A Different South Armagh

South Armagh has been notoriously branded as Bandit Country for more than four decades. Violence, brutality and fear have been synonymous with life in this border region. Yet there was another South Armagh a simpler, peaceful place, where life was lived beyond the wretchedness of the Troubles and the complexities of politics. This is the emotional and heartfelt story of a young girl s experience of life in the Forties and of growing up in Crossmaglen, a rural village nestling among the drumlins of South Armagh, near the border with the south of Ireland. Her journey records and charts the early aspirations and hopes typical of many young lives during this era. From the pursuit of opportunities for a better life in England, to the crushing loneliness of living in a country where being Irish was not always acceptable. None of this, however, would compare to the harsh reality facing a family returning to a country embarking on one of the most horrific periods in Northern Ireland s history. For the next 30 years this family, like many other families would experience at first hand, the disruptive and often sinister nature of the notorious Troubles.