Thomas Francis Meagher, Waterford City, September 2018.

#history #ireland #tasmania #tasmanianartist #thomasfrancismeagher #mothersday on Mothers Day in Australia, Sunday 14 May. Catherine (nee Bennett) Meagher (1st wife of Thomas Francis Meagher) buried in the family vault in the Faithlegg Cemetery, Waterford, Ireland. Her little baby Henry lies buried in the St John's Church Cemetery, Richmond, Tasmania. On Mothers Day today I'm thinking of her life and the grief of a young mother leaving her first born who died of influenza just 4 months old. Catherine left Van Diemen's Land to be reunited with her husband who had escaped to America. It's an incredible story. Earlier this year I placed a bonnet for baby Henry and a bonnet for Catherine ( made by quilter Ruth Murray in Waterford) on Catherine's grave in Waterford. Yesterday I visited baby Henry's grave at Richmond, Tasmania and placed both bonnets on his grave that lies alone at the side of St John's Church. Catherine was just 22 when she died in Waterford, May 1854, not long after giving birth to her - and husband Thomas Meagher's second son, Thomas Bennett Meagher. Thinking of mothers and the love of a mother, especially today as we, here in Australia, remember Mothers. I will be at the Matrons Cottage at the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site today. The Site has an Open Day for Mothers Day today. I look forward to chatting with visitors about my 'Roses from the Heart' Memorial. My art using symbolic bonnet tributes to remember the lives of Australia's convict women, colonial women who became the European grandmothers of Australia. Catherine Bennett's mother Mary (Maria) was a free woman who travelled by ship from Ireland to be reunited with her Irish husband Bryan Bennet who'd been transported to Van Diemen's Land.

Standing in the spot where the #flagofIreland #Irishflag was flown for the very first time in the city of #Waterford #Ireland on #March 7th 1848 just 10 days before what is now known as #StPatricksDay #RyanJanekWolowski waving the #Irishtricolour #Irish #flag #ThomasFrancisMeagher #ThomasMeagher #WaterfordCrystal #Celtic #Gaelic #Slainte #StPatrick #StPatricks #SaintPatrick #SaintPatricks #Green #clover #Shamrock #luckoftheirish🍀 #LuckoftheIrish (at Waterford, Ireland)