New Longford book tells the story of Mostrims overlooked history

Last May solemnity and celebration commingled as the National Famine Commemoration took place in The Green, Edgeworthstown.

The suitability of the location was emphasised when the then Taoiseach, Simon Harris, recalled the writing of Maria Edgeworth as “a documentation of the horror of the famine”.

Another Mostrim writer, Mark Cassidy, has recently tackled this behemoth of a subject that has shaped a nation's psyche.

“This is Mostrim” is a trilogy, commencing with The Famine. Set at the onset of the potato blight the work is a fictional account of the life of Jim Gorman as events thrust him into a maelstrom of social and political upheaval.

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“I've tried to mix research, historical fact, with fiction as best I could,” Mark told the Leader.

Delving into the history of his home town, weaving in folklore, stained with tales that may or may not have a vein of truth running through them, the first episode of This is Mostrim is an adventure story.

“The history really came first,” Mark says of the genesis of the book, “The person who gave me the idea to write the book was a lecturer in DCU. We were doing an assignment on history. The famine was a bit divisive in the class. I thought this could make a good story.”

Mark has rooted the story in fact. The number of agricultural labourers reached a peak in the generations before the Famine.

“It's been told by a tenant, a landless cottier. Jim Gorman and his pals, they're all in the same boat. Too often the voices of these people are absent from the story of the famine.

“You get historian's versions or you get those who are making the laws. I've rarely read an account by a landless tenant, that's why I made the protagonists in the book a landless tenant,” Mark said.

Framing a piece of historic fiction gives the writer the opportunity to create a voice for such characters, while giving a flavour of the period: “I thought it was important to get across the point of view of a class considered the lowest in society at the time, an ordinary tenant on a tenant estate.

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I tried to imagine their leading concerns of the day, the things that would have been bothering them most, like tight payment.”
Mark sets the book in his hometown: “I set it in Mostrim because I know the area, it helps give a degree of accuracy to the story. It's quite an historic place, in and of itself, with a well-documented history.

“I only touched on Maria Edgeworth, which is a kind of a divisive thing in Edgeworth. To this day there is a “Mostrim-Edgeworthstown” thing. You'd have people that wouldn't call Mostrim Edgeworthstown, and vice versa.”

The Mostrim scribe says he admires other writers from the surrounding areas: “I like a number of different authors, especially the Irish ones. Pat MacCabe is one, even though he doesn't go into historical fiction, he'd be one of my favourites growing up. He has strong Longford connections, he taught here.

“Another is John McGahern. I love his writing, because it's local. You can feel where he is from when you read him. He can explain the ordinary in a very interesting way.”

This is Mostrim - The Famine is the first of three books in a series. Mark has opted to have his work published by an author friendly house who offer an affordable, efficient and cost-effective option for Iris writers: “I went with a small publishing house in Drogheda, County Louth, called Choice Publishing. They we make it easily available to readers by operating an online bookstore where they will accept orders via the internet, email, or telephone.”

This is Mostrim - The Famine is available in local bookstores and online.