Showing results by narrator "Caroline Lennon" in All Categories

When a young girl is discovered dead on an isolated Irish country road, it seems to be a simple hit and run. Then the cops see the tattoo on her back - a pair of beautifully wrought angel wings. Forensic investigator Reilly Steel is soon on the scene and she suspects that there is more to this case than a straightforward murder. Then the angel tattoo is traced to other children - both dead and alive - who are all similarly marked.…

Touchy Subjects is about things that make people wince: taboos, controversies, secrets, and lies. Some of the events that characters crash into are grand, tragic ones: miscarriage, overdose, missing persons. Other topics, like religion and money, are not inherently taboo, but they can cause acute discomfort because people disagree so vehemently. These stories are about the spectrum of feeling that runs from awkwardness through embarrassment to shame.

It is 1960, and Clare Hamilton is returning home to her beloved Armagh to marry Andrew Hamilton, her childhood sweetheart. They plan to live in Andrew’s ancestral home, which they intend to run as a guest house. Their ambition is to buy back the land of the former family estate so that Andrew can quit his hated job and farm the land. At first, things go well, and the guest house prospers, but the 1960s are a time of change. Air travel becomes increasingly affordable and bookings decline. And the increasing political turmoil and religious tensions too close to home make them wonder if, despite all their efforts, their project might fail.

Dom Coleman-Cappabianca is the divinely handsome owner of the hottest restaurant in town. But he’s about to find out things are even steamier out of the kitchen. For starters, his girlfriend Tanya seems hell-bent on promoting her own interests, whatever the expense. And then Dom’s glamorous Italian mother Cici is getting herself into some very hot water. From Dublin to Rome and New York, family fidelity is tested to its limits.

To her neighbours in Belfast, Maura Brady looks like she has it all - an attractive husband, a comfortable home and a gorgeous little boy, Danny. But behind closed doors, things are far from idyllic. Maura has long harboured doubts that her husband Adam only married her because he was quickly trying to mend a broken heart. Years ago, Adam’s childhood sweetheart Evelyn suddenly left town to marry a rich, older man and left Adam shocked and shaken.

It is 1942, and the Second World War has been going on for three wearying years. Work is hard and hours long in the four Ulster mills in Northern Ireland where Alex Hamilton struggles to keep overworked machines going, just as his wife Emily tries to provide food and comfort not only for their own son and daughters, but for the many young American soldiers stationed nearby.

When Meg returns to Dublin after three years following sailor boyfriend Simon around the globe with two toddlers, Lily and Dan, she realises that all her friends have moved on. And now she only has her kooky family and Dan's flaky but dangerously gorgeous father, Sid, to rely on for help and support.

Marianne has worked hard to provide her children with a secure and loving home. But then comes the news that will change everything: Her husband, Dominic, has been found dead. As she and the police delve deeper into the circumstances surrounding Dominic's death, they discover a web of lies that conceals a shady double life. Little does she realise that the worst is yet to come....

Life in 1920s Belfast is hard for the working class people, but the McGuigans are more fortunate than most. But when eldest son Johnnie shatters the family’s peaceful existence with a shocking and unwelcome revelation, opinions become divided. And there are secrets in other quarters, too, when Sister Louise discovers her boyfriend is hiding something - a secret so terrible it threatens their engagement.

Deirdre Weston, a London journalist, returns to her family home in Armagh to come to terms with the death of her mother. Faced with painful memories of her own past, Deirdre almost despairs of the task she has set herself. At the point of her deepest need, she is comforted by Deara, a mysterious young woman from fifth-century Ireland who draws her into the Druidic world of Tara, where the conflicts echo those of troubled 20th-century Ulster.

When her mother leaves the family home in Belfast for her lover, Louise McGuigan is left feeling betrayed. It is up to Louise to look after her brother and sister while her father loses himself to alcohol. Returning to work at the local linen factory, she has to endure the cruel gossip about her so-called righteous mother and when Conor O'Rourke, the man of her dreams, continues to drag his heels about their future together, Louise doesn't know how much more she can take.

An extraordinary tale of desire, betrayal, and death from Britain's longest running and best loved radio serial. Wealthy, philandering gentleman farmer Brian Aldridge embarked on a casual fling with freelance translator Siobhan Hathaway, but what ensued was the most explosive affair in the history of Ambridge.

In 1920s inner city Dublin Tenements, Ivy Rose Murphy struggles to survive in the harsh poverty-stricken environment she was born into. She is trying to adapt to her new role as a married woman. There are those jealous of the improvements she has managed to make in her life. To Ivy it seems everyone wants a piece of her. Ivy's friends gather around to offer support, but somehow Ivy is the one who gives hope to them.

Through hard work and determination, Ivy Rose Murphy has come up in the world. She still begs for discards from the homes of the wealthy which lie only a stone’s throw from The Lane, the poverty-ridden tenements where she lives. She repairs and sells these discards in Dublin market. With her talent for needlework and a team of neighbourhood helpers, she has also begun to supply an upmarket shop in Grafton Street with beautifully dressed dolls. Then Ivy’s wealthy friend Ann Marie Gannon, with her beloved camera, spends a day at the airport photographing planes.

Martha MacKenzie was an ordinary woman. Nothing extraordinary had ever happened to her, unless she counted her marriage to Dan and the birth of her three perfect, healthy children. Until the day of the accident, when she touched the Lucas boy as he lay dying on the tarmac, and they said she saved him. That was the start of it all.... As word of her healing spreads, Martha's life and the lives of those around her are radically altered. Hounded by the media and those in desperate search of hope and miracles, Martha is forced to decide what is most important in her life.

It’s 1913, and the time has come for Lily to leave primary school in Sligo and start her job in the Big House - Lissadell. Her employers, the Gore-Booths, are kind, but life as a young housemaid is hard: Lily misses her home and family, she works long days and has to learn how to get on with her sullen roommate, Nellie. Then Maeve, the daughter of Constance Markievicz and niece of the Gore-Booths, comes to visit. She decides to paint a portrait of Lily, and a friendship begins.

Life is complicated enough for Molly and Beth even before they walk through a spooky doorway that leads to - Thursday 26 July 1984! The girls can’t believe they are back in a time where the hair is weird and the technology is basic. But when Beth realises that her mum, who died when Beth was little, would be alive in the 1980s, she just has to try to find her.... Can the girls navigate their way through the strange world of their parents’ youth - and back home again (without using Google maps)?

Eva Gordon doesn't like mysteries - so when new girl Aretta hurries away after school every day, Eva's determined to find out why. And Aretta’s not the only person Eva’s interested in - a friend’s granny has been parted from her beloved dog, so Eva decides to cheer her up. But can she? Eva finds that some things are too big and complicated for one girl to deal with alone...but she has a talent for bringing people together, and together people can do almost anything!

It begins with a singing and dancing septet in dusty church halls. But it is not the sisters’ dancing that fills the seats: it is the torrents of hair they let loose at the end of each show. And their hair will pull them out of poverty, to the salons of Dublin and the palazzi of Venice. It will bring some of them love and each of them loss. For their fame and fortune will come at a terrible price...

In beautiful Rathmoney House nestled by the wild Irish Sea, Margo sits in her black suit, three strings of pearls at her neck, nodding at those offering their condolences. She never thought she would be here without her beloved husband. All she has left is their beautiful daughter Elsa and a house full of memories. Then, she receives a letter that turns everything she thought she knew on its head....