A vividly told, triumphant story that follows one of the thousands of young Irish women shipped to Australia after the Famine as part of the Earl Grey Scheme, whose indomitable bravery in an exotic, danger-laden land helped shape a new country. For readers of Ellen Marie Wiseman, Sarah Loudin Thomas, Amanda Skenandore and Marie Benedict.
They survived Irelands Great Hunger to build a new society in untamed Australia . . .
1848: The girls, 4,000 in all, come from every part of Irelandfrom the shores of Galway to the Glens of Ulster and Belfasts teeming streetsto board ships bound for Australia. All were chosen from Irelands crowded workhouses. Most are orphans. The Earl Grey Scheme was presented as an opportunity for young women to gain employment as domestic servants in the Colony. But there is another, unstated purposethe girls are to civilize the many men sent there as convicts, so that settlements can be built.
Kate Gilvarry has spent six months in a Newry workhouse, subsisting on a diet of watery porridge. She knows theres no future for her either within its walls or outside, in a ravaged, starving land. But once Kates ship completes the harrowing voyage, she and her companions find their reception in Sydney dismayingly unwelcoming, as anti-Irish sentiment grows. Homesick, and disillusioned by love following a shipboard crush, Kate strives to fit in, first as the servant of a demanding English woman, then as a farmers bride in the Outback.
When heat and drought force her husband to leave for long periods to work on a sheep ranch, Kate is left alone to fend off wild animals, drifters, and her aching loneliness. She longs to return to Ireland. But first, this beautiful, unforgiving country will teach her about resilience and survival, and the limitless possibilities that come with courage and love.
Evocative and compelling, The Famine Orphans is a testament to the young women whose pioneering spirit left an enduring legacy in a land so far from home.
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