Cushla Lavery is a young primary teacher in Northern Ireland. Miss Lavery to her pupils, who include Davy McGeown, a bright child from a troubled home. Troubles are all around. It is the 1970s, and though where Cushla lives, just outside Belfast, the sectarianism is less violent, it is there, bubbling away.
Her family is Catholic. She teaches at a Catholic school, but her brother runs a pub where the clientele, reflecting the community, is mainly Protestant. It is a good pub, so tolerated. And Cushla is an efficient and attractive part-time barmaid, less troubled by sectarian bias than by over-familiar punters, all too ready to take advantage of their ethnic majority status.
One customer is different. An older man, Michael Agnew, uses his natural authority to slap down the banter. Cushla is grateful. He’s attractive, the feeling is mutual, and before long nature takes its course. But in addition to being Protestant, he is married and old enough to be her father. So, it doesn’t auger well.
Throw in her mother’s alcoholism, her professional differences with Father Slattery who pulls the headteacher’s strings, and her well-intentioned but fraught involvement with the McGeown family, and it makes for a heady and emotional six months in her previously stable life.
The narrative hangs together well, moving smoothly between episodes while in the background the sectarianism, prejudice, and military presence provide an oppressive brooding atmosphere. Cushla has her flaws. But they are human flaws that in a different place or at a different time would not have their effect so tragically magnified.
A tense,
illuminating, and enjoyable read.
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