By Pluck and By Faith: The Odyssey of an Irish-American Family

John James Brett and Mary Walsh found the prospect of beginning their married lives together in 1880's Ireland daunting. A future of almost certain poverty, or at the very least, extreme difficulty and depravation, would be facing them, and the potential for improvement of social and political conditions seemed remote. To raise children under existing circumstances would be fraught with challenge and danger. While not as high as during The Great Famine, or the lesser famine of 1879 and 1880...