The Sisters O'Shaughnessy: Goodbye from Kerry

When the first case of Blight strikes the Lumper Potato crop of 1845, no one can predict the socioeconomic crisis that will follow. For the Catholic peasants of Ireland, an already impoverished monocrop society, the effects of the diseased crops quickly ripple throughout the hillsides. Over the following eight years, unthinkable suffering and compounding circumstances will leave the country of Ireland absolutely devastated.

During this time known as 'The Great Hunger', starving Irish Catholics, compelled by hopeless desperation, begin emigrating from their homeland. The tradition of 'American Wakes' is implemented as neighbors say goodbye forever, hoping to find solace on the shores of England, Canada, and America. The O'Shaughnessy family is no exception. One-by-one the four eldest daughters must each leave home. Each one setting out on her own journey toward safety, discovering she has only traded in one nightmarish set of circumstances for another.

Alma, relocating to Skibbereen to begin married life as a farmer, bears witness to a town full of green-faced little children who eat grass by the handful. A town plagued by scurvy, mass graves, and abandoned dogs left to dig for food in the cemeteries.

Eileen, journeying to America, takes up residence in the overcrowded slums of Five Points in New York, constantly aware of the tensions brewing just under the surface, and of the dangers of the nearby Philadelphia Nativist Riots. Her remaining source of hope, Bishop Kenrick, who continues to fight for the rights of the Irish Catholics.

Mary, traveling to the nearby shores of England, is met with the harsh reality of the anti-Irish sentiment lurking throughout the ruling country, influencing the help that Ireland so desperately needs. Help that always seems to fall too little, too late.

And Margaret, the youngest of the four, journaling her accounts of home and of what remains of their family unit. Enduring the constant loss, unrelenting starvation, and inescapable tragedy that Ireland has become. Where absentee landlords, and the newly installed Poor Laws further compound issues, as workhouses overflow, and men lay down to die alongside the Road to Nowhere.

These fictionalized letters connect the sisters across continents and oceans, as they each document their hardships and lean on one another for strength. A great resource for learning the history of The Irish Potato Famine, the unfortunate dominoes that enabled a bad harvest to evolve into a national tragedy, and the global relations that resulted from the ensuing mass emigration.