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The
Book
In the mid-nineteenth century, famine hits Ireland, threatening
an entire population and jeopardizing the future of two young
lovers. Hunger and the disease it brings spreads rapidly. Rumors
abound, as the people fear they will be cleared from the land,
losing their homes and all that they own. Word arrives that the
landlord will load them onto ships and send them all to America.
Mary and Michael are separated and with 500 others, Mary is
packed into the steerage of the aging freighter Virginius.
Michael promises he will send for her when the famine ends. But
within months, news is send that the Virginius has gone down and
all aboard her lost. The people riot and threaten revenge,
spurring brutal, punitive punishment. The landlord is murdered
and the story spreads that the lover of a girl on the Virginius
had killed him.
Did the Virginius founder? Was Mary lost to Michael forever?
Michael, on the run from the sheriff and the Queen’s own
guards, flees Ireland for America. Michael now falls prey to the
runners and sharps on the waterfront, left with little hope. He
takes up with unsavory wharf rats stealing from the hundreds of
ships anchored in the harbor. Then one night, as they ravage the
hold of another anonymous freighter, he stumbles upon the ship's
name. It would appear that the Virginius had been raised from
the deep.
Mary does survive the seven-week crossing to Grosse Isle, the
quarantine station in the St. Lawrence. And she, like thousands
of others would eventually attempt the long walk from Montreal
to New York City. Michael, seeing the Virginius afloat, would
turn towards Quebec. Neither would make their destinations and
fate would bring them together in Providence.
This story of undying love takes place against one of the most
brutal experiences a people have ever endured. They leave a land
that has been decimated by death and exile, still wishing to
return. But they find in America a freedom they never had in
Ireland. Their love of their enchanted island and their
inability to return will torment them forever. And Michael will
never speak of the murder.
History
records that the Virginius, the ship carrying Major Mahon’s
"off-scourings" of Kildologue, foundered and all
passengers were lost. As a result of his ruthless evictions
the Major was murdered on November 2, 1847, and that evening a
signal fire was set atop of Slieve Bawn in the hamlet of
Kilmacnaneny. Mary lived in Kildologue while Michael’s
family lived in Kilmacaneny and Kilclogherna.
History
also records that Mary and Michael were reunited in
Providence, Rhode Island, four years later and that they were
then married in Chilton, Wisconsin where they lived for
another fifty years. And the legend to this very day in the
western bogs of rural Ireland is that the Major was killed by
the lover of a girl that was lost on the Virginius.
The Author
Patrick Erin Monaghan
In 1996 after quite
accidentally stumbling upon the name of the birthplace of his
great, great grandfather, Patrick Monaghan sold his
software firm and moved his family to Ireland. While living in
Dublin, they made arrangements to travel by train to the western
bogs.
The train ride to Strokestown would prove to be a pivotal event.
Not really expecting to find anything at all about his
ancestors, Mr. Monaghan would leave County Roscommon knowing he
would have to write the story of Michael and Mary.
To do this, he returned to the cottage on Whitewater Lake in
southern Wisconsin. Acquiring over 150 books on the Famine Era
of Ireland, Mr. Monaghan has put a face to the people of the
western bogs; before, during, and after the Great Hunger.
He and his family now divide their time between Whitewater and
their Blackwater home in Ireland. Mr. Monaghan continues to
write.
As for Kilmacnaneny on Slieve Bawn, once the land of his
ancestors taken by the English Crown . . .
He bought it back!
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