the Exiled Leprechaun and Irish Patriot

disease. Another two million attempted to escape through emigration to America in "coffin ships," in which many would die en route, while those who survived the Atlantic crossing faced hardships often as difficult as what they had left behind. Brothers Tadhg and Fionn O'Brien, were living on a tenant farm when the black plague took their family's meager crop. Their father and mother each died of the "famine fever," and the brothers were separated and left to fend for themselves. Steeped in Irish legends and Gaelic traditions inculcated in them by their beloved Popa, the young Tadhg adopted whatever means necessary to survive, and ultimately emigrated to America. His older brother Fionn sought to defend his homeland and fought for the cause of Irish Independence.