In 1849, fifteen-year-old Christy Dooley leaves Ireland for America, stowing away aboard the St. John, a “famine ship” crowded with Irish families fleeing the miserable poverty and devastation caused by the Great Potato Famine. Christy has a crooked back, and as a “cripple” unable to work in the peat bogs like his father, could never have been more than a beggar in Ireland. But the penniless lad is determined to earn his fortune in America and to return with money to help his Ma and sister. Christy’s father is a cruel drunkard, but Christy’s Ma believes in her son. Although she has no idea of Christy’s plans, she gives him a medal of St. Christopher, the lad’s namesake and the patron saint of travelers. On the Galway docks, Christy strikes up a friendship with Blackie McClure, a giant of a man bound also for the new land. Blackie promises the “wee hunchback” that they will stick together, aboard ship and in America, too.
OVER THE NEXT month, Blackie
