Historical writers face a quandary, especially when writing about situations or events that still resonate today and which can provoke strong responses in current circumstances.  Typical of these is Ireland.

The ongoing sectarian divide in that troubled land, and the actions of modern players in the drama, can colour the response of readers and make very difficult an author's effort to present an authentic voice from that history.  Deborah Lisson's Red Hugh is a good example of this difficulty, wearing its sympathy toward one side of the conflict very openly.

Bridie's Fire is the first of a series of stories on the Irish immigrants from whom 25% of Australians can claim some ancestry.  Bridie O'Connor is left orphan and destitute in the Great Famine of the 1840s and 50s and, leaving her brother in a workhouse, arrives in Melbourne as an 11 year old indentured servant.  Stifled by the "Little England" class structure of the household and wary of the advances of her master, she runs away to the goldfields.  Finding just as much danger, and just as many characters to distrust, she also gains some degree of independence in a motley group of actors.

It is a well paced story that never pushes the bounds of credibility with convenient coincidences but observes the social dramas of the characters keenly and (seemingly) realistically.  The slow starving death of Bridie's mother contrasts with the rigid, confined world of the women of the Melbourne household, and such scenes create the background for Bridie's growing self-awareness and individuality.

The politics of England and Ireland is always lurking there, in the Famine, the insults, and the treatment of servants by callous masters, but it is more of a context that drives the decisions of characters than an active aspect of the story.  It is not so much Bridie's Irishness as her low status as servant/female/child that leads to much of her struggle with those with authority.  Being Irish puts her in that status group, but so were many others.

Kirtsy Murray has created an effective vehicle for historical details and the understanding of a world so different and so similar to ours.  She has also written an enjoyable study of a girl growing up in a harsh world.  And she has avoided getting so bogged down in modern politics that her history becomes a polemic.

Review by David Beagley

© 2004 David Beagley