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The back story

Before he sailed, Patrick made Mary a promise.

Ballycastle, north County Mayo. Autumn 1847.

He would write from Boston. He would send for her. This is where the letters begin.

The land goes to the eldest.

The O'Donnell holding above Ballycastle passes to Seán, the eldest, as it has always passed. Patrick, the second son, has no ground coming to him and no reason the world will accept for staying. It is Black '47. The workhouse at Ballina is past its walls, and the parish is emptying by the road to the port.

A woman in a shawl stands where the road forks above Ballycastle, a thatched cottage behind her and a man walking on toward the sea.
The road above Ballycastle, where the story starts.

A promise at the gable.

Mary Cafferky is Tom Cafferky's daughter, and in 1847 she cannot write. Her father has other plans for her: a widower up the road holds good ground, and a daughter married into it is a daughter safe. On his last evening Patrick tells her he will send for her as soon as he has the price of a ticket.

That is the whole of the promise, and the whole of the story is whether it is kept.

A man with his cap in his hand and a woman in a shawl stand a pace apart at the gable of a cottage, open sea between them at evening.
The gable end, the evening before he sailed.

An American wake.

The night before a man sails, the neighbours come in. They call it an American wake, the send-off given to someone the parish does not expect to see again.

There is a fire, there is a fiddle, there are the old people along the wall, and there is a song sung for the one who is going.

By morning Patrick is on the road to the port.

Neighbours sitting by candlelight around the fire in a stone kitchen on the night before a man sails. Neighbours sitting by candlelight around the fire in a stone kitchen on the night before a man sails.
The kitchen, the last night.

Three roads from Ballycastle.

Patrick goes out through Liverpool for Boston, the road that costs a passage. Michael, the youngest, takes the cheaper road, to the harvest in Lancashire, and does not come back either. Seán stays on the ridges. Mary stays in Mayo, and keeps faith with what was said at the gable.

  • Patrick. Boston, by Liverpool.
  • Michael. Lancashire, for the harvest.
  • Seán and Mary. Ballycastle.
A woman and a boy watch from a stone wall above a Mayo village as a three masted ship stands off the bay under a heavy sky.
A ship out of the bay, 1847.

The world around them.

Patrick and Mary are fictional. The world they write from is not. Black '47 in Mayo, the crowded crossing, the Irish quarters of Boston: every detail is built from real records, real places and real emigrant letters.

Four period scenes in a row: a Mayo cottage on bare ground, a harbour crowded with sailing ships, a No Irish Need Apply board, and a wet city street of tenements.
Mayo and Boston, as the record shows them.

The story is in the letters.

Every date and public event is checked. What happens to Patrick and Mary is theirs to discover, one exchange at a time, and the ending stays sealed until the final letters arrive.

Two letters arrive each month, one from Ireland and one in reply. Posted from Ireland.

Begin the story, or read a sample letter first.

Begin the story

Yours, From Ireland. Written and posted from Ireland.