Review
The Wormdigger’s Daughter(Mercier Press)
Sand Castles
Lest we forget the injustices and oppression of Ireland’s past John Farrell’s clear, deliberate language commands us to remember, says Aileen McCallan.
The Wormdigger’s Daughter is a heartwrenching story set in the mid 1920s, a time of confusion and great political change, a time when Ireland was beginning to find itself, a time when the ordinary people of Ireland did what they were told and were expected to turn a blind eye to the misconduct and injustice perpetrated by ‘foreign’ gentry.
A Prologue, set in the present day, depicts North-East side Dublin as “a place where in the past there were big estates and a large farming community.” Big House people once used to call the labourers’ houses ‘wormdiggers castles’. When we are first introduced to the two central characters, Molly and Frank – it is the 50s and time has passed since they laboured on a large country estate in Co. Meath. They begin to tell their story to a young messenger boy who finds them living on the side of the road. It is a story of grief and hardship and we learn how they came to fear for their daughter’s safety causing them to flea from the country estate in the black of night. It is not long before they learn the authorities are searching for them. They are falsely accused of stealing and forced to become fugitives.
Disguising their daughter, Angel, as a boy they maintain their cover and find help from sympathetic farmers along the way. Their lives are governed by the terror of being discovered and imprisoned but above all, by their fear of what would happen to their daughter if she had to return to the estate. Their only hope are some influential Americans who befriend them and offer them an opporunity to escape - but at a terrible price. Frank and Molly ultimately face a ‘Hobson’s Choice’ situation and are forced to make a heartbreaking decision to protect and secure a safe and bright future for their beautiful daughter.
Farrell’s poignant tale unfolds simply and eloquently, devoid of complicated language and romantic notions about Ireland but rather exposing the dark side of Ireland’s oppressive history. The tale may be old but it has universal relevance in modern life, were ordinary people are no match for the egotistical and greedy powers that dominate much of our society still. Farrell’s transcripts preserved a story that he heard when he was 12 years old and its publication is clearly justified. It finally gives Frank and Molly a voice and the reader an education on the injustice that existed even at a time of renewal in Ireland.
It will have a lasting effect on every mother or father who can appreciate and understand the length parents will go to to protect their own.
