Joe Byrne
Joseph Byrne (21 November 1856 – 28 June 1880)[1] was an Australian bushranger of Irish descent. A friend of Ned Kelly, he was a member of the "Kelly Gang" who were declared outlaws after the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek. Despite wearing the improvised body armour for which Ned Kelly and his gang are now famous (and which he is reputed to have designed), Byrne received a fatal gunshot during the gang's final violent confrontation with police at Glenrowan, in June 1880.
Joe Byrne was born in 1856 in Woolshed, on the Reedy Creek flat 10km NW of Beechworth, Victoria. His father Patrick Byrne came from Carlow, Ireland (1831 Carlow Ireland- Nov 1870 Beechworth). He is buried at Benalla, Victoria. Joe's mother Margaret (née White) was born at Scariff, County Clare, Ireland. She was one of the "Irish Famine Girls" who immigrated to Sydney, Port Phillip and Adelaide from workhouses in every county of Ireland. These girls were given free passages to Australia due to poverty, death of their parents, or widowed parent unable to care for them during the Great Irish Famine. All, including Margaret, ended up in workhouses from where they were chosen to come to Australia via the Irish Famine Scheme between 1848 and 1850. Australia welcomed over 4,000 Irish 'orphan' girls during this period. Aged between 14 and 18, they were given the opportunity to make a new life in Australia. The Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, operated as a depot where the girls were first accommodated, is home to the Irish Famine Memorial. Margaret White was the daughter of Denis White and Margaret Ryan who were both from Scariff, County Clare (only Margaret's father was listed as living in Scariff at the time of Margaret's departure to Australia). She came with many other young women on the ship 'Thomas Arbuthnot'. The ship's surgeon,Charles Strutt was a kind and compassionate man and accompanied over 100 of these young women on a journey south to Yass and Gundagai where they found work in suitable families. Margaret was indentured a servant girl [as most of these girls were] for an Irishman, Nathaniel Stephen Powell, who was a grazier and the local magistrate for at Bungendore NSW, near modern-dayCanberra. She stayed at the Hyde Park Barracks for 40 days until she and many other girls were personally accompanied by Surgeon Charles Strutt to Nathaniel Powell's property 'Turella' in NSW. Sadly many of the records of the workhouses do not survive and that is the case for the Scariff workhouse in County Clare where Margaret was before she emigrated.[citation needed]
Joe Byrne commenced school at the Catholic school at Woolshed in 1862. He was a good student, normally among the top students in his class and developed a reputation as a "flash writer". He also became very good friends with fellow student Aaron Sherritt. However, Byrne's father Patrick developed heart disease and Byrne's school results suffered. He finished school in 1869 with a fifth-grade education while his father died in the same year from heart disease. Joe Byrne also learnt how to speak Cantonese from nearby Chinese gold miners and learned how to smoke opium.[citation needed]
Byrne and Sheritt became close friends and found themselves in trouble with the law by falling foul of a local, corrupt police constable. Byrne made his first appearance in court in 1871 on the charge of illegally using a horse, and had to pay a fine of 20 shillings to avoid going to jail. Byrne and Sherritt were later convicted of stealing a bullock and served six months in HM Prison Beechworth. During this imprisonment, Byrne and Sherritt met Jim Kelly who was the brother of Ned Kelly and Dan Kelly. Joe Byrne met Ned in 1876 and the pair soon became firm friends.
