Typically, convicts were dispatched to the colony for theft, forgery or assault, but not this group of exiles. They were mostly gentlemen of influence; well-connected, educated and idealistic. The Governor of Van Diemen's Land was instructed to treat them with kid gloves and evidence of their presence can still be found in and around the Heritage Highway.
They were the leaders of a political group known as the 'Young Irelanders' who, in the wake of the great famine of 1847, sought independence for Ireland. Both Protestant and Catholic, they were a thorn in the side of the British Government, so where better to send them but to a hell-hole at the end of the earth.
Their number included Thomas Meagher, a swash-buckling ladies' man, the aristocratic Terrence Bellew MacManus and William Smith O'Brien, John Mitchel, a writer and poet, Kevin O'Doherty, a medical student who was so pious, he was referred to as 'Saint Kevin', and Patrick O'Donoghue, the only one without means, who also battled the demon drink. All were passionate patriots and their individual stories spread across the globe.
Internationally acclaimed Tasmanian author, Christopher Koch has written a prize-winning story about the Young Irelanders entitled, Out of Ireland.
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