Friends Indeed

by Rose Doyle

Nineteenth-century Dublin is a city riven by the greed of an emerging middle class and the unspeakable poverty of the poor. Alicia Buckley and Sarah Rooney, growing up there, embody that divide. Despite their different backgrounds, the girls enjoy an extraordinary friendship, so when Sarah falls pregnant, and is thrown out by her father, Allie doesn't think twice about joining her friend in exile. Neither woman is prepared for the deprivations she will face. Pursuing Sarah's soldier lover Jimmy Vance, they make their way, with baby James to Kildare, where they become part of a community of outcast women, known as the Wrens of the Curragh. Reviled in the local town, the women live rough, savage lives on the outskirts of the army camp. But there is also sharing and trust, through her work as the community's doctor, a liberation for Allie from the stifling expectations of her family. Tragedy, however, forces them to travel to America, but a final twist of fate means that only Alice will reach that brave new world, adopting her friend's son as her own, and eventually agreeing to marry Jimmy Vance to give the child a father.

Genres: Historical Fiction

370 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2001

About the author

Rose Doyle is a writer and journalist. Her novels include Fate and Tomorrow (set in the Congo in 1902) and Shadows Will Fall , both international bestsellers. Trade Names, the book of her long-running series in The Irish Times, was published by New Island in 2004. In 2005 she contributed to New Island's successful Open Door series with The Story of Joe Brown. Heroes of Jadotville: The Soldiers' Story was published in September 2006. Comdt Patrick Quinlan, who led the Irish UN troops at Jadotville, was her uncle.

http://www.newisland.ie

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friends Indeed by Rose Doyle is the second work of fiction I have read focusing on a group of Irish women struggling to survive in the middle of the 19th century, a terrible time for the Irish. I have read in several places that living conditions for most people were better in Calcutta than Dublin.

The Flight of the Wrens by Orla McAlinden begins at the height of the famine, 1848. Friends Indeed by Rose Doyle begins ten years later. Both are stories of a struggle of women to survive, of friendship and betrayal, both are stories of the Irish disapora. The two books are very different. I strongly urge anyone interested in the lives of Irish Women in the 19th century to read both these fine works.

Friends Indeed centers on the life long relationship of two young Irish women, Alicia is from an upper class family, Sarah grew up as the daughter of the family servant. In the very exciting open of the novel Alicia has just returned from her school in Paris, Sarah and the family driver have picked her up at the docks. As they make their way through Dublin, a herd of cattle starts go amuk, creating a very dangerous situation. I felt like I was there.

Since Alicia has been gone her family sold their pub and are now among the upper class. Her mother is cold and judgemental, her father is sometimes doting but he is a serious drinker and is under the thumb of his wife. A new servant woman seems to be running the house though Sarah's mother still works there. Sarah rebels at the way the head servant treats her mother. Compressing a lot, Sarah meets a British soldier stationed in Dublin. She ends up pregnant and gets thrown out of the house. Alicia joins her and has to learn to live poor.

Of course Sarah insists the soldier will marry her. There are a lot of exciting, mostly sad, turns of events. I don't want to give away too much of the plot but the major turn is when Alicia and Sarah, in the company of a Dublin keeper of a baudy house move to the Wren Colony. Doyle does a very good job describing the colony.

There are numerous interesting segments. We get an inside look at an infamous Magdalene Laundry, we go along on a meeting with a major general, and we take a boat ride to America.

Friends Indeed kept me very interested. The characters, major and minor, were very real. I cared about both of the women.

If you enjoy an exciting very well researched set in Ireland historical novel, then I highly endorse Friends Indeed.

[Wayne Burkhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling portrayal of the passion & pain of th characters

[Sile]

Loved it.
So good - great writing - great story line. Thought I was in The Curragh.