Book description
Desmond Doyle, 29, a painter and decorator, is married with six
children and living in the infamous Fatima Mansions in Dublin in 1953.
One day he comes home to find his wife has left him. He decides to go to
England to find work and is advised to put his children into the state
Industrial Schools system for a short time until he returns. When he
returns he is told to his horror that the children have been consigned
to the state until they are 16. This is the story of how Desmond Doyle
fought the Irish legal system to change the law and win back his family.
Told through the eyes of Evelyn, Desmond's nine-year-old daughter, this
is a moving and poignant true story, beautifully told. Evelyn Doyle
now lives in Scotland with her partner of 14 years Michael. She trained
as a psychiatric nurse, then became a police officer and later moved on
to running her own patisserie company. She has one son, Benjamin, and
grandson, Joshua. The first part of her memoirs, Evelyn, became a Sunday
Times and Irish Times bestseller. Her story has also been made into a
film starring Pierce Brosnan.
