The Wreck of the Neva: The Horrifying Fate of a Convict Ship and the Women Aboard

The 'Neva' sailed from Cork on 8 January 1835, destined for the prisons of Botany Bay. There were 240 people on board, most of them either female convicts or the wives of already deported convicts, and their children. On 13 May 1835 the ship hit a reef just north of King's Island in Australia and sank with the loss of 224 lives - one of the worst shipwrecks in maritime history. The authors have comprehensively researched sources in Ireland, Australia and the UK to reconstruct in fascinating detail the stories of these women. Most perished beneath the ocean waves, but for others the journey from their poverty stricken and criminal pasts continued towards hope of freedom and prosperity on the far side of the world. At a time when Australia is once again becoming a new home for a generation of migrating Irish, it is appropriate that the formative historical links between the two countries be remembered.

Cal McCarthy is the author of 'Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution' (2007) and 'Green, Blue and Grey: The Irish in the American Civil War' (2009). He lives in Carrigadrohid, Co. Cork. In 2005 he received his MPhil for a thesis entitled: 'The 1918 General Election - The swing to Sinn Fein'. He works the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Kevin Todd is an Irish artist/designer and a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Originally from Cork city he moved to Australia in 1981. Kevin has exhibited internationally and has completed large-scale public art projects. He has also undertaken residencies in Australia, Malaysia, Ireland, England and was a visiting scholar at New York University in 2008.