Official Launch of Parcels in the Post, Growing up with Fifty Siblings by Fiona Neary

Join us for the official launch of Fiona Neary’s memoir, published by New Island Books.

Parcels in the Post will be launched by award winning bestselling novelist Kate Kerrigan (pseudonym of Morag Prunty). Kate’s novels have been translated into 25 languages and optioned/developed for film and television and is currently touring her the UK and Ireland with her sold out one-woman show Am I Irish Yet.

Parcels in the Post

It’s the early 1980s and Fiona Neary and her family have recently moved back from England to the family farm. Fiona’s huge hearted mum decides to take in foster children - a decision that will change all of their lives.

Over the next decade, a procession of faces passes through the house. Every child has their own story, and each story claims a little piece of Fiona's heart. Some stay a few weeks; some months, and then years. All these children, as well as Fiona and her family, must pass through a chaotic system: where a judge’s decision can alter a child’s life, for better or worse; where emergency placements can break up siblings; where the foster family are often left in the dark with little back-up.

Filled with pathos and humour, Parcels in the Post is both a memoir of a loving household and a snapshot of the fostering system in Ireland, from someone at the very heart of it all.

Fiona Neary co-founded the Rape Crisis Centre in Castlebar in 1993 and later acted as the National Coordinator and Executive Director of Rape Crisis Network Ireland. She is currently co-director of the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar. Parcels in the Post is her first book.