“A Note from the Author

This book portrays one of the worst tragedies (and some argue, genocide) of the 19th Century—An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger, known simply in America as the Irish Potato Famine). The population of Ireland halved as a result, from an estimated 9 million down to just 4.5 million.

As such, depictions of extreme starvation, desolation, death (including instances of child death), possession, use of slurs made by Anglo colonizers toward the native Irish, cannibalism, suicide, and murder appear on-page. This book includes epigraphs, most documenting eye-witness accounts (from Irish, British, and American observers) and should be read with caution.

As an Irish author, born and raised, the researching and writing of this book dredged up generational trauma that we as a people have not truly dealt with. Therefore I suggest any native Irish readers to approach with a steady heart, and the heady knowledge that our great-great grandparents were forged in steel, and you are the freedom and legacy they dreamt of.”