
Shattered and heartbroken women knelt keening on the ground; their menfolk standing silently beside them waiting and watching on hopelessly as their sons and daughters joined an astonishing 1,200 young and able-bodied Kerry people that boarded two ships at Valentia Harbour and set sail for America in 1883.
A real sense of loss hung in the air as a devastated crowd of close on 5,000 people gathered on the shore where Caherciveen Parish Priest, Canon Brosnan, blessed the vessels for a safe journey and prayed that its passengers – many of whom never saw their home place again – remained safe and healthy.
In a true sign of the times, research papers show, Canon Brosnan encouraged many of the passengers to take the pledge before they boarded.
That was the grim snapshot of a very troubled time presented at an engaging and intriguing public lecture in Killarney on Wednesday night.

It was delivered by genealogist and author Kay Caball on the opening night of Killarney’s Celebration of Irish American Friendship and the appropriate setting for the event was Killarney House which was the former residence of the great American entrepreneur and philanthropist John McShain.
1883 was the year of a Government-assisted emigration scheme which helped those who couldn’t afford the fare to embark on the journey to find work and, eventually, to be in a position to help out those suffering real hardship at home.
Unfortunately, Ms Caball, noted, the reception that awaited Kerry emigrants arriving on US shored was “frigid” and they were not made to feel very welcome, initially at least.

Between 1828 and 1867 most of the return journey cargo ships that set sail from Kerry did so from Blennerville with Quebec the destination and the emigrants then made their way over the border to try to start new lives in America.
At that time an estimated 40 per cent of Kerry families lived in one-roomed mud cabins with another 40 per cent being lucky enough to have two rooms. Between 1785 and 1841, the average Kerry family comprised of 5.5 persons but it was not unusual for some families to have 10 or up to 20 children.
It was mainly able-bodied, poorly educated, single men as well as hardworking young women and young tenant families that travelled from Blennerville in search of a better life.
Ms Caball told the capacity audience in Killarney House that Kerry was the county with the highest emigration rate for a 20-year period up to 1911, according to official records stored in the National Archives.
Others embarking on the emigration journey availed of the new rail service provided in Killarney on 1853 and in Tralee from 1859 to start them on their journey, travelling to Queenstown in Cork and onwards while the Jeanine Johnston – later to be remembered as the Famine Ship – also played a key part.
The original Jeanie Johnston carried more than 2,500 Irish emigrants to North America during the famine from 1848-1855 and a three-masted replica – now located off the Custom House Quay in Dublin – was later built in Kerry.
Emigration travel trends, which were dictated by where emigrants had relatives, saw people from Corca Dhuibhne opting to travel to Springfield, Beara natives preferred Montana, New Zealand was the destination of choice for natives of the sprawling Ballymacelligott parish, Castlegregory had links with Buffalo and the many dispatched from workhouses via the Lansdowne Estate mainly headed to New York.
“Killarney people went everywhere,” Ms Caball pointed out.

She said Killarney was considered more of a brand than a town and when people from places like Gneeveguilla or Scartaglen arrived on US or Canadian shores, it was always easier to say Killarney was their home place as it was well known and more clearly understood.
By and large, the emigrants worked in the coalmines, they built railroads, dug canals or worked as blacksmiths or coopers.
Ms Caball said women emigrants almost always worked as domestic servants, cooks or childminders and she shared the fascinating story of one Kerry woman, Katie Buckley, who became a cook in the White House.
She worked there during the terms of two Presidents, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, but she didn’t see eye-to-eye with President Franklin D Roosevelt’s First Lady, Eleanor, who complained that she was wasting too much money on luxury items like cream.
Ms Buckley referred the dispute to the union but received no satisfaction and she returned to her native Listowel where she spent the rest of her life.
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