Helena Mary Bella Lane was born into the fledgling Irish Free State, a country that was recovering from the ravages of its recent War of Independence against Britain and its more recent and even bloodier Civil War; a country that existed in a state of Purgatory between complete British Rule and complete independence from that rule.
Lena, as she was known, was also born into impoverishment. Her father, a broken war hero, preferred to wallow in drink rather than shoulder his family responsibilities. With her mother too ill to cope with the family’s eight children, the twelve-year-old Lena, as the eldest daughter, became the mother hen to her brothers and sisters. But she was soon to experience the horror of her family being torn apart. When her mother was sectioned, she and her siblings were taken into care, suffering the cruel regime of clergy-run homes while they waited to be farmed out to relatives and family friends.
Lena escaped the tyranny of the nuns, only to suffer a different kind of tyranny under the guardianship of her aunt. But as soon as she was old enough, she went into domestic service, first in Ireland, then in England, and finally in Scotland, her adopted country, where she married and bore seven children of her own, six of whom are alive and kicking today.
THE REBEL’S DAUGHTER is Lena’s often harrowing, but ultimately triumphant, story.
Lena, as she was known, was also born into impoverishment. Her father, a broken war hero, preferred to wallow in drink rather than shoulder his family responsibilities. With her mother too ill to cope with the family’s eight children, the twelve-year-old Lena, as the eldest daughter, became the mother hen to her brothers and sisters. But she was soon to experience the horror of her family being torn apart. When her mother was sectioned, she and her siblings were taken into care, suffering the cruel regime of clergy-run homes while they waited to be farmed out to relatives and family friends.
Lena escaped the tyranny of the nuns, only to suffer a different kind of tyranny under the guardianship of her aunt. But as soon as she was old enough, she went into domestic service, first in Ireland, then in England, and finally in Scotland, her adopted country, where she married and bore seven children of her own, six of whom are alive and kicking today.
THE REBEL’S DAUGHTER is Lena’s often harrowing, but ultimately triumphant, story.
