Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When Boston-born Erin arrives in wind-tossed Roone Bay, she’s heart-sore, tired and lonely. Her marriage is over: she’s come to build a new life for herself on Ireland’s rugged southern coast. And to unravel the story behind the mysterious note in her family’s ancient Bible that has haunted her since childhood. But hazel-eyed former lifeboat volunteer Finn, the only local historian around, quietly refuses her pleas to help.
So Erin settles in to the town, with its whitewashed cottages and ruddy-cheeked fishermen, and begins her quest alone. Who was her ancestor, Nellie, and why did she leave Ireland for America? What happened to her missing child, Annie, and did Nellie ever see her again?
Just as Erin despairs ever uncovering the truth, one rain-soaked night she is rescued by Finn, who finally agrees to help. And by firelight and candlelight each evening, just as it would have been in her great-grandmother’s time, Finn and Erin grow closer as they share their stories.
But just as Erin wonders if Roone Bay could be her forever home, she makes a devastating discovery. Will she be able to face the truth, which changes everything she thought she knew about herself, her past, and her family’s Irish legacy? Or will she run, just as Nellie did all those years ago, and lose the best chance at happiness she’s ever had…?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Irish Child to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Irish Child is the second in the Emerald Isles series by Daisy O’Shea. It’s not necessary to have read the first book in the series in order to enjoy this one but it was a fantastic read so I suggest you go back and read it if you get the chance. This book focuses on a new character Erin Ryan, but the setting of Roone Bay remains the same and as beautiful and enticing as ever. The story opens with a brief prologue set in 1847 at the height of the Irish Famine as a young child named Annie and her mother Nellie and baby brother are emigrating to America after their father finally sent money for them to travel. Things are at a desperate stage in Ireland as the population’s staple food source, the potato, has failed for several years due to blight. As a result of this millions of people have either emigrated or died.
Annie and her family reach Boston but as they wait for their father to collect them Annie gets separated from her mother and knocks her head falling unconscious and so the story begins. I was desperate for the prologue to carry on from where it left off as I wanted to know what happened to Annie. But the story unfolds over the course of the book thanks to Erin as she herself is undergoing a personal journey in the wake of tragedy. The two stories between the past and the present slowly but effortlessly start to emerge and again I was so impressed by the writing of Daisy O’Shea and I was again getting Maeve Binchy vibes which is only a good thing.
Annie arrives in Roone Bay as someone who is lost and directionless. She has been through great trauma following the loss of her husband Kenny in a car crash and she is attempting to find peace and move on. She is disillusioned and feels abandoned and is in a state of depression which she is finding difficult to shake off. ‘Everything I had ever believed in, my future, my love, simply gone’. She believes she has a connection to Roone Bay as her ancestor Luke O’Mahoney came from the area and by tracing her roots she hopes it will help her in some small way. She feels a connection/pull to Luke’s mother Nellie and by finding some trace of her ancestors be it records of where they lived or the cottage itself or even records of when they left and maybe it will help her start the healing process. ‘The strange thought came to me that if I knew where I’d come from, maybe I’d have a better idea of where the future might be’.
Erin stays in the local hotel which has been newly opened. Characters from the previous book make an appearance as they are connected to the hotel and it was lovely to see them mentioned again and to see how they are getting on since we last left them. But it’s Erin whose story is waiting to be told and also the story of the past which I have to say was absolutely riveting and really reminded how much I love history. Don’t worry this book doesn’t read like a history book at all as there are alternate chapters between Erin and her search for answers in the present and Nellie’s experiences in the past. It was evident the author had done lots of research into the Famine and as I was reading I was reminded that this is a part of Irish history that shouldn’t be forgotten and I was thinking I would definitely have to teach this topic to my class in the coming school year. The chapters set during the Famine and Nellie’s subsequent journey to America and her experiences there were fantastic. Everything felt so real and vivid and my own history lessons from when I was in school came flooding back to me and reminded me what an awful time Famine was in Irish history and how it changed the social and political structures of the time.
I won’t go into detail as to the specifics of Nellie’s story but suffice to say it was brilliantly told and the desperation, hopelessness and despondency that pervaded throughout Ireland at the time can be felt with every turn of the page that Nellie featured in. I found her story to be engrossing and fascinating. She showed herself to be a determined mother who always put the needs of her children first and foremost and as the American aspect of her story unfolded I couldn’t get enough of it. There were so many twists and turns and above all else I was desperate to know what had happened to Annie. The author showed that when so many people left Ireland at the that time given they had no other choice the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side and that difficulties and adversity waited them on foreign shores. That may be true for quite a number of Irish emigrants but also there were plenty as who did succeeded with Noel the owner of the hotel being one.
Nellie’s story in the past ever so slightly edged it out for me over Erin’s but that’s not to say Erin’s wasn’t brilliantly told. It certainly was. I love the author’s writing style and you can tell that she is deeply invested and interested in the topics and themes that she is writing about. There is great characterisation and you feel such an emotional response especially regarding the Famine aspect of the plot. Erin is in no rush to return back to return to her old life for it has changed irreparably and she can’t stand the pressure her mother puts on her to find a new man. She feels smothered and Roone Bay is affording her the chance to find some air and also find the part of herself that has been lost after such a hideous time. Erin is told about a local man named Finn, who might be able to help her with search into her ancestry. She goes to call on him at his cottage but he is not the most welcoming and she is instantly turned off.
Finn is a loner and not sociable preferring to live in his cottage with no water or electricity with just his dog for company. He is a musician and knows a lot about the history of the local area and of course he is good looking. Is he meant to help Erin in her quest or will he maintain his stand offish demeanour? He definitely hid behind a smokescreen making it hard for people to get close to him. I wondered was Finn hiding something in his own life that made it difficult to open up to people as when he first met Erin I found him to be unnecessarily rude and even a bit obnoxious. She only wanted a little help after all and aren’t us Irish known for their hospitality? As Erin treads in Nellie’s footsteps she feels that she is doing the right thing and Roone Bay is where she needs to be. Finn starts to melt a little bit and I enjoyed the slow burner of their friendship and that over time they started to work together to find the answers that Erin so desperately wanted.’I still have that feeling that I’m meant to be here. Like a pigeon that lost its bearings and final scented home on the breeze’.
The Irish Child was a thoroughly enjoyable story with both compelling thought provoking characters and an appealing and riveting plot. I do hope the author continues to write more in this series as I am loving it and it reminds of the old favourite Irish authors that I grew up reading like I have said Maeve Binchy but also the early days of Marian Keyes and Sheila O’Flanagan. I loved the ending and wasn’t expecting it but it fitted so well with the overall story and I was deeply satisfied when I reached the final word. More like this please Daisy O’Shea.
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