From the Shores of Eternity
A Short Description

"From the Shores of Eternity" is the story of John Walsh, the eldest son of a poor Irish share cropper living at the time of the Irish Potato Famine, or Great Hunger, of the mid nineteenth century. John lives in an old Irish thached cottage with his father, Joseph, a slightly younger sister, Eileen, and two younger brothers, Peter and James. In the story, the family farms five acres of barley as a ‘cash crop’ in order to pay the rent required by their English Landlord. However, as with so many poor Irish people of the period, the family’s primary food supply was an acre of potatoes planted in addition to the grain crop. The Walsh’s are a proud family, suddenly confronted with the realities of survival under an oppressive governmental system and failure of their primary food supply; the potato.

The story goes on to chronicle the misfortunes and dangers of the Walsh family as they fight for survial in a dying land. Everyone is affected by the burdon of starvation, homelessness and stark poverty. Many of the poorest of the Irish are forced from family homes and farms to die on the roads of Ireland or find a new way of life in a new land.

From the Shores of Eternity is a well researched book, depicting the actual horrors of life in the times of the ‘Great Hunger’ and the subsequent forced immigration from their ancestral homes. The dark message that carries the story gives way to the promise of a new horizon on the shores of a new and mysterious land. The storyline revolves around actual occurrences and news articles of contemporary life during the famine years. From the Shores of Eternity is the frank, dark tale of survival in brutal times, under an occupying enemy who turned a blind eye on a culture that the victors felt was inferior to their own.