After some blues songs opened the evening, a local teacher read from the book. She first informed the audience that she rarely reads books written by men and never reads books on women’s experiences by men. She then explained what made The Donegal Woman different. In her words, John Throne had, “got it right.” The author, LMV member, John Throne, later explained that he wished to give his grandmother a voice and that no-one else had offered to write her story.

John Throne read several tough passages reliving the inspiring fight of his grandmother: hired out to a local farmer at 12, impregnated and sold off to another farmer who would become  John Throne’s grandfather. Margaret, the book’s heroine, went on to have 6 children and died at age 19 in the Great Flu of 1919-1920.

The book, the Number 2 bestseller in Northern Ireland in December, was the product of a collective effort, the author explained, and could not be credited entirely to one individual. While not an overtly political book, the story is told against the backdrop of unfolding political events in Ireland. No-one in the book participates in the 1916 Easter Rising against British occupation, however the insurrection and the mood that led to it has its reverberations in the relations between characters in the book. The story is also the product of the rise in Women’s consciousness over the last 30 years: which has in turn helped raise the consciousness of men. Many Irish writers have written of the hiring-out system, where the children of the rural poor were sent off to work for months or years for the better off farmers. Yet none had detailed the particularly harsh experience for girls and women of the hiring out system.

At the book launch a number of older women rose to thank John for having written this book. Our libraries are full of the stories of rich people and politicians, but virtually empty of books on the lives of the victims of these elites. A comrade spoke about the recent death of the local working class writer and socialist writer Tillie Olsen. The Donegal Women stands in the same tradition of working class literature as the works of Olsen.  

Many of the crowd came by the Facts for Working People table with a half dozen people signing up to subscribe to the FFWP. One young man who signed up told us that our Anti-War issue was really excellent.

More information about the The Donegal Woman is available at  www.thedonegalwoman.com and