For almost fifty years, Katie has kept a box of secrets.
It dates from her time working as a nurse in a west of Ireland mother and baby home, and contains a notebook with details of the babies and young women she met there. It also holds many of the babies' identity bracelets.
Following the death of her husband, Katie makes a decision she has long kept at bay. She posts a message on an internet forum, knowing that the information she possesses could help reunite adopted people with their birth mothers.
Soon, the replies are rolling in, and Katie encounters success, failure, heartache and joy as she finds herself in the role of part-detective, part-counsellor - chasing down leads, piecing together stories, and returning many of the bracelets to their original owners.
But there is one bracelet in the box that holds the key to a story that may never be told ...
Many thanks to Elaine from Hachette Books Ireland for sending me a copy of The Paper Bracelet to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
I started to read The Paper Bracelet, the new novel from Rachael English, several months ago but things got in the way and I left it one side. But it’s thanks to Anne for organising and inviting me onto the blog tour that I finally came back to this book and what a read it was. Once I picked it up again it did not leave my hand until I had turned to the very last page and realised what a stunning, emotional and important read this is. Rachael is a journalist and broadcaster here in Ireland and several years whilst interviewing women who had suffered in the Magdalene laundries, so commonplace right up until not that long ago, she was inspired to write this story.
The Paper Bracelet is very well researched and written showing great empathy to the horrific situation that so many women were forced to endure. Women and young girls who had fallen pregnant out of wedlock, some because of the most appalling circumstances, were sent away and incarcerated all because of something which happened more often than not because of things way out of their control. The conditions in these homes were dreadful and harrowing and the girls felt like they were abandoned and forgotten about whilst made to work to atone for their ‘sins’.
Rachael has certainly done their story justice and soon the reader is drawn into the story of Katie and, at the same time for the most part, a strong supporting cast of characters get to share their journeys. What makes this even more of a difficult read, apart from the subject matter, is that up until several years ago this was still going on in ‘homes’ all around Ireland. There was even one in the city in which I live but the author has written a powerful story and given all those women, and those babies who were taken away from them, a voice and their story has been told and will not be forgotten or confined to the realms of history.
Katie Carroll has recently lost her husband and is still deep in the grieving process but there is something else eating away at her and it has been for many years. Now she feels the time is right to take a special box from her wardrobe and to set about a task in the hopes of righting some wrongs and aiding the reunification of relationships and to help those who have been lost to find themselves and their families again. When Katie was younger she worked as a nurse in Carrigbrack, a mother and baby home. I’m sure there is not one person who has not heard of these dire, awful and intimidating places where many girls were sent having fallen on bad times or so there families would have thought.
Becoming pregnant out of wedlock or through other circumstances was more than frowned upon in tight laced Catholic Ireland and the best solution was to pack said person away to an ‘Aunt’ until the situation resolved itself. Instead the realities were very different as innumerable unmarried mothers were sent to these homes and made to clean and work in laundries whilst awaiting the birth of their babies. At the same time they were made by the nuns to think about and repent for their sins. They had to learn that actions had consequences and made to feel like utter scum. To say they weren’t treated with kindness and love during this time would be an under statement and it’s only in recent years the true horrors of what went on behind closed doors have come to light thanks to books like this and news reports in the Irish media of women willing to share their story and experiences.
Now Katie in some small way wants to unlock doors and, in the box, she had kept the bracelets of as many babies born during her time working in the home. These bracelets contained details of their birth but the mother’s name is missing. She hopes to reunite mothers and children and enlists the help of her niece Beth to do so. An online forum is set up and soon messages and enquiries are flooding in. You can’t help but think throughout all this, is Katie only doing this to alleviate some of the guilt at what she saw during her time spent working in the home? Surely she was complacent with what was going on as she did nothing to stop it? But perhaps she is genuine in her intentions? You can tell the guilt and unease eats away at her. She knows religion treated the girls like criminals and imprisoned them at a time which should be the happiest in their lives. No support or comfort was given. In reality they were victims who had no opportunities to do the right thing as no care and guidance were given to them. It’s hard to imagine that women, as in the nuns, could have been so cruel and hardened towards other women but in fact what went on was often unspeakable as the nuns barely showed any human qualities at all.
Through Katie’s quest she comes to know many people but in particular three people Gary, Brandon and Ailish, each have bracelets in the box and want to know their past and to figure out where they came from. Reuniting with their birth mothers is the ultimate goal. Out of these characters I preferred Ailish’s story the most. It brought home another issue which many people experience today and it was very well written. You could see her pain, hurt, anger and frustration but she wasn’t always strong enough to do anything about it. As well as this she was so desperate to find her mother and learn of the circumstances of how she came to be born in Carrigbrack that perhaps Katie and co would give her the strength to break free and pursue her dream.
Gary was a sort of washed up musician who didn’t know what he wanted from life and I didn’t really connect with his story that much although it was good to read of a male perspective as it was when it came to Brandon. Similarly I couldn’t warm to Brandon at all. He seemed selfish and too caught up in himself to realise that he needed to connect with Katie and discover more about the bracelet otherwise his marriage was in danger of going down the drain. Don’t get me wrong the men’s stories were interesting but I felt it was the women who played the strongest role in this book and they were the ones whose stories I was drawn to the most.
Interspersed between the chapters told in the present day were chapters told from the viewpoint of Patricia. At first I wondered why was she being included, as to me there seemed to be no relevance to the modern day, but it soon became apparent that she was one of these young girls sent to Carrigbrack. This was a great way of helping the reader to understand even more why Katie in the present was so determined to reunite the bracelets with their owners. We read of Patricia’s story and it brings us back down to earth with a bang as we journey with her during her pregnancy and incarceration in Carrigbrack. No details are spared and nor should they be.
You feel a real affinity to Patricia and her plight, she feels abandoned by her family and that she was never listened to. Rather she was packed off and forgotten about as if she was a problem that could easily be solved by disappearing from family life. Patricia does her best to try and cope with the regimes and the brainwashing enforced by the nuns as they believed they were doing right for the good of the country. I really felt for Patricia but at the same time I thought there was this special spirit and courage deep within her that would see her through the difficult, onerous and painful times.Overall , Patricia’s story mixed very well with the story in the present day.
The Paper Bracelet is a heartbreaking read full of secrets that you will leave you very emotional when you finishing reading it. But you will also be angry at what so many were forced to tolerate and experience. Why wasn’t anything done at the time and why only now years later are the true horrors coming to light? The powers that be have an awful lot to answer for and Rachael English has done her bit writing a worthy book that deserves to be read by many to gain a deeper understanding and a great respect for all those women. This story is written with sensitivity and tact and is a compelling and essential read.
Thanks so much Emma and Sharon x
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