In 1867 John Boyle O'Reilly was given a sentence second only to death in its severity: transportation. O'Reilly, however, was no ordinary convict. He published poetry throughout the harrowing journey to Australia and, once there, outwitted prison guards to escape to America.

James Wilson's time in Australia is immortalized in his letter "A Voice from the Tomb" which describes the penal colony experience in vivid detail. It was this letter that proved instrumental in setting in motion the great Catalpa Rescue.

Married with 4 young children, and employed as a housemaid, in 1846 Jane was sentenced to 7 years transportation for “receiving cheese and bacon knowing the same to have been stolen”.

Cornelius Dwyer Kane (aka Keane) (1839-1891) had been a law clerk and cener from Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland. Transported abroad the Hougoumont he was conditially pardoned in 1871, but was forbidden from returning to Ireland, So he never reunited with his wife and children there. He did however, settle in Queensland and became a civil servant.