An Irishman's Diary

PROTESTANT orphans – some as young as five years old – were burnt out of their care home in Connemara by “Republicans” and then dramatically rescued by a British gunboat 90 years ago this year. They are among the many forgotten victims of the Civil War. Could any still be alive? In Britain’s House of Lords on July 26th, 1922, Hansard reported an emotional debate during which Lord Carson deplored “everyday life in Ireland, where outrages, slaughter, and every kind of criminality proceed apace”.

He drew fellow-peers’ attention to news that “two orphanages in the County of Galway” had “recently been looted and burnt to the ground by Sinn Féiners” and revealed that “the Admiralty sent ships which brought away to this country the staff and thirty-three boys and twenty-five girls”.

Lord Carson wondered “what has become of these children, and how they are to be provided for in the future?” Carson said that anti-Treaty IRA “Irregulars” had called to the orphanage, threatened to shoot one of the boys, ordered those who were out working in the fields to be rounded up, imprisoned them in the church and then set fire to the residential building.

He said that the children’s lives were only saved because of the matron’s intervention. Carson claimed that when she asked the “fully armed barbarians” to explain their actions she was told that “the boys were being taught loyalty to England” and that the orphanage had, during the first World War, sent many boys to join the British army.

The Earl of Crawford, a government spokesman in the upper house, responded to Lord Carson and said “I can only amplify the facts”. He then stated that: “These orphanages are known as the Connemara Orphans’ Nurseries.

They consisted of two houses at Clifden in County Galway, at which were accommodated 33 boys and 25 girls, together with the staff, all of them Protestants. At the beginning of July the boys’ orphanage was attacked by the Irish Republican Army, and burned to the ground. It is not yet known whether the house in which the girls were accommodated was similarly destroyed. The boys were brought from Clifden to Queenstown [now Cobh, Co Cork] by destroyer, and thence to London by the ordinary route. They are now accommodated in a hostel in West London, and they are being looked after by their own staff. On July 6 two of His Majesty’s ships were sent to Clifden by Admiralty instructions to secure the removal of the girl orphans and the staff, and to bring them to Devonport”.

Given the convulsions gripping the newly-established Irish Free State, and government-imposed press censorship, the matter received relatively little attention here. However, The Irish Times reported, from London, on questions asked in the House of Commons about what one MP described as a “dastardly outrage”.

In August 1922, an appeal to assist the orphan boys was published in the Times of London. On November 8th, The Irish Times reported that “As a result of that appeal, an offer was made to house and educate the children at a well-known Australian institution, founded and supported by private munificence, the Burnside Homes, Parramatta, near Sydney.”

And so, the following day, less than five months after their evacuation from Ireland, the unfortunate boys took to the high seas again.

Arranged by the Migration and Settlement Office at London's Australia House, 23 Irish children accompanied by a matron sailed away aboard the steam-ship Euripides.

The "lucky" orphans arrived in Sydney just in time for Christmas. On Saturday, December 23rd, 1922, The Sydney Morning Herald, reported that the boys "ranged in ages from 5 years to sixteen" and were of "a splendid type of sturdy, well-mannered, and well-behaved Irish boyhood".

The paper reported that the boys would live in the care home although the older ones would be “placed with suitable guardians on the land” as “most of the boys intend to become farmers, having received farm training at the orphanage in Ireland”.

The boys were greeted by a welcoming committee at the wharf in Sydney Harbour and heard a speech by the deputy-chairman of Burnside Homes, a Mr GA Murdoch. He said: “Although you have found a home in this sunny land we do not want you to forget the land of your birth. There is bright sunshine on the horizon in Ireland, and we hope that before long she will be happy and contented once more – a great part of the great British Empire”.

He informed the new immigrants that the children of Sydney’s Murrumburra Sunday School had, on hearing of their plight, taken up a collection. Mr Murdoch then presented each of the Irish boys with a shilling and declared: “We hope that you will be able to go and make your fortunes, founding them upon these lucky shillings”.

What kind of lives did they lead and did they find happiness – let alone make fortunes? It is now just over 89 years since the Connemara Protestant orphans arrived in Australia. Any still living would be aged at least 94.

There is some confusion about the precise number of boys who sailed on the Euripides– with contemporary newspaper reports varying the number between 22 and 25.

The fate of the remaining boys, who presumably stayed in London, – and the girls who had been evacuated to Devonport – is not known.