Assignment 1
‘Star of the Sea’ by Joseph o Connor is a text set during the Irish Potato Famine, in 1847. The Irish Potato famine of the 1840s was the greatest social catastrophe of 19th century Europe, yet inspired surprisingly little imaginative writing. (Eagleton, 2002) However this book has been described by the Sunday Times as having ‘compelling characters and a dizzying narrative’ (Heaney, 2007) This compelling story is set around a wealthy, turned bankrupt, land owner and his family who flee to America, the promised land, in search of a new life. They are joined on this journey by a range of other passengers whose previous lives are in entwined together in a past that won’t let them go. The book has been written as
Joyce? Mahony? Black?’ (Ibid, Page 10) he remembered it to be Meadowes. Lord Kingscourt had spent time in the villages around his father’s estate, here he had observed the man with his father, he had watched them playing football and trading impreciations with each other. He was jealous of their relationship as he had never been able to appreciate such a relationship with his own father, after commenting to his sister that his father probably would not recognise a football, she had said ‘if papa had ever seen a football, he would have rammed it into a cannon and tried to shoot it at a Frenchman.’ (Ibid, Page 11) Throughout the chapter one is made aware of various thoughts Lord Kingscourt is having, he doesn’t appear to be comfortable in his present company, their attitudes irritate him, he seems to be more content when he is with his children or in a local village. He is a man with high morales and a clear idea of right and wrong. He feels that every man should be treated fairly, regardless of race or class, he tells the other diners that if u ‘treat a man like a savage and he’ll behave like one’ (Ibid, Page 13), he fights for the rights of lower class citizens and tries to help them, he tries to use his posisition in the house of lords to reform the conditions and the entry requirements of the workhouses. One can also see Lord Kingscourt as a very diblomatic man, during an argument with Mr Dixon, his voice is raised slightly, however he is still polite