Spirited Away - A Novel of the Stolen Irish - Softcover

Plummer, Maggie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1478140267 ISBN 13: 9781478140269

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Synopsis

In May 1653, young Frederica (Freddy) O’Brennan and her sister Aileen trust a stranger on an empty beach in western Ireland, inadvertently placing themselves in the crosshairs of Cromwell’s notorious Reign of Terror. Freddy awakens in the crammed hold of a slave ship bound for Barbados. She and Aileen endure the gruesome voyage only to be wrenched apart when purchased at auction by sugar plantation owners from different islands. Freddy is left alone to face the brutal realities of life as a female Irish slave on a seventeenth century Barbados plantation. As she struggles to survive the ordeal, Freddy's harrowing experiences paint an intimate, compelling portrait of 1650s Irish and African slavery in the Caribbean. Publishers Weekly says: "In this highly researched novel, Freddy O'Brennan is living a modest and happy life in 1653 Ireland until English soldiers force her father to fight for the Crown in Spain. Freddy is a survivor, quick to adapt to dire situations, which makes her an easy hero to root for. ...By May of 1653, Freddy thinks she is safe, until English soldiers kidnap and sell her into slavery. Freddy's ordeal interweaves with that of African slaves, and in an honest portrayal, she must battle her own prejudices against her fellow slaves... Short chapters full of hope and Freddy's fierce spirit will keep readers turning the pages."

About this title

From the Author:

       A few years ago, I was reading about Irish history and stumbled across this information:  During Oliver Cromwell's Reign of Terror in the 1650s, a majority of Ireland's Catholic population was either slaughtered, exiled to the west, or sold into slavery in the Caribbean. My jaw dropped and I did a triple-take, amazed. How could it be that I'd never heard of that? Others hadn't either.
        The more I read about Cromwell's Reign of Terror in books and Internet articles, the hotter my Irish-American blood boiled. These massacred, ousted, or enslaved people were my ancestors. I had to write something about this obscure yet pivotal period of Irish history.
       That is how this, my first published novel, came to be. My amazing main character, Freddy, is an "O'Brennan" from County Kilkenny, because my own Irish grandmother was a Brennan from County Kilkenny. With the exception of Cromwell, all of the characters in the novel are fictional. The story, however, is based on historical accounts of events that took place. 
       In 1649 Cromwell led an invasion of Ireland that many historians call genocide, or ethnic cleansing. During the 1650s, Ireland lost about 41 percent of its population. The infamous Irish Famine of 1845 to 1852, by comparison, resulted in a loss of 16 percent of the population.
       Cromwell hated Catholicism and wanted to punish Irish Catholics for the rebellion of 1641. Catholicism was banned. Priests were wanted men. Irish Catholics were murdered, thrown off their land, or "spirited away" to the Caribbean. An estimated 100,000 Irish people, mostly women and children, were sold to sugar plantation owners and literally worked to death. Some were flogged to death. They toiled long days and suffered horrific conditions, disease, starvation, and torture.
         "The curse of Cromwell upon you" is still a popular Irish saying. To this day, Irish mothers threaten their misbehaving children with the ultimate punishment: "Cromwell's going to get you!" The bitterness caused by what took place during the 1650s has been a powerful source of Irish nationalism for more than 350 years.
         Irish slavery was an atrocity that should not be forgotten. I find it outrageous that so few know about it. My hope is that this novel will help bring it to light.
 
 

About the Author:

Maggie Plummer is a writer and editor who lives in northwest Montana. This is her first published novel. She has also written and published a sequel to this novel, entitled DARING PASSAGE: BOOK TWO OF THE SPIRITED AWAY SAGA. Along the winding trail to becoming a novelist, Maggie has worked as a journalist, non-fiction book author, book editor, book publicist, census enumerator, school bus driver, field interviewer, waitress, post office clerk, fish processor, library clerk, retail salesperson, Good Humor ice cream girl, fishing boat first mate, race horse hot walker, apple picker, and bus girl.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1478140267
• ISBN 13: 9781478140269
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220