Interview with Eva Duffy recorded at Birkbeck, London on 12.06.2019

Abstract

Eva’s interview tells a story of growing up as one of five children in a small house in Finglas in Dublin in the 1970s and early 1980s. She talks about family life and her relationships with both her parents. Books were important to Eva from an early age and she was thrilled to study journalism in Dublin and later her love of language led her into a career in corporate communications. She contrasts the cultural and social scene in Dublin to that in Northampton. She avoided the more traditional Irish in England ‘scene’ after emigrating in the 1990s. Throughout her interview, Eva provides an insightful commentary into her own and others’ attitudes to women, education, employment, sex, contraception, mothering and loss. She reflects on what Ireland means to her and her own children.