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Go On Johnny!

I have of late been reading an interesting book I happily and accidentally chanced upon in the History wing of the University liberry - an account of a load of Irish settlers to the Cape Province in 1820. Seeking a new life and a fresh start, fleeing Protestant rule and worsening spud yields back home, a whole load of Oirish lads and families made their way Southalong aboard the HM "Fanny" bound for Cape Town. The book is mainly a dry enough account of the death, misfortune and hardship endured by these poor souls who were landed with an awful barren spot of farmland near a parish called Clanwilliam, believe it or not. The misery is interjected from time to time however with amusing anecdotes from a young stowaway scut by the name of John Montgomery. Excerpts of his musings were published decades later in a few South African newspapers such as the Free State Gazette - the readers of which would no doubt have been more horrified than amused by the memoirs of the rogueish Jackeen.
And we wonder why we're all tarred with the same brush, 200 years later? Go on Johnny!