This very important book contributes to the history of our region i.e. Boyle and North Roscommon. With that it is also representative of a period in a large part of the country, especially in the west and mid-west. It deals with he most traumatic period in Irish History, The Famine, over a number of years in the 1840's anchored by 1847. This period has left a legacy which echoes sill over one hundred and seventy years later. That legacy is not just felt on the island of Ireland but it has a global resonance. its impact and contribution to the social fabric of the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain itself has been very significant.

Barry Feely was born in 1940. I n 1955, he started his apprenticeship under his father Henry as a stone cutter and stone carver. Together  with his brother Pat, he developed their stone business to be one of the largest in Ireland. He retired as M.D. in 2000 but still works occasionally at the restoration of altars. For the past forty years he is also known as a seanachai, collecting and telling stories. For the past number of years, Barry gives an annual lecture on 'Stone in my Time' to diploma students in Applied Building Repair and Conservation at Trinity College, Dublin.