Ma It's A Cold Aul Night An I'm Lookin For A Bed

Product Description

In this latest instalment of Martha Long's real-life account of abuse deprivation & cruelty at the hands of her mother's partner & the establishment Martha is now 16 & her time at the convent school is up. In Ma It's a Cold Aul Night an I'm Lookin for a Bed" she leads us through her first months of freedom. With no home to go to Martha leaves the convent carrying her suitcase & a burning ambition to shake off her impoverished past. Hungry to become a person who will blend in with the middle classes Martha yearns to be accepted as someone who can be loved respected & one day have a home of her own where she will be safe. But this is 1960s Dublin where poverty is rife & the Church works together with the Irish government to keep the poor & the ignorant in their place. Martha first finds work as a home help with a loving lively family which leads her to a job in a shop an Italian fish & chip cafe then as a skivvy in a miserable household where she is reminded of the terror Jackser brought into her life. Chance meetings with brothers & old friends from the convent lift Martha's spirits but soon she is back on the streets searching for work & a warm bed to call her own. Martha is not often deterred when fate deals her a blow. ' Life is a bowl of cherries!' she reasons. But heartache awaits as people turn her away & predators lurk in the shadows."