London to Mullingar - new novel set against backdrop of The Emergency

Local author Danny Dunne returns with his second full-length novel, The Road to Bethany, a tale of "idyllic" country life set against the backdrop of the Second World War, or The Emergency, as it was known here.

The story is told through the eyes of a nine-year-old Margaret, who escapes The Blitz in London, to come live with her grandmother in Mullingar.

The Road to Bethany will be officially launched by historian Ruth Illingworth during Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, with a reception on Wednesday August 9 at 1pm in Mullingar Arts Centre. Niall Brennan, principal at Loughegar NS, will act as MC for the occasion.

"It centres around the young heroine Margaret, and her life between 1940 - 1945, and how she adapts to life having come from London with electricity and running water," begins retired principal, Danny Dunne.

"All the cooking is done over an open fire, there's no electricity, no sanitary facilities only a privy outside. She has to cycle four miles to a convent school and get involved in farm life, which include killing the pigs for Christmas, so it's her ability to cope with all this and it's told completely through her eyes," he continues.

Childhood innocence, and the bonds of friendship and family all come into play here, but it also depicts how people struggled through great poverty and hardship, illness and a high infant mortality rate. Margaret's coming-of-age story is a captivating journey, as she navigates her way through life with the help of hard-working people, who are woven together by the threads of Christian faith. The author explains that the "Bethany" theme continues throughout.

"Bethany was the home of Lazarus and his two sisters Mary and Martha in the New Testament. In the book, young Margaret's grand uncle, John Costello, was nursed back to health after the Spanish Flu in 1918 by his two sisters. The local people claimed that he was raised from the dead and jovially christened him Lazarus as he lived with his two sisters, Maureen and Martha. The three decided never to marry and to instead take care of each other. When Margaret and her mother Kitty seek refuge at the farm in Mullingar, she christens it Bethany. The theme is further developed as the story reaches its culmination."

Danny Dunne is a historian and retired school principal. He has ten books to his credit including, The Little SilverBell (1995), a book of poetry Along the Gravel Road (1996) and compiling and editing eight books documenting the history of local communities. He is married to Betty and they have three adult children. In 2018 he published The Spindle Tree - A Story of Lost Childhood and Redemption in the Irish Midlands.