Ireland’s An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger), beginning in the year of 1845, is well chronicled in history books, as is the centuries-old persecutions upon the Green Isle.

The story A Lifetime or Two is a heartwarming peek into the lives of Maddie and Finn, who are trying to survive in the year following 1845. During this time, the potato blight and ensuing crop failure ravaged the country and resulted in thousands of Irish countrymen dying of starvation and disease.

Maddie, an old woman of seventy-seven and in ill health, constantly prays her beads and trusts in the Divine that Finn, sixteen, will come to see that he must leave his homeland and go to America. Maddie fears that Finn will succumb to the great hunger plaguing the poorest of the Irish, whose sole means of sustenance is the potato, if he stays in Ireland. Finn valiantly defends his position to remain with her, as Maddie cannot travel with him, and he fears for her ability to care for herself.

The story traces the events of Finn and Maddie and all those who impact their lives in meaningful ways, leaving a timeless legacy traveling down through the ages to another generation. A Lifetime or Two is as revelatory today as it was in the year 1846.

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