Earl Grey's Girls
Author: Martin Power
Melody: The Homes of Donegal

Earl Grey's Girls
Author: Martin Power
Melody: The Homes of Donegal

The sky was grey that morning o'er the town of Corofin
For twenty orphan Irish girls a journey did begin:
From the workhouse they were taken upon a horse-drawn car,
The first leg of a journey to the port of Hobart.

For some the journey was to change their lives for evermore
And free them from the workhouse and the hardships they endured;
But, alas for some of these a different story tell;
For them this journey it became another living hell.

They sailed away from Ireland upon that July morn
And none would ever see again the place where they were born,
On board the ship Calcutta with one hundred other souls
Down south to Van Diemen's Land that's where their story goes.

The journey started with a gift of a strong box made of wood
With their name engraved upon the lid to store their earthly goods,
Each girl was given six new shifts, two petticoats and two gowns,
Two pairs of shoes and stockings, and a lock to keep them sound.

The voyage there took four long months through storms and heavy swells,
The girls were sick and frightened but all arrived quite well;
What lay ahead for these young girls was very carefully planned
For Lord Grey had chosen these young girls to populate the land.

They were taken to the workhouse when they landed at the pier
But the locals did not want the girls, at the Irish they did sneer,
They thought the girls inferior and the cause of much disdain
And tried to force the authorities to send them back again.

But the girls were there and there to stay and work was found for most,
But for a few of these young girls, they would pay a terrible cost:
They were married off to farmers and convicts at a price
And they used the girls and abused the girls and sold them into vice.

Now what became of these twenty girls the history books don't say
But they tell us that four thousand girls were shipped abroad this way;
They left behind no loved ones dear to ponder on their fate,
Taken from their homeland to populate a state.

This stain upon our history can not be left untold
And their names must be recorded on a page of history's scroll
For Ireland must remember these poor young orphan girls,
Shipped out to foreign colonies on the orders of an earl.

The song narrates the horrible story of one aspect of the heartless colonial system, where helpless orphans were abused and seen as breeding animals at the behest of the aristocracy.