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I do not usually write public reviews but the Boston lady's entry entitled 'Dribble' [sic] has needled me. It cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged: it gives a terribly misleading account of Maura Murphy's remarkable memoir, 'Don't Wake Me at Doyles'. Mrs Murphy speaks with honesty and courage about a life undermined by extreme poverty and hardship, both in Ireland in the 40s and 50s and in England in the 60s. Her story is unique for its fearlessness, frankness and humour. She is speaking out for a generation of women silenced for so long by the might of the Catholic Church, incarcerated by patriarchy and oppressed by poverty. She is brave enough to acknowledge that her religion forbade birth control which resulted in nine much-loved children. The author comments on her state of perennial pregnancy in terms of the Church and her faith but she does not say she regrets giving birth to them. On the contrary it is clear the family's love and loyalty is what binds them through their difficult times. Mrs Murphy did not visit the priest for medical advice! This is a preposterous misreading of her words. Mrs Murphy's dilemma over her life-saving hysterectomy was one of ethics and religous faith, not of medicine. Mrs Murphy is clearly a proud Irish woman, a serious Catholic (why else would she have sought a priest's blessing?) and, quite obviously, a proud wife and mother. Her amazing wit and humour underpins the narrative and these are just some of the reasons for cherishing 'Don't Wake Me at Doyles'. This book is unique and awe-inspiring. Open your minds and hearts and buy this book. It is an education!

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"Don't Wake Me at Doyles: A Memoir" Overview

Maura Murphy’s memoir of life in Ireland and beyond resonates with the people, places, and struggles of an almost forgotten generation. Born “chronically ugly and cross as a briar” into a poor, rural homestead in 1920s Ireland, Maura faced adversity from birth. She grew up in the bogs of the Irish countryside and left school at fourteen for Dublin, working in service there until her marriage to a hard-working but hard-drinking womanizer. Poverty stricken and hoping to find a better life for her five young children, she left Ireland with her family for 1950s Birmingham, England.

But life doesn’t always change when places do, and Maura’s fear that she’d be “waked” at Doyles bar upon her death is funny but dead serious. Her voice is feisty and fearless, and she needed to be all those things to survive an extraordinary series of privations and abuses. And now, seventy-six and having survived her childhood, recovered from cancer, and left her marriage of fifty years, Maura has finally recorded the story of her life.

A fearlessly honest writer, Maura invites us into her world, through her destructive marriage, and the birth of her nine children, and toward a life-or-death choice that would change her forever. Told with biting wit, Don’t Wake Me at Doyles is a personal story of one woman’s endurance, and the remarkable memoir of an ordinary woman’s extraordinary life.

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