The Black Thorn

De: John Desmond

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The number of evictions in Balinmore, Ireland is on the rise. Eamonn McDonagh feels that he must resist the English landlord who is responsible for the misery experienced by the Irish people in his town, so he forms a secret society known as "The Black Thorn." He warns his oppressor that violence will erupt in Balinmore if the evictions continue, which they do. The next person evicted is Eamonn's sister. Watching all of the violence that ensues is McDonagh's ten year old son, Joseph, who is caught between the gentle example of his priest and the violent actions of his father. So begins the story of Joseph McDonagh. It is a tale that starts in Ireland in 1846, at the start of the potato blight and the An Gorta Mor (the great hunger), and takes Joseph, by way of one of the many "Coffin Ships," to America and into its vicious Civil War. It ends in the Schuylkill coal region of Pennsylvania in 1867 where Joseph is arrested and put on trial for the murder of a brutal mine boss, --- a murder that he didn’t commit.