Review by Sharon Brunner
M.F. Erler has woven an intimate tale filled with despair, hope, and resiliency in her book An Irish Odyssey: from Despair to Hope. Maggie, Thomas, John and Mary were some of the main characters who struggled to succumb to the hardships placed upon them by the dominant culture, the British. The story started in Ireland, proceeded to Canada and then to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Two of the main characters ended their lives at Port Austin in lower Michigan where they finally owned a plot of land later in their lives as farmers. The time period of the story was from the 1840s to the early 20th century. Maggie and Thomas, John’s parents, were farmers in Ireland and they worked under a cruel landowner who banished them from their homestead. The couple suffered the harshest of situations, near starvation along with a loss of a young son while in Ireland. They had no where to go so they walked to the nearest port and boarded a boat for Canada. After a terrible voyage in which they lost two more people they cared about, they arrived in Canada. Hope was the only thing they could hold onto as they started their new life in a foreign country.
As mentioned earlier some of the themes in this book were: Resiliency; despair and hope. Thomas and Maggie hung onto their love for one another through tough times. Maggie finally reached her last ray of hope during her last years. She also worked hard to provide for her family by cooking pies at a lumber camp. Their son John had difficulty discussing his childhood and young adult experiences with his new wife Mary. They had to resort to eating grass and seaweed when the potatoes began to rot in the fields. Maggie and Thomas were hopeful that North America would provide better prospects for their family. The male main characters worked at lumber camps, mining and for the railroad with John’s final employment as a farmer. Mary, John’s wife, worried about her husband and son on multiple occasions due to the risks associated with their employment. Their two daughters made a smart move when they married a shopkeeper and a farmer.
This book relates to my life for many reasons. First of all, I want to mention the time I spent in Ireland conducting a foreign study when I was pursuing my master’s degree. The first part of the excursion involved staying in Dublin for approximately three days exploring the city and traveling down the east coast of Ireland. The latter part of the trip our group stayed in Galway, and we were placed in social work agencies. I had the great experience of going on home visits and I learned so much about the Irish culture. I had an opportunity to meet with some of the traveler people, the original inhabitants of Ireland, and they told me about their culture. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Ireland.
Another point I want to make that was mentioned in the book was the loss of land by the invasion of outsiders, a common experience throughout many places in the world. Colonization was a very common factor. Erler shared what happened to the poor Irish people who ended up living on small plots of land working for landowners. The landowner had their homes torn down while they were still living in them. They had to flea to the closest harbor to travel to a foreign land because they had no place to go, the British took over most of their land. The Native Americans in the United States lost a lot of their land like the Irish. They were placed on small reservations, land not suitable for agriculture and did not have wild game available for them to hunt. The Indian people were forced to rely on the government for food and often they were sent spoiled food and not enough food. Many starved like the Irish people.
The documentary associated with the content of the book is “The Hunger: The Story of the Irish Famine” narrated by Liam Neeson about the famine and its devastating impact on the Irish. The impacts of the Irish famine have been widely studied and published. Cathal Poirteir’s The Great Irish Famine (1996) includes essays that give a full account of the background and consequences of the famine assembled from a variety of disciplines including medicine, folklore and literature. Leading historians, economists, and geographers compiled the essays. John Percival in his book The Great Famine 1845-51 covered who was to blame for the horrible consequences of the famine. When the potato crop failed, most landowners and tenants in the most distressed areas stopped paying rates. The unions no longer had any money and could not pay for supplies, and the tradesmen refused to give them credit. They turned to the British Government for assistance. The Chancellor, Sir Charles Wood, refused to send any more money to Ireland. Even the landowners were becoming more destitute. The consequences of the Irish losing their only food crop, potatoes, was devastating. Their hardship created more appreciation of my own life.
I recommend An Irish Odyssey: from Despair to Hope for its unyielding strength of the main characters, because of its unique perspective of Irish immigrants, its revelation into the economic injustice and distinctive destiny of generations of Irish people. John, Thomas and Maggie’s son, felt great shame and despair concerning the history of his family. He did not want to talk about his parents’ death, about immigrating to North America and the situation concerning his family’s poverty and starvation. Some of the main characters worked for lumber, mining and railroad companies. Their jobs were dangerous. Economic injustice was demonstrated when the British dominant culture took over land from the Irish and they lived in large homes with farms and livestock while the Irish peasants survived on a diet of primarily potatoes. The second generation of Thomas and Maggie’s family finally ended up owning their own plot of land and they went back to being farmers like his parents. Erler’s book skillfully portrayed Ireland’s great hunger and the resiliency of the Irish people.
Title: An Irish Odyssey: from Despair to Hope
Author: M.F. Erler
