James and Margaret Hally
James Hally and Margaret Casey ...

Margaret in Ireland

Nothing is known of Margaret’s life in Ireland, except that she was accepted for an assisted passage to VDL while at the Killadysart workhouse, for which no records have survived. Trevor McLaughlin, in Barefoot and Pregnant, Irish Famine Orphans in Australia, Volume 2, says “the end of the Great Irish Famine may be dated to 1849/50 but its role in pushing people out of Ireland was to be felt for a very long time afterwards.” (page 403) It is possible that Margaret had been an inmate of the workhouse for some considerable time and would have welcomed the chance of a new life, particularly as the authorities chose 29 other women from the Killadysart institution. These were aged between 18 and 24. Altogether, there were 151 young, single females on the Calcutta.

One of the Killadysart women, Mary Casey, 22, may have been a sister or cousin of Margaret, but there is no record of any contact between the two in Tasmania.

Margaret’s age was given as 20, but was probably rounded up to that number, given she was named as 20 at her marriage three years later.

Table of Contents

  1. James Hally in Ireland
  2. James' Journey
  3. James in Hobart
  4. Margaret Casey in Ireland
  5. Margaret's Journey
  6. Early Married Life
  7. The Family
  8. Life in Pontville
  9. James Hally the Activist