Nory Ryan's Song

Set during the Great Famine of 1845 in Ireland, when a devastating potato blight destroyed the primary food source for millions of Irish people, the novel follows twelve-year-old Nory Ryan as her family and community in Maidin Bay, on Ireland's west coast, are torn apart by starvation, landlord oppression, and forced emigration.

Nory lives with her grandfather (Granda), her older sister Maggie, her middle sister Celia, and her three-year-old brother Patch. Their father, Da, has been away for weeks fishing out of Galway to earn rent money owed to Lord Cunningham, the English lord who owns all the land and houses in the glen. Like most Irish tenant families, the Ryans survive on potatoes and live under constant threat of eviction. Nory loves singing and dreams of Brooklyn, New York, where her friend Sean Red Mallon's sister already lives.

From the cliffs above the glen, Nory and Sean spot bailiffs using a battering ram to evict Cat Neely and her mother for unpaid rent. Nory races to the house of Anna Donnelly, an elderly local healer feared for her supposed connection to the sídhe (fairy beings from Irish folklore), and borrows a coin Anna has hidden in her thatch roof. Anna demands payment through labor: Nory must help gather and dry medicinal herbs. Nory arrives at the Neely house too late; the house has been destroyed and the Neelys taken away. In a moment of panic, she accidentally drops the coin into Patrick's Well, a deep well atop the cliffs, where it sinks beyond recovery. Nory finds the Neelys' abandoned sheepdog, names her Maeve, and takes her home, now bound to work for Anna despite having lost the coin.

Maggie soon announces she is leaving for America with Francey Mallon, Sean's brother and her new husband. Celia declares she will eventually follow. In a struggle over their dead mother's comb, Nory and Celia break it in two, each keeping half. On Maggie's wedding day, the family celebrates with a bonfire, fiddle music, and dancing. The next morning, Maggie tells Nory privately that she is "the heart of this family" and a "great girl, a stór," meaning "dear one" (27). At the crossroads, the family waves goodbye. Patch sinks to the ground crying, and Nory comforts him, echoing Maggie's words.

Devlin, Cunningham's rent agent, warns that potatoes are failing elsewhere and that rent is still due. Nory begins visiting Anna and learns herbal remedies: wild garlic and honey for coughs, comfrey for wounds, selfheal for fever. Anna gives Patch small amounts of milk from her cow and confides that her dead son was Tague, a legendary cliff fisherman who fell to his death reaching too far in the wind. One night, Nory wakes to a dreadful smell. Outside, the Ryan potato stalks have collapsed, limp and dripping. The family desperately digs up what they can, but the tubers are spotted and ruined. Celia throws out the entire batch after the boiling water turns dark. The family resorts to one meal per day, made from stream water and leaves.

The community unravels rapidly. Cunningham confiscates the Mallons' currach, a small fishing boat, for unpaid rent, leaving them unable to fish. A package from Maggie arrives at the post office in Ballilee, but the Ryans cannot pay the postage. Granda begins working on an English road-building project for a small wage and a meal. Celia asks Cunningham for kitchen work but is mocked and turned away; she reports that Maeve is penned among Cunningham's hunting dogs. Sean is sent to break rocks for the road, but his hands become so blistered he is dismissed. Granny Mallon, Sean's grandmother, dies without a wake or funeral.

When Devlin arrives to collect rent, he seizes the pig Muc and the hen Biddy. Anna's animals have already been taken. With Da still missing, Granda insists on walking to Galway to find him. Celia goes along, being older and stronger. Nory stays behind with Patch in case Da arrives by another route. Nory gives Celia both halves of their mother's broken comb. Celia tells Nory, "Stay alive" (100). Nory watches the confiscated animals loaded onto a ship bound for England: Irish food leaving the starving country.

Left alone with Patch, Nory brings both her own unfinished shawl and Celia's finer one to Anna's house. Anna reveals that she tried to save Nory's mother but could not. She confides that she has watched Nory since childhood, seeing in her the same brave, singing spirit as Tague. Anna chose Nory to receive her healing knowledge not for the coin, which never mattered, but because Nory's gift for remembering songs meant she could memorize the cures. Anna finishes Celia's shawl overnight. Nory walks to Ballilee and sells it to Cunningham's wife for three coins, though the hotel door guard pockets one. She buys flour and oats, then spends her remaining coins to retrieve Maggie's package. On the road home, a man who had earlier tried to sell Nory suspicious milk attacks her from behind, stealing everything and knocking her unconscious. She wakes in Anna's bed, treated with comfrey. The food and the package are gone.

Nory resolves to descend the cliffs as Tague once did, gathering wild bird eggs from nests on the ledges. Sean holds the rope despite his damaged hands. A large bird attacks Nory, and she falls to a narrow ledge, killing the bird beneath her. She gathers eggs and climbs back up with the dead bird tied to her waist. Over the following days, she climbs repeatedly, feeding Anna, Patch, Sean, and Mrs. Mallon with eggs and seabirds.

Sean brings news: His brothers Liam and Michael found work at the Galway docks before sailing to America. There is one extra ship ticket, originally meant for Granny Mallon before her death, offered to Nory. She refuses it, insisting Patch must go instead. Despite his desperate clinging, Nory pries him away, telling him Maggie is waiting and that he must remember "your own Nory sent you because she loved you" (133). Sean promises to deliver Patch, and the cart departs.

Near a shrine in the cemetery, Nory finds a fragment of Maggie's stolen package. On it, Maggie has drawn the whole family on Smith Street in Brooklyn. Maggie's figure has a billowing skirt with a small "N" over it, revealing she is pregnant and plans to name the baby Nory. When Devlin approaches seeking Anna's healing skills for the ailing Cunningham, Nory negotiates: Anna will help only if Maeve is returned, food is provided, and seed potatoes are supplied. Devlin agrees, and that evening Maeve rushes into Anna's arms.

Days later, a stranger arrives with a message from Da, who is alive and working at the Galway port. Da has sent two ship tickets to America. Nory and Anna realize the two tickets likely mean Da has already found Celia and Granda. Nory offers one ticket to Anna, but Anna refuses. She insists Nory must go, carrying Anna's healing knowledge to the new country. Anna reveals she has secretly mended Nory's flawed shawl as a parting gift.

Nory visits Patrick's Well one last time, tying a strip of her petticoat to the prayer tree. She returns to the Ryan house, retrieves her mother's red wedding dress, and smothers the hearth fire that has burned for over a hundred years. After a final goodbye, Anna presses a bag of dried healing herbs into Nory's hands. Nory walks up the road, looking back at Anna in her doorway with Maeve, picks up two stones for Patch, and turns onto the coastal road toward Galway, the ship, and 416 Smith Street, Brooklyn.