Customer Reviews

Tea and Green Ribbons: A Memoir

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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'Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his child' from Marcus Tullius Cicero

Dublin 1953. Abandoned by his wife for another man (his cousin), and deperste to have his six children looked after while he found work in england, Desmond Doyle trusted the word of the authorities, and put them all into temporary State care.

This novel is written form the viewpoint of nine-year-old Evelyn, Desmond's eldest child and only daughter, this moving true story recounts Desmond's shocking discovery on his return.
In his absence, the State has consigned the children to its permanent care. So began his desperate battle with the government to reunite his family, and change an unjust law.

bare with me, I dont excel with words, but n short, this was a good story. its Evelyns story, who during the 50's was a young girl growing up in Ireland with a less than maternal mother and her, well meaning, if unable to care for her, father and 4 younger siblings. evelyn is 8 at the onset, when her hedonistic, and probably mentally ill (as in borderline personality disorder, my guess only) mother, walks out the morning after christmas. I really despise evelyns mother for this. she is someone who should have been imprisoned for being soo self centered. anyway, much happens and the father is forced to send evelyn and her siblings to other places to be cared for. evelyn goes to a convent orphanage.... later on, when the father, (good hearted soul) is able to take her and the kids, home, they are halted by some glitcch in Irish law that prohibits him from doing so (even though it was the neglectful mothers fault). Ok, so i wont tell you what happens next but I will say that its a good read. I hear that theres a movie out also......

I highly recommend this book for a historical novel that will make you feel good when you turn the last page. The fight of a man to be reunited with his children is interesting in its detail as told by his own daughter. Whether for a bit of Irish flavor, need for a read or interest in the story line... this book will not fail to please.

"Tea and Green Ribbons is the astonishing tale of a father's quest to reunite his family. In 1953 Evelyn Doyle's mother ran off with another man, leaving her husband in Dublin to care for their six small children. A local housepainter, Desmond Doyle has little money and no choice but to turn his kids over to Ireland's church-run industrial schools while he looks for work in England. But upon his return several months later, Desmond is unable to retrieve them from state custody.
Evelyn Doyle is only seven when she arrives at the convent in High Park, where she will bask in the clean joys and lonely sorrows of life in the care of nuns. She will make friends, say her prayers, and watch time pass as Desmond tries, and fails, to engage Ireland's foremost legal experts in a fight against the Church and the government. It will be two years before Evelyn's release is granted by the Irish Supreme Court -- the first time in Irish legal history in which the justices take a child's wishes into consideration when reaching their decision.
Tragic in its truths yet inspiring at every turn, Tea and Green Ribbons is a triumphant ode to the human spirit and a loving testament to the Irish experience." (summary from publisher's website)

Highly recommended book, showing the injustice of the church and the state in Dublin during the 50s.

Desmond Doyle, shows true love (in this instance) together with guts and bravery to fight for his children.

Just one point, LA from phila you have no idea of the facts or circumstances leading to the departure of Charlotte Doyle from the household, it would be helpful if your comments and opinions of her perceived mental illness had some basis in fact instead of self opinion. Please read the book and leave the blame to one side.

THIS WAS A WONDERFUL BOOK AND I LEARNT A LOT ABOUT THIS HER AND HER FATHER
I saw the movie 3 days before Christmas and read book in three days (Jan. 3-5). The movie is about her mother running away from her husband and children. Then children to state run schools because of the father couldn't afford to care for them. Then her father challenging an constition/children law and so on. Its starts Christmas time, 1953 in Dublin, Ireland. The book is little different from the movie in some parts, but the same in other ways. The book was easy reading for me. I also have the soundtrack to it, attend to get the DVD of it, also she has a another book out coming in the UK, Tea and Green Ribbons was first released in UK under the title Evelyn. Don't worry I have e-mail the US publisher about getting her 2nd book over here so the US people read it too. Thank you.

While the story that gave rise to this book is undoubtedly moving and probably gripping, "Tea and green ribbons" is so poorly written as to have no literary merit at all. A memoir, besides telling an interesting tale, has to be well-written - otherwise, an interview in a magazine will do for me, thanks. The whole book reads like this: "Daddy said hello. I felt so happy. Daddy picked me up in his arms. I laughed. Then Daddy said he had to go. I cried".

I was also disappointed that Ms. Doyle tells us virtually nothing about the lives of her brothers during her convent years. She tells a lot about her father, but her brothers, their feelings and ordeals, are almost completely passed over, and even after the end of the judicial proceedings (and the book) they are barely mentioned. The father's struggle seems much more concerned with Evelyn than with her remaining five siblings, and we wonder if it really happened that way.

Being a lawyer, I was particularly interested in the judicial aspect of the story. Even though Ms. Doyle devotes many pages to it, I thought the whole issue could have been told in more detail and with a greater juridical accuracy - after all, as she says, hers became a leading case, so I should think it deserves a deeper analysis. Some readers might say that this is not the purpose of a memoir (which should be only concerned with what its author lived through and felt), to which I answer that, since Ms. Doyle chose to deal with the case in some detail, she ought to have engaged in a really serious analysis.

All in all, a disappointing book, though it might do for light holiday reading.