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The Nineteenth Century
--- Ireland. Including Emigration
Timeslip. Liverpool in the 1970s and
Ireland at the time of the potato famine.
Tom Mullen is thirteen and three-quarters. Abandoned as an infant
he has lived in a succession of fozzies (foster homes) puntuated
by spells in the juvy (juvenile detention centre). One result
of all this is that he regards himself as something of a loner.
The ground is being prepared for a new school. But it is taking
a long time just to get the foundations ready. Moreover fences
have been put up with guards to patrol them. Curious to see what
is going on Tom manages to give the guard the slip. He finds a
huge grave filled with coffins. Tom feels something grabbing him
and falls into the grave. He later emerges to find himself on
the island of Achill, off the west coast of Ireland at the time
of the potato famine and he becomes deeply involved with the Monaghan
family. From then on the story alternates between the Ireland
of 1847 and 1848 and the Liverpool of 1973. One of the Monaghans,
Tully, is very like Tom in appearance and Tom eventually comes
to believe that he is actually his own great grandfather. He also
realises why he was sent back in time. In this strange way Tom
at last gains a sense of identity, comes to accept his circumstances
and realises he is not such a loner after all.
The true horror of the Irish famine is brought out, along with
the fact that it was made much worse than it needed to be by the
actions of the government - - something which is not always mentioned.
Living on an island the Monaghans are able to survive -- just.
They can live on fish and seaweed. But they cannot afford to pay
their rent and soldiers are sent to destroy their cottages. So
all they can do is walk to Dublin and find a ship to take them
to Liverpool. And while the Irish are dying of starvation grain,
cows and pigs are being sent to England.
The parts set in the past are particularly powerfully written.
Told in the first person in the -- sometimes coarse -- language
of a modern disaffected teenager who does not hesitate to describe
someone as having 'mouse turd eyes.'
This book is written round a true, and extraordinary, incident.
In 1973, when a new school was being built in Liverpool, a mass
grave of over 3,000 coffins was discovered. The Home Office gave
instructions for the coffins to be removed and incinerated. This
was carried out in secrecy. This secret was kept until 1881 when
it was the subject of an article in The Catholic Pictorial.
A later newspaper article reported that the Home Office has
no record of such a mass grave.
It is believed that the grave contained the bodies of many of
the thousands of Irish who flooded into Liverpool in 1847 and
1848. Weakened by starvation they easily succumbed to typhus,
dysentery and scurvy before being buried in a pauper's grave.
This is a truly remarkable book. The vivid descriptions of the
misery and suffering of the Irish are given an extra dimension
by being linked to Tom's identity problems. But above all the
story of the mass grave provides its own commentary.
Young adult
The fictional diary of a young girl during
the Irish potato famine.
Phyllis, or Phylly, lives with her family on a smallholding in
the south of Ireland. They just manage to scratch a living until
the Irish potato crop - the main food supply of the Irish peasantry
- fails. Phylly's family have to suffer the horrors of starvation
and her baby sister dies. Then Phylly is able to do something
to help her family when she gets a job as a scullery maid in the
big house on the estate. Here there is a touch of romance as the
son of the family is sympathetic to the plight of the Irish and
is attracted to Phyllis. Finally, while she is away for a few
days trying to find her brother, she returns to find the cottage
burned to the ground and her family gone. Devastated she leaves
her job and sets off to Dublin to try to find them.
This book takes a wider look at the Irish potato famine. It goes
beyond the suffering of the people and considers the political
implications. The potato blight is a terrible natural disaster
but its consequences are worse than need be because of the actions
of the politicians. The Irish are dying in thousands of starvation,
of fever and dysentery and yet grain is still being exported to
England. Tenants are being evicted because they cannot pay the
rent and their homes destroyed. Half-hearted attempts at famine
relief and public works to give employment are mismanaged. This
aspect is brought out clearly because Phylly's older brother Pat
is involved in politics and they have discussions about Daniel
O'Connel and Robert Peel. And then later Pat becomes involved
in revolution and Phylly gets a job on the Nation newsletter.
The difference in the lives of the rich and poor are graphically
shown when Phylly goes up to the big house. Why, even the kitchen
is bigger than the whole of her little cottage.
This book shows the suffering of the people during the famine
and also reveals the shocking and despicable attitudes of many
of the politicians.
Comes with historical notes and several contemporary pictures.
The author's mother was Irish and she has written this book in
memory of all those who have struggled to make a living in Ireland.
11+
One of the Forget-me-Not teenage historical romance series.
Elizabeth is the younger daughter of Lord Roscawl, an English landlord living in Ireland in 1848. Elizabeth has grown up in the castle with plenty of food and expensive clothes, a world apart from the poor, Irish villagers who live mainly on potatoes. Normally a girl in Elizabeth's position would have had no contact at all with the Irish peasants and would have known absolutely nothing at all about them. But things are different in Elizabeth's case. When she was small Elizabeth used to play with the village children until she was found out and stopped. She still remembers her childhood playmates, especially one of them, Michael O'Shea.
The truth about the potato blight is kept from Elizabeth but now and then little snippets of information about the plight of the Irish filter through to her. One day she manages to slip away and ride to the village where she sees for herself the utter desolation of the Irish.
Elizabeth makes contact with Michael again and hears about the fever caused by hunger, about the hard, backbreaking work that Michael has to do on the road for a pittance and about the ever constant threat of eviction. She also learns that the factor is stealing the meal which was meant for the villagers. Elizabeth determines to do something about this herself. At night she steals food from the castle, and also from the factor's store, and takes it down to the village in secret. Eventually she is found out. Her mother is going to take her to London and force her to marry a useless fop but Elizabeth escapes and runs away with Michael.
The background is well researched and authentic and there is also a short historical note at the back. This book, along with others in the Forget me Not series should help to bring history to those girls who would not otherwise be drawn to it.
In this day and age some may be surprised that Elizabeth and Michael never go beyond the occasional chaste kiss but there is a very good reason for this. This series may be intended for teenagers but I know for a fact that romances are read by girls as young as ten. So the publishers have to be careful - and responsible.
Romance is a specialised genre which has its own loyal and devoted supporters. I am not one of them. Personally I am more interested in hounds than husbands. But I enjoyed The Wildest Dream. I found it had more of a story than many of the genre.
The Wildest Dream will delight the many fans of romance. But it is also a good read in its own right and should have an appeal beyond the usual readers of romances.
Teenage
1851 and Ireland after the potato famine. The O'Connells cannot pay their rent so their cottage is destroyed by the landlord's agent. Their father in America has sent money so that they can join him there but Mrs O'Connell feels that she cannot leave Ireland so fifteen year old Maura and twelve year old Patrick set sail for Liverpool themselves.
Once there they find there are plenty of people ready to relieve Irish emigrants of their tickets and what little money they have but, after many adventures and with the help of the actor Mr Drabble, they escape from the clutches of the greedy Mrs Sonderbye and the Lime Street Runners and finally find themselves safely aboard the Robert Peel bound for America.
While in Liverpool they also meet, and help, Laurence, the son of an English lord. Laurence has run away from home.
This is an exciting adventure story and it is possible to overlook the fact that this book also contains a wealth of historical detail:- the descriptions of Ireland in the first few chapters, the emigrant ship from Cork to Liverpool, the medical examination for emigrants, the final boarding of the Robert Peel - all are described with a life-like realism.
The characters are drawn boldly but are not rounded.
I did, however, have one or two reservations. The part, for example, where Albert, Laurence's older brother, schemes to make his father change his will. Albert is only fifteen and I found his detailed plotting rather unlikely.
Avi has a very fluent style and children as young as eleven should have no difficulty with it. But I calculate that the book is 120,000 words long and I feel that that is too long even for many teenagers. Moreover The Escape from Home is only half a book. It ends with Laurence stowed away in a crate on the ship desperately hoping that Patrick will get to him in time.
'"Please, please," Lawrence prayed out loud, "let Patrick come. If he doesn't I'll die in here. I know I will."
To be continued in
Book Two: Lord Kirkle's Money'
Despite these reservations Escape from Home is a thrilling adventure story with a well researched historical background.
Avi is a well known American author who has won the Newbery Medal for an earlier book. His own family emigrated to America from Ireland.
12+
This book was first published in 1983. It has been reprinted several times since.
It starts with a forward. An old lady is sitting in a rocking chair on the verandah of a ranch house in California. She is telling her grandchildren how the O'Briens came to leave Ireland for California. Her knees are covered with a scarlet cloak, over her shoulders is a moon-shawl and around her neck is a golden torc. The cloak, moon-shawl and the torc all have a special significance in the story. They also let us know right from the start that the two children in the story are going to be successful and are going to survive.
Then the story goes back to 1847. Young Sean O'Brien is struggling to find food to keep himself, his mother and young sister alive. It is the time of the potato famine and his father has gone to America to find a new home for his family. Sean and his young sister Annie are befriended by a Dragoon who warns the family that the plague is now sweeping Ireland. He can get them on a ship bound for America. Their mother is too weak to travel so the Dragoon just takes Sean and Annie to Cork. Before they sail he gives them his scarlet cloak.
Their mother has entrusted to them a ribbon torc of thin beaten gold. It has belonged to the O'Briens for over a thousand years. It is the soul and fortunes of the family. She makes the children promise to get it safely to their father in Grass Valley, California. Her words make a greater impression on Annie than on Sean.
They have many adventures on their long and hazardous journey to California. They encounter shipwreck, starvation in the city of Boston, thirst in the desert. They meet many people who try to harm them and steal the torc but they also make many friends who help them on their way - such as Fiddler Donnelly who teaches Sean to play the fiddle and Annie to dance and who finally gives them his fiddle, Lil' Luke the huge negro servant who gets the two old ladies he works for to look after them for a time, Colonel Paul Whitman, the captain of a riverboat and the old trapper and gold seeker, Seamus Finn. The golden torc is stolen many times but it always finds its way back to the children and it finally leads them to their father - and their mother who has survived after all.
In describing Sean and Annie's journey Michael Morpugo has given vivid little cameo pictures of the following:- Ireland in the potato famine, an emigrant ship, a wealthy Boston household, an Ohio riverboat, the dangers of the California Trail. America in 1847 in a nutshell.
10+