Book Group with Stephen Puleo

Ireland and the United States have a long and celebrated history together. Earlier this year, the citizens of Ireland made international headlines for contributing over one million dollars in COVID relief for the Navajo and Hopi tribes, citing a similar effort made by the Choctaw nation in 1847 in which the tribe, itself ravaged from the recent Trail of Tears, donated money to help stop another genocide a world away.

This effort was the most poignant of many contributions that traveled from America to Ireland that year, as told in Stephen Puleo's new book Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission. In an unprecedented display of compassion, a warship was employed not to attack, but to assist another nation, carrying food to save the starving populace. And this was only the beginning of an 18-month campaign that saw nearly 10,000 tons of food, and as well as other supplies and money, sent from every corner and demographic of the US.

Author Stephen Puleo will join us for an interactive discussion of this untold tale of friendship and generosity. An amazing storyteller, Puleo is the author of seven books and last visited us last February to discuss the 100th anniversary of the Boston Molasses Flood.

Be sure to join us for the final two discussions of this season:

• March 23: The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss
• May 11: The Splendid and the Vile: a Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson

Individual meetings $5

Purchase tickets here!