“I still love Rory. I know I do,” she whispered to the darkness of her attic room. But do I love the life I’m living now even more?
It has been several years since Meg has left Kelegeen, Ireland, for America to find a better life for her family after the famine. Right before she stepped on the boat, she married Rory, but the marriage was not consummated in case they never saw each other again. Meg finds work as a live-in maid and sends money home, but also saves some and buys herself some new things every once in a while. The money makes a huge difference back home, Rory tells her in the letters he sends. He is training to take care of horses, but he doesn’t feel right coming to America to be with her until both have a way to be taken care of without him. Meg is starting to worry, though, that when Rory comes their life will be much different than the one she’s accustomed to living in a big house with a bed.
I read Eileen O’Finlan’s Kelegeen in the summer of 2018. I really enjoyed the story of Meg and Rory and what their families and village faced during Ireland’s potato famine. I’ve been waiting for the sequel to come out so I could find out what happened next to the couple. The author provided me a free copy of Erin’s Children in exchange for a fair review. The book was released in December 2020.
While Erin’s Children is set years after the first book, it starts with Meg’s sister Kathleen joining her in America. Meg finds her a place to be a live-in maid, but the family is very anti-Catholic and doesn’t follow through on their promise to provide her a room with a bed. She sleeps on a straw mattress on the kitchen floor and has to avoid the advances of the oldest son. Meg fears for her sister, but because they need the money, there is not much to be done about the situation. The book also follows friends of Meg’s who came over on the same ship and their struggles to make ends meet as married women were not allowed to work except by doing sewing work at home. At every turn, they seem to face people wanting the Irish to leave because of their Catholic beliefs.
Erin’s Children is a fascinating historical fiction book giving a glimpse into life for Irish immigrants in America in the times shortly before the Civil War. Fans of historical fiction will love both Kelegeen and Erin’s Children.
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