They get food from a Soup Kitchen in Kineen, but that too is dangerous. It lies several days walk away, following the river towards their long lost spinster aunts their mum had rhapsodised about, who owned a cake shop in town. She believes their Mother and Father may be dead, and they must find sanctuary. The children are left in care of Eily, but they run out of food and are evicted and taken in a group with others to the workhouse.Įily engineers their escape. Mother goes to look for Father, who is working on the Work Relief road-building scheme. She is buried under the hawthorn tree with its connotations of other worlds, but it’s also more practical.
With the potato famine and hunger, little Bridget dies of fever.
The Great Famine which killed millions of Irish men, women and children, and caused millions to emigrate or starve to death is no small obstacle, but the history of a nation.’ An author’s job is to put obstacles in the protagonist’s paths. The same long chestnut hair that Eily has on the cover. ‘Mother was crooning quietly to the baby, Bridget’s eyes were closed and her soft face looked paler than ever as she lay wrapped in Mother’s shawl, her little fist clinging to a piece of long chestnut-coloured hair.’ What draws the younger reader in? In a word, empathy. Below the image of Michael carrying a sack the reader is told (an advertisement) in white font-The bestselling classic trilogy: Children of the Famine. The cover ticks the boxes, without standing out. Covers conform to a certain genre which reassures the reader that when they open then biscuit tin there’ll be biscuits inside. Eily O’Driscoll, the little mother, on the cusp of adolescence with an arm around her brother Michael aged 12 and wee sister Peggy aged seven. Name of the story, Under the Hawthorn Tree, in white below it, where green hills meet sky, the orange roof of a white cottage and the twisted branches of (what I suppose is) a hawthorn tree.
Author’s name in black block on the title page. The cover by Irish artist, PJ Lynch seems bog-standard. I’m looking for markers that make it a success where other fail, something I could make use of. A book of 150 pages, its simple sentences and style meant I could digest the book in one sitting. Under the Hawthorn Tree is a children’s book and international bestseller set in 1845-200 000 copies sold in Ireland alone. I’m in the privileged position of never knowing life-threatening hunger. I’ve been reading about the Irish Famine 1845-51.
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