Family O'Shea

Family O'Shea is a tragic/comic tale of the coming together of a disparate Irish-American family. John O’Shea, an Irishman living in America for sixty of his seventy-six years, learns that he is dying. Ever the loner, to the point of abandoning two families over the years, he has his secret regrets. In his mind his "Family" has never included anyone but himself. His two grown sons barely know him, nor do they know of each other. But he has a plan that he hopes will change that after he is gone.

Jack O’Shea, John’s eldest son, and Tim O’Shea, his youngest, had different mothers, but both sons hold the same contempt toward John for leaving them when they were just boys. John’s plan is that, once he is gone, his sons will come together to fulfill his final request. It seems simple enough: that together they will lay him to rest. But true to his contrary nature, it will not be in Ireland, the land of his birth, but in Scotland, on the island of Skye, a special place described to him as a child by his Scottish mother.

The two brothers, more than twenty years apart in age, at first don’t know what to make of John’s strange request. Ultimately, though, they have a surprising and successful reunion, and they set off to carry out the old man’s wishes, accompanied by Jack’s two children. Adventures along the way involve all of the family members, and aspects of each, including Jack’s teenage son and daughter, are revealed. Ultimately, all are left with a new sense of family they never had before.