Transition Year Students share their Historical Short Stories

 Threat Of Hunger       

1845. A normal year they might say or some might refer to it as the mourning year. The Ó’Donnabháins were a family of five. Oisín was the eldest in the family being 17 along with Fiadh who was 14 and youngest baby brother Seamus. They lived in a little welcoming rural town in Ireland with their parents Maureen and Liam. Ballyhaunis was filled with the brightest souls. The town was a family, for better or worse the folks knew one another. Despite the occasional squabble they were loyal, loving of one another. Amid the chattering trees, amid the mirth of laughing meadows, lived the rural town. The Ó’Donnabháins lived in a small cottage with two rooms and there was a chimney to let the smoke out. Oisín worked hard with his father on the farm and grew plenty of potatoes which they were very dependent on.while Fiadh helped her mother with Seamus and also helped her father as much as she could.

One summer evening they all sat down for dinner.  The ratio of potatoes was less than usual. Fiadh noticed that her parents were very distressed along with Oisín. They knew something that she didn’t. After dinner their parents went outside to talk while Oisín was minding Seamus. Fiadh was curious and was about to go outside when Oisín coughed and gave her a hesitant look. She didn’t dare to ask and went off to bed. Fiadh stayed up the majority of the night. The exhausting thoughts were eating her mind up. The next morning while Liam was working on the farm with Oisín Fiadh went for a walk with her mother and Seamus. As they were walking back home they saw a group of people crowded around Mrs and Mr Collin’s house. Fiadh and her mother went over to see. It turned out Mrs and Mr Collins were being evicted from their house! 

“What’s happening?” Why is this happening? Is that what you and father were talking about yesterday after dinner?” Fiadh asked her mother with so much anxiety bottled up inside her. “We didn’t want to tell you Fiadh, listen love the potatoes are getting this new disease called blight on them and we can’t eat them or sell them. We won’t get any money and for that reason we won’t be able to pay the landlord. That's what happened to Mrs and Mr Collins'' Maureen said with a quivering voice. “We can prevent this right?” “Oisín and I can work extra mother!” Fiadh said in despair. “Unfortunately this disease has taken over the whole country and  more than likely we will be facing a lot of problems, I am fearing for our lives Fiadh '' cried Maureen. “Mother it's not fair! They can’t let everyone starve to death and lose all our homes!” declared Fiadh. “No darling what’s going to happen is we’ll all have to go to workhouses'' Maureen said.  Tears rolled down Fiadhs cheek as she watched Mrs and Mr Collins go down the hill. Fiadh was in fear. Fear is a knife in the gut slowly twisted, fear is a constant hammer on the head. Yet fear also evaporates like water under an early summer sun  because like the ghosts of children's nightmares, fear is an illusion. Fear is part of being human. We need it, it wakes us up to what needs to be done. So feel it, own it, let it ignite your thoughts. Fiadh thought to herself.

Many people were being sent to work houses. The plague didn’t get to Fiadh, baby Seamus or her mother yet but they knew it would only be a matter of time. It was so quiet. Almost like they were the only people left. They said their goodbyes then headed off to the workhouses. The workhouses were foul smelling. There were sick people that were as pale as a ghost. The men were separated from the women and could only meet in church. Fiadh despised it. She missed her father and Oisín. She wanted to go back to the farm but her mother said they had no choice if they wanted to live.

They had to work intensely. Even if you were half dead on the ground you were expected to work and provide for yourself. It was a matter of time and death. The feeling of hunger kills you inside. Who knew that they would face such a threat? A threat of hunger. People ate stuff that wasn't food, not caring if it killed them, only that it ended the gnawing pain. There was something about hunger that robbed the spirit as well as the body, as if in such a state the mind is unable to feel love at all. In the throes of severe malnourishment all emotions that could hinder the person's ability to fight and be selfish are switched off. Or at least that's the way it was for most. There were some that would give you their last grain of rice and a hug to go with it, but they were so rare that they were almost like an extinct species. Fiadh was getting skinny and malnourished. She was getting terrified that she would die of starvation. Fiadh had a whole future ahead of her. Full of hopes and dreams. She fought the pain.

One day Fiadh was sharing a spinning wheel with someone. It was an old woman. The woman looked miserable. The woman could barely stand up. Her hair was covered in a silk cloth and her clothes were hanging off of her. “Are you new?” Fiadh said. “Yes” she replied. “What’s your name?”. Fiadh asked. “Call me Mary” said Mary with a gloomy look. “Oh hello Mary my name is Fiadh” Do you have family here with you?” Fiadh asked politely. “Oh no I am a widow, my husband John died while working with a public work scheme, the conditions were horrible and he was malnourished. John worked day and night to be able to pay rent. He fell behind rent and we were evicted and our home got demolished” said Mary while shedding a tear. Fiadh looked into Mary's eyes and said “It will be okay”. “I never knew the feeling of a child's love towards their mother, I never had that” replied Mary. Fiadh couldn't get words out because of how hard that sentence hit her. The pity she had for this woman was indescribable. They talked and talked until nightfall. Mary told Fiadh how she was coming up to her final days. Mary knew that the story of her life, her book, was almost done. She clenched her hand and gave something to Fiadh. It was a small bracelet made out of twigs.

The next few days Mary and Fiadh would meet at the usual spot near the spinning wheel where they would work together. They created a bond. The next week Fiadh waited all day for Mary. Not a glimpse of her. While Fiadh was working she saw hundreds of dead bodies getting put outside. She recognised a face. It was Mary. Fiadhs soul felt water thin. Her body trembled and chilled. This magnitude of grief passes and while it does, she learnt more about pain than she ever wanted to know. She looked down at the wooden bracelet and smiled knowing that Mary wasn’t in pain anymore. 

Fiadhs mother Maureen was falling weak. She was too weak to work and mind baby Seamus at the same time. Fiadh tried to help her as much as she could but both of them were getting fragile. Food was in ration. The workhouses were getting too overcrowded. They couldn’t even find space to breathe. Whenever night would occur Fiadh would stare at the ceiling thinking back on those days. The days where the 5 of them would be in their cottage enjoying the little moments life brings them. Fiadh had a very close relationship with both parents. She would do anything for them even if that meant putting her own life at risk. Every weekend Fiadhs Father Liam would sit outside with them and tell them urban legends. He loved his children very much. They completed him. Some days there wouldn’t be enough food for all of them, he wouldn't eat and instead gave it to them. The good memories gave her comfort in the background, as if they were the elevator music of her soulfire.

Months and months went by. As time went on, loneliness felt more as solitude, for one finds ways to cope. As people were coming in there were people working tirelessly while others mourned the loss of their loved ones. Finally they were getting out of the living hell. No more starvation. No more deaths. At least that’s what Fiadh thought. As she left the workhouse with her mother and Seamus she looked back one more time. All she could see was the illusion of Mary’s face. She took a deep breath and left. People were fighting to get on a ship. People were getting shoved and pushed on the floor and the ever so kind hearted people would help them up. Then there were the egregious ones. The ones who didn’t care. They walked on top of the people on the floor be they young, old or deceased. They had no sympathy. 

Fiadh reunited with her father and Oisín. She ran up to her father and put all her weight on him giving him the most enormous hug. Oisín cried tears of joy when he saw his mother and siblings after such a long period of time. They waited to get on the ship. From a far they could see bodies wrapped in blankets getting thrown into the sea. Those corpses belonged to someone. Those people had a life. They were someone's family. Why could life be such a gift at one time but then such an inconsolable story. Fiadh watched as the overcrowded ships were taking off one by one. They were so overcrowded that people were hanging off the ships. A search for a new life. A life without the fear of hunger and death.

“Hold my hands!” yelled Liam. The Ó’Donnabháins held each other tightly, not letting go while they ran towards one of the ships. They got one. They made it on board. A new life in America the family thought. A teenage girl and her younger brother approached the ship. They had no parents. They were crying for help and assistance but people chose to ignore them. This was the last ship to depart, all the other ships had gone. All of a sudden Fiadh saw her mother and Oisín cry. Not just any kind of cry. The type of cry that would give you goosebumps.In tears the inner angel pleads for help and there, in that moment they experienced the kind of hurt that changed their lives forever. Fiadhs father went up to her. He held her close into her arms. She felt something in her pocket. As she went to open it she saw that her father was gone. The place where he had been sitting was now accompanied by the teenage girl and her younger brother.

She opened the note her father left her in her pocket. Fiadh I know you would have stopped me and never let go if I told you that I was giving my place up for these harmless children.  They deserve a future dear. I know one day you will understand why I did this. Conquer the world Fiadh. It’s big. Until we meet again. 

Yours truly father.

By the time Fiadh finished reading the note the note was soaked in her tears. It ripped straight after. Fiadh went running into her mothers arms with Oisín. She remembered what her father reminded her that life is like a book. Some chapters sad, some happy and some exciting but if you never turn the page you will never know what the next chapter holds. 

As the ship drifted off into the sea Fiadh looked back and said “I will make you proud Father”.

By Ayesha Mim Ali