OUT OF IRELAND
In the late 1860s in Bantry, Ireland, sixteen-year-old Eileen O’Donovan is forced by her family to marry an older widower whom she barely knows and does not love. Her brother Michael, at age nineteen, becomes involved with the outlawed Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization dedicated to the violent overthrow of British rule in Ireland. Their fates intertwine when they each decide to emigrate to America, where both tragedy and happiness await them.
An exciting coming-of-age story of a brother and sister in an Ireland still under the harsh rule of the British, Out of Ireland brings alive the story of our ancestors who braved the dangers of immigration in order to find a better life for themselves and their families.
In the late 1860s in Bantry, Ireland, sixteen-year-old Eileen O’Donovan is forced by her family to marry an older widower whom she barely knows and does not love. Her brother Michael, at age nineteen, becomes involved with the outlawed Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization dedicated to the violent overthrow of British rule in Ireland. Their fates intertwine when they each decide to emigrate to America, where both tragedy and happiness await them.
An exciting coming-of-age story of a brother and sister in an Ireland still under the harsh rule of the British, Out of Ireland brings alive the story of our ancestors who braved the dangers of immigration in order to find a better life for themselves and their families.
- She Writes Press
- Paperback
- April 2023
- 328 Pages
- 9781647423995
Buy the Book
$17.95
About Marian O'Shea Wernicke
Marian O’Shea Wernicke is the author of Toward That Which is Beautiful, her debut novel published in 2020 by She Writes Press. She has also published a memoir about her father called Tom O’Shea: A Twentieth Century Man. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to an Irish Catholic family, she entered the convent of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood at age sixteen and spent eleven years as a nun before leaving the convent and marrying Michael Wernicke, an electrical engineer from Pensacola, Florida. Wernicke earned a master’s degree in English from the University of West Florida and went on to become a professor of English at Pensacola State College for twenty-five years. Upon her retirement from college teaching, Wernicke began her new life as full-time writer in 2010. She and her husband now live in Austin, Texas, near their daughter Kristin and son-in-law Max, and beloved grandson, August Michael.
Praise
2023 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Historical
“Wernicke’s prose has a charming lilt to it, and her meticulous descriptions of late-19th-century daily life in Bantry Bay capture the physical beauty of the landscape and the feelings of hopelessness in a land roiled by poverty, famine, and political turmoil. . . . An engaging, poignant, and ultimately uplifting story with a likable protagonist.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Out of Ireland by Marian O’Shea Wernicke is a gorgeously written historical saga that does more than tell a great story; it immerses readers in the life and times of a family and the tumult of their era . . . I have no doubt that readers will reach for Out of Ireland with the same earnest feelings, and be heartened to have done so. Very highly recommended.” —Readers’ Favorite, 5-stars
“As an immigrant to America in the 1800s, Eileen Sullivan faces what so many immigrant women have faced before and since: startling new freedoms alongside the cruelties of events beyond their control. Out Of Ireland is a love letter to the strength of women who came before us, full of beauty, pain, and—most of all—perseverance.” —Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick
“Impossible dreams are realized in ways the dreamers didn’t imagine in this fine, heart-wrenching novel. Brother and sister Michael and Eileen emigrate from Ireland to escape poverty and British oppression only to discover unexpected challenges in the New World. A believable story based on history, with themes of hope, courage, devotion, and love, it will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.” —Linda Stewart Henley, award-winning author of Estelle and Waterbury Winter
“Many Irish-Americans will see the stories of their own families in these pages. Wernicke skillfully brings life to history as her characters make the difficult passage from troubled Ireland to St. Louis’ infamous Kerry Patch.” —Patrick Murphy, author of The Irish in St. Louis: From Shanty to Lace Curtain
Discussion Questions
1. The novel begins with a prologue, a scene in which Eileen, now an old woman who is dying speaks to her young granddaughter, Maggie. Why do you think the author chose to begin the novel with this scene?
2. Did anything surprise you about conditions in Ireland in the late 1860s for Eileen’s family?]
3. Why do you think Michael chose to join the Irish Republican Army in spite of his doubts about their methods?
4. Discuss Eileen and Michael’s mother, Mamie O’Donovan. Was she a sympathetic character or not?
5. Father Hugh Gleason plays a big part in the novel. Why does Eileen confide in him in spite of his failure to stop the unwanted marriage?
6. How does the portrayal of Eileen’s first husband, John Sullivan, undergo subtle changes over the course of the novel? Are those changes believable?
7. Did anything surprise you in the description of the voyage to America? Do you see any relevance to the situation of immigrants today?
8. The second part of the novel takes place in New York, Holyoke, and St. Louis, Missouri. Discuss the elements of life in America that surprise both Eileen and Michael. Do they begin to see Ireland differently?
9. Discuss Michael’s decision to engage in criminal actions in St. Louis, justifying it as helping the cause of Irish independence. How does he change his views, or doesn’t he?
10. What part does the character of Bess, the ward of the Burke sisters, play in the novel? Why do you think the author introduces this character?
11. Discuss the ending of the novel for both Eileen and Michael? Satisfying or not? Why?