I’ve been sailing the seven seas with Anne Jane Thornton, the Donegal teenager who, almost 200 years ago, dressed as a seaman to cross the Atlantic in search of her lover. His disbelief is evident in the report of the encounter carried at length in the Freeman’s Journal of February 14, 1835. Her own account is reported in detail in newspaper reports as well as in the autobiography that made her famous, Interesting life and wonderful adventures of that extraordinary woman Anne Jane Thornton. When he was called back to his father’s house in New Brunswick, Canada, she hatched a plan to follow him. In the DIB, for example, there are some 11,000 Irish lives, from earliest times to the 21st century, to explore.

Source: Irish Examiner December 20, 2025 01:00 UTC