Mothering Sunday – breakfast in bed maybe, a big bunch of flowers, a loving hug, a card, a beetle broach, a text from a far off place? However, it’s also a day to think how much your children mean to you and I have been blessed with two crackers! So, from your mum on Mothering Sunday, thank you two for being so special.
On International Women’s Day there was a huge number of women and men crowding around the two statues that were unveiled in the grounds of Belfast City Hall on Friday afternoon, Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney. There was chat about what Winifred was carrying in her right hand – some said mobile phone, others thought purse but there were those who thought gun. Answers on a post card! The Lord Mayor Councillor Ryan Murphy said how delighted he was that these two women are now standing amongst a number of other luminaries for us to honour.
He explained Mary Ann was an abolitionist, educator, social reformer and businesswoman who fought for the rights of many, including the poor, women, children and the enslaved. Winnie was a suffragist and a committed trade unionist who was an organiser in the Irish Textile Worker’s Union and became James Connelly’s personal secretary, political confidant and friend. The city council were thoughtful enough to prepare a booklet giving their history and it’s fascinating reading. Mary Ann was born in 1770 and dedicated herself to improving the lives of vulnerable women and their children, she brought them to Clifton House which was the headquarters of the Belfast Charitable Society, there she prepared them for employment and put them to work in cotton mills and in the linen trade. She was a strong and brave women, took an active part in local politics and was active in protesting about the slave trade which was active in Belfast. Even at 90 years of age she was seen walking along the docks distributing leaflets decrying the trade she despised so much. Many of the captains of industry in the city benefited from this trade bringing in sugar and rum – it annoyed Mary Ann so much she gave up taking sugar in any shape or form in protest.
Winnie Carney is remembered as a prominent Republican, for her participation in the Irish Citizen Army and her involvement in the Easter Rising of 1916. She remained a political activist for several decades and stood for Sinn Fein for Central Belfast Victoria Ward in 1918. She was one of six children and when her father left the family her mother managed on the income from a confectionary shop on the Falls Road. Winifred attended secretarial college and qualified as one of first lady secretaries and shorthand typists. At the age of 24 she gave up her relatively comfortable position as a solicitors clerk in Dungannon to become secretary to the ITWU. Like Mary Ann, Winifred was a remarkable woman and worth researching and if you do, you’ll agree that honouring them both with the excellent statues is a worthy honour.
AMBITION REALISED
Parallel Lives is intriguing, a ghost story, a love story and the background to this book is a story in itself.
Initially we are transported to County Sligo and the small market town of Dunsilaney in 1740. We arrive in the Benbulbin estate owned by the rich Englishman of means, Sir Maurice Ilbert who lives in the grand mansion looking towards the sweeping valley and the majestic Benbulbin Mountain with one feature on the estate which is more than special, the Mound of Dubhthach, a sacred place where the bones of noble ancestors lie. When rumours surface that the Mound is to be desecrated and graves dug up to allow new burials after a bitter winter of death and destruction, something has to be done to stop Ilbert and his henchmen follow their plans and cause such a tragedy. Lead by Shamey O’Halloran, a fierce group of local people confronted the landowners gang and, under a silver moon on a bitter cold snowy night a brutal and bloody fight breaks out. Ilbert’s insensitive overseer northerner Thomas Burke spits a truth when he shouts: ’When Ulstermen meet Irishmen there’s always a war.’
Shots ring out, a woman falls wounded and Shamey throws back his head and roars: ‘I Mac O’Halloran ancestor of Larbonel, chieftain of the Nemedians call upon the Gods to bring down curses upon you Thomas Burke and the Ilbert Family.’
What follows is set in the present day when a violent storm shrieks out of a pure blue sky and thunders through the village wrecking the market stalls and razing homes to the ground, splitting the huge Tree of Life on top of the Mound of Dubhthach and killing two.
Oona Townley O’Brien wasn’t surprised. As the present owner of Benbulbin House she knew this countryside was cursed and the devil was never far away. Unnatural became supernatural with a vivid description of a black raven driven through a windowpane, still alive but hanging half in and half out of the kitchen, black eyes staring at the woman, another sign of the satanic curse.
On Oona’s death the house and it’s curse is passed to her niece Aine O’Brien a sophisticated business woman hoping for an important job in Europe. But she falls in love with the big house where she grew up and despite talk of ghosts and strange happenings, she leaves her ambitions behind and moves in. However, it’s not long before she’s disturbed by footsteps, windows of the ballroom swinging open and an evil presence causing havoc throughout Benbulbin House.
And so the story of parallel lives begins.
Soon Aine becomes involved in the life of the town, the antique shop, the local pub, characters like the lovable Apostle Aggie, the dubious bank manager and she meets the men who have an interest in her new home and will go to any lengths to force it from her. The reader steps into the Benbulbin Estate on the Sligo Fermanagh border where the deep and dangerous River Kelpie rises up to snatch people who are never seen again and the Mound, so central to the story, an ungodly place of evil where spectres steal souls as they guard their heritage.
From a ghostly past to an unnerving present, a broken marriage, challenges to her ownership and eventually a new and unbidden love story. Can you fall in love with a ghost? The handsome young man dressed in 18th century costume who captures Aine’s heart with unimaginable results. Can their love dispel a curse? Why are inscrutable men so interested in the Mound and willing to go to any despicable lengths to obtain it.
Another aspect to this love story.
The bones of the book were well laid some years ago by author Maureen Thornton, a respected actress who worked with James Young and with the Ulster Actor’s Company in the Arts Theatre. Sadly, although most of the writing was completed, it was unfinished when she died in the summer of 2011, a great sadness to her many friends and especially to her son Adam and her husband Belfastman Roy Heayberd, founder of the Ulster Actor’s who directed Maureen in countless productions. It became his ambition to finish writing the book and have it published in her name and on 1st March 2024 his dedication was realised and Maureen’s book is now in main bookshops.
It’s a remarkable piece of writing by two people who thought as one, living parallel lives. Without doubt Maureen’s imagination, research and original writing has resulted in a book which, despite the ghosty plot, is totally believable, an intense book, a mesmerising story with an ending which leaves the reader a lot to contemplate.
Details www.austinmacauley.com. Available on Amazon £11.99.
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