A Cottage In Donegal: Mary Doherty's Story - Paperback

by Rosie Doherty Gremmert (Illustrator), Eva Doherty Gremmert (Author)

"A Cottage in Donegal" opens in 1919 with a rural Irish woman writing about her husband's death and burial. In the depth of her grief, as Mary is all alone in their bedroom for the first time in over 50 years, she feels the intense need to record everything so that she will not forget him. Almost 10 years later, she finds the account that she wrote of those long, heart rending days at the bottom of her own knitting basket. She decides to write the story of her life so that her posterity will appreciate the strong legacy that was passed on to them. Mary is an old woman, with over eighty years of experiences and memories. So, over the next three years, she hides the fact from her family that she is recording her life. From that point, the story is chronological, beginning first with her birth in 1847 and culminating with her death in 1932. Mary "Hudie" Doherty lived her entire life in the same townland in County Donegal, Ireland. Her story is informative, historically accurate and draws the reader into a 19th century Irish country woman's life. It is an entertaining and evocative read. The book, written in memoir form, is from Mary's perspective.

Author Biography

Life in Ireland began to unfold for author Eva Doherty Gremmert in 1985, when she traveled to Carndonagh, Co. Donegal for the first time with her father and uncle (first generation born in America of Irish parents), and her two sisters. The sights and sounds, scents and foods, brogues and laughter, music and dancing held her spellbound from the moment she set foot in Ireland. Since those wonderful first days, she has put down deep roots in the community from which her grandparentsemigratedso long ago. Innumerable trips have now come and gone. Professionally she is a genealogist specializing in Irish research and her own family tree is filled with stories of the old times, the famine times, the ways and means by which the family endured and prospered. Eva has collected books, periodicals, letters, photos, and keepsakes that create a tapestry of Irish life in the towns and town lands of the ancestors she holds dear. From a wealth of detailed research and family stories, comes this story of Mary "Hudie" Doherty, Eva's great grandmother. This is Eva's first work of historical fiction. With four grown children and her own expanding posterity (currently eleven grandchildren), she is anxiously engaged in her family life of today. Eva and her husband, Arden, spend their time at their homes in Carnation, Washington and Carndonagh, Ireland.