Liam McGinley leaves Donegal, Ireland in 1845 to join his family in New York City. It is a time of starvation and fever as he leaves his grandmother and everything he loves and heads for the ships along with thousands of other desperate people seeking relief. On the road, he encounters the full force of the many displaced people who are emaciated and clad in rags, heading for the holds of the lumber ships for the long voyage to America. Liam was lucky. He had the help of his cousin, Patrick Gillispie, a New York City policeman and a very close friend of Liam's parents, who was able to secure...

The ship bobbed gently, pulling on the lines and heaving the gang plank just enough to make the passengers hold the ropes tighter. They were weak, unsure of their footing and looked sickly in the same threadbare, soiled and loose fitting clothing they had worn the entire voyage. They were all from Ireland, simultaneously feeling grateful and apprehensive in this new land. They had survived the three and a half week journey in the cramped, unhealthy pit of the cargo ship, enduring weather that was terrifying at times. Liam McGinley and his fellow passengers stepped into the unknown world of a...