The Saint of Impossible Causes: An Irish 19th Century Family Saga
About this book
Ireland, 1879. Maura Doyle has always felt she was meant for more than her life as a poverty-stricken farmer’s daughter in County Laois could provide. Her father has arranged for her to marry into a wealthier local family, but she has more interest in her neighbor, Joseph O’Malley. Forced to leave school at age 16, she takes a full-time job as a maid in the local landlord’s mansion after a family tragedy. But the arrival of the lord’s son upends her role in the house and the equilibrium of the entire community. Joseph and some of his friends, under the influence of an old rebel in the area, hatch a plan to strike back at the landlords and fire the first shot in the upcoming land war that will soon consume Ireland. But when their scheme fails, the new lord will exact revenge on the community and order a round of evictions that will devastate the local population. Joseph, Maura, and their friends will take a stand against the forces of the English Crown but will pay a devastating price. It will be up to Maura, with the help of the new rising star of the Irish political scene, Charles Stewart Parnell, to save her neighbors from the hangman’s noose and take actions that will change not only her life but those of her family and community forever.