Memoirs: Phyl Herbert, Liz McManus and Mary Rose Callaghan

Memoirs have become a publishing phenomenon in recent years, undoubtedly spurred on by the greater opportunity for reflection on life and death that came with the pandemic lockdown. It is a trend that is here to stay, with readers hungry for stories that go beyond the surface and delve into the tears and joy of human existence.

Join authors Phyl Herbert, Liz McManus and Mary Rose Callaghan as they discuss their memoirs and how they came to write and publish their stories. 

Phyl Herbert’s poignant memoir, The Price of Silence, tells how she spent most of her adult life hiding the secret of how she had given up her weeks-old daughter for adoption, and about the toll it took despite all her outward successes in theatre and education.

After twenty-six years, her daughter made contact and they were reunited. It was a time of joy and rediscovery—but not without its difficulties....

Liz McManus never knew her maternal grandparents but was able through family papers to put their story together. When Things Come to Light is a story of an idealistic couple for whom the new Irish Free State, increasingly dominated by the Catholic Church, becomes an alien place. Even within the family, ruptures are caused, so deep they cannot be breached.

Liz is well known for her former role as a TD and deputy chairperson of the Labour Party.

The Deep End by novelist Mary Rose Callaghan tells of growing up in Dublin from the mid-1940s in a once well-off family fallen on hard times and forced at times to struggle with extreme poverty. Central to this enthralling and poignant memoir is the author’s relationship with her flamboyant mother, which endured all the hardships and her mother’s descent into mental illness. In the end, the author realises that, despite all the pain and suffering, her mother left her one great gift for life.