Evelyn Doyle

Ierland, 1953. De huisschilder Desmond Doyle heeft zes jonge kinderen en woont in een armoedige volksbuurt in Dublin. Op een dag, vlak na Kerstmis, stort zijn wereld in wanneer hij bij zijn thuiskomst ontdekt dat zijn vrouw Charlotte hem heeft verlaten. Kort daarop raakt hij ook zijn baan kwijt. Desmond zoekt hulp bij de autoriteiten, die hem adviseren naar Engeland te gaan om werk te zoeken. De kinderen zullen tijdelijk worden ondergebracht in een weeshuis. Na enkele maanden keert Desmond terug naar Ierland en krijgt tot zijn verbijstering te horen dat alle kinderen officieel zijn overgedragen aan de staat tot ze de leeftijd van zestien jaar hebben bereikt.… (mais)

Tea and Green Ribbons by Evelyn Doyle
Publisher: Free Press, library edition-withdrawn
Year: 2002
ISBN: 0743242599
Pages: 243
Reviewed by: Tina H; Arkansas, USA
Date: 12/7/2019
Format: Print Softcover
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tea and Green Ribbons by Evelyn Doyle is a story about when Evelyn was a young girl, seven to nine years old. It is a very interesting story, but I would have liked to hear more of Evelyn's story.

Evelyn Doyle was the eldest of six children, their mother "Mammy" abandoned her husband Desmond "Dessie," Daddy and also all six of her children-Evelyn the oldest at seven and Dermot the youngest at one year old. Dessie had been sick, in the hospital with lead poisoning, that he acquired while working as a painter (houses), to support his family.

While Dessie was so sick, Mammy had been sneaking around and seeing Gerry, who was Dessie's first cousin. Dessie, of course, didn't have any idea what was going on. Evelyn didn't know exactly, she was too young and innocent to understand what she was seeing. When Dessie got out of the hospital, he was going to work and one morning, Mammy got up early and told Evelyn that she was going for the messages, (in the 1960s slums of Dublin, there was no mailbox or postal service in their building), then her Mammy never returned.

Dessie needed a caregiver to take good care of his children, while he was at work, Evelyn was too little for that much responsibility. After much thought and a heavy heart-on the advice of a man from the child agency that looked in on children who were mistreated or neglected, he decided to put all five of his boys into the Industrial School, run by the government and to put his precious little daughter into a convent. Dessie in the meantime, was going to England to make some money, that he'd use to raise his children up properly with. The arrangements were that Dessie would collect his children, once he had a caregiver and a job.

Except that, when Dessie tried to get his children back, he was told NO! He and his father went to his father's lawyer, who looked into it for him and later the lawyer was discussing it with another lawyer friend, who decided to take up Dessie's case to help him get his children back, Pro Bono.

It turned out to be a national case, because children were never allowed to go back to just one parent, since his wife had run off with his cousin, she was not available for him to get her signature on the endless forms required, to recover his own children.

The book goes straight into the incredible fight Dessie Doyle fought to get all six of his children back, with no limitations. The Children's Court Justices kept trying to make a deal where they could repossess the children, if the court so desired.… (mais)