This is a beautiful hardcover book illustrated with black and white photographs by Emma Byrne and it is a joy to behold as well as read.

When I purchased the book last week, I originally thought it was short stories. I was mistaken, it is actually a memoir of 15 women that touched Alice Taylor’s life. Some are relatives such as her mother, others are neighbours and others visitors to her house. However each story is an exploration of what it was like to be a woman in the rural West of Ireland in the beginning half of the 20th century.

The women differ a lot in their day to day lives in that they are from the traveling, farming, professional (typically nursing, teaching) and anglo Irish backgrounds. Some are mothers and others nuns. But all women are strong, make the most of what they have and have strong connections to their families and often to the Catholic church.

This is an eye opening read in what it was to be female in rural Ireland from about 1900 to 1950 and I would recommend it to all my GR friends who are interested in what life was like in Ireland.