Читать книгу The Preacher and the Prelate - Patricia Byrne - Страница 11

PART 1

On a winter’s night, 6 January 1839, a woman listens in the darkness of her mountainside home. The wind strengthens by the hour; it is more terrifying than any island gales Eliza Nangle has experienced in five gruelling Achill winters. Her husband is absent, away on important engagements, for he must travel to raise funds for the Achill Mission’s work and for the family’s survival. Perhaps her three small daughters rush to her for comfort as successive squalls roll up the mountain, Slievemore, to a screaming crescendo. It is the ‘Night of the Big Wind’ – the most devastating storm ever recorded in Ireland, which will leave hundreds dead in its wake. What goes through her mind? Perhaps she looks out into the darkness where, less than a hundred paces away, the remains of her three infant sons rest: one for each of her first three years on this island. Slievemore will become her resting place too – her body, blood and bones forever sunk into the island mountain where Atlantic winds furiously pound.

– Patricia Byrne