Irish History On the Shores of Galway Bay

Long before supermarkets or modern supply chains, families survived by what the tide left behind — mussels, cockles, and whatever could be gathered by hand. Women and children worked these shores in all weather, feeding households through quiet endurance rather than abundance. Beauty and hardship existed side by side.

Scenes like this shaped everyday life in coastal Ireland. Hunger was not always dramatic or sudden — it was persistent, familiar, and woven into routine. These landscapes carry memory: of labour, of resilience, and of communities that endured through necessity rather than choice. The stones, the water, and the horizon tell their own history. They speak of a social divide that defined Ireland for generations, and of women whose work sustained families while remaining largely unrecorded.

This video steps into that world — not as nostalgia, but as context. A moment to pause and reflect on the lived reality behind the places we now admire. At the end of that reflection sits Our Fallen Woman, a historical novel inspired by these environments and the women shaped by them.

The book explores the lives, choices, and survival of those history often overlooked.

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