Polson author publishes historical novel

Polson writer Maggie Plummer has fulfilled a longtime dream with the publication of her book “Spirited Away: A Novel of the Stolen Irish.”

Set in the 1600s, the novel's protagonist is young Frederica “Freddy” O’Brennan. When she and her sister, Aileen, trust a stranger on an empty beach in western Ireland, they inadvertently place themselves in the crosshairs of Cromwell’s notorious Reign of Terror.

Freddy awakens in the crammed hold of a slave ship bound for Barbados. She and Aileen endure the gruesome voyage only to be wrenched apart when purchased at auction by plantation owners from different islands. Freddy is left alone to face the brutal realities of life as a female Irish slave on a 17th century Barbados sugar plantation.

As she struggles to survive, Freddy’s harrowing experiences paint an intimate, compelling portrait of 1650s Irish slavery in the Caribbean.

Plummer began researching Irish slavery after reading that during Oliver Cromwell’s Reign of Terror in the 1650s, a majority of Ireland's Catholic population was either slaughtered, exiled to the west or sold into slavery in the Caribbean.

"My jaw dropped and I did a triple-take, amazed," she said. "How could it be that I'd never heard of that? Others hadn't either.

“The more I read about Cromwell’s Reign of Terror, the hotter my Irish-American blood boiled. I knew I had to write something about this obscure, yet pivotal, period of Irish history."

An estimated 100,000 Irish people, mostly women and children, were sold to sugar plantation owners and literally worked to death, the author writes in her book's preface.

"Some were flogged to death," she said. "They suffered horrific conditions, disease, starvation and torture. Many of them died in the Barbados sugar cane fields, and their bodies were often thrown into swamps like garbage."

The bitterness caused by what took place during the 1650s has been a powerful source of Irish nationalism for more than 350 years.

"Irish slavery was an atrocity that should not be forgotten," Plummer said. "I find it outrageous that so few know about it. My hope is that this novel will help bring it to light."

The author grew up in Detroit but has family roots in western Montana. In Polson, where she has lived since 1984, Plummer has worked as a journalist, freelance editor and freelance writer. She is also the author of “Passing It On: Voices from the Flathead Indian Reservation,” published in 2008 by Salish Kootenai College Press.

Plummer’s historical novel was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and is available on Amazon.com in trade paperback and Kindle editions.