The Hungry Wind
Sionbhe Lally
Paperback
(Poolbeg Press Ltd, Sept. 1, 1998)
It is the wind from the east that blows you now. That was a hungry wind and it has done its worst with you. Soon the wind from the north will blow and that will be a bitter wind. When the wind blows from the west it will carry you across the water. Last of all will be the wind from the south which will bring you happiness and friends you never thought to see again. When famine sweeps the land Marya and Breege discover that their lives are changed forever. Turned out of their homes by a greedy landlord, they have nowhere to go. The workhouse offers squalor, disease and the tyranny of a master but also the opportunity to learn to read and write. When a scheme to send girl paupers to Australia is proposed, the sisters find they have a difficult decision to make . . .