Today I am bringing a review of a debut novel by Trish Delaney. The synopsis just made me want to find out about Mary and her life in Ireland. I was really eager to sit down with this story and discover how it would go. First the synopsis before I tell you what I thought
When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her.
But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned.
Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey ok to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary’s alone. She’s learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she’d always hoped for.
Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?
Set against the background of the troubles in Northern Ireland in the ’70s and almost up to the present day. It follows the struggle of Mary Rattigan growing up in a large family with a domineering and abusive mother. She has dreams of escaping from Ireland at 16 but has them shattered by one mistake. A mistake that means she is forced into marriage and we join her on her emotional journey until 2007, which she narrates.
I personally felt sad that Mary missed out on so much throughout her life due in part to her lack of self-worth. There were times I felt I wasn’t sure if I wanted to shake her to make her realise, while I knew one day she would realise, I just hoped that day would arrive and soon.
Trish Delaney has depicted her characters extremely well. There are characters to hate and some to love as well. Mary’s mum Sadie is a bitter and hateful woman who ruined her daughter and enjoyed herself while doing it!
The history of Northern Ireland, with the issues within the Catholic Church, the attitudes of the community, are pretty well known and the author has interwoven all the facts into this touching and emotional story.
The political issues and the sectarian divide, violence, atrocities and the loss of lives are all here. This book brings these horrific acts to life making the reader really understand how the Irish lived through it. We are told of the Omagh bombing in 1998 which shows us how horrific these things are, by allowing us to compare it against a day of haymaker for the family. This was normal life and I still get a shiver down my spine just thinking about it.
I have always been intrigued about the issues that have beset Ireland and the U.K over the years. This book is raw, real and a story I won’t forget for some time. This had me heartbroken but I couldn’t stop reading…a story that I felt all the way to my heart.
Thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Trish Delaney for the copy of the book.
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