Hunger & Famine

I have been starving myself this weekend because I am having a small 'procedure' today in hospital. It hasn't been fun at all and I think my hunger was compounded by the book I was reading set during the Irish potato famine of 1847 - most of the characters were hungry most of the time. Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor was a really excellent book and I am almost sorry that it stayed on my bookshelf unread for such a long time. It now joins a few other books about voyages at sea that I have loved: Sea of Poppies (sorry to keep going on about it), English Passengers (Matthew Kneale) & Rites of Passage (William Golding).

Star of the Sea is the name of the ship taking hundreds of Irish immigrants to a new life in the US. The steerage passengers live in squalid conditions with little food. Disease, as you might expect, is rife. The first class passengers on the other hand sit down to a three course meal every night with proper table clothes, silver and glass. They have fresh water and can wash when they want. There is a murderer on board as well as a few other characters with interesting and interconnected back stories. I found it a gripping read.

I don't think I ever realised how many people suffered these terrible conditions in the hope of a better life - I guess it says something for the conditions they were leaving behind. My ancestors were among those people making that passage across the sea. I wonder how many of them died on the way. My book on Ireland tells me that by 1911 the population of Ireland had declined to less than 4.4 million from a figure of 8.2 million in 1841. Emigration was a way of life by that time.

My relatives might be surprised that it has come full circle: through my parents' marriage I have ended up pretty much where they started.