Orphan Among the Irish: Hanorah's Story

By Paul Brown

Hanorah was a young Irish girl, like any other poor Irish girl in the 1880s Ireland. The family still suffered through the years, from the effects of the great potato famine, an gorta mor, just as many others in the country.
Hardships plagued the young Hanorah, as one by one she witnessed her family perish. Hanorahs zest for life landed her on the shores of America of her dreams, where she somehow survived by going from restaurant work, convent life, house cleaning, marriage, motherhood.
This is Hannorahs story, orphan among the Irish.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468583793

Paul Brown

Paul Brown is the son of a lorry driver who left school at 16, and is now minister of a thriving church in Southwark, reaching out to predominantly working class communities. Paul has spoken on the relationship between the church and the white working class at conferences and churches and to different forums of community leaders and members of Parliament. Invisible Divides is his first book.

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© 2012 Paul Brown. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Illustrations by Fernando Bermudez

Published by AuthorHouse 04/10/2012

ISBN:  978-1-4685-8378-6 (sc)

            978-1-4685-8379-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012906605

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Contents

Preface

From the Author:

Chapter One

Morning is What Becomes of It

Chapter Two

Rath de Ort

Chapter Three

Irish Tunes the Constant Companion

Chapter Four

Nature Was a Gift That Blessed Ireland

Chapter Five

Somewhat of a Legend it was Thought

Chapter Six

Double Cross Carrie

Chapter Seven

Holy Card, Shamrock, Letter

Chapter Eight

Chance at Survival

Chapter Nine

Find the Dreams

Chapter Ten

Life and Death and Heaven Too

Preface

Hanorah was a young girl, like any other poor girl in the 1880’s Ireland. Hanorah’s dream was to one day see America, and raise a family that had the basic necessities of life: food, shelter and clothes. Love she would provide, in abundance. That she knew.

Hanorah would find life was kept alive and vibrant with music in it, with reading, with hope. These virtues helped Hanorah as she found her family members in Ireland perish, one by one before her eyes. Ireland still faced the after effects of ‘an gorta mor’, the great potato famine, though it was a generation before Hanorah’s own time.

Elder relatives would take in Hanorah, orphaned, along with her sister Katie. Life’s events and circumstances, eventually carried Hannorah to a new home, across the Atlantic Ocean, to America. Hanorah would end up living in various conditions and circumstances until her fate and her mate would find her: restaurant worker, convent residence, house keeper and cleaner.

Eventually a mate in marriage would fulfill Hanorah’s childhood dreams of motherhood, to six children, and life on a prosperous farm.

Hanorah’s life was influenced and assisted by the likes of Uncle Finn, Aunt Keira, and Aunt Deidre and from the legacy of others she did not know. Hanorah was assisted in her quest for a new life, by the persistence of local priests who saw in her the heart and soul of a good person.

This is Hanorah’s story: Orphan Among the Irish.

This book is dedicated to:

Nora Martley O’Donnell

The Author’s Great-Grandmother

From the Author:

Photo’s are from Brown family photographs dating back to the 1880’s.

Drawings are from the illustrator, Fernando Bermudez.

Please forgive me if there are some spelling errors etc. This was the twenty-second draft, and it was time for Hanorah to get her life story out there before time got by! Spell check is a good thing, but too, a bad thing!

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Nora Martley O’Donnell

Circa 1900

Chapter One

Morning is What Becomes of It

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There was once upon a time, a young girl, born just as any other young girl. The once upon a time was over a century ago, almost over one and one half centuries ago, in fact. That was a long time ago. That is about one hundred and fifty years ago to look back over in time. However, this is but a brief second in the ages of time in Ireland.

Hanorah, just one of thousands, an orphan among the Irish, was the young girl that entered the earth among the beautiful island of Ireland. Hanorah felt that from the very moment she could remember in her life, that she was who she was, from whom she came. These were her ancestors born before her, her relatives still walking among her, and she felt Honorah was whom she was because of these people who somehow had a place in her heart.

However small a part of her heart these other people shared, she knew not, only that they were a part of her fabric, a part of her make-up, a part of her. Honorah compared her thoughts to the trees growing across the land and the plants and flowers that sprouted forth from the earth of Ireland. Somehow these living things started out as tiny seeds, but with the right mixture of ingredients such as the sun, the air, water, and soil, they grew tall and strong for all to see. Honorah was that mixture of ingredients, a bit of everyone blended together.

Years later, when Hanorah was an adult, in a land far away from Ireland, she would feel this blend of all of her antecedents of relatives in the farm house she would live, in the trees planted around it, only as an adult can sense these memories. That would still be a life time away though for Hanorah.

This is Hanorah’s story.

Honorah, an orphan among the Irish.

‘Rath de’ ort’.

Hanorah woke up with these words upon her lips each Irish morning, just as she fell asleep whispering these same words, ‘rath de’ ort’. The words translated from the Gaelic of her native tongue to the English of her later family, ‘the grace of God be with you’.

The language spoken among Honorah’s family was that of Gaelic, the language of her home, Ireland. Hanorah knew no other language but Gaelic before she learned to read, though many of the young people among her village were learning the language of the neighboring island, home to the English. The English were not looked upon by the villagers Hannorah lived among with kind hearts. Only the nuns and the parish priests kept a balance between these in the village: A balance of hate and a balance of composure, between the Irish and the English.

Only the faintest of agitations could