Factory Girls - Michelle Gallen
The social and political context might also be recognisable however if you've seen Derry Girls. I might as well get the obvious comparison out of the way now (the title invites such comparisons), because despite the superficial similarities and the period of the Troubles covered, Michelle Gallen does move on and have other issues to deal with. If it helps however, you could see the teenage protagonist of Factory Girls as practically a sequel to the Derry Girls TV series. Maeve and her friends have just left school and are waiting on their A-level exam results so they can get out of the small Co. Tyrone town they've grown up in and move on to the next stage of their lives.
Before Maeve can leave the Troubles and the family troubles behind her - in a town which could well be the same Aghybogey where Majella of Big Girl, Small Town lives - and take up a course in journalism in London, she needs to find a bit of summer work for money. If that means flirting a little with the arrogant and sleazy boss of the clothing factory, the only place likely to take unqualified and inexperienced young girls into temporary employment in this town - and I'm sure you can guess why - Maeve is prepared to do what is necessary.
Taking a first step to independence, Maeve rents her own place with friend, keen to move out of the family home that has become uncomfortable since death of her sister Deirdre. Even at the age of 18, having lived in a place that has know sectarian violence for decades, Maeve knows the score when it comes to the differences between Catholics and Protestants, but working as a factory girl in a mixed environment is one of the few times when she has actually had to co-exist with someone from the other side of the community. In 1994, it's still a very divided community living in fear of killings and retaliation from paramilitaries. Work experience is going to involve more than just dealing with a sleazy if undeniably attractive boss.
To her credit and despite the humour, Gallen doesn't dress this up at all, but captures the uncomfortable reality that many of us lived with throughout the troubles. There's no disguising the bitterness and hatred that exists, the open prejudice (often against the English), even though all does in retrospect seem almost surreal (like boycotting butter from "Protestant cows"). The author doesn't shy away however from the grimness of living in near poverty in a household that has no time for social niceties. There's not much kept mysterious either about the relationship between men and women either, particularly from the viewpoint of an 18 year old Catholic girl.
The factory evidently is Maeve's coming of age, her education and awareness of what it will mean to go out and face a new reality about the way the world works. It's also evidently, much like Olivia Fitzsimons, covering the same period recently in The Quiet Whispers Never Stop, an awakening for Northern Ireland facing up to a future beyond the NI Peace Process. The Greysteel and Loughlinisland atrocities are mentioned, and we are aware from the nature of the continuing violence that the IRA are preparing to announce ceasefire that will pave the way for the 1998 peace agreement, but it's still a very dangerous time for anyone who could be considered a "legitimate target". We are in a place where we need to move forward but are not yet ready to leave the past behind.
For anyone who has lived through these years and heard it all before, Factory Girls might be less compelling, but it does capture the reality and the attitudes - and the humour in the face of it - very well. I'll leave it to others to verify the accuracy of the graphic and frank accounts of what goes on in the head of an 18 year old girl at this time (and lower down). As you might expect however there is a deeper undercurrent that connects the personal and political troubles.
Loss looms over Factory Girls. There's the loss of her sister Deirdre, which certainly affects Maeve and her family, and evidently there is the loss of friends and townspeople to the mindless sectarian violence. Everyone has experienced loss and the death of loved ones, but Gallen also indicates that there is an even greater sense of loss experienced by many; the loss of a normal childhood, the loss of innocence and the loss of opportunities for those unable to make their escape. As such Maeve is part of a new generation, one that does indeed aim to move forward, leave behind and - significantly - become a journalist and a voice that tells it like it is. Michelle Gallen tells it like it is.
Reading notes: Advance proof copy of Factory Girls kindly provided by NetGalley. Factory Girls is published by John Murray on the 23rd June 2022.
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