"The emphasis in this book is on the voyage out to Western Australia and the ways in which Cashman used the genre of the diary to deal with his personal adjustments to being a political prisoner... Sullivan also discusses Cashman's verse and song writing, as well as the similar compositions of other Fenians who between them developed a ship's newspaper ... named The Wild Goose... [The] diary and accompanying materials provide an insight into the attitudes and lives of the period, especially in relation to life aboard a convict ship." (Graham Seal, JAS Review of Books no. 20 November 2003)
Walter McGrath examines documents produced during the voyage of the convict ship the Hougoumont. The ship carried 62 Fenians including some with a literary bent. The documents examined are Denis B. Cashman's Fenian Diary and the hand-written periodical The Wild Goose: A Collection of Ocean Waifs.
McGrath provides details on some of the Wild Goose contributors, particularly the convicted Fenians John Edward 'Ned' Kelly, John Flood and J. B. O'Reilly, and the ship's chaplain Father Bernard Delaney. Some of Kelly's, Flood's and O'Reilly's Wild Goose poetry is re-published in the article.
Walter McGrath examines documents produced during the voyage of the convict ship the Hougoumont. The ship carried 62 Fenians including some with a literary bent. The documents examined are Denis B. Cashman's Fenian Diary and the hand-written periodical The Wild Goose: A Collection of Ocean Waifs.
McGrath provides details on some of the Wild Goose contributors, particularly the convicted Fenians John Edward 'Ned' Kelly, John Flood and J. B. O'Reilly, and the ship's chaplain Father Bernard Delaney. Some of Kelly's, Flood's and O'Reilly's Wild Goose poetry is re-published in the article.
