Escape from Fremantle: The Irish Fenians in Western Australia

The classic Irish-Australian folk ballad, 'The Catalpa', named after the American whaling ship that rescued six Irish Fenian political prisoners from Western Australia in 1876, is performed by Ben Salter and Hannah Morrell and features animation by Aaron Luke Wilson. -- In the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of democratic reformers, rural labour protestors, Irish freedom fighters and revolutionaries were exiled as political prisoners to Britain’s Australian colonies. As convicts, they resisted exploitation through inventive solidarity in the face of coercion, and in turn changed the political direction of the colonies. The Conviction Politics project traces how these convicts and their ideas helped lay the foundations of egalitarianism, political and social democracy, unions and workers rights and national self-determination in Australia and the UK. Through archival research, data analysis, documentary, animation and song, Conviction Politics is producing an innovative suite of digital history content exploring these stories and their contemporary resonance, including 100 short documentaries. Based at Monash University, Conviction Politics collaborates with researchers from universities in Australia, the UK and Ireland, and is partnered with production company Roar Film and a range of museums, archives, and unions. -- Love history? Subscribe to our channel for more! We'll be uploading new short documentaries every week.