My father never knew a mother’s love

I was not going to contact you with reference to Anne Lovett’s 30th anniversary, but after watching Philomena on the Late late Show‘, I feel that I must comment.

My late beloved Dad was born to an unmarried 17-year-old mother in Granard in October in 1916, and when he was 8, his mother, together with his stepfather, stepbrothers and stepsisters, emigrated to Australia, leaving Dad with his grandmother, who died when he was 10. Then he was taken in by his uncle, but his uncle was killed when Dad was 12.

Dad only told me the story when he turned 80. His mother, dad said, was denounced from the pulpit in Granard for having a child out of wedlock. He always maintained that Granard was the town in the book The Valley of the Squinting Windows.