Many emigrants were sent in the 1844-1851 period from the Shirley Estate (the southern end of Co. Monaghan, in the civil parishes of Magheracloone and Magheross), with their passage paid for by the Shirleys as a way of getting rid of what the estate perceived as an overpopulation of tenants, who were starving, and save the estate the Poor Law Union taxes as it was cheaper to pay the passage than the taxes. The estate sent many to Australia and also some to the US, a number of the latter to relatives in the US who already had arrived in the states. The estate shipped the tenants, after providing a minimum of clothing, shoes, bedding and food -- the shipping agent in Liverpool had complained about the "ragged pack" in a previous "shipment" -- and a small amount of "landing money." One route was from Carrickmacross, Magheross, to Droheda and then Dundalk, Co. Louth, a seaport, and thence to Liverpool, and then on to the final destination. They also were shipped to Newry, Co. Armagh, just north of Dundalk, and when the railway to Dublin was opened (from Inniskeen), to Dublin -- all moving on to Liverpool (and sometimes Plymouth first), England, for transport overseas. A large Australian party of about 150 left in August 1849. It is estimated that some 1,300 persons in some 150 families were sent away up to about 1854. (For those researching ancestors who came to the US, a hint: do not neglect looking at passenger-list indexes for the US Port of New Orleans as many Irish immigrants, including some from the Shirley Estate, landed there and later came north into the US Midwest, etc.) This information is fromm the 55-page article in the Clogher Record, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (1992) by Dr. Patrick J. Duffy: "Assisted Emigration From the Shirley Estate 1843-1854." The publication is the journal of the Clogher Historical Society. It also contains lists of emigrants and also some heart-rending petitions from those seeking to be sent away from the state. Sally M