The Famine Orphans - Softcover

Falvey, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496748131 ISBN 13: 9781496748133

Publisher: Kensington Publishing, 2025

Synopsis

1848: The girls, 4,000 in all, come from every part of Ireland—from the shores of Galway to the Glens of Ulster and Belfast’s teeming streets—to board ships bound for Australia. All were chosen from Ireland’s crowded workhouses. Most are orphans. The Earl Grey Scheme was presented as an opportunity for young women to gain employment as domestic servants in the Colony. But there is another, unstated purpose—the girls are to “civilize” the many men sent there as convicts, so that settlements can be built.

Kate Gilvarry has spent six months in a Newry workhouse, subsisting on a diet of watery porridge. She knows there’s no future for her either within its walls or outside, in a ravaged, starving land. But once Kate’s ship completes the harrowing voyage, she and her companions find their reception in Sydney dismayingly unwelcoming, as anti-Irish sentiment grows. Homesick, and disillusioned by love following a shipboard crush, Kate strives to fit in, first as the servant of a demanding English woman, then as a farmer’s bride in the Outback.

When heat and drought force her husband to leave for long periods to work on a sheep ranch, Kate is left alone to fend off wild animals, drifters, and her aching loneliness. She longs to return to Ireland. But first, this beautiful, unforgiving country will teach her about resilience and survival, and the limitless possibilities that come with courage and love.

Evocative and compelling, The Famine Orphans is a testament to the young women whose pioneering spirit left an enduring legacy in a land so far from home.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Falvey is the author of The Yellow House, The Linen Queen, The Girls of Ennismore and The Titanic Sisters. Born in Northern Ireland, she immigrated alone to the United States at the age of twenty. She now lives in Dallas, Texas and is a member of The Writers' Garret, The Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture, and The Irish American Society Book Club of Dallas. Visit Patricia online at PatriciaFalveyBooks.com.

Edition details

• Publisher: Kensington Publishing
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1496748131
• ISBN 13: 9781496748133
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368