Light shone on Irish bride ship girls at Geraldton tribute night

Many Australians are unaware they are descended from single Irish women who came on specially chartered ships to marry ticket-of-leave convict men or work as domestic servants. In a special tribute to the so-called Irish bride ship girls at St Francis Xavier Cathedral on September 19, more than 100 people heard these young women’s stories told in song, words and audio-visual presentations. The occasion was the presentation of a replica “travel box” of the type issued to each of the bride ship girls, containing a set of clothes and basic household items similar to a glory box. Irish Famine Commemoration chairman Fred Rea said replicas of these boxes were being made by maximum-security prisoners in Dublin, and this one was furnished with replica items by the Geraldton Historical Society. After a moving history of the Irish famine and immigration by Jim Egan, actor and playwright Mike Anthony Sheehy read an excerpt from his work “An Gorta Mor” (The Great Hunger). He was accompanied by Ormonde Waters on the Uilleann pipes. Dressed in period costume, Evelyn Ralston and Sarah Jogy presented the box on behalf of Geraldton Historical Society, which Bishop Michael Morrissey blessed. Geraldton Historical Society president Rita Stinson said the box would reside in the Lighthouse Cottage Museum at Bluff Point, which is open on Thursdays and Fridays, 10am-3pm.