A plea for tolerance

When Ann Lovett died, aged just 15, giving birth in the freezing rain behind a grotto of the Virgin Mary in Granard, Co Longford, in January 1984, it sent shockwaves through Ireland.

So when, the following year, the gardai wrongfully charged Joanne Hayes with the murder of an infant found at Cahirciveen Strand in the Kerry Babies' case, the world was watching.

The depth to which these two cases affected the country's inhabitants is evident in Siobhan Dowd's new book A Swift Pure Cry, even though it was written 20 years later.

This, her first novel, is a haunting tale of a young Irish Catholic girl, Shell, whose pregnancy isolates her from her community and almost brings about her downfall and death, regardless of her abusive upbringing and desperate life.

A page-turner from the start, the story stays with you long after you read the last word and will, undoubtedly, be an instant bestseller. Which is why Siobhan had publishers clambering over each other to sign her up.

"I would have been 24 when the Joanne Hayes story hit the news, and I was living in London at the time," said Siobhan.

"It was very clear Joanne had nothing to do with the baby found on the beach in the Kerry Babies case.

"It was like a soap opera and haunted the nation, but remained a very odd story and an unfinished tale."

Certainly, it was unfinished for Siobhan, although it would be years before she addressed the issue on her return to Oxford.

In the meantime, Siobhan read classics at Lady Margaret Hall, and later moved to New York to work on human rights issues and write adult fiction in her spare time.

"In New York I had the best of both worlds Irish blood and an English accent, so I could do no wrong," she laughed.

Her second career took off from page 55 when she submitted a short story called Skin Deep for a Puffin anthology on racism. On the back of that she emerged with a top agent before she had written a word of a novel and it's been plain sailing ever since enough to have fellow wannabe authors quaking in envy.

"People might think I've arrived from nowhere, but I do believe everyone has to do an apprenticeship. No one can just sit down and write a book. We all need to practice our craft and then you can be ready for your material when it hits you. That certainly applied to me.

"I wrote the first 100 pages of A Swift Pure Cry before realising that this was the book I needed to write and that it had been brewing for a long time.

"At one point I was going to write a piece at the end of the book about the actual cases, but then realised I'd departed so far from the original story I would just sow the imaginary seeds instead. I don't want it to have too heavy a moral message, but there is a plea in there for tolerance and understanding towards pregnancy," she said.

Irish by birth, Siobhan, 45, is the youngest of four and was born in London, although her father returned to Wicklow when she was 17. Her childhood was split between England and Ireland, both of which she considers home, and she is still very close to her Irish relatives.

"I always say I'm Irish at heart and English in education," said Siobhan.

Now residing in West Oxford, she is is unruffled by questions about the controversial subject matter of the book, and is almost bemused by the furore it has caused, but is taking it all in her stride.

"Some people may not like me dredging it all up again, but I felt the subject matter needed addressing. I certainly don't go out of my way to be controversial.

"Besides, Ireland has moved on and I hope the same thing could not happen now but at the time there was an intolerance of any kind of sexual freedom, and contraception was not available to women.

"Abortions were only available in England, and if you were caught out of wedlock it was very shocking at the time."

Siobhan's work for children's human rights, a job that brought her back to Oxford, means that she is also aware that teenage pregnancy is still a big issue today.

"I do think teenagers need to know about pregnancy," she said.

The 1980s do not seem very long ago to some of us, but A Swift Pure Cry is directed at the teen market, so it will seem like a different era to them.

"It just seems to be the age group I can write for," Siobhan explained.

One thing is for sure, we are going to be hearing a lot more about Siobhan Dowd.

A Swift Pure Cry is published by David Fickling Books, £12.99.

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