The Light in the Window

By June Goulding,

Book cover of The Light in the Window

Book description

'I promised that I would one day write a book and tell the world about the home for unmarried mothers. I have at last kept my promise.'

In Ireland, 1951, the young June Goulding took up a position as midwife in a home for unmarried mothers run by the Sacred…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Light in the Window as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I came across this memoir while researching Irish mother and baby homes for my own novel. June Goulding was a young midwife in the 1950s when she was hired by the Sacred Heart Convent in Cork.  Here she found girls,  some as young as 13, punished for the sin of being pregnant, forced to work, tarring roads, scrubbing floors, and rearing their children until they were handed over for adoption – in exchange for a donation to the church – often without their consent. Thirty years later, haunted by what she was party to, Goulding tells the story of how…

The Light in the Window was recommended to me by a woman born in a Mother Baby Home, and it is the book that ignited my curiosity about these institutions. The author, June Goulding a midwife, gives a firsthand account of what happened in the Mother Baby Home where she spent a year working as a midwife. Goulding shares her experience and the cruelty she witnessed. The Light in the Window is one of those books that is difficult to put down. When you’re done reading it, you can’t help but shake your head and wonder how this was allowed…

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