User:Maureen Lafferty

'As Good As I Got' by Maureen Lafferty Published by 'Backchat Publishing Ltd' backchatpublishing.co.uk

This Audio Book is about a family left homeless during world war 11. Their struggles to find a home of their own with three small children. Going from Donegal to Derry staying for a time with their over crowded families in each of these places not wanting to outstay their welcome.

Listening to it captures the essence of Irish culture. There were many, many moulds broken when the people of Shandrum, Donegal were created. It records the Irish way of life as it was up to three generations ago. Those people encountered in it were far to rare to be forgotten. People like The Wee Fullertons and Mary Pal, the eccentric grocer.

'Those were amongst the happiest days of our childhood. We were in a different world, a world where life moved at a slower pace, where the worries of today had not even been imagined. I was sad to leave what I considered to be my real home, the place of my birth, rich in nostalgia and where making the best of a tough and meagre existence was commonplace.'

'Losing my beautiful Irish accent.'

A childhood holiday inspires an exploration into the family history of a ten year old Irish girl. Tales of peculiar neighbours; exploring a deserted cottage; visiting Grandad at work on the turf moors; ghost stories; turn of the century life in the Inishown homestead; grasping family members; inoculation; emigrating on the 'Cattle Boat' to 'no dogs, no Irish, no children' lodgings in England; living in a Halfway House; 1950s convalescence; a convent education and performing in a bagpipe band. This is the true story of a young family's separation from their homeland, precipitated by years of homelessness as they moved between relatives in Donegal and Derry before finally settling in England.

Rich in symbolism, the theme is one of a deeply poignant yet often comical perspective of an uncertain Irish childhood against a background of chronic despair yet dogged hope, seen through the eyes of a cheerfully resilient spirited child.