Brideen

<p>County Mayo Ireland 1847. The potato crop has failed two years in a row. People are in the throes of starvation and young Bridget Sweeney must witness things that no nine-year-old should have to bear: Whole families stricken with fever corpses littering the roadsides and her own family forcibly evicted in the dead of night. Through a mix of dogged determination sheer luck perhaps even divine grace they join the historic Irish diaspora making their way to England and ultimately to North America. In <em>Brideen</em> author Kathleen McDonnell draws on fragmentary family records centuries-old newspaper articles even lyrics from traditional ballads to ensure that her ancestor's gripping story of survival will not be lost to history. </p><p></p><p>Kathleen McDonnell has published eleven books of fiction and non-fiction and her plays have been produced across Canada and the United States. She's a longtime resident of Ward's Island a ten-minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto where she and her spouse raised their two daughters. </p>