Leaving their Old Life Behind – Outfitting the girls

by Averil Staunton

As the day of departure loomed, the preparations for their journey and acquisition of new clothes, added an air of excitement among the chosen group of girls. However, their spirits would surely have been dampened by the reality of knowing they were leaving all they had ever known behind them forever. Oliver MacDonagh in Pattern, 1961, pp.167-8 writes of the piercing experience of parting for many an emigrant at this time.

Here is a list of the clothes and other items that the girls received for their new life.