Give Them Stones

This story by Mary Beckett, born in Belfast, covers over 60 years of dramatic events in her home town. It is viewed through the eyes of an ordinary woman called Martha. She is witness to the Troubles in 1935, leaves school at the age of fourteen to go to work in the local mill, is evacuated to elderly aunts in the country during the blitz and sees her father interned in wartime for once allegedly belonging to the IRA. These events lead her to develop a strong urge to determine her own fate.;The events leading up to her marriage are described and how she knew she would marry Dermot Hughes as soon as she saw his gas cooker. Her passion for baking becomes more than just a means of gaining a little financial independence but a therapy in times of crisis.;From her tiny bakery an insider's perspective of the city's plight is gained: the rising struggles for civil rights, the Falls Road curfew of 1970, the bombings, the sectarian murders, the fear for sons with no jobs and no street safe for them to walk on between the soldiers arresting and IRA recruiting.;It is very much a story of personal battles and victories and how they are fought and won.;By same author: "A Woman of Belfast".