Daughters of Hunger

When Sheila O'Donnell dies from malnutrition, towards the end of the Irish famine, her daughter Cliona is deserted by her father and reared in the workhouse. She grows into an attractive young woman and the wealthy owner of the house in which a servant takes advantage of her innocence and naivety. Pregnant, she is given the choice of having the child adopted or dismissal. She chooses to keep the baby, naming her Margaret and bringing her up in poverty and shame. Margaret marries a local farmer. Their rented patch is not viable, but she imposes a strict budget and makes the most of new Land Acts to try and make a better life for her family.Sheila, Margaret's daughter, seems content to bury herself in a sleepy, historic village. It is only after her death that her two daughters discover that she had a thriving, outgoing and artistic life, leaving behind a number of paintings. Stifled by the narrow mindedness of village life, Shelia's second daughter Dodie joins her sister in London. In the capital, she is bewildered by the pace of life, disappointed in love and in her sister's behaviour. She experiments with drugs and sex and, disillusioned, retreats to the safety of a convent.