Award winning author Basil Douros has done it again. The story reminds the descendants of Irish Immigrants that their ancestors suffered for centuries before they emigrated to America.
Ireland or Ivernia as it was once called was invaded by the Druid Celts in 335 B.C. The Celts were accompanied by slaves that they had captured when the Druids sent a delegation to the court of Alexander the Great. The slaves were dark, short, with blue eyes and were fearsome fighters. Rome eventually invaded England, and established a colony that was to last for almost five-hundred years. During that time the Scoti, the Vikings and the Picts battled with the Romans and each other for control of Ivernia.. The Romans withdrew leaving their former colonies to the mercy of the Norsemen. The Norsemen eventually created Norman kingdoms setting the stage for what would become known hundreds of years later as the Great Irish Potato Famine
The Barretts arrived in Ireland with the conquering armies of the Duke of Anjou when Frederick Barrett a master armorer, created intricate, flexible battle-shirts of iron chain links. The story describes the circumstances that centuries later led their descendants to emigrate to America. The Barretts like many thousands of people from the Emerald Isles left the hopelessness and hunger of their homeland during the Great Hunger of the eighteen-hundreds in hopes of finding food for their children to eat. The famine drove the Irish to emigrate to Vermont where they raised large families, planted potatoes,and made whiskey out of any potatoes that weren't eaten. The practical jokes and funny stories about early Vermont life describe the story of the Barretts of Shelburne who became famous as ship builders in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The off-spring of these families met and married in little towns and villages in Vermont. Towns and villages like Underhill, Essex Junction and Cambridge were populated by Irish immigrants. The New England Irish Catholic who never lived far from a church or a pub created a culture that blended determined and fiercly independent people with a love of life.
