FIERCE TEARS FRAIL DEEDS
Fierce Tears, Frail Deeds is an historical novel based on the experiences of the author’s grandparents, Sean and Delia MacCaoilte, during the turbulent period in 1922 between the Dail vote on the Treaty and the outbreak of the Civil War.
NEWS
“A personal take on the first faltering steps of a fledgling Irish State”
— Tina Neylon, Irish Examiner
“Fascinating read which is hard to put down once you get immersed in the dramatic story.”
— Sarah O‘Connor
About
the author
Dr. Anne Good Forrestal is a sociologist. She has written extensively on equality and human rights matters especially in relation to women and disabled people. Before retiring in 2015 she lectured in Trinity College and the National University of Ireland Maynooth and served as senior researcher in the National Disability Authority. During the 1980s she worked in the European Commission in the Brussels based Centre for Research on European Women (CREW) and as CEO of the National Women’s Council of Ireland. She has provided expert advice to the World Health Organisation and the European Union. Recently she returned to her early interest in Irish history, most especially Ireland’s struggle for Independence, a struggle in which her family was involved. “Fierce Tears, Frail Deeds” is her first novel and is based on the lives of her grandparents during 1922.
About
the BOOK
The story opens in 1968, when Delia, approaching the end of her long life, finally decides to release an unfinished memoir written by her husband Sean on his return from America.
In March 1922 Sean, a long time Sinn Fein activist, had sailed to New York on the Aquitania as a member of the Free State mission to the United States. In his memoir Sean described the Delegation's efforts to influence American attitudes to the Treaty in the midst of alarming news about turmoil and conflict at home. He also reflected on what he had learned about Irish America in all its complexities during the two month tour.
As she reviews Sean’s rediscovered writing, Delia finds her own memories rising to the surface. She begins interweaving her reminiscences into a parallel story. While Sean was convincing Americans that the Treaty was the best settlement which could be achieved at that time, Delia was struggling to care for their four children while pregnant with her fifth. She began to reflect ruefully on how becoming parents was a radically different experience for her life as compared with Sean’s. Her desire to be an equal partner in their fight for Ireland’s freedom had become frustrated by physical realities and traumatic events, while Sean had to struggle to find time and opportunities to be with his beloved children.
As the weeks passed after Sean’s departure, and the crisis in Dublin worsened, Delia became increasingly worried for her family’s safety. With friends and neighbours in Glasnevin bitterly split and some openly hostile to the position she and Sean had taken, she began to see how her children were being damaged. Eventually Delia accepted the help offered by her mother and sister who came from Roscommon to Dublin to be with her. But even their love and support could not prevent the unspeakable tragedy which befell her young family.
In old age, Delia asks herself was the new Ireland in which she now lived worth the catastrophe which had overwhelmed her family. With Ireland once again on the cusp of change and herself facing mortality, Delia comes to her own conclusions about the events of 1922. She reflects on how the lessons of that year, if acted upon, could still make it possible to arrive at a better future for Ireland and for all its children.
Now, over 50 years later, it is clear that many of these questions still remain unresolved.
