Set in Ireland in 1985 in the days just before Christmas, the story tells of Bill Furlong, a coal merchant. With the holidays approaching and the weather getting colder, Furlong stays busy and misses having more time with his wife and daughters.
He feels blessed with this family, for he grew up an orphan. His mother died young, and he never knew his father (although he has a good idea by the end of this story). He was raised by a kindly woman who made everything else in his life possible.
With this background, Furlong takes it very hard when he discovers a freezing girl locked in the coal shed at the local convent. He takes the girl into the convent, returning her to those who locked her up, unsure whether he has done the right thing or not. Would he do things differently if he had another chance? It turns out that he gets another chance on Christmas Eve.
If the Catholic Church was rocked but evidence of priests sexually abusing altar boys, it was rocked in Ireland even before that by the so-called Magdalene laundries. Pregnant teenage girls were taken in by the nuns. Their babies were put up for adoption, while the girls themselves, as well as orphan girls, were turned into virtual slaves in these laundries managed by the nuns. The last such laundry did not close until 1996. Keegan suggests as many as 30,000 young women may have been forced to work in these places — not such a small thing after all.
Her novella, one of several small books by Keegan now available in hardback editions, gives this tragedy human faces.
Oh I am so glad you read and reviewed this book. I love her stories. She tells such a sad story, and writes so eleoquently.
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