Mary McGuire

Why Hast Thou Forsaken Us? Mary McGuire

The wailing of the babes could be heard throughout the land. There was nothing to eat. Men, women, and children perished. Mothers scoured the countryside looking for something to feed their sobbing infants. When the crying stopped, it was too late; the babes had succumbed to the Great Hunger. It was the scourge of Ireland. It would last for six years, taking the lives of more than one million people. At thirteen years old, Sally ORourke felt the full force of the Great Hunger, the famine that descended on Ireland in the year 1845. Many perishedfamily members, friends, and neighbors. She, along with her sixteen-year-old brother, took the only recourse open to them: leaving their beloved country to cross the ocean in search of some means to abate the plague that had befallen their family. Her older brother James, who was preparing for the priesthood, was strong in his faith and accepted without question the Word of God. Unlike her brother, Sally was filled with anger at what had befallen those she loved. While James prayed for redemption, Sally remained silent, but her heart cried out to the Lord, Why hast thou forsaken us?