Galway Bay

Synopsis

In a hiddenIrelandwhere fishermen and tenant farmers find solace in their ancient faith, songs, stories, and communal celebrations, young Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family. Because they and their countrymen must sell both their catch and their crops to pay exorbitant rents, potatoes have become their only staple food.

But when blight destroys the potatoes three times in four years, a callous government and uncaring landlords turn a natural disaster into The Great Starvation that will kill one million. Honora and Michael vow their children will live. The family joins two million other Irish refugees--victims saving themselves--in the emigration fromIreland.

Danger and hardship await them inAmerica. Honora, her unconventional sister M ire, and their seven sons help transformChicagofrom a frontier town to the "City of the Century." The boys go on to fight in the Civil War and enlist in the cause ofIreland's freedom.

Spanning six generations and filled with joy, sadness, and heroism,GALWAYBAYsheds brilliant light on the ancestors of today's forty-four million Irish Americans--and is a universal story you will never forget.