Van Diemen's Land, the island south of mainland Australia, is now known as Tasmania. In the 1800s it was a penal colony to which the British government sent convicts.
Some of the Irish rebels tried for their parts in the Young Ireland movement of the 1840s were sent to Van Diemen's Land.
The transportation of convicts to Van Diemen's Land ended in 1853, the same year the colony changed its name to Tasmania, as an apparent to escape the stigma of having been a penal colony.
Transportation of convicts to Australia and Van Diemen's Land was protested by the Australian Anti-Transportation Movement in the mid-1800s. The practice of transportation as a punishment was finally stopped in 1867.
In popular culture: Van Diemen's Land was mentioned in a number of Irish folk songs as it was often the destination of Irish rebels convicted by the British. In the modern era, the Irish rock band U2 featured the song "Van Diemen's Land" on the 1988 album Rattle and Hum.
