Summary

In this first chapter, readers are introduced to Lib Wright, who has just arrived in Ireland from England. A nurse who has trained under Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, she served at Scutari and, consequently, is confident that she is more than qualified to do the job for which she has been hired. After her long journey, which “was no worse than she expected”, Lib is met by a driver at the train station in Athlone and taken to the small village where she will be working. She is surprised to see dirty, malnourished people on the side of the road and later, when she asks for potatoes, she is told that they will not be harvested for another month. Although she does not give it any thought, this is the first time that she sees the effects of the Famine. Lib...