When Clair Wills was in her twenties, she discovered she had a cousin she had never met. Born in a mother-and-baby home in 1950s Ireland, Mary grew up in an institution not far from the farm where Clair spent happy childhood summers. Yet Clair was never told of Mary’s existence.
How could a whole family―a whole country―abandon unmarried mothers and their children, erasing them from history?
Clair’s tells the story in the new book "Missing Persons: or, My Grandmother's Secrets."
Clair Wills is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Her books include "Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain," and "That Neutral Island: A Cultural History of Ireland During the Second World War."
