The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is pleased to announce that a new collection – Roses from the Heart – has been published in the Repository through South East Technological University.
Roses from the Heart is an international project, remembering the 25,566 women sentenced to transportation as convicts from Ireland and the United Kingdom to Australia and Tasmania (formerly Van Diemen’s Land) between 1788-1853.
The artist and project lead Dr. Christina Henri who was the honorary artist-in-residence at the Cascades Female Factory from 2003 -2015 chose a cloth bonnet, taken from an original 1860s servant’s bonnet, to symbolise the lives of the convict women whose stories have been shrouded by a veil of amnesia for far too long. Many of those women were from Waterford. Her work Roses from the Heart is a memorial to the 25,566 women sentenced to transportation to Australia as convicts (1788-1853). Many of these life stories and experiences remain largely forgotten to this day. Indeed, it is important to note that when given opportunities in Tasmania or Australia, these transported women often flourished and contributed to the growth of the emerging nations.
To date 23,000 bonnet tributes have been made by people from all around the world, many of them descendants of the original transportees. Of this stunning project and memorial, Dr. Henri said:
“Roses from the Heart has impacted on thousands of people, influencing them to travel and reconnect with family on the other side of the world.
Families living in Great Britain and Ireland are visiting Australia to travel in the footsteps of their convict ancestors. Australians are traveling back home to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to see the land from whence their ancestors came.
In some cases families are meeting for the first time as people learn about relatives across the sea whose existence had previously been unknown.”
Between 1788 and 1853, approximately 350 women who were either from or convicted in the Waterford area were transported – with many women forced to travel simply because they were poor.
Bonnets have been made by various groups and individuals from across Waterford City and County since 2010 to commemorate and memorialise these women who were transported to Australia and Tasmania. One such group began in 2017 at the Waterford Women’s Centre. In addition to engaging with history and acknowledging the lives of Waterford women, Roses from the Heart also enabled project participants to gain the skills necessary to make a bonnet.
For example, the series of blue bonnets below commemorate the life of Mary Moore, a native of Waterford who was transported to New South Wales on the 29th Nov 1837, on board the ship Diamond. The bonnet was made by Betty Hearne, who is a member of the Waterford Women’s Centre.
Hearne, Betty. (2024) Mary Moore (1838), Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor], South East Technological University [Depositing Institution], https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.rj43d0143
A selection of the collection of bonnets made by the Waterford Women’s Centre have been ingested into the Repository and are available on open-access for all to view. Each set of images includes a short description of the woman being commemorated, as well as the year and location that she was transported to.
The description also details the person who made the bonnet. For example, in the images below, women’s group member Lucy O’Regan commemorated the life of Mary Quinn – a native of Waterford – who was transported to New South Wales on the 8th March 1840, on board the ship Isabella II.
O’Regan, Lucy. (2024) Mary Quinn (1840), Digital Repository of Ireland [Distributor], South East Technological University [Depositing Institution], https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.rv04gn66g
Roses of the Heart weaves together Waterford women past and present, who, through the medium of craftwork, have created an intimate and transformative commemoration of women’s history. These beautiful bonnets have now been digitised and ingested in the Repository to ensure long-term digital preservation, meaning that future generations will be able to engage with not only the history of those who were transported, but of the women who in the twenty-first century, wanted to remember and honour them.
DRI Director Dr Lisa Griffith said:
“We are thrilled to have ingested the Roses of the Heart collection into the Repository, ensuring these materials will be preserved safely, for the long-term, and viewable to all.
As a Waterford native, I am particularly proud that the hidden histories of women who were transported have found a home with DRI.
It is vitally important that we remember all facets of women’s experiences across the island and in the diaspora to gain a full understanding of our own histories.”
SETU Special Collections, Heritage & Outreach Librarian Kieran Cronin said:
“Our ambition for the Collection here at SETU Library is to ensure that these Waterford women who were largely forgotten by history will never be forgotten again.
Through the work of Dr Christina Henri, the Roses from the Heart Waterford Group, and the local and international bonnet makers these women’s legacies will survive on the Digital Repository of Ireland where they will be accessible to future researchers, scholars, and anyone with an interest in the stories of the women from Waterford who were transported to Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales in Australia”.
The full collection of Roses from the Heart can now be viewed and downloaded in the DRI Repository. Visit the project website to find out more. You can keep up to date with all of the DRI’s new collections by signing up to our newsletter.
