Remembering Charlotte: Postcards from a New South City, 1905-1950

'Over and over again he warned me he would kill me if I told anyone. I was completely isolated. He made sure of that.' Mary was ten years old when she first met her stepfather, Sean McDarby. From the very beginning he seemed to pay her special attention; his praise and compliments quickly won her trust. Then he started touching her in ways she didn't like. When she was twelve, he raped her. The next twenty years were filled with harrowing abuse as McDarby continued to rape Mary, leading to the birth of five of her children. Finally, after years of abuse – years when justice was denied at every turn – Mary found the strength and courage to break free. Against the odds she created a safe place for her children and reclaimed her life. This is Mary's inspirational story of courage and survival.

'Young shopworkers on Henry Street in Dublin, who in 1984 refused to handle the fruits of apartheid, provided me with great hope during my years of imprisonment, and inspiration to millions of South Africans.' Nelson Mandela Dunnes Stores cashier Mary Manning knew little about apartheid when, at the age of twenty-one, she refused to register the sale of two Outspan South African grapefruits under a directive from her union. She was suspended and nine of her co-workers walked out in support. They all assumed they would shortly return to work. But theirs were kindling voices, on the cusp of igniting a mass movement they couldn't even imagine. Despite harassment from the Gardaí and disparagement from the Irish government and even the Catholic Church, they refused to be silenced. Within months they were embroiled in a dispute that captured the world's attention. In this searing account, Mary tells the extraordinary story of their public fight for justice, as well as her emotive journey of discovery into her family's past. Mary's mother had been forced to carry a secret burden of shame for her whole life by the same oppressive establishment Mary was fighting. Striking Back is a provocative and inspiring story that epitomises the resilience of hope and the human spirit, even under the most formidable of circumstances. It shows that each of us has the power to change the world.

This anthology provides access to neglected theatrical work and broadens our understanding of the history of Irish theatre as well as the vital role of women within it. The introduction places these plays in dialogue with one another as well as within the national context of the repealing of women's rights during the Irish Free State years. These are plays by authors including Mary Manning, Dorothy Macardle, Mary Devenport O'Neill, Kate O'Brien and Margaret O'Leary, which are difficult to access, but which are increasingly visible in Irish theatre scholarship. This unique collection places the playwrights in dialogue to form a tradition of women's theatrical work that challenges the male-dominated literary canon of Irish theatre, as well as enriching the body of women's theatrical work in the Anglophone world during the interwar years. Includes the plays: Kate O'Brien – Distinguished Villa (1926) Margaret O'Leary – The Woman (1929) Mary Manning – Youth's the Season (1931) Dorothy Macardle – Witch's Brew (1931) Mary Devenport O'Neill – Bluebeard (1933)