Overview

In 1957, Sheila Cloney, Protestant wife of a Catholic farmer, fled from her home near the Wexford village of Fethard-on-Sea with her young daughters after refusing to bow to the demands of the local Catholic clergy to educate them as Catholics. In response, the priests launched a boycott of Fethard's Protestant shopkeepers and farmers. The Fethard-on-Sea Boycott - subject of the feature film, A Love Divided - became a national scandal, prompting intervention by Taoiseach, Aeamon de Valera. Tim Fanning tells the story of one of the ugliest sectarian episodes to occur in the Republic. He examines how deep-rooted historical grievances over land ownership on Wexford's Hook Peninsula and the Catholic Church's Ne Temere decree on mixed marriages resulted in one small rural community tearing itself apart and how, during the 1980s, the arrival of paedophile priest Sean Fortune reopened old wounds in the village. Fethard is still coming to terms with its bitter history today.

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9781848890329

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Reviews

'Superbly researched account' Munster Express 'Riveting' Sunday Independent 'Fanning constructs a memorable portrait ... thought-provoking book' Roy Foster, The Irish Times 'Though written with the panache and clarity of good journalism, [it] is rigorous in its sourcing, citation and historicity' Myles Dungan, Irish Mail on Sunday 'Riveting' Sunday Times 'Compelling and detailed' Irish Examiner 'The definitive work' Wexford Echo 'Brilliant book' Irish Independent

'Superbly researched account' Munster Express 'Riveting' Sunday Independent 'Fanning constructs a memorable portrait ... thought-provoking book' Roy Foster, The Irish Times 'Though written with the panache and clarity of good journalism, [it] is rigorous in its sourcing, citation and historicity' Myles Dungan, Irish Mail on Sunday 'Riveting' Sunday Times 'Compelling and detailed' Irish Examiner 'The definitive work' Wexford Echo 'Brilliant book' Irish Independent 'Fanning [...] tells the tale with an incisive reporter's style in a manner that never strays into sentimentality' Wexford People 'Strong on the local history that marks Wexford' Translocations

Author Information

Tim Fanning, from Dublin, studied history in UCD. Since then he has worked as a journalist and has written on Irish history and politics for the regional and national press in Ireland. In the mid-1980s, he spent three summers in Fethard where he first learnt about the boycott and got to know the Cloney family.

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