Rising from famine, child labor, and a Irish rebellion to prosperity on the American frontier, Michael Quinn seeks to recover love, family, and social justice.
It May Be Forever is a nineteenth century tale of adventure and tragedy, based upon the real-life story of Michael Quinn. To escape the grinding poverty of Ireland’s Great Famine, Michael and his family flee to England, where at age eight, Michael becomes a child laborer in a textile mill. As he grows older and more aware of British prejudice and discrimination, he is motivated to enlist with the Fenian rebels, a group determined to free Ireland from British colonial rule. Chronic unemployment, however, drives him to America, and defeat on the battlefield lands him on the untamed plains of the Wild West.
Faced with unaccustomed opportunity, Michael quickly abandons the fight against oppression and turns away from family and friends. Dreams of achieving a great fortune lead him to support the dispossession of Native Americans of their lands and livelihood. But after the massacre at Wounded Knee, demons of conscience rise up in terrible nightmares, and only a Lakota holy man offers the hope of redemption.
It May Be Forever is a cautionary tale, which shows how the many small decisions of life can create the most unintended consequences, and how easily a man of strong convictions may become that which he hates.
Excerpt
1846
Patrick Quinn picked his way carefully along a footpath not much wider than the fattest snake St. Patrick expelled from Ireland. As he traipsed, he rehearsed his frustrations like an old woman fingering the beads of her rosary. Since dawn he’d been seeking day wages at larger farms in the parish, but without success. It was well past suppertime as he hurried back to his family. Cate will surely be weary of toil and toddlers. I mustn’t add to her worries.
Beside the path, drenched pastures of deep, thick grass smelled of earthworms. Further on, the lush, green meadows were replaced by a brown expanse of bog land, scarred black where the turf pits lay. A midsummer sun forced its way into the evening sky. Through the lingering rain clouds, shafts of gold created and interrupted the lengthening shadows.
He approached their mud-wall cabin, a drooping, gray structure that begged a coat of whitewash. Its roof of tattered thatch resembled an urchin in bad need of a haircut. Cate, nearly seven months pregnant, sat at the threshold and took no notice of Pat’s arrival.
“Ah, Cate, have I missed the children then? I didn’t mean to be so late.”
She nodded and put a finger to her lips. “Please God, you’re home. Did you find any work at all?”
“None for pay. Helped Flanagans birth a calf. No one has work but for his own.” Pat grabbed at tense muscles at the back of his neck, but he managed to force a smile. “I fear I chased away a daydream or such just now. What were you thinkin’?”
Cate didn’t look up. She stared at her dirty, bare feet. “Oh, I’ve been prayin’... beggin’ God ‘tis no mortal sin to have these feelin’s which I do. Here you have six mouths to feed in hard times and I’m cursin’ you with another.”
Professional Reviews
The Self-Publishing Review
Francis Hamit - March 5, 2009
Let it be said first that It May Be Forever: An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier is an excellent, very enjoyable book, which would win the highest rating if we did that kind of thing at SPR. The problem is that is resists classification. Is it a history, a non-fiction novel, a biography, or historical fiction? It works best as the latter, but one does not normally find photographs and other illustrations in such text, nor a bibliography. A glossary of terms, sometimes, but any fictional text that fails to generate reader understanding of what these mean organically is incomplete and distracting.
The protagonist here is Michael Quinn, an ancestor of the author, and his entire biography and that of some of his family encompasses the narrative. Quinn grew up hard in Ireland and England, immigrated to America, was drawn into the Fenian movement, later took part in the abortive post-Civil War Fenian invasion of Canada, and took his parole as a prisoner not back home to the girl he loved, but out West to seek his fortune. He entered the overland freight business at the lowest level, as a bullwhacker, organized his own company, and prospered, but his girl, to no one’s surprise but his, did not wait for him but married his brother instead. He did not take this well, and never returned home, losing all contact with his family and leading a lonely life that made him rich but ultimately unsatisfied .
It is a fascinating tale and the depth of the author’s research is evident, although he avoids the rookie trap of becoming hostage to it and boring the reader. The writing is first rate. I am not sure that the photographs and other documentation are really needed, but that may simply reflect my personal tastes. I like to read without interruption and I found them distracting rather than a value enhancement. In terms of the story itself, the blow-by-blow account of Quinn’s childhood could have been compressed or perhaps even eliminated entirely without any real violence to the main story, but what’s done is done.
Anyone who enjoys a good read will enjoy this book.
CelticReader.com
It May Be Forever: An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier
By David M. Quinn
Quinn's book is a novel based upon the real life experiences of his great-great uncle Michael Quinn, who suffered through the tragedy of Ireland's Great Famine as a child. His family managed to leave Ireland for England where he became a child-laborer in the textile mills. From there they eventually emigrated to America to Massachusetts and worked in the textile mills there. Particularly interesting are Quinn's experiences with the American branch of the Fenians - but I won't spoil what may be news to you by giving any of that away. Ultimately Quinn travels out into the American frontier and we experience with a patriotic fascination all of the dirt and dust and danger of life on the trail and in the burgeoning towns of the Wild West.
What's unique about this biography turned novel is the real life information threaded throughout like golden wire. It's obvious that Quinn has done his research to breathe life and breath into Michael Quinn's tale. His attention to historic detail is commendable. His historic photographs lend credence and the story is rich in the sounds and smells and current affairs of Ireland, England, and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century. The early Irish American experiences were fraught with prejudice against these Celtic second-class citizens, who were portrayed in the political cartoons of the day as unintelligent apes or drunken idiots. Michael Quinn falls for a fine upstanding American girl from a good Massachusetts family and there is more than an "other side of the tracks" type of prejudice from her father - it is down right racial. Once Michael travels out west these societal strictures begin to blur and become inconsequential. On the frontier it's valor, a hardy nature, and brains that count, with a generous sprinkling of luck.
David Quinn names his novel with a lyric from the old Irish ballad "Kathleen Mavourneen." This tender love song, which I've listened to often as sung by the great tenor of yore, John McCormack, rings startlingly clear as emblematic of the tragedy of unwanted emigration:
"Kathleen, Mavourneen*, What slumbering still?
Oh! hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever?
Oh! hast thou forgotten, this day we must part;
It may be for years, and it may be forever?
Oh! why art thou silent, Kathleen, Mavourneen?"
* My darling one / My only one
I think I can understand Kathleen's silence. The waking reality is unbearable. She is sleeping and perhaps in her dreams they are together and there is no specter of permanent separation. The Irish experience of the 19th century was one of leaving and when one left Ireland the family would sometimes host a wake because they would not expect to see the traveler again on this earth. The emigrant journey was long and dangerous and if one made it alive to the destination, generally America, returning was not an option. The loved one was thus regarded as dead to the remaining Irish family. They would be reunited only if the lost sheep could send the price of passage home to his family in Ireland. There is no traveler's wake in this story but the sorrow of parting is indeed there, again and again.
When reading a historical novel it's easy to drink in history without realizing it. I recommend David Quinn's book as an excellent and pleasurable way to learn your Irish and Irish American history. It's a gripping journey, colored with much tragedy and sadness, but excitement and joy as well. I thank David Quinn for sharing it with us.
Janet McGrane
Celticreader.com
Celtic Connection
BOOK REVIEW
BY MARY MCWAY SEAMAN
THE CELTIC CONNECTION
JULY, 2006
Is there any Irish or Irish-American family that cannot claim an elderly member of that old venerable institution – lifelong bachelorhood? If none comes readily to mind, just nod back a few generations, and one will surely appear. David M. Quinn’s stirring story about one such bachelor, his great, great uncle Michael Quinn, is embedded in his new historical novel, IT MAY BE FOREVER: AN IRISH REBEL ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIER.
The phrase, “It May Be Forever” derives from the old Irish ballad of sorrowful parting, “Kathleen Mavourneen,” and its refrains underscore events throughout the narrative. Although the book rests securely on years of research tracing the uncle from 1840’s Ireland to England to America, Quinn chose to write a novel instead of nonfiction, thereby enriching the tale by weaving in the times’ grievous economic conditions. This book has it all – adventure, mystery, politics, war, business, travel, failed romance and history – but no historical treatises here; the action reveals all. Additionally, its pulse is that of a bracing Western, replete with Indian wars, wagon trains, gun battles, cattle drives, dancehall girls, mining camps and homesteaders.
The phenomenon of old Irish bachelorhood dates back to famine times when families were large, land was scarce and rents were high. Younger men in a family, unable to inherit or lease land, were cut loose into the world with few skills and limited marriage prospects. Michael Quinn was one such fellow, and his lifespan (1846 – 1934) was filled with enough Irish immigrant drama for a dozen men. From the Great Famine through the Great Depression, his perils were many – the wretchedness of the workhouse in Roscommon, the loathsome millwork in England and Massachusetts, his soldiering in the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s failed foray against the British in Canada, and long years of tough times in the American West. (Years ago a much older friend had told me about his own grandfather’s role in the IRB campaigns, so it was fascinating to get the book’s on-the-ground details about this obscure operation.)
Unlike many immigrants, Michael Quinn didn’t just go from point A to point B. After the Fenian fiasco, he moved throughout the West, enduring a spell as bullwhacker from Nebraska through northern Colorado (spirited descriptions of 19th century Denver are a treasure). Decades of family estrangement ensued, resulting from a brother marrying the Massachusetts fiancée promised to Quinn. The ever-moving bachelor, a world away from the east coast, never recovered from the betrayal, and the rift lasted 28 years. A relentless determination set in as Quinn moved through Colorado and Wyoming, eventually settling in South Dakota. A superb businessman with an unbeatable work ethic, he steadily built a fortune with freighting businesses, cattle ranches and real estate investments. The town of Quinn, South Dakota bears his name to this day. At one point the uncle even traveled to Cuba to consider a business venture. He reconciled with a nephew late in life and left his riches to nieces and nephews.
The book left me reflective. Here was a very young man who set out into the world alone, with naught but a steady confidence in the country’s opportunities. His dogged determination to push forward is exhilarating to follow. Though not an unblemished choirboy, he possessed a straightforward integrity, and instinct for networking, and a can-do attitude. Early misfortune had taught him the basics: fortitude, patience, planning and saving. There are no fanciful notions about a pious immigrant poverty here; worldly possessions saved the day for many on the frontier.
Many descendents of famine forebears know little about the profound suffering of former generations. Plugging some of this deficit, David M. Quinn’s IT MAY BE FOREVER: AN IRISH REBEL ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIER lets the unstoppable perseverance of his famine ancestor mark out a singular path from poorhouse to prairie to prosperity. The perfect escape from a techno-weary world!
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Reviews for "It May Be Forever - An Irish Rebel on the American Frontier"
Reviewed by alex dihes (алик дайхес)
7/2/2008
the excerpt is uneven. the parts picturing nature are lovely, skillful, imaginative. the pictures of characters and the talkings, especially, are not convincing.
here some factual discrepancies:
1. "Patrick Quinn picked his way carefully along a footpath"
one doesnot PICK his way if he has a footpath. it has been picked by somebody else before.
2. in the passage you render his thoughts in the 2nd face -- without a reason you jump to the 1st face.
hope it helps.
your humble and feeble-minded admirer
Shanghai Escapist grabs the faint-of-heart right from the get-go and serves up an ultimatum: What would you do if caught in the same circumstances? From the opening scene, the reader is tossed into the maze of daily intrigue as it existed in 1960s-70
Fourth Book in the Southern Swallow Series finds the Academician Li K'ai-men in exile on Hai-nan Island. China has a new invasion threat. A showdown between ingenuity and technology explodes as the Sung Dynasty tries to preserve itself.
Fourth Book in the Southern Swallow Series finds the Academician Li K'ai-men in exile on Hai-nan Island. China has a new invasion threat. A showdown between ingenuity and technology explodes as the Sung Dynasty tries to preserve itself.
