'I entered Goldenbridge orphanage in my Communion outfit. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there.' At age seven, Bernadette Fahy was delivered with her three brothers to Goldenbridge Orphanage. She was to stay there until she was sixteen. Goldenbridge has come to represent some of the worst aspects of childrearing practices in Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s. Seen as the offspring of people who had strayed from social respectability and religious standards, these children were made to pay for the 'sins' of their parents. Bernadette tells of the pain, fear, hunger, hard labour and isolation experienced in the orphanage. Can a person recover from such a childhood? How does the spirit ever take flight -- and gain the 'freedom of angels'? This is Bernadette Fahy's concern. Now trained and working as a counsellor, she has had to dig deeply into her past to understand the patterns laid down by her upbringing. She has had to rebuild her life, and now she helps others to do the same. This book is a story of triumph over the harshest of circumstances.
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About the Author
Bernadette Fahy spent much of her childhood in Goldenbridge Orphanage. Now she is a therapist specialising in helping people overcome a childhood in care.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Harrowing, inspiring account of orphanage life,
This review is from: Freedom of Angels: Childhood in Goldenbridge Orphanage (Paperback)
This is a surpisingly objective account in places, but it's interesting to see how the author, a qualified counsellour, often reverts back to a childhood linguistic mode when describing her early experiences. She's conscious of the effect that living in an orpanage has on the way she percieves the world as a whole. At times it feels like the book is written by 2 different authours, one a badly scarred orpanage vitim, the other an impartial commentator. it works, though, it's often harrowing and should be enough to make anyone who perpetuated the institionalised cruelty of these institiutions feel ashamed. It's an angry, but not necessacarily bitter book that deserves a wide audience in Ireland and elsewhere.
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