IRELAND
Irish News
John Boyne hit the best-seller lists with his 2006 novel for young adults The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. His latest, adult-oriented title concerns an Irish priest wrestling with his culpability over sexual abuse perpetrated by colleagues over decades. It’s a novel the Dublin author felt compelled to write, he tells David Roy
IN JOHN Boyne’s A History of Loneliness, a fundamentally decent Irish priest pays a highly personal price for ignoring the deviant activities of his fellow Catholic clergy.
When Odran Yates finds himself railroaded into ‘the mother’s vocation’ in the wake of a family tragedy, it is the early 1970s – a time when priests are still treated with literal reverence by the wider community in Ireland.
However, even in those halcyon days, there were rumours of unspeakable abuses of power taking place in Catholic schools, churches and even in the homes of families who would never think to question a priest’s motives for wanting to be alone with their vulnerable young offspring.
For his own reasons, Odran chooses to turn a blind eye to such transgressions as he pursues the calling he quickly realises he’s actually quite suited to. As a gifted student, the young priest even finds himself selected to complete his studies in Rome, where he is bestowed the greater honour of serving the Pope directly – two Popes in fact.
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