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Miss, Say Goodbye to Your Daughter: A true story of self-actualisation against all odds
It’s 1944 and the tight-knit community of the Liberties in Dublin’s inner city is feeling the bite of wartime austerity. Bound together by poverty and devotion to the Catholic Church, struggling families share what they have and hope that better days will come. Despite the tough surroundings, twenty-nine-year-old Ellen remains optimistic about her future, convinced that she may soon meet the man of her dreams.
Miss, Say Goodbye to Your Daughter is the gripping true story of Ellen and her daughter, Deirdre, who is born into the most challenging of circumstances. The impact of those early childhood years echo through Deirdre’s life, but ultimately spur her on as she seeks her own version of self-actualisation and to achieve goals beyond her imagination.
Written against the backdrop of enormous social change that Ireland experienced in the second half of the twentieth century, this story of two determined and courageous women explores how fate and the indomitable human spirit compete to draw us in radically different directions.
“A fascinating light shone on a real-life story of two generations of women in an Ireland of a different time socially, skilfully reconstructed by the next generation. A compelling read!”
— Joan Burton, former Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland)
Miss, Say Goodbye to Your Daughter is the gripping true story of Ellen and her daughter, Deirdre, who is born into the most challenging of circumstances. The impact of those early childhood years echo through Deirdre’s life, but ultimately spur her on as she seeks her own version of self-actualisation and to achieve goals beyond her imagination.
Written against the backdrop of enormous social change that Ireland experienced in the second half of the twentieth century, this story of two determined and courageous women explores how fate and the indomitable human spirit compete to draw us in radically different directions.
“A fascinating light shone on a real-life story of two generations of women in an Ireland of a different time socially, skilfully reconstructed by the next generation. A compelling read!”
— Joan Burton, former Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland)
252 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 23, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 15, 2022
This was one of the greatest books I’ve read in a while. I read it in 2 days as I could not put it down! Learning about the lives of Ellen, Deirdre, John, Andrew and Stephen, as well as the history throughout was just fabulous. O’Reilly did a wonderful job of encapsulating so many precious moments of these lives on the pages of this book, while seamlessly blending each characters individual story together. A great read for sure!
June 19, 2024
A compelling true story of resilient women facing adversity in Ireland's troubled past. Insightful and engaging, this book is hard to put down. Emmet's storytelling is exceptional. Really looking forward to his next book(s).
August 5, 2022
It was interesting to learn how different things were handled in Ireland in the middle of the 1900’s.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews