As day was breaking on the morning of the 4th. July 1851 twenty female orphans aged between 18 & 23 years were conveyed by horse drawn cars from the union workhouse at Corofin to the railway station at Limerick some thirty miles away. For the girls this was but the first leg of a journey, almost epic in nature, which would last four months and end at the Emigration depot on the Old Warf at Holbert in Van Diemen's Land on the other side of the works.
At Limerick the girls were joined by one hundread other female orphans from Scariff, Tulla & Kildysart workhouses. All 120 then travelled by train to Dublin from where they were transported to Plymonth in England. They were joined by 30 girls from Cork who travelled direct to England. On 15th. July all 150 workhouse girls together with 7 married couples and 8 children embarked on the 484 ton Calculla to begin the long journey to Van Diemen's Land.
The names of the orphan girls from County Clare who travelled are given below:
First Corofin:
Catherine Brennan, Anne Bridgeman, Ann Cullinan, Mary Cullinan, Biddy Casey, Hanorah Donohue, Catherine Forde, Anne Hourahan, Mary Houlihan, Catherine Houlihan, Minnie Halloran, Sally Lynch, Mary Lenane, Bibby Moore, Biddy Meere, Mary Mc Namara, Mary O' Keeffe, Mary Sullivan, Ellen Toole, Biddy Vaughan.
The Scarriff, Tulla Kildysart name to follow.
The above is taken from an article in Vol.22 The Other Clare written by Michael Mac Mahon.