Starving Ireland, Hungry Australia: The Irish Female Orphan Emigration Scheme, 1848-1850

Authors

  • Emily Lieffers

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/cons9574

Abstract

From 1848-50, the British government sent 4,175 famine-stricken orphan girls from Ireland to Australia to give them a better life and fulfill population needs in the colony. The controversy surrounding the orphan emigration scheme suggests that prejudices against the Irish and their poverty were easily exported to a colonial setting. The girls’ physical appearance and ignorance, largely a result of poverty and terrible conditions in workhouses, were taken as racial deficiencies, while their religion was viewed as a threat. This orphan scheme is thus a valuable case study for historians seeking to explore the limits of colonial citizenship in the British Empire and to reinvigorate historiography concerning Anglo-Irish relations in the Famine era.

Author Biography

Emily Lieffers

Emily Lieffers is a History major and Political Science minor in her fourth year at the University of Alberta. She is particularly interested in twentieth-century North American history and international relations.

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Published

2010-12-16

How to Cite

Lieffers, E. (2010). Starving Ireland, Hungry Australia: The Irish Female Orphan Emigration Scheme, 1848-1850. Constellations, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.29173/cons9574

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Section

Articles