From The Back of Beyond to Westland Row: A Mayo Woman's Story

This memoir is a tribute to the writer's mother who passed away after a short illness at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. It tracks her experience as one of so many Irish, who, driven by financial necessity were forced to work abroad. It provides evidences of the resilience, humour and affection that she inherited from her parents who suffered similar pressures. It takes us from her childhood in the rural Ireland of the forties, and on to the vibrant atmosphere of the Camden dance halls were so many Irish met their life partners. From here it tracks her marriage and all that it reveals of the wit and graft of the Irish Building sites, of the men who built Britain's roads. It shows the impact all this had on the generation that followed them, and what was distinctive about life growing up in, predominantly, Irish Catholic households along with the whole extended family network in England and back 'home'.