From Where Do You Come Little Lady

The Irish in you.

In the darkest years of the Famine in 1847, nearly 300,000 Irish arrived at the port of Liverpool - of this vast number nearly 130,000 emigrated to the United States.  Those who couldn't afford the fare, or who remained, faced a hard battle for survival. Consider that the majority of these people had suffered great trauma, bereavement, starvation and homelessness.  On arrival on the mainland, particularly for those with no family to go to, the level of disorientation experienced could hardly be imagined. 

 

Early Emigrants

                                                                          

In 1847, two young Oxford scholars, G.F Boyle and Lord Dufferin travelled to Skibbereen in County Cork.

The two young men were shocked and moved by what they had witnessed.

In some cottages 'dead bodies had lain putrefying in the midst of the sick remnant of their families, none strong enough to remove them, until the rats and decay made it difficult to recognise that they had been human beings'

The two young scholars were so horrified by what they saw that they wrote the Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to Skibbereen in order to raise funds for famine relief.

‘The scenes we have witnessed during our short stay at Skibbereen, equal anything that has been recorded by history, or could be conceived by the imagination. Famine, typhus fever, dysentery, and a disease hitherto unknown, are sweeping away the whole population. The poor are not the only sufferers: fever is spreading to every class, and even the rich are becoming involved in the same destruction.

'At the end of every stage, the coach was surrounded by crowds of wretched creatures begging for something to eat, wan little faces thrusting themselves in at the window, praying "the kind gentleman just for one ha'penny to buy a penn'orth of bread."

'The poor have pawned nearly every article of furniture which they possess, in order to obtain food; the number of tickets at the brokers is almost incredible; many have thus parted with the means of future subsistence, as in the case of some fishermen, who have pawned their boats and nets, and so deprived themselves of the power of deriving benefit from the fish, which abound along the coast. We entered another at no great distance: over a few peat embers a woman was crouching, drawing her only solace from their scanty warmth; she was suffering from diarrhoea: there seemed scarcely a single article of furniture or crockery in any part of the hut. The woman answered the enquiries of Mr Townsend in a weak and desponding voice; and from what we could gather, there appeared to be several other human beings in different corners of the hovel, but in the darkness we were totally unable to distinguish them'

                                                                Digging for potatoes 

                                                                 Famine funeral

Welcome Little Lady

Little Lady is born! After an emergency caesarean, a very worrying time, baby is stable and healthy. Mum is doing well and Dad is just about recovering!
Now I have to prepare for duty as resident Nana for five months. Just a little more daunting than going to Australia for a holiday, but extremely exciting – I’ll be back when the daffodils appear next year!

I have been to Japan three times to embrace my grandchildren there and I recall the first time standing amidst the very modern, very high rise, very high tech, staggeringly busy urban life in Yokohama and thinking, ‘how can a rather ordinary, working class girl from a really restricted, culturally limited background with no experience of travelling any further than a coach trip to the east coast of England ever contemplate taking a flight, alone, to Tokyo and then a long coach trip to Yokohama?’

The child I was would have been totally amazed and then totally sceptical given this insight into my future! How eventually children give you courage and determination to do whatever is at all possible.

I have also been to Australia, alone, to Alice Springs, to visit Alexander and Charity when they were living there nearly two years ago. That was an extremely tedious journey, but what an enlightening and rewarding holiday! Alice Springs is very much in the middle of nowhere – impossible almost to drive anywhere else in less than a few days.

                                     
                                                                 Alice Springs

But now north east Queensland, which Alan and I went to for three weeks this summer, is where I am heading in four weeks – baby was due three weeks later than she arrived - so on with preparing our house for winter, tidy up the garden etc. etc. and most important spend as much time as possible with our two Welsh grandchildren whom I will miss dreadfully!

New Beginnings

My little granddaughter is about to be brought forth into life in Australia. My granddaughter of such rich and varied ancestry will own a tapestry of inheritance.
Her beautiful mother is Ghanaian; her distinctive red-haired father has a background (and charming nature) of a quarter Irish, half English-Yorkshire, and his father’s probable ‘Viking’ origins.
She will be delivered to her home in the rain forest her parents partially own in Cairns, Northern Australia and she will then be loved and nurtured additionally by Nana Polly for five months!
I owe it to her to record her origins, my experience because of her birth, and equally the legacy of my other adored grandchildren from this diverse and interesting family.
I have grandchildren in Japan, who have an adorable Japanese mother who is of course now part of our family, and a father, also so much a product of the Irish charm and intelligence, but the curious question is – ‘in the 1840's when the Irish were suffering in the famine, what was happening in Ghana and Japan – with the grandchildren’s other ancestors?’

A watering hole on the edge of the rain forest, reputed to be an ancient birthing pool.