Grangegorman Histories Public Call: Dianne Snowden & Joan Kavanagh, Researchers and Writers
Grangegorman Histories issued a public call in July 2023 inviting applicants to contribute to the uncovering, cataloguing and commemorating of the History of the Grangegorman site. The five successful awardees have received funding to develop their work through research and creative endeavors. Here we’re profiling the work of Researchers and Writers, Dianne Snowden and Joan Kavanagh
About the project
Dr Dianne Snowden and Dr Joan Kavanagh are historians and authors. Their research focuses on the history of convict women and children transported from Ireland to Tasmania. They are creating a comprehensive, fully searchable database containing the names and details of the 3,200 convict women and their children who were housed in the Grangegorman Female Convict Depot from 1840 to 1853, using records in both Ireland and Tasmania. Dr Snowden and Dr Kavanagh will also produce a detailed written study of the convict women and their free children sent to Van Diemen’s Land from 1840-1853. These women and their stories are an overlooked but important part of Irelands, and Grangegorman’s female convict history.
About the researchers
Dianne Snowden, from Tasmania, wrote her PhD on the Irish women and children who committed arson to be transported (University of Tasmania, 2005), published as ‘White Rag Burning’ in 2018. Joan Kavanagh wrote her Doctoral thesis on the Irish convicts sentenced to transportation between 1840 and 1852, (Trinity College Dublin, 2024). Both Dr Snowden and Dr Kavanagh Joan were awarded the Australian Historical Association Award in 2018 for their Book, Van Dieman’s Women. A History of Transportation.
Find out more
The database of convict information is due to be published in early 2025.
Read an article by Dr Joan Kavanagh on the transportation history of Grangegorman
