68: Under The Hawthorn Tree with Naomi O'Leary

Naomi O'Leary, journalist and co-host of The Irish Passport, joins us to talk about maybe the bleakest book in children's literature, Marita Conlon-McKenna's famine classic Under The Hawthorn Tree. We talked about the unrelenting horror of the book, the historical accuracy, and how maybe it should be on the British school curriculum as well as the Irish one. There's also a whole load of talk about Brexit and we try to solve the mystery of forgotten Irish author Mary Regan's The Secret Of Yellow Island.  Naomi co-hosts the excellent podcast The Irish Passport. You can find her on Twitter @NaomiOhReally Alan is @alan_maguire], he does stand up sometimes Sarah is [@griffski. Her excellent novel Spare And Found Parts is out now and her next book Other Words For Smoke is out later this year. Juvenalia is on all of the social medias, if you search for Juvenalia, you'll find us.  Juvenalia original artwork by Dee McDonnell This episode was produced and edited by Brian + Alan