Prisoners on Eliza II [1832]

Francis MacNamara was transported on the prison ship Eliza II. He was one of 196 prisoners as shown below. In the Rebel column you can see he must have had plenty of opportunity to get to know some of the 43 Whiteboys on board! The Whiteboys (Irish: Buachaillí Bána) were a secret Irish agrarian organization in 18th-century Ireland which used violent tactics to defend tenant farmer land rights for subsistence farming. Their name derives from the white smocks the members wore in their nightly raids. See Wikipedia

In his poem 'A Dialogue between two Hibernians in Botany Bay' MacNamara mentions the rebels:

But how did this lagging of yours come to pass,
I'm inclined to think you neglected the mass
And robbed your poor soul of felicity's joys,
By joining yourself to the cursed White Boys.

This data below was compiled from searches at Irish Convicts to New South Wales

If you use the scroll bars you can see it records McNamara, Francis aged 21, Birth 1811, 7 year Sentence, Marital Status single, Employment Miner.

THE  SYDNEY  HERALD

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1832

                                         From Cork, same day, having sailed from thence

                                         on the 10th of May, the ship Eliza, 538 tons, Cap-

                                         tain Groves, with 198 Male Prisoners, under the

                                         Superintendence of Dr. Bell, R.N. The Guard

                                         comprises 29 rank and file of the 4th, 17th, and

                                         63rd Regiments, under the command of Lieute-

                                         nant Hewson, and Ensign Nicholson of the 4th

                                         Regiment.