Novelists are usually advised to do their research and then forget about it. In other words, nobody wants to read pages and pages of facts. They want a story. That being said, it’s impossible to write a book like The Letter Home without focusing on the conditions endured by millions of Irish people during the Great Famine of the 1840s.
I’m originally from the same county as Jessie and, like her, I found that I lacked some fairly basic information about the scale of the devastation in our area. I’m also conscious that readers might like to read more about what happened during those times, so I thought I’d list some of the sources I used.
During the Famine, the suffering in County Clare was prolonged and extreme. It’s been estimated that the county’s population declined by more than a quarter between 1841 and 1851. There were also a staggering number of evictions. Of course, it’s possible to measure the numbers who died from starvation and disease and the numbers who emigrated. What’s harder to calculate is the trauma of the people who survived, including those forced into exile.
According to the historian Ciarán Ó Murchadha, the first death officially recorded as being from starvation was that of a widow named Mrs Conlon who was from Dysart parish in County Clare. She died in October 1846 while trying to find food for her children. Mrs Conlon inspired the character of Johanna Markham and provided the spark for the book.
The Letter Home was written mostly during two long Covid lockdowns, which made research slightly more difficult. My starting point was the Clare County Library website – www.clarelibrary.ie – which is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in learning more. It contains a considerable number of records, many of which make harrowing reading. This was where I found the records for the Kilrush workhouse and also the eviction documents for the area. In addition, it was where I first came across references to a ship called the St John, which sank off the coast of Massachusetts in 1849. Many of those on board were from west Clare. The story of the St John was the inspiration for the Mary and Elizabeth.
The website also contains links to a number of articles from the Illustrated London News. In late 1849 and early 1850, it carried a series of reports about conditions in south-west Clare. These included an interview with a woman called Bridget O’Donnel who had been evicted from her home near Doonbeg. A drawing of Bridget and her children has become one of the best-known images of the Famine. It prompted the part in the book where the fictional Bridget meets a journalist.
Although Clooneven is fictional, I think of it as being in roughly the same place as the real town of Kilkee. In trying to get a picture of what the area looked like before the Famine, I was helped by Two Months at Kilkee by Mary John Knott. Originally published in 1836, it’s available online.
Several books were of assistance in trying to get a feel for what life was like in west Clare during the Famine. These include: The Great Famine: Ireland’s Agony 1845–1852 by Ciarán O’Murchadha; Clare History and Society, edited by Matthew Lynch and Patrick Nugent; Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, edited by John Crowley; Famine Echoes – Folk Memories of the Great Irish Famine: An Oral History of Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy by Cathal Póirtéir and Clare and Its People by Brian Dinan.
For the chapters set on board the Mary and Elizabeth, I received invaluable information from Robert Whyte’s 1847 Famine Ship Diary, edited by James Mangan, and Coffin Ship: The Wreck of the Brig St John by William Henry. There is a database of Irish emigrants to the United States similar to the one consulted by Kaitlin in the book. You can find the real-life version at www.dunbrody.com
I began the book knowing relatively little about Boston in the mid-nineteenth century and nothing at all about the treatment of young female migrants. Among the books I consulted were: Emigrants and Exile by Kerby Miller; The Boston Irish: A Political History by Thomas O’Connor; Bibles, Brahmins and Bosses by Thomas O’Connor; South Boston: My Home Town by Thomas O’Connor; The Atlas of Boston History, edited by Nancy Seasholes; A Short History of Boston by Robert Allison; Women and the City: Gender, Space and Power in Boston 1870– 1940 by Sarah Deutsch and Beacon Hill: A Living Portrait by Barbara Moore.
Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by Anthony Lukas provided a powerful history of Boston. In the mid-1980s, it won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction as well as the National Book Award, and it’s easy to see why. It’s quite long, but is available as an audiobook, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
In writing about Bridget, I was also helped by the records for St Augustine Cemetery in South Boston which are available online.
When it came to more recent Irish immigration to the United States, I was helped by The Tribe: The Inside Story of Irish Power and Influence in US Politics by Caitríona Perry and Irish Transatlantics, 1980-2015 by Íde O’Carroll.
For Linh and Quan’s story, I was greatly assisted by a report from Anti-Slavery International called Precarious Journeys.
Finally, I came across the beautiful word diadhánach, which is used by Bridget, in Thirty-Two Words for Field by Manchán Magan.
Obviously, any inaccuracies in The Letter Home are my responsibility, but I hope that by including some of the books that helped me, I can assist anyone interested in finding out more.