ABSTRACT
John McGillion was fifty before he found out that he had a twin sister. Both had been placed in the same Catholic Home in Northern Ireland when they were toddlers, and then segregated. His sister, Tilly, had remained there but when John was ten he was sent off to Australia. Child migrants like John, ruthlessly denied any information about their background, have no roots and no identity. Pamela Smedley was sent out to Australia when she was twelve but she has never taken out Australian citizenship and is obsessed by her need to find out if she has a family, "an uncle, an aunt, anyone would do". Pamela's lifelong feelings of desolation are echoed by Denise Trowsdale, who was sent to the same orphanage as Pamela. Barnardo's in Australia makes the point that Australian children placed in the same orphanages as the British child migrants had an equally harsh time.
