The Irish Daughter:

 The Irish Daughter:

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       June 2, 2025

 

Author  Daisy O'Shea

Distributor:      Amazon
ISBN:                 978-1836189046
Publisher:         Bookouture
Release Date:   May 2025  

   Website:   https://www.amazon.com/Irish-Daughter-gorgeous-gripping-emotional/dp/1836189044

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The Polio Epidemic  that occurred in Ireland during the late 1948-1955 era struck fear into parents and is the era in which Daisy O’Shea has set her latest novel The Irish Daughter, creating the characters of Esther, desperate to bring her child home from the hospital, Hannah who is to grow up learning to live with the permanent disability caused by polio and Adrian her father, a bitter and silent man who had little time for his crippled daughter.

With a gentle skill, O’Shea tells the story of the road travelled by many during these years and the aftermath of the crippling disease as she peals back the layers of a family in crisis; the sad and lonely life that Hannah leads and the almost hatred she has learned tolerate from her father and siblings  after the death of her mother Esther to cancer.

She meets an Englishman, Justin Sanders, in the boreen, who is looking for her father; he is trying to learn about his grandfather’s involvement in the IRA and has been told that Adrian Barry would be able to help with the history of the area and the people. Hannah takes him up in her donkey cart driving him back to his car.

They strike up a conversation which will have long term repercussions as they both realize they do enjoy each other’s company and that they can work together to try to discover more about what happened so many years ago.

Summoned to the Solicitors office in nearby Bantry she is given terrible news about the inheritance she understood was hers; her estranged brother Mark also has been requested to attend.

This sets off a chain of events over which she has no control but will eventually lead to Hannah discovering that the community she felt had always shunned her have been watching over here since the death of her father, but from  distance, and that sometimes, when something is very important you have to fight for what you believe is right.

A gentle love story, a trip down the pathway of history and a reflection on the love and support of a community when there is a need come together seamlessly in this captivating and emotional story of The Irish Daughter.

Historical