The Children of the Wind Series | Book I
Children of the Wind is a sweeping Irish-Australian saga made up of Bridie’s story, Patricks’s story, Colm’s story and Maeve’s story; four inter-linked novels, beginning with the 1850s and moving right up to the present.
Bridie's Fire
2005 WAYRBA Shortlist
(West Australian Young Readers Award)
CBCA Notable Book 2004
2004 NSW Premier's History Awards
Shortlist for The Young People's History Prize
Book I | Bridie’s Fire | 1848 - 1852
Bridie's world is torn apart when her parents and baby brother die in the Great Hunger. She leaves Ireland, and strikes out alone to claim a life for herself in Australia, on the other side of the ocean.
Bridie looked up at the swirling stars. It was as if the sky and the whole world was opening up before her. In her rough boy's clothes, she wasn't Bridie O'Connor, an Irish waif. She wasn't an orphan girl at sea, a stranger in a new land. She wasn't even a servant any more. She had money in her leather pouch, a swag full of food and a good companion. She could be a whole new Bridie. Nothing could quench the fire in her now.
The first of four sweeping adventures, Bridie's Fire makes history leap off the page. A heart-warming story of courage and resilience, it affirms Kirsty Murray's keen understanding of the human spirit.
Famine memorial in Dublin. The figures of starving people are carrying their few possessions as they
walk towards the
docks
The How and Why of Bridie’s Fire
When I was writing Market Blues, I had a lot of difficulty getting a clear picture of how young girls lived in the 19th Century. The lives of boys were much better documented. It was in searching for details about girl's lives that I stumbled across the story of the Earl Grey Orphan Scheme.
Between 1848 and 1850, over 4000 girls between the ages of nine and sixteen were taken from the workhouses of Ireland and sent to Australia. Most of them had lost at least one parent to the Great Hunger, the Irish potato famine of 1845-1850. Those girls now have over 30 000 descendents but few people outside their ancestors are aware of their stories.
An original newspaper drawing of famine orphans
This is an Irish Workhouse
like the one Bridie lived in
This woman stayed in Ireland. She worked as a potato picker. This is what Bridie might have become if she hadn't sailed to Australia
The roads to the goldfields
were crowded with people
hoping to find their
fortune.
Bridie's story became the starting point for an entire series that looks at the way child immigrants have made Australia what it is today. The idea for the series grew so huge, that I applied to the Australia Council to help fund the work and thanks to their help, I travelled to Ireland visiting the areas that the Irish orphan girls came from and later generations of Irish immigrants.
Ireland and Australia have a special link across history. Nearly 40 per cent of Australians have an Irish ancestor tucked away somewhere in their family tree. This fact led me to thinking about my own Irish ancestors and how the Irish have had such a big influence on the way our country has developed.
Australia is a nation of immigrants and the Irish people have the most successful immigrant culture in the world. Millions of Irish immigrants have helped build new nations all around the world. Their stories are full of courage, persistence, tragedy, adventure and good humour; all great elements for weaving stories that can include all the richness and excitement of our history.
While I was in Ireland, I stayed on the Dingle peninsula in the west of Ireland as I wanted to make it the location that my character Bridie came from. Twenty of the real Earl Grey orphan girls came from that area. I believe it's very important to try and 'get inside the skin' of any character that you are writing about so I followed the journey that Bridie would have made from Dingle to Tralee. I tried to recreate in my imagination and on paper exactly what she would have seen and felt, even when the experiences were painful and upsetting. I visited the famine graveyard where her baby brother would have been buried and walked along the beaches, imagining Bridie and her brother Brandon.
Bridie's early childhood in Ireland is only part of her story and although I admire the Irish people I am particularly interested in how the Irish became Australians. How did girls like Bridie create new homes for themselves in a country that was so different to their own?
Researching the history of early Melbourne and the Ballarat goldfields was a fascinating journey of a different kind. Just as Ireland is full of the echoes of its past, so is Australia. Perhaps Australians don't listen to those echoes as carefully as we should but once you adjust your ear and try and hear them, the whole country begins to resonate with stories.
I think one of the most surprising things that history can teach us is that each person's life touches so many others that even if they don't become rich or famous, they leave their mark behind.
What the critics wrote about Bridie’s Fire
I've just finished Bridie's Fire. I loved it! Really, I couldn't put it down. It's such an inspiration, your book is my favourite book in the world and I am a book worm too!
Georgia Dobbyn
Ballarat, Aged 13
The novel "Bridie's Fire" by Kirsty Murray is full of excitement. It is a book that you can’t put down! The author should be proud of the effort she put into the book, it really paid off. The final result is a masterpiece. I would love the other novels if they were as good as this one.
Stephanie Pope
Year 9, Karabar High School, NSW
A sweeping, rollicking read with plenty of satisfying true-to-life detail.
Northern Star
December 2003
Murray’s affection for the early history of Victoria is evident and she introduces real people to come into contact with Bridie. Bridie sees and records with the believable personality of a pre-adolescent of her time: she comes alive.
Magpies
Vol 18.5
November 2003
Bridie's Fire is a gripping read for 10 to 14 year olds, creating a deep sense of time and place which will draw the young reader in.
Sally Murphy
Aussiereviews.com
Bridie's Fire is a compelling story set in the 1840s Ireland and Australia. Containing an array of details, the story transports us from poverty stricken Ireland into the splendour of colonial Victoria. This series is well worth reading as much for its historical content as for its compelling storyline.
Lollipopsmagazine.com
I picked this book up without knowing it was intended for 10 to 14 year olds, and read it straight through… This book makes you proud of these little girls, our forbears.
Mary Doyle
Táin
The Australian Irish Network Magazine
Links
The Great Hunger is an important part of the history of both Ireland and all the country's of the new world. The following site has has lots of links to information about Ireland and the terrible famine as well as the orphans that survived:
http://famineorphans.freeservers.com/links.htm
When the famine struck Bridie's home on the Dingle Peninsula, the nearest workhouse was in Tralee. Soon after, a workhouse was built in Dingle but Bridie had to walk across Ireland to find somewhere that would shelter both her and Brandon. If you want to find out more about workhouses, there is a fascinating website you can visit at:
www.workhouses.org.uk
Anyone who is interested in the history of the goldfields should try and visit Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, Victoria. If you can't get there, check out their website:
www.sovereignhill.com.au
SBS has put together a great site on the history of the theatres at the goldfield. If you found Bridie and Tom's adventures with the Star Theatre interesting, you can find out more about theatre on the goldfields at this site:
www.sbs.com.au/gold/story.html?storyid=93
If you found Bridie's story particularly interesting because you have Irish ancestors, maybe you should try doing some research about your own family. Genealogists are people who study family history. If you are keen, try visiting the Society of Australian Genealogists website:
www.sag.org.au
Memorials have been built in many places around the world to remember the terrible time of the Irish famine. In both Sydney and Melbourne, the memorials especially commemorate the girls of the Earl Grey Scheme. There’s lots of information about the famine orphans on the Sydney Irish Famine Memorial’s website. Check it out at:
http://irishfaminememorial.org/default.htm
Click here to check out extracts from Bridie's Fire