THE GREAT grandson of a young Irish woman who was transported to Australia after she was convicted of stealing was among the members of the public who gathered yesterday for a memorial service for the thousands of women who were transported out of Ireland and Britain to Australia.
The Roses from the Heart bonnet project is a unique memorial to the 25,566 convict women transported from 1788 to 1853.
The idea of Christina Henri, an artist affiliated with the University of Tasmania, the project involves making a bonnet, similar to that worn at the time, to commemorate the life and contribution each of the transported women made towards the founding of a new nation.
Yesterday in Cobh, Co Cork, Colin Gray, the great-grandchild of convict Mary Connor, was among those who participated in a quayside ceremony where close to 200 bonnets bearing names of Irish women transported overseas were blessed by a local priest.
Mr Gray and his wife, Lou, travelled from New Zealand for the ceremony and for the launch of Suzanne Voytas’ book, Elizabeth 1828, which features the story of his great-grandmother.
Mary Connor, a washer, was convicted of stealing a cloak in Castle Street, Cork, and sentenced to transportation on the Elizabeth, which sailed to Australia 183 years ago this month.
Mr Gray proudly held up a bonnet bearing his great grandmothers’ name. Mary, unlike many of her peers, went on to have a happy life settling in Pejar in New South Wales. She married George Gray and the couple had nine children. Mary and George were the first white settlers to own land in that area. Mary went on to teach English to the native Aborigines. She died at the age of 83.
Christina Henri, the artist behind the project, spoke of her joy at being able to bring to life the stories of women such as Mary Connor and Mary Walsh, a mother who was sentenced to seven years in the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land in Tasmania for allegedly stealing cloth from a local shop in her native Clonmel.
Ms Henri said that when she visited Cobh she was struck by how difficult life must have been for the loved ones of those left behind.
“If you keep in mind the image of those who were left behind and it was specifically said to me that fathers would stand and continue walking until the water was almost completely over their heads because they knew that was the last time they were going to sight those dear ones who were leaving. That is what speaks to the heart most.”
Ms Henri has already received more than 16,000 bonnets made by people from as far away as Malaysia and South Africa. When 25,000 are collected they will go on worldwide display.
The Australian ambassador to Ireland, Bruce Davies, was in Cobh yesterday for the ceremony. Mr Davies said so much focus has been on men in all of our histories, that to have a event where the focus is on women is particularly apposite.