Showing results by author "Gemma Jackson" in All Categories

In 1898 three young girls leave a Dublin orphanage to enter a life of domestic service. They are placed in the home of Captain Charles Whitmore. His wife, Georgina, desperate to break free from a violent marriage. Then an organisation that helps women escape abuse makes Georgina an offer. They propose that her house should become a school to train women for employment in the American West. Can the orphan maids dare dream of a better life for themselves?

In 1920s inner city Dublin Tenements, Ivy Rose Murphy struggles to survive in the harsh poverty-stricken environment she was born into. She is trying to adapt to her new role as a married woman. There are those jealous of the improvements she has managed to make in her life. To Ivy it seems everyone wants a piece of her. Ivy's friends gather around to offer support, but somehow Ivy is the one who gives hope to them.

Through hard work and determination, Ivy Rose Murphy has come up in the world. She still begs for discards from the homes of the wealthy which lie only a stone’s throw from The Lane, the poverty-ridden tenements where she lives. She repairs and sells these discards in Dublin market. With her talent for needlework and a team of neighbourhood helpers, she has also begun to supply an upmarket shop in Grafton Street with beautifully dressed dolls. Then Ivy’s wealthy friend Ann Marie Gannon, with her beloved camera, spends a day at the airport photographing planes.

Ivy Rose Murphy dreams of a better future. For years she has set out daily from the tenements known as The Lane to beg for discards from the homes of the wealthy. Her fortune takes a turn for the better, but there are eyes on Ivy, and she is vulnerable as she carries her earnings through the dark winter streets. Jem Ryan, who owns the local livery, longs to make Ivy his wife, but she is reluctant to give up her fierce independence. Then a sudden astonishing event turns Ivy's world upside down.

Georgina Corrigan is dead! It must be true. It has been printed in the newspapers. How does one prove one is not dead? Georgina is forced to seek assistance from her well-connected friends to establish that she is indeed alive and well and living in Percy Place. The accident that caused the death of her unlamented husband has had other ripple effects, and a young woman is being forced to flee all that she knows.

Georgina Corrigan is worried. The first women sent to her Percy Place home by the BOBs - an organisation which supports women escaping difficult home lives - are ready to step out into the world again. Some have found opportunities in Dublin, others in New York. Will those travelling to America find employment with the Harvey Company? Thousands try every year to become Harvey Girls - young women who serve in restaurants and hotels on the railway line. Will they be successful when so many fail?