Ms Peggy L Ayers

Chasing Hope Ms Peggy L Ayers

1850 Ireland; after five years of the potato famine Sean Boyle and his only son Patrick leave their home in the beautiful country side. Having lost his wife Emily and their two daughters due to the harsh reality of i all, Sean takes the little hand of his son and begin their trek across the island to Mullingar hoping to find their way to a better place. They were coming to America chasing that dream. Sean was illerate and taken advantage of when a shister sold him a ticket to Liverpool, not to London where he inteded to find passage to America. The generosity of "Ol Brodie", the former captain of a sea faring vessel gave the Boyle boys room and board in exchange for a couple of days work cleaning the docks and introducing him to Cap'n Willie who would hire him as a deck hand to work their way to London. It was a net fishing vessel, the work was hard and the seas were rough but they endured and made friends with the other deck hands and enjoyed their comradrie. The next voyage took two and one-half months on a crowded, unsanitary vessel filled with other foreign speaking Europeans who were also going to a promised land. Finally Ellis Island was insight and the stood on the land of the free. Irish immigrants were not welcomed in New York and many difficulties were experienced, including the seperation of Sean and Patrick. This story tells of the difficulties Sean experienced, and the crossing of the country on horseback to the Minnesota Territories. It would be many years of struggle and strife for Sean as he homesteaded and built his home in Minnesota. It was an adult educated Patrick that searched for his father and the two were eventually reunited. This is a fictious story still keeping places, events and descriptive culture consistent with the times as we will see the difficulties endured to attain the desired hope that was chased, and found. The story is a feel good story, told in the Irish brogue as the author remembers from her own ancestry.