Eithne Ring’s memoir is one of Mayo’s finest books of 2022

One of the highlights of arguably the busiest-ever book publishing years in Mayo is a wonderfully candid memoir by Westport businesswoman Eithne Ring who cast a spotlight on adoption in 1980s Ireland.

Entitled ‘Does my son take sugar? An Irish woman’s memoir’, it is, as Eithne explained, a story that needed to be told so that others might find solace in it or understand what life was like for a young woman in relatively recent times.

The foreword, penned by Ruth Kelly, author of Motherhood Silenced, described the book as a very personal account of Eithne’s crisis pregnancy, the relinquishment of her son, the process of adoption and her life as it then unfolded.

“Through describing the lifelong nature of the impact of adoption, she reminds us that, for an adoption to take place, there will always be a mother who had to go through the pain and grief of relinquishment.”

Chapter after chapter, she reveals the truth of the experience in an emotional account which grips the reader from the outset.

Responding in the introduction to her own question, “Why did I write this book?” she explained it needed to be told because the painful secrets that come with adoption must be set free.

“We need to talk honestly and freely about disenfranchised grief and the insurmountable pain that is buried deep in our hearts.”

Her account is a very personal one in which she seeks answers to so many questions in her mind.

Eithne’s fine book was published in a year in which a new law is being enacted that will rewrite the rules around the rights of adopted children to know more about their origin story.

She deserves great credit for her and husband Joe’s courage and honesty as well as providing insight and guidance.

Published by Tir Dhúchais, Westport, it is on sale at all good local bookshops.