Méabh Ní Choileáin

For most people, mention of Thomas the Tank Engine conjures images from childhood of brightly coloured, moon-faced locomotives happily chugging along under guardianship of the Fat Controller. It sparks a memory of the honky-tonk theme tune…

Reading Under the Hawthorn Tree as a child, the first title in Marita Conlon McKenna’s Children of the Famine trilogy, I found myself initially drawn to the character of Eily. Her selflessness in caring for her younger siblings impressed…