The Luck of the Irish: How a shipload of convicts survived the wreck of the Hive to make a new...

The Luck of the Irish: How a shipload of convicts survived the wreck of the Hive to make a new...
ISBN-10
1742378129
ISBN-13
9781742378121
Series
The Luck of the Irish
Category
History
Pages
314
Language
English
Published
2014-07-01
Publisher
Allen & Unwin
Author
Babette Smith

Description

The luck of the Irish was chronic bad luck, as their sad history attests. That's how it looked for 250 Irish convicts when their ship, the 'Hive', sank ignominiously off the NSW coast in 1835. Miraculously all survived, guided to safety by local Aboriginal people...They landed at a time when the so-called slave colony was at its height, ruled by the lash and the chain gang. Yet as Babette Smith tracked the lives of the people aboard the 'Hive', she discovered a very different story. Most were assigned to work on farms or in businesses, building a better life than they possibly could have experienced in Ireland. Surprisingly, in the workforce they found power, which gave rise to the characteristic Australian culture later described by DH Lawrence: 'Nobody felt better than anybody else, or higher.'..'The Luck of the Irish' is a fascinating portrait of colonial life in the mid-19th century, which reveals how the Irish helped lay the foundations of the Australia we know today...'Deeply researched and vividly written, it's a terrific new and up-to-date account of the convict experience, mainly from the bottom up' - 'Emeritus Professor Alan Atkinson FAHA, University of Sydney'..'Brings the convict era to life through personal stories and insightful analysis.' - 'Lindsay Tanner'

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