The convict transport Queen docked in Sydney Harbour on 26 September 1791. On board were 155 Irish convicts, the first to arrive in the colony. In the following years their numbers grew until they became the largest minority in New South Wales.

The Irish convicts came from a poor, overcrowded country. For many years Ireland had been in a state of incipient rebellion against British rule. In 1798 Theobald Wolfe Tone led the 'United Irishmen' uprising, which, like most Irish rebellions, was suppressed easily by the British forces. Many of the rebels were sentenced to transportation to Australia.

The presence of the Irish terrified colonial governors of New South Wales. In 1798, Governor John Hunter wrote to the Colonial Office in London:

"I mean to observe, My Lord, that if so large a proportion of these lawless and turbulent people, the Irish convicts, are sent to this country, it will scarcely be possible to maintain that order so highly essential to our well being ... Our number and the infant state of this colony, will not admit of its being filled up wholly with the very worst of characters."

To keep these 'very worst of characters' under control, Governor Hunter and his successors imposed the strictest discipline. Floggings were severe, and suspected insurgents were executed. On one convict transport, the Britannia, six Irish died from floggings, one woman jumped overboard, and two died from the effects of drinking their own urine when their water ration was stopped. On the Hercules, which berthed in Sydney in June 1802, the captain was found to have shot 14 convicts. He was tried and acquitted of thirteen of the shootings since he claimed he was suppressing a mutiny. But he was convicted of killing one convict 'in cold blood', and fined £500. Governor Philip King immediately remitted this penalty. Incidents such as these testify to the fear the Irish convicts inspired among their captors.

Such fear was not always without cause. On 4 March 1804, about 300 Irish convicts rebelled at Castle Hill, in the west of Sydney. Despite alarming rumours, the insurrection proved to be a fitful affair, and was put down easily. As a result of the failed rising, eight men were hanged, nine were flogged and 50 exiled to the coalmines at Newcastle. Governor King believed the Irish had been incited to rebel by their priests, particularly one Father James Dixon, who had arrived in the colony in 1800.

Although Governor King could find no evidence of Father Dixon's complicity in the revolt, he nevertheless denied Father Dixon permission to hold Mass. Furthermore, he ordered him to stand by each convict as he was being flogged and place his hand on each in order, apparently to give the impression that he was a government spy.

Most Catholic priests were suspected, like the luckless Father Dixon, of fermenting unrest among the convicts. Generally they were allowed to hold services but, in the early days of the colony, these were hedged around with restrictions. In early 1803, for example, it was decreed that 'they will observe with all becoming gratitude, that this extension of liberal toleration proceeds from the piety and benevolence of our most gracious Sovereign'. Since many of the Irish who were transported to Australia had rebelled against George III, it was unlikely that they would show much of the 'becoming gratitude' expected of them. Eventually the size of the Catholic population ensured that their religious rights came to be respected in the same way as those of the Protestant sects.

The Irish convicts also suffered through administrative incompetence. Few of the ships which carried them to Australia carried any record of their trials or sentences. In the absence of such information, the governors regarded everyone as having life sentences unless it could be proven otherwise. On 3 March 1796, Governor Hunter wrote to London:

"There are many in this settlement now who have repeatedly petitioned to be allowed to leave the country, or to labour and provide for themselves in it, their time, as they say, being completed; but I cannot well depend on their account and it is certainly an act of injustice to the men if their story should be true." Unfortunately, such was the administrative chaos in Ireland, no such lists were forthcoming, much to the chagrin of both the convicts and the governors.

Most Irish convicts undoubtedly hated their exile, but not all. Some found the conditions better than in Ireland. In one instance, some Irish convicts so enjoyed the conditions of their transportation that upon landing in Sydney they expressed regret it had not gone on for longer. Such sentiments say more about the terrible conditions prevailing in Ireland than the luxuries of the transport system.

Upon arrival, many of the Irish convicts took the first opportunity they could to escape and become bush-rangers -- or bolters, as they were originally known. One of the most famous in the early days was the 'wild colonial boy', a Dublin convict named John Donohoe who came to Sydney in January 1827. He took to the bush soon after, where for three years he lived off the proceeds of robberies until he was killed in 1830. Other famous Irish bush-rangers include Martin Cash and the immortal Ned Kelly, who although not Irish himself, was the son of an ex-convict from Ireland. The police were well aware of the Irish connection among the bush-rangers. On one occasion they attacked a desperate gang that was ravaging the Hunter Valley, crying out as they did so: 'Surrender, ye bog-trotting villains.'

Two of the most famous Irish convicts to come to Australia in the 19th century were Michael Dwyer -- 'The Wicklow Chief' -- and William Smith O'Brien. Dwyer was one of the Irish leaders who carried on the war against the British after the collapse of the 1798 rebellion. He was persuaded to surrender to the British in 1803 on the understanding that he would be exiled to the United States, but the British rescinded the agreement when they decided Dwyer could still cause trouble from there. As a consequence, he was sent to Botany Bay.

Governor Willliam Bligh saw Dwyer as a particularly dangerous man, and charged him with treason. The charge failed but Bligh had Dwyer removed to Norfolk Island. When Bligh was overthrown by Major Johnston and the Rum Corps, who took a more favorable view of Dwyer, they ordered his return to New South Wales. Dwyer was granted land in the Cabramatta district of Sydney and died peacefully in 1825 as a constable.

William Smith O'Brien was transported to Tasmania in 1848 for his alleged complicity in the Irish rising of that year. O'Brien had a distinguished past. He was a Cambridge graduate, and had been a member of parliament. On arrival in Hobart, O'Brien refused to give his parole to the British authorities, who consequently treated him more harshly than he deserved. He was sent to the Darlington station, on Maria Island, and later to Port Arthur. O'Brien's plight won the sympathy of the colonial press. The Launceston Examiner wrote: 'Will the colonists tolerate the treatment to which this honourable and high-minded man is exposed?' O'Brien was later allowed to settle at New Norfolk, where he earned a living as a tutor. When he was freed in 1854 the gold miners of Ballarat, many of whom were Irish, awarded him a vase made out of 'native gold'.

Like many of the Irish convicts, Dwyer and O'Brien eventually adjusted to their new environment and made positive contributions to the development of the colonies. Although many left the country when their sentences expired, many more Irish convicts stayed to become loyal and useful members of the community which had once despised and feared them.

Photo of the convict ship Success by otisourcat.

Photos of Ned Kelly's Trial and William Smith O'Brien from wikimedia.