Two Irish Lads

Sean and Patrick McConaghy are two youthful cousins who together set sail from Derry, Ireland, in the year 1820, and after a long and perilous crossing of the Atlantic, they brave the mighty St. Lawrence River with a band of rugged voyageurs to settle in the wilderness of Upper Canada.

Along the way, Sean undergoes some profound changes that will greatly alter his life from then on. Most significantly, his relationship with Patrick takes a dramatic turn when he is drawn into a forbidden romance that is fraught with many dangers—including humiliation and the death penalty if their love should ever be discovered.

Their lives are intersected as well by the colourful cast of characters that inhabit the tiny Hamlet of Baldwin. These include: a scheming squire, his two independent-thinking daughters, a sinister claim jumper, a rogue priest and a hard-drinking blacksmith, and, altogether, they make life in the wilderness a truly remarkable adventure.

This story is told from the perspective of two loving men who were not only faced with the daunting task of carving a homestead out of the vast primeval forest, but also coping with the deeply homophobic world around them. Altogether, it is a unique, well-researched and thought-provoking view of pioneer life.