The Famine Ships

by Edward Laxton

Overview

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'A splendid book' - Irish Times

Between 1846 and 1851, the Great Famine claimed more than a million Irish lives. The Famine Ships tells the story of the courage and determination of those who crossed the Atlantic in leaky, overcrowded sailing ships and made new lives for themselves, among them William Ford, father of Henry Ford, and twenty-six-year-old Patrick Kennedy, great-grandfather of John F. Kennedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408884003
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	08/25/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Edward Laxton is of Irish descent. He was the news editor of England's Daily Express and Daily Mirror for nearly thirty years. This is his second book. He lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

The defining moments of Irish history are studded with arrivals (St. Patrick, Oliver Cromwell) and departures (St. Columbanus, James Joyce). In the 1840s the great arrival was the Potato Blight, and the even greater departure was the multitude of ships carrying the nearly one million emigrants escaping the Irish famine to America. In this work, Laxton, a former newspaper editor, narrates the stories of these emigrants as they sailed for the the New World. The work is a fascinating compilation derived from family histories handed down through the generations; it describes both the horrible conditions aboard the ships and the emigrants' boundless optimism concerning the freedom of America. This well-written supplement to the various works on the Irish famine exodus finally draws attention to the people and the ships that defined a moment in Irish and American history.John J. Doherty, Montana State Univ., Bozeman

Library Journal

Splendid...written in a fresh and accessible way, which will grip anyone with the most superficial interest in the famine years. -- Frank McLynn, The Irish Times

Frank McLynn