As the core musical element within female artistic group the Prankqueans, the McMolly trio (Rosie, Jacqui and Cliona) have been involved in several projects celebrating unsung female voices.
Parramatta Female Factory - Song Suite
Rosie McDonald & Cliona were commissioned to write a suite of songs for the Bicentennial of the opening of the Parramatta Female Factory, which resulted in their new EP, "Mothers of the Nation".
Hear her recent Radio National The Music Show interview with Andrew Ford.
Orphan Girls from the Irish Famine
Cliona and Jacqui at the Hyde Park Barracks Memorial
Courageous Girl is a song written by Cliona to celebrate the spirit of unsung voices from our Australian past.
…Hear it sung by Jacqueline McPhee
…See it performed by the Mothers of the Nation band
“The young women who came to the Australian colonies during the Famine years of 1848 to 1850 were from workhouses in all 32 counties throughout Ireland. All were destitute and many had lost their parents and families, so were ’orphans’ in the modern sense of the word. Others were simply unable to support themselves within the family. The term ‘orphan’, meaning loss of at least one parent, did apply to the vast majority of the 4114 who took up the offer under Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme.”
For more information about these amazing women see…
irishfaminememorial.org/orphans/