FOR THE LOVE OF MY MOTHER

For the Love of My Mother

John Rodgers

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Bridie Rodgers was arrested and taken to court, aged 2 and a half, for begging on the streets of Dublin. Who had put her there remained a mystery and does so to this day.  She spent her childhood in a series of institutions for orphans and then at the age of 16 was sent to work as a housekeeper for a wealthy farming family. It seemed that she was on the way to earning a living and making a life for herself - if it hadn't been for the fact that, shortly after her arrival, she was raped by one of the farmhands. As the latter was an apparently "respectable" married man, Bridie's story was not believed: clearly she was a wanton woman who had led him on - even though she barely knew the facts of life.

Bridie was sent first to a home for unmarried mothers, and then cruelly separated from her son and put into one of the infamous Magdalene Laundries. There she remained imprisoned for 17 years. The thought of her son kept her going, and finally, aged 32, she managed to escape. But the story doesn't end there. John was unable to relate to a mother he had never known - particularly one who had apparently committed some kind of sin - and the reconciliation process, painful from both sides, lasted for another 30 years.

Bridie's survival, her son's denial, her struggle, her "poverty of mind" and her spirited battle for her lost son combine to give a unique picture of life in Ireland and post war Britain for the thousands of "bastards and sons of bitches" who wouldn't even write to their own mother. Using Bridie's letters and the accounts of her contemporaries, John Rodgers has reconstructed his mother's life, which he relates in a compelling third-person narrative.  He also explores, with absolute honesty, his own feelings towards his mother and gives us an insight not only into the minds of the mothers of the illegitimate children condemned by the Irish Catholic Church, but also into the minds of the illegitimate children themselves, searching for their own identity and place in the world.

John Rodgers was born in 1947 and brought up by foster parents in County Galway, Ireland.  He was told at a young age that he must write to his “real” mother, but he had little concept of who she was, and why he must write to her, since he already had two loving parents.  Being brought face to face with her only served to deepen his insecurity about his identity.

John self-published For the Love of My Mother in Ireland in 2005. Since then the story has been gathering momentum, with extensive press coverage, an appearance by John on Irish breakfast TV and a film option by world renowned producer and director Jim Sheridan.