"On Christmas Eve 1946 a young man collapsed on a remote Island off the west coast of Ireland. There was no priest, no doctor and no policeman on the Great Blasket, and no contact with the outside world. Helpless, his family watched him die.".

"The death of the young man was the final catalyst for the end of the island community, whose people spoke a pure form of Irish and gathered by the turf fires to hear tales handed down from ancient times. Despair forced them to abandon an ancient way of life and plead for evacuation, which finally took place in 1953. Some, like the dead man's sister, went to live on the Irish mainland. Others headed west to America.".

"Cole Moreton's Hungry for Home tells the story of an Irish island and the dramatic events that led to its being abandoned." "This is a book about home and what that means, a voyage to America from the edge of Ireland, and a gripping account of a quest for a vanished people. But most of all it is a story of a family, the Kearneys, and their breathtaking journey from one way of life to another."--BOOK JACKET.