Welcome to the house of fun. It's the early 1980s and Fiona Neary and her family have recently moved back from England to the family farm. Fiona's huge-hearted mum decides to take in foster children – a decision that will change all their lives. Over the next decade, a procession of faces passes through the house. Every child has their own story, and each story claims a little piece of Fiona's heart. Some stay a few weeks; some months, and then years. All these children, as well as Fiona and her family, must pass through a chaotic system: where a judge's decision can alter a child's life, for better or worse; where emergency placements can break up siblings; where the foster family are often left in the dark and with little back-up. Filled with pathos and humour, Parcels in the Post is both a memoir of a loving household and snapshot of the fostering system in Ireland, from someone at the very heart of it all.
FIONA NEARY went on to work in social care herself, cofounding the Rape Crisis Centre in Castlebar in 1993, and later acting as National Coordinator and Executive Director of Rape Crisis Network Ireland. She is currently co-director of the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar. Parcels in the Post is her first book.
