Book 48 - Hungry for Home

Hungry for Home by Cole Moreton - first published in 2000

This book is the story of one branch of the O'Cearna/Kearney/Carney family who lived on the island of Great Blasket off the western end of the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.

There had been a gradual net migration from the island since the early 20th century when the population had been around 176.  Most people who left emigrated to the USA but some moved to the Dingle area. Life for the remaining 50 or so islanders was hard by the mid1940s - they had no electricity, no church or doctor.  The land on the island wasn't very fertile and they could only grow potatoes, oats and turnips and graze animals.  Postwar rationing meant that food on mainland Ireland was also scarce.

In January1947 25 year old Seainin O'Cearna died from meningitis without receiving any medical help when bad weather prevented anyone from leaving or arriving on the island by boat.  Open canoes were used to ferry people and livestock back and forth but by 1947 there were barely enough able bodied men to crew a couple of them.  In April 1947 the islanders ran out of food and once again bad weather prevented them from rowing to the mainland to get fresh supplies.  The Irish leader Eamon de Valera visited Great Blasket in July 1947 after the islanders had petitioned him to evacuate them to the mainland and provide them with homes/land.  However there was no action until November 1953 when the Irish government finally evacuated the island.

The book also covers the history of the island from the arrival of Celtic monks over 1,000 years ago, through the period of the Normans,  Spanish Armada shipwrecks, the arrival of families on the island in the early 19th century after their eviction from their land on the mainland, the Potato Famine years in the 1840s-1850s and the crash landing on the island of a German plane in 1940.  It then follows some of the O'Cearna family to Springfield, Massachusetts where many of them made new lives.

The book is a bit rambling and hard to follow in places but is generally an interesting and informative read.  6/10

Islands covered - The Blaskets - Great Blasket