Irish man in Australia who wishes to reunite with siblings after more than 60 years

An 80-year-old man who left Ireland 60 years ago hopes to make his Christmas wish come true by finding a sister he hasn’t seen since he was a teenager.

Martin Farrell, who was born in Poormansbridge, Abbeyleix, Co Laois in 1940, now lives in Melbourne and is desperate to find his beloved older sister Catherine ‘Kathleen’.

The death of Farrell’s younger brother, Johnny, at the age of 74, last Christmas Eve in Sydney, has increased his own sense of mortality and sparked his desire to locate his sister.

“Johnny, the youngest of the family, came to Australia with me. We were close and I suppose his death has made me think more about my siblings and my family life.

“I’d love to know what happened to Kathleen, even if she’s already passed away,” Farrell said speaking from his home in Melbourne.

Farrell’s journey to this stage in his life has not been easy.

Industrial schools

Martin and his brothers, members of a family of eight children, did not have an easy upbringing. Through no fault of their parents, Martin and Catherine (née Harding) of Ballacolla, had to place six of their eight children in industrial schools in Kilkenny and Clonmel.

The family of eight siblings included Mary ‘Sis’, Carmel, Michael, Jimmy (whose whereabouts are also unknown) Catherine, Martin, Paddy and Johnny. They were all born 18 months apart. Kathleen was next in age to Martin.

“It’s not that my parents didn’t like us, they just couldn’t cope. They managed to keep the two of us at home. The older and younger children.

“My dear mother was always in the hospital and my father couldn’t cope alone, so what happened was totally understandable,” explained Mr. Farrell.

“We were separated, so it was difficult for the brothers to keep in touch. Kathleen was in a girl’s industrial school in Kilkenny and I was in a boy’s too, but then I was sent to Clonmel when I grew up.

“When most of us left the industrial schools, we went back to Abbeyleix but we were like strangers to each other,” he said.

Kathleen was sent to the infirmary in Dublin and then went to live with her mother’s sister in Pinner, north London, where she continued to work as a nurse.

“All I know is that he visited Abbeyleix once after moving to London and that’s all I know. I have a photograph of her in her nurse’s uniform and I think it is from her time in London.

“From what I know, Kathleen could be in Australia,” Farrell mused.

Farrell, when he was 17, moved to Dublin and worked on the construction sites for a time before emigrating to the UK, spent time in the north of the country before moving to London for several years, again working in construction. and then meeting his future wife, a Cork woman.

However, the couple is now separated but has four daughters: Fiona, Laura, Maureen and Siobhan, who all live in Australia.

“At the time the Australian government was offering to pay the fee for people to go to work there, around £ 10, so we decided to go and so did my brother Johnny.

“Back then there were no cell phones and no internet, so obviously it was much more difficult to keep in touch.

“We came to Melbourne and I have lived here since I worked in the same business. When Johnny passed away, my daughter Fiona knew that his death affected me, so she started asking me more about my family in Ireland.

“She encouraged me to post the only photograph I have of her on Facebook in an attempt to find her or find out how her life ended. We have several people making contact and it has been shared everywhere, including in the United States, but no concrete information has emerged about it.

“It would really reassure me to know what became of Kathleen, since I was very close to her when we were kids,” Farrell said as he reflected on past memories.

“All I want is peace of mind and knowing that I can find out what happened to Kathleen.”