While not my intent, I ended up reading Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These this month, and the short novel actually takes place during the lead-up to Christmas. Was the story (really more of a novella at only 114 pages) a heartwarming Christmas story? Not quite. But it was a quick read that made me aware of a dark part of Ireland's history.
You should probably know going into this that Ireland used to have what were called Magdalen laundries. These were run by the Catholic church with the Irish government's consent, and they were workhouses for girls and women who were either being concealed or incarcerated. Whatever the reason their families sent them away, the females were forced to labor in these institutions.
The small Irish town in Small Things Like These has one of these laundries, and everyone just turns a blind eye. But on his deliveries, coal merchant and family man Bill Furlong encounters some of the girls being kept there, and his own family history (born of an unwed mother) makes him rethink his actions and the complicit silence of the town.
The last Magdalen laundry closed down in 1996, and it makes one wonder what might have happened if someone like Bill Furlong had stepped up earlier. Small actions can lead to big change.
Small Things Like These is published by Grove Press and is available to purchase now. I received a free review copy.
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