“You say a married couple is having troubles, not a nation.” This line, striking in its simplicity, says a lot about how the Irish deal with really big issues. It’s 1990, and eye-popping synthetic 1980s fashions linger while advances in technology are beginning to affect the traditionally manual workplace. In this self-published book Angeline King tells a tale of misplaced passion and the common problems of Annie and Jean, Protestant mothers who meet at a gathering of Project Children, the organisation that sends young northern Protestants and Catholics to the United States each summer holidays, for a break from local politics and a chance to play together. The friends’ marriages are troubled by actual and imagined injuries; their children are living with both the jaded fear of ongoing violence and the growing movement towards cross-community co-operation; and families still live in the streets and houses their parents grew up in. Eventually, even grand passion loses significance to love in the face of harsh reality.
