![The Rat-pit](http://monsterbookshop.co.uk/cdn/shop/products/9781841580043_a236fc9a-9203-4083-89f9-4dcdd59b7ceb.jpg?v=1671567752&width=1445)
This text tells the tale of the struggle of Donegal girl Norah Ryan against poverty at the turn of the century. The name is from a lodging house where human beings, pinched and poverty-stricken and ground down with a weight of oppression, are hemmed up like the plague-stricken in a pest-house.