It was an unconventional wedding speech. Aunt
Grace announced, “Francesca’s life is going to
change utterly when she’s forty…”
Now Francesca is forty. She’s isolated in the mists
of early motherhood, her elegant hair is falling
out, her p...
In a telling phrase, Bryan MacMahon quotes the saying that "a teacher leaves the track of his teeth on a parish for three generations."
There is no doubt that his work has been for the good not merely of his native area, but also of his pupils...
"Much of the enjoyment stems from the authenticity of the characters and settings, obviously conceived from an intimate knowledge of the country and its people"
Reissued to coincide with the author's eightieth birthday, many of the stories in this collection will be familiar, not least to those who sat state examinations in Ireland in the 1980s.
The majority are set in Plunkett's own city of Dublin, t...