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Honora Kelly of Galway Bay had her life worked out. She was to become a nun. Her parents wanted this for her and she was quite willing. She was just about to start her days in the convent when she saw a mysterious man and his horse rising out of the sea. This man, Michael was to change her destiny forever.

It was love at first site, Honora wasn’t going to be a nun after all. Yes, her parents were disappointed as they wanted a better life for her. Yes, in Ireland, the convent was a better life. However, her parents really liked Michael and eventually agreed to giving their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Michael and Honora Kelly made a life for themselves farming. They raised horses and a variety of crops. Most of the crops went toward paying rent to the brutal English landlords but the potato crop was for the family. They had an abundant supply of delicious, life sustaining” pratties”. Enough to sustain their growing family.

Then the potatoes blight happened. It was the beginning of the potatoes famine for the entire country. The first year, they we able to selvage a few pratties. They found a way to survive. However, the second year there was nothing to selvage. Michael had to walk miles to work breaking up rocks for the government for pennies a day. The family lined up for soup every night, and every once in a while Honora’s father, a fisherman, had fish to sell.

The third year it was announced that there would be no more government jobs or soup lines. The land lords wanted the Irish families to leave and if that meant dying, that was fine with them.

Michael and Honora made the gut wrenching decision to leave their beloved country and head for “Amerikey”.

This book has something for everyone. It is Irish historical fiction, a family saga, a story of the American immigrant experience, and even a romance. It started off a bit slow for me however, there was quite a bit of Irish mythology at the beginning that wasn’t to my taste. I’m sure that there are other reader who would enjoy this part.

Within about 75 pages, I really warmed up to the story. So much so that I became a part of the Kelly family every time I picked up the book. I experience their joy’s, sorrow’s and triumphs along with them. I even felt that pangs of hunger that the family suffered. Mary Pat Kelly has a poetic writing style that sweeps the reader in. Her strong characters are well drawn out and is the landscape and back drop. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more by Mary Past Kelly.

4/5

["]I remembered a story Johnny Leahy told right before our wedding. Fado,” Maire said, and winked at me. “Johnny was out fishing where Galway Bay meets the sea. They’d caught nothing, no fish, all day. When the sun sank beneath the waves, some boats turned back to shore, empty. But Johnny and his da stayed on. A slip of a moon rose, then disappeared. Complete darkness and still they waited. Then, long after most would have given up, the mearbhall - a kind of glow - started up from the deep, lighting up the sea. And suddenly all manner of fish - whiting and herring and great creatures Johnny couldn’t put a name to - came swimming up through the mearbhall and into the nets. The glow lasted until the morning star appeared. At the dawning of the day, they saw they’d netted a great catch.

“Mearbhalls come, Johhny told me, only on the darkest night. But no fisherman is able to say when or where. A gift, he said, like life itself.” - from Galway Bay, page 474 -

On the cusp of entering a convent, sixteen year old Honora Keeley discovers a man in Galway Bay.

He stood, foam swirling around his long legs, hands at his sides - not covering himself. Looking me right in the eye - smiling.

“You’re not drowning at all.”

“I am,” he said. “I am drowning in your beauty. Are you a girl at all, or are you a mermaid?” - from Galway Bay, page 8 -

Thus begins Mary Pat Kelly’s novel Galway Bay - a book filled with memorable characters, and love of country and family. But, Galway Bay is first and foremost a family saga which spans nearly sixty years (between 1839 and 1893). It tells the story of the Kelly family- first in Ireland on Galway Bay and then as they move west to America and settle in Chicago. Historically, the novel covers a sad period in Irish history. The Great Starvation (1845 - 1852) killed approximately a million Irish men, women and children when blight wiped out the potato crops and the English government turned a blind eye to the tragedy. The Irish population was further reduced by another million due to mass emigration. Galway Bay’s stalwart and courageous characters also experience the American Civil War(1861 - 1865), the assassination of President Lincoln (1865), the Great Chicago Fire (1871), and the Chicago World’s Fair (1893).

Mary Pat Kelly based her novel on her great-great grandmother Honora Kelly, and it is this character who drives the narrative through her determination to survive and carry the stories of Ireland all the way to America. Weaving together the lives of Honora, her siblings and parents, her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, Kelly unravels a history of the Irish people - including their lore, religion, and work ethic.

Kelly is a good storyteller and makes the reader care about her characters who come alive on the pages of her book. I did find her style of switching from past to present tense a little confusing at times.

I walked between Mam and Granny, carrying Bridget. Da and Michael were just ahead, deep in talk of some kind. They get on so well. Michael’s part of the Keeley men now, with is own fine children, his loneliness filled. - from Galway Bay, page 127 -

But after a time, these tense switches simply became part of the overall writing style of the book and I began to ignore them.

Galway Bay is a sprawling novel and the time period it covered is enthralling. As with all good historical fiction books, this one begs to be devoured long into the night.

Recommended.