A PORT Macquarie man will launch a book he has written at the Port Macquarie library tomorrow at 10.30am.
Mike Feeney said Lost Between Two Shores was about his 15 years in care in Ireland from 1951 to 1966 and the years immediately afterwards.
He was nine days shy of his second birthday when Ireland’s then equivalent of a DOCS official convinced a judge that he and his sister and two brothers should be removed from their home and their violent alcoholic father- and placed in the all-embracing care of the Catholic Church.
Mr Feeney never met his mother again did not see his sister Anne for 12 years because she was sent to an all-girl orphanage, where she stayed until her 16th birthday.
“I grew up blissfully ignorant of the circumstances which saw my mandated removal from home, and remained ignorant until visiting Ireland from Tasmania in 1987 when I learned of the abject wretchedness of our mother’s life,” he said.
“Because of that I decided to chronicle my experiences in the often repressive and sometimes cruel care system overseen by nuns and Christian Brothers.
“Yes, there were good and decent people among them – in fact the book is testament to their decency – but there were those who with the hindsight of psychological profiling would never have been allowed near society’s most vulnerable.”
Mr Feeney said he started writing the story in 1987 but only knuckled down to the task about seven years ago.
He thanked Ray Cooper and Bill Peck of Wauchope District Historical Society, who had assisted him in self-publishing the story.
“The title of the story is inspired by a Neil Diamond song I am, I said, where he sings about being ‘lost between two shores’ which resonated fiercely with me, especially with regard to my time after my release from Mother Church’s care.”
Inquiries about the book can be emailed to Mr Feeney at mfe40161@bigpond.net.au
