SUMMARY:

The work introduces readers to Josephine Byrne, an elderly Irish healer whose rural world and traditions are dying out almost as quickly as she is. Her healing powers work on all but herself, leaving her racked with arthritis and a heart lonely for the loved-ones passed before her. The story opens with this mystical old woman healing first an ailing babe with the time-tested remedy of ferret leavings with a follow-up wart removal for the babe's young mother by employing a snail and thorny twig. Josephine reads a daytime visit of the castlekeep's white owl as portend of her own death, leading her to church for final absolution. Though Josephine and her parish priest do not see eye to eye on her healing practices there is a mutual respect that leaves the priest concerned over Josephine’s emotional well being.

Before Josephine is able to complete her penance she discovers her misreading of the morning omen. Instead of resting in peace, she must face a trial more ominous than dying, that being the invasion of two American relatives, dripping with modernity. Josephine tepidly takes on the charge of Maeve, her 7-year-old American great-grand niece, as the child’s mother, Micheleen, imagines this return to her Irish roots as the answer to her flawed life. Neither Josephine nor little Maeve is keen on the idea of their new life together. The shared dismay stimulates an alliance between this clash of cultures and generations. Between the two of them unlikely developments occur shaking things up in more than one world.

DUE TO UNAUTHORIZED PRINTINGS OF THIS WORK, PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR DIRECTLY FOR COPIES OF CASTLECOTTAGE. A. L. KELLER CAN BE REACHED @ clonmel14@comcast.net.