Sisters

Sisters, published by Blackstaff Press in 1980 is a collection of short stories by three women writers which reflects the middle decades of 20th century Ireland, a time now seen as a bleak and depressing era. This work presents very different stories from very different writers, but with one thing in common - the originality and power of the writing.

'In Sisters, each of the three authors has an individuality of subject but they all write with a power and precision that makes this publication a significant event in the history of Irish fiction. Barbara Haycock Walsh explores the intensity of family relationships within the petit bourgeois of Catholic Ireland.'

The stories describe the lives of ordinary people on both sides of the border: Barricades are hurriedly built at the end of a Belfast Street, to the bemusement of its respectable residents; two schoolboys egg each other on to dangerous mischief; a battered wife takes her children on a short excursion to freedom and peace.

'Barbara is a writer well in control of the mechanics of short-story writing, incorporating flashbacks with ease into lightly monitored time schemes... this is particularly true of "A Flash in the Dark". She handles carefully the varying tones necessary to create the differing atmosphere of her stories, and treats with masterly understatement the vernacular necessary to the last of her stories,"Tuesday Night".'

Sisters, published by Blackstaff Press in 1980 is currently out of print but may be found on online outlets specialising in rare books.