A Life Unfolding

The 1950s and 1960s were a significant juncture in time that reshaped rural Ireland. The winds of change were everywhere. Television was opening eyes to the outside world. Pop culture was dividing the young from the old. EU membership and free education were on the horizon. Old ways and attitudes were changing apace. Tractors and machinery were gradually replacing traditional manual labour. Ever more old farm machines were abandoned to be entangled in briars and vegetation and rust in peace. The farm workhorse once loved and respected for its power and honesty, was winding its way to the factory after a life of servitude, all in the name of progress. The Church's hold on the community, while strong, was starting to wane and would soon be rocked to its foundations by scandals of its own making. The stories in this book are from that time, a time long gone with the odd baby being thrown out with the bathwater.