Hungry for Home

British journalist Moreton's fiercely lyrical account of an abandoned island off Ireland's southwest tip, and of its residents' emigration to America, is memorable and evocative. The people of Great Blasket, which was permanently abandoned in 1953, spoke Gaelic and preserved an ancient culture and language to the very end. Work was communal; money seldom changed hands. An informal panel of elders acted as judge in disputes, often meting out rough justice. Mourners at a wake would tell ghost stories, huddled by candlelight in the same room as the corpse. But isolation and poverty drove away the younger generation, fishing and agriculture slowly died and, by 1947, there were just 15 extended families left, many of them petitioning the government to be given new homes on the Irish mainland. Great Blasket became a symbol of an old Ireland, a pawn in a game between politicians with opposing views of what it means to be Irish. By the time of the official evacuation, most of the island's inhabitants had already emigrated to the U.S. Through interviews and historical records, Moreton re-creates the saga of one family, the O Cearna clan (a Gaelic surname anglicized as Kearney or Carney), most of whom moved to Springfield, Mass., where they assimilated while attempting to revive the sense of community they once enjoyed on Great Blasket. The book's cadenced, flavorful first half, evoking traditional life on Great Blasket, is magical; the second half, centered on America, is more pedestrian, though it insightfully traces the shaping of Irish-Americans into a major political force. Moreton closes with a recent trip to the island's ruined, abandoned village, which the Irish government may transform into a national park. (July)