A New Insight Into Irish Convict History
In 1843 Stephen Howard from Limerick was transported to Van Diemen's Land for stealing a gun from a landowner. In 1849 Ellen Lydon of North Galway was similarly transported, along with other members of her family, for killing a sheep with intent to steal during the Great Famine in Ireland. The two met in Hobart Town, where they married in 1854. The author is their great-grandson.
This book is very much more than an exercise in genealogy or family history: it is a window through which can be seen the whole sweep of Irish history, particularly the political and economic hardships the people suffered in the mid-nineteenth century, and the enforced diaspora that was their consequence.
The opening chapter gives a brief overview of Irish history form the earliest times - effectively the sad heritage to which Howard and Lydon were heir - while later chapters describe, in great detail, the conditions in which they lived in Ireland, at their trails, en route to Van Diemen's Land, as convicts and as pardoned convicts making a new life for themselves in their new homeland. The concluding chapter charts the fortunes of the Howard family in the Tasmanian west coast mining industry, while the epilogue traces the subsequent careers of all the major players in the story - soldiers, administrators, judges and barristers, and the landowners.
