An Irish Childhood

Mary McCann was born in the 1920s into the harsh and deprived countryside life of Northern Ireland.

Growing up, she took care of her siblings, wearing clothes that her mother made out of flour sacks.

School life was harsh and illness and deprivation were constant threats.

Mary adored her hard-working father but felt distant from her mother, with whom she nursed neighbours through diseases that swept through the community.

Mary endured many trials and tribulations in her large family before she found her way to London, England and the start of a new life.

She had a family of her own but members of the family back home followed her, not always happily.

This is a story that will make you laugh and cry - an important historical account of life in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century.