‘Auntie Lena,’ repeated Eily, ‘you’re our grandaunt. We’re Margaret and John O’Driscoll’s children. I’m Eily and this is Michael and this is our little sister Peggy.’
The old lady stood staring at them open-mouthed. She pulled up a chair and sat down. She gazed at them. The older girl was like Margaret, her mother. But they looked like beggars, or children from the workhouse.
‘I am Lena Murphy,’ she answered.
‘Where’s the other one?’ piped up Peggy.
‘Oh, do you mean my sister Nano? She’s up in bed. She’s not very strong and has to rest a lot.’
Peggy edged her way forward and handed the drooping dirty bunch of flowers to her grandaunt. Lena could not help smiling.
‘I’ve never had a cake with icing on the top and sugar violets,’ confided Peggy.
The old lady looked at them. It was just unbelievable that these urchins were related to her. They looked famished and exhausted. They must have walked a very long way.
She brought them through to the kitchen and sat them down. She set the kettle to boil and got out fresh soda bread and a jar of her best plum jam. There would be time enough for the story of what had happened, and where Margaret and John were, but the first thing was to get a bit inside them before they passed out. From upstairs came a knocking on the floor.
That sister of mine, Nano, is always looking for something, thought Lena to herself. Well, Nano Murphy, you are in for a shock when you find out just who is sitting in our back kitchen, and the story they have to tell!
Eily looked around her. The place was old and could do with a lick of paint, but it was clean and neat. One shelf held a row of fine delph, another, various sizes of jars and baking dishes. They were with family – that was the most important thing. She hoped above all hopes that they could stay. An angry stomping could be heard upstairs, followed by a thumping noise coming down the wooden stairs. A large round-faced woman, her grey curls hanging loose to her shoulders, stood at the bottom in a blue flannel nightgown and a grey shawl. Total disbelief came over her face when she saw the children.
‘Have you lost your senses, Lena? Letting a crowd of beggars into our kitchen, and Lord knows we’ve little enough – next thing we’ll be getting the fever. Go away out of it you young pups and don’t be taking advantage of an old woman’s soft heart.’ Nano had said her piece.
‘Will you whisht, Nano, and calm down. These are Margaret’s children, Mary Ellen’s grandchildren, our own flesh and blood,’ said Lena sharply.
Nano came closer and peered at them. Despite their haggard appearance and under the layer of dirt – yes, there were some resemblances. She sat down with a plop on an old stuffed chair, pulling her shawl around her.
‘Where have you come from? Where’s Margaret?’ She began to bombard them with questions.
Lena came over and scolded her. ‘Let them have a sup of tay first – can’t you see, woman, that the children are all done in?’
The children sipped the hot sweet milky tea and stuffed the soda bread and jam into their mouths, finishing off the loaf. The two aunts sat and watched them, neither of them saying a word, each engrossed in her own thoughts.
When all was finished, Lena threw two extra sods on the fire. Peggy ran over and climbed on her lap, then Eily and Michael began the story – from Father going to work on the roads scheme, to baby Bridget dying and Mother going off to search for him, then their having to leave the cottage, and the kindness of Mary Kate. The beauty of the countryside and the constant search for food. The horrors along the way. Peggy’s desperate illness, and the aching exhaustion of walking so far, and how they had finally come to find Market Lane. When Eily looked up, the two aunts were busily blowing their noses and drying their eyes.
‘Well, dotes, none of you will take one step further as long as myself and Nano are here. We haven’t much now, as you can see, but there is room enough for our own, and maybe the good Lord in time will direct Margaret or John here to find you.’
Lena had stood up and was holding her arms open to them. Eily relaxed at last, knowing they would be safe in their new home with Nano and Lena. But, at the same moment, she knew their hearts would always belong to the little thatched cottage with the flat stones outside, and the small overgrown garden, and the fields around it with the breeze blowing softly through the hawthorn tree.
A Simple History of The Great Famine 1845–1850
IN IRELAND LONG AGO most of the people were poor, very poor. They lived and worked on land that was not their own.
Their homes were small cottages and cabins which were overcrowded and dirty. They had small plots of land beside their houses to grow their own food. The potato was grown everywhere, as it yielded the most. Their food was largely potatoes and milk, but this was enough to keep them going.
Then, in the summer of 1845 after a long wet spell, when the people went to dig their potatoes, they could not believe it – the potatoes had got a disease and were rotting in the ground. No matter what they did, the potatoes turned to sludge and slime. This disease spread all over the country to every part of Ireland.
The people prayed to God to save them. Famine had come. They were desperate. They searched for food and sold everything they had. Most went hungry.
There were plenty of other crops, but most of them were sold and exported to other countries. The poor had no money to buy food. The government had to import boat-loads of Indian corn meal (yellow meal) to feed them. But this was not enough.
Within a year large public works schemes had been set up. People worked at building roads, clearing land and so on. The work was hard for those that were already undernourished and weak, but it was a way of earning some money.
Workhouses were crowded with those who had nowhere to go and nothing to eat. Life there was rigid and strict.
Some of the landlords did all they could to help their tenants, while others just ignored the situation. Worst of all were the landlords who evicted the tenants who could not pay rent and pulled down their simple cabins.
By the end of the summer of 1846 it was clear that the potato crop had failed again. The people had nothing. They roamed the country. The work schemes were totally crowded and people rioted outside the workhouses, trying to get in.
With the starvation now came disease – famine fever, typhus, dysentery. These spread among the already weakened people.
Ireland had become a land of living ghosts. Parishes could not keep up with the amount of deaths and had to open mass graves. Soup kitchens were set up, but still death and disease spread throughout the country.
The cycle kept on. During 1847 and the following years, approximately one million men, women and children set sail for Liverpool and North America. Many died on the long rough sea-voyages and those that survived had to work very hard to make a new life in a strange land.
For those at home the winter of 1847-1848 was one of the worst ever. This was followed by the potato blight in the autumn of 1848 and again in 1849. People died on the roads, in the streets, in the cottages and fields. All in all, about one million died. In a small country like Ireland it was a huge proportion of the population.
Those that emigrated to America and Canada brought with them their strength and their courage and hope. Those that were left behind struggled to survive and worked to build a country where such a disaster could never happen again.
About the Author
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA is one of Ireland’s most popular children’s authors. She has written many bestselling children’s books. Under the Hawthorn Tree, her first novel, became an immediate bestseller and has been described as ‘the biggest success story in children’s historical fiction.’ It has been reprinted numerous times since its first publication in 1990, and has reached a worldwide audience through translations and foreign editions. Its sequels, Wildflower Girl and Fields of Home, which complete the CHILDREN OF THE FAMINE trilogy, have also been hugely successful. Marita’s other children’s novels (see ins
ide back cover) have also received wide critical acclaim.
DONALD TESKEY drew the chapter-head illustrations. His paintings have been exhibited to great acclaim in Europe and North America.
Other Books by
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA
Granny MacGinty (for younger readers)
Wildflower Girl
Fields of Home
The Blue Horse
No Goodbye
Safe Harbour
In Deep Dark Wood
A Girl Called Blue
Copyright
This eBook edition first published 2013 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,
12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland.
Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777
E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.obrien.ie
First published 1990. Reprinted 1990 (twice), 1991 (twice), 1992 (twice), 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 (twice), 2001 (twice), 2002, 2003, 2004 (twice), 2005, 2006, 2007 (twice), 2008 (twice), 2009, 2010 (twice), 2012.
eBook ISBN: 978–1–84717–600–4
Copyright for text © Marita Conlon-McKenna
Copyright for typesetting, layout, design, editing and illustrations
© The O’Brien Press Ltd
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this title is available from The British Library
Typesetting, layout, editing, design: The O’Brien Press Ltd
Internal illustrations: Donald Teskey
Cover illustration: PJ Lynch
The O’Brien Press receives assistance from
THE
CHILDREN OF THE FAMINE
TRILOGY
WILDFLOWER GIRL
When she was only seven, Peggy made a terrifying journey, with her sister Eily and brother Michael, through famine-torn Ireland. Now she sets out on another dangerous and frightening journey – to America. Crossing the Atlantic takes six long, uncomfortable weeks. What will Peggy find when she gets to the New World? And will she ever see her homeland and her beloved sister and brother again?
FIELDS OF HOME
Only a few years ago, Eily, Michael and Peggy survived the Great Famine. Now Peggy is in America, hoping for a new life, and finally she heads for the Wild West. Eily and Michael face new challenges at home. Everywhere there is unrest, with evictions, burnings, secret meetings. What will become of them and of Eily’s little girl, Mary-Brigid?
Read an extract from Wildflower Girl …
Work is scarce in Castletaggart, and Eily and Michael have decided that thirteen-year-old Peggy can travel to America to look for work. Peggy is excited, but also nervous …
Chapter 3
Farewell
No matter what she did, Peggy couldn’t sleep. She was too excited, too nervous, too sad – too everything. Gently she rolled over on her side and eased herself out of the bed. Eily slept on.
Peggy pulled on some clothes and crept like a kitten from the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. She lifted the latch and let herself out.
There wasn’t a sinner around. Everyone was still in bed. Peggy was tempted to shout: Today’s the day! Wake up! but she held her peace and escaped from the narrow streets and alleyways. She passed the little bridge and this morning it seemed lonelier than ever. But she didn’t have time to sit and dream today. Small-holdings where potatoes would soon be ready, rich meadows of lush green grass and fields of grain – barley and wheat – spread out in the distance.
She climbed over a jagged low wall into her favourite field. The grass was damp with dew, making her feet wet and the hem of her dress cling to her legs. Cowslips and buttercups, bluebells, ragged robin, tall lacy cow parsley – all slept drowsily waiting for the morning sun to wake them up. She picked them one by one, and pulled ribbons of woodbine from the hedgerow. She danced and spun round and round till the blue sky and green grass blurred and became one. Her arms were filled with wild flowers when she suddenly noticed an old farmer and his cart slow down and stare at her, curious. Soon the town would be awake. She raced back to Market Lane and pushed in the kitchen door.
Nano was sitting at the kitchen table in her nightdress. She looked old and tired, and beautiful.
Peggy ran to her. ‘Aren’t they lovely, Nano?’ She opened her arms and let the flowers tumble onto her great-aunt’s lap. ‘They’re for you.’
‘Peggy, you’re always bringing me flowers …’ Nano held the woodbine to her face. ‘By tonight its scent will fill the house … by tonight …’
Peggy washed and dressed. Eily cooked the biggest breakfast ever. They all sat around and watched her eat, making sure she swallowed every bit. Eily had sorted out food for travelling, saying she hoped it would last all the weeks at sea. There was dried beef, some tea and sugar, a rich porter cake, a round golden cheese, and dry oatcakes. Another hour and it would be time to leave.
Nano was varying between fussing and flustering and sitting down every few minutes with her handkerchief to her eyes. Peggy tried to leave her be and concentrate on getting ready.
Michael fastened a horse-hair bracelet on Peggy’s wrist. ‘From the three best horses in the stable.’ He had plaited and linked the black, the chestnut brown and the golden hair so they came together and formed a stiff circle. ‘It will bring you luck and speed and strength,’ he added.
Peggy looked at it and loved it straight away, knowing what it meant.
Nano produced a small drawstring purse, heavy with coins. ‘For a rainy day, pet, and to help you get started.’
Eily wrapped her best shawl around Peggy’s shoulders. ‘It’s yours. We can’t send you off to the New World with a worn-out shawl.’ Peggy clutched it close to her. She rubbed her face to the soft wool. It would enfold her just like Eily had always wrapped her and kept her safe.
All too soon they heard the clatter of the cart on the cobbles in the lane. Nell Molloy and her family were sitting on the cart, the little ones perched on tightly wrapped bundles of clothes. Michael went to fetch Peggy’s bundle. Eily was stacking her wrapped food.
Nano had disappeared into the shop. She was walking up and down and running her hand over and back on the counter distractedly. Peggy tiptoed in and hugged her.
‘Stay here, Auntie Nano! Don’t come out in the lane.’
Nano managed to paste a wobbly smile across her face. There’d be time enough for tears later.
Michael lifted Peggy on to the cart. Eily ran almost the whole way down the main street, waving, and following the cart and horses like a little girl. Peggy watched and waved until all that was left of Castletaggart town was the haze of smoke disappearing in the distance.
Also available on DVD
Under the Hawthorn Tree: Children of the Famine Page 9
