5-star review: In the 1940's, to be a child in Ireland was to grow up in a land of zero tolerance poverty, large families, unquestionable clergy, mass emigration, zero immigration, scant education, record low marriage rates, Magdalene sisters, Irish sons sleeping rough on the streets of London, and probably the most damning fact of all - a country that led the world in locking up its people in psychiatric hospitals, often for social reasons. Even Stalinist Russia couldn't compete with us. If you want to understand such a country, read this book. It delivers an honest, heartfelt, insightful account of growing up barefoot in the stony grey soil of rural Monaghan, through to working in the Industrial centres of England, and to a final return to Ireland, family in tow. It tells you what it means to be Irish and why it is so. 5-star review: I loved this book!! It made me laugh and cry - at the same time. It is a book of our time, of the cycles of economic prosperity and hardship. A personal tale of a life well spent, full of humour even in the bad times. As well as a personal autobiography, it is an historic piece describing what life was like for a boy and man and his family in Ireland and England in the 30s right up to the 80s, Perhaps the author would consider doing a second book, to see what happens next??
