Ma, Jackser's Dyin Alone Av Martha Long

This is a terrifying prospect in 1950s Dublin, where it is likely that the girls will end up in one of Ireland's notorious Magdalen laundries - a fate they are determined to escape. When Father Flitters and the 'Cruelty' people arrive to...

Born a bastard to a teenage mother in the slums of 1950s Dublin, Martha has to be a fighter from the very start. As her mother moves from man to man, and more children follow, they live hand-to-mouth in squalid, freezing tenements, clothed in rags and...

At 16, Martha collapses on the streets, suffering from starvation and exposure. She has reached rock bottom, but after Martha is taken to hospital, Lady Luck smiles kindly on her and she is given the opportunity to get off the streets for ever. Before...

<p>Aged thirteen, Martha is rescued by the courts from the clutches of her evil stepfather, Jackser, and her feckless mother, Sally. After numerous arrests for shoplifting, a judge rules that she is to be sent to a convent school with the instruction...