I was tempted to read this book on the recommendation of a friend, and was glad that I did. The story, which is a true story, tells of the plight of Desmond Doyle, who in 1953 lives in Dublin with his wife and six children. When his wife leaves him, Desmond is advised to place his children into care whilst he finds the means to support them. He subsequently finds out that in fact the rights to his children are to be denied him until they reach the age of 16, although this was never made clear at the outset.
The story is told by Evelyn, and follows what happened from when she was 9 years old. What the outcome is is for the reader to discover, and it really is the journey through the book that I am more interested in reviewing and the manner in which the book was written. In Ireland in those days, the care of children in care was undertaken in single sex Industrial Schools, run by nuns or 'brothers', and what Evelyn didn't do makes the book outstanding in its field. What she didn't do was dwell on making readers see her as the victim. Her writing is very clear and almost unbiased, although when writing your own history, there are always feelings and these come over in the written work particularly well. Some of the thoughts that this child had were so real that they in fact took me back to a time when I was in care myself. The bonds that are formed between children in difficult circumstances were well explained. The loyalties that kids feel for each other were almost like taking a step back in time for me. There was no self pity, or criticism of the system. It was how the child saw the system to be and in describing it, she did a wonderful job, and painted a picture that any reader would understand and empathise with.
I particularly liked the fact that she didn't paint people's characters with any kind of perfection. Although the book is dedicated to her father and is a tribute to him for what he did to fight through the courts statutes that seemed unfair, he wasn't painted as perfect. He was indeed put forward as a man struggling to understand the law, and fighting for something he believed in, battling perhaps with his own ignorance of the law, and sometimes getting very frustrated with the process he needed to follow, even tempted at times to skip the country with his kids.
The characters came off the page very realistically. Even the nuns who cared for Evelyn had their own characteristics that made them stronger or weaker, kinder or harsher, though what Evelyn Doyle achieved from humble beginnings was the ability to look into her history, and be able to write it in a manner that is not only very readable, but which also handles the delicacy of the subject matter, and perhaps any bias she may have felt into producing the full picture of how the legislation changed her family, separated her from her brothers, and put her father in a terrible situation of questioning what the letter of the law means to the man on the street.
The descriptions of the residence where Evelyn was placed were so well dealt with that you really could imagine what it was like being a child in care, and what it feels like to be uprooted and put into an environment at an age where change is very hard, where loyalties are divided by marriage break-up, and even harder, by the enforced absence of her siblings.
I love this book, and certainly will read it again at some time in the future, since she did very well indeed and I have to admit, it is probably the first true life story of this kind that I have read where I am left in no doubt as to the facts of the matter, not flowered up by selective memory, or dressed down with unecessary drama. The lady told the story as she saw it and the neutrality that she exercised in writing the book is extraordinary in itself, and a tribute I am certain her father would indeed have been proud of.
I was unaware that this book had been made into a film, although have found since that a film was made of the story which starred Pierce Brosnan, although for me, the written word was sufficiently enjoyable for me not to seek out the film.
Evelyn is now married and has grandchildren and lives in Scotland, though her career changes and the choices that she made seem very caring ones, and it is this element of caring that comes through marvellously in the book, and her ability to see things from different angles without jumping to conclusion really does enhance what is relevant in one familys fight against bureaucracy, though one that was to have a great impact on other families such as hers, though whether good or bad is for the reader to discover.
Priced from 3.99 from Amazon, and also available in audio cassette, the book represents good value for money and a worthwhile step into the legal complexities of Ireland's history. Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Orion; New Ed edition (March 6, 2003) ISBN-10: 0752842285 ISBN-13: 978-0752842288 Shipping Weight: 5.60 ounces
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