Cowslips and Chainies: A Memoir of Dublin in the 1930s [Paperback]

Elaine Crowley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

This account of growing up in inner-city Dublin during the 1930s is a combination of personal memoir and social document. It gives descriptions of pawnbrokers and money-lenders, of how a family could manage life in one room, and of the workings of inner-city communities. Through the author's eyes, we see what people ate, what they wore (how collars were turned, dresses recycled, and children's shoes repainted), what medicines they took, what games they played, and how institutions such as schools, hospitals and hospices were perceived. Against this background, readers are invited to take part in the author's childhood experiences: pre-school plots to murder the neighbour's toddler; youthful attempts to figure out where babies come from, thwarted by the nuns; excursions with her mother to foil her father's "carryings-on"; and starting work in a sewing factory aged 14 to support the family when her father was dying of tuberculosis.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Lilliput Pr Ltd (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1874675805
• ISBN-13: 978-1874675808
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,522,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm not sure if this is printed under a new title now, but.., July 5, 2000

By 

Miriam - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cowslips and Chainies: A Memoir of Dublin in the 1930s (Paperback)

A touching memoir of Dublin childhood in the 30s, and how this girl survives so many hardships. Although the father seems nearly to be the bad guy in the book, you can't help but feel sorry for him at the end