Why a Booktrail?
How many generations will secrets destroy?
The Accidental Wife
What you need to know before your trail
Marion Smith has a secret. So does Colette McCann. Why did Matthew Jordan slip his passport into his pocket before he kissed his wife goodbye and drove to work? In a land riddled with suspicion and fear, secrets are not easy to keep. How long can Marion Smith hide what happened in Derry at the height of the Second World War? How many generations will her secret destroy? Lies, half-truths and omissions litter the stories of the McCann family, spanning seventy years of Northern Ireland’s turbulent history. Who will come through unscathed and who will pay for the sins of the fathers?
Locations
Reset- Ireland (Northern) - Belfast
- A: Shankill Rd
- B: Crumlin Road Jail
- C: Falls Road
- D: Irish Republican History Museum
Travel Guide
Belfast
Belfast
During the Troubles, Belfast is quite literarily a divided city. It’s also a city on lock down with strict rules of what you can and can’t do, and the penalties if you make a mistake. Children in the novel and younger people complain that no one tells you anything but that you have to work out everything for yourself. This seems to be the case for everyone and the rules are changeable anyway. Religion rules:
“No vehicles are allowed in the Control Zone. Damp, hung. Damp, hunch-shouldered pedestrians file joylessly into Belfast. One by one they pass through black, wrought-iron turnstiles, past coils of razor wire, supervised by British Soldiers with SA80 rifles.”
Then there’s the chants and the hatred of the time:
“There’s a dead Brit in the rain, tra la la la la, Dead Brit in the rain. traa, la la la la la”
The police
“Armed soldiers and police with their backs against walls, never resting their flickering , darting eye. The men are so big, so bulky in their bullet proof vests, the RUC ladies are dainty in comparison, though they are surely at just as much risk.”
Shankill Road
The Shankill Road is one of the major roads from Belfast. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill.During the Troubles, the Shankill was a centre for loyalist paramilitarism.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Accidental Wife
Destination : Belfast Author/Guide: Orla McAlinden Departure Time: 1960s – 1990s
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