; and Lynda Huxley and Olive Greaney on the Garveys of Cornfield.

Mayo’s Hidden Histories takes place on Saturday, June 10, from 11am to 4pm at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life. This is a free event but booking is required as numbers are limited. For more information, call 094 90 31751 or email educationtph@museum.ie, or visit www.museum.ie/country-life.