Wexford, 1657. Ireland is on its knees.

Eight years after Cromwell's army burned Killenea Castle to the ground, Mithim McMurrough – daughter of a Gaelic lord, healer and last keeper of her family's secrets – is living alone and in hiding in the depths of a Wexford forest. The soldiers are moving closer. And the past is closing in faster still.

Fierce, lyrical and steeped in Irish mythology, the Celtic tree calendar and the forgotten wisdom of the Gaelic healing women, Mithim gives voice to a noblewoman who refused to disappear quietly into the wreckage of conquest – who carried her people's knowledge into the dark, and who will risk everything to find out who survived.

Meet the bould Mithim – the Irish woman history forgot.





Cover Art by Adrian Robb



Carina McNally is a freelance journalist, playwright, historian and tour guide based on the Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork. Her short stories have appeared in Cyphers Literary Magazine and Woman's Way. Mithim is her debut historical novel.



Haunting and powerful



In Mithim, Carina McNally has created a striking juxtaposition between the old world and old ways of Ireland and the harsh cruelties of the Cromwellian devastations. Her heroine strives to keep alive the priceless herbal and healing knowledge that has been passed down through generations, while constantly fearing for her very life in the new order that is taking over in her land. McNally displays a deep knowledge of ancient customs and traditions, and to explore this book is to realise more vividly what richness still lies hidden in our landscape. For a debut novel, this is nothing short of incredible.



Very absorbing, well-written, and wonderfully Irish