A world apart: The thriving resort community of Killarney nestled in a valley surrounded by nature's glory had little contact with the world of the Irish country people who scraped out a meager living on postage stamp sized acreage. The winter of 1847 was the most severe in Ireland's history. Flynn O'Connell and his family suffered through the winter. The hens died. Flynn lit small fires to try to keep the sheep warm, but some of them died. The former French Foreign Legionnaire chose a life of relative solitude trying to forget the past. His wife Margaret, decended from Irish royalty chose seclusion, in hiding from a persistant former lover who would not end his pursuit. In the coutryside, the Irish peasant faced a third year of potato crop failure.

The main source of food for the common people was lost forcing them to buy grain at inflated prices from unscrupulous Engish merchants. Disease and death followed for those who had no money. Leaving the land they loved became an option. A million people fled. Patriots hid in the shadows, fearful of discovery for thier wish to be free from religious and political oppression. They were led by Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, who fought English domination fighting for freedoms enjoyed by sons and daughters who fled to a new land, a continent away.