Tara's Halls

Tom Gallagher is one of ten children, most born at home on the family farm. Life is challenging. Many families struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Although barely into his teens, Gallagher already does the work of a man. His father works in England most of the year, returning in the springtime to cut the year's supply of fuel and plant the crops. When his father stops coming, brother Eamon becomes man of the house. When Eamon bails out to England, Tom assumes responsibility for completing the heavy tasks of farming with little mechanization - and impossible without the help of his mother and sisters.

In this engaging memoir about growing up in hard times, Gallagher weaves the story of his own hardscrabble childhood through the larget cultural contexts of the time, crafting a fascinating look at one young boy's life and the world in which he lived. Absent of sentimentalism and rich in humor, this narrative is characteristic of Irish storytelling at its best.