OUT NOW! Róisín Campbell: An Irishwoman in New York by Joseph P. Garland
Róisín Campbell was eighteen when she stepped off a boat in New York Harbor in the summer of 1870. She knew little of the world beyond what she’d seen in her small town in County Limerick, Ireland, and what she’d read in the novels she devoured when her chores were done. She knew no one in New York other than her cousin Jimmy Regan and Michael Henry, a dapper bachelor she met on board who would become her confidante and advisor.
Róisín receives service training from the Sisters of Mercy and is hired as a maid in the wealthy Geherty household. Jealousy, misunderstanding, and the strictures of social class lead to her dismissal and ultimate barring from work in the fashionable homes. A series of fateful events eventually find her training as a nurse at a clinic for the Irish poor where her life will change forever. When her younger sister arrives from home, unwed and heavy with child, Róisín is faced with decisions she never imagined.
Set at the dawn of the Gilded Age, this is the story of a young Irishwoman who comes to America with nothing but determination and who finds not only herself and her calling, but also love in the heart of a good woman and in the soul of an innocent child.