Showing results by narrator "Caroline Lennon" in All Categories

Andrea and Lexi thought they would be best friends for ever. Through thick and thin, growing pains and wild nights out, they were inseparable. But it was their biggest adventure that was to tear them apart: travelling through Australia, Andrea and Lexi are involved in a catastrophic accident. Andrea is left scarred but her best friend is nowhere to be found. What happened to Lexi? Two years later, Andy's scar means she's too scared to go out into the real world.

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.

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.

Lissadell House, Sligo, 1913. Lily and her friend Nellie are young housemaids in service in the Big House - they work for Lady Mary and Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth at Lissadell. As well as her housework and duties, Lily helps out in the local school of needlework - she hopes it might be a step on the way to her dream of being a teacher. Though they work hard, there’s lots of fun to be had at Lissadell - like friendship, fun and madcap bicycle rides with Sir Josslyn’s niece Maeve, daughter of the famous Republican Constance Markievicz.

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!

As the winter snow falls on the small Irish village of Ballybray, Roisin O’Connor and her young son, Ben, are saying goodbye to their beloved neighbour Mabel Murphy. Mabel lived a bold and colourful life, but the arrival of her brooding nephew ‘blow-in’ Aidan Murphy just makes life more complicated for Roisin. However, in one final act of love, a message arrives from Mabel that changes everything. And as winter turns to spring and the cold snow melts, the secrets both Roisin and Aidan are hiding must be revealed at last....

When a mysterious note arrives for six months pregnant Dr Eliana Hughes, she begins to doubt every aspect of her life - from her mixed feelings about motherhood to her marriage to Martin, who has become distant in recent months. As the person behind the note escalates their campaign to out Eli’s husband as a cheat, she finds herself unable to trust even her own instincts, and as pressure builds, she makes a mistake that jeopardises her entire future. Elsewhere, someone is watching.

Dublin-born Sean O’Connor rules the streets of Kilburn with his charm and his fists. But the locals don’t take kindly to an Irishman muscling in on their patch—and they’re out for blood. As a turf war heats up, Sean digs in deeper, determined to protect his empire and his family. But every move he makes pulls him further from the life he promised his wife, Josie, and their young daughter, Orla.

Bridget and Josie are leaving rural Ireland for New York, to stay with a distant relative, Catherine, who has found jobs for them. On the journey they meet a young orphaned girl, Julia, who is travelling alone in hopes of staying with her long-absent brother. When they get to the brother's address, he is no longer there, and no one knows where he has gone to. In the following weeks they do their best to search for him, but are unsuccessful as he has a common name, and the police are not particularly interested in finding yet another lost Irish man.

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...

Molly Darling wants life to be as simple as wellies and porridge - this is rural Ireland after all. Instead, Mum's hiding in the attic; Dad's run away, leaving only a PowerPoint to explain; her sister has a ham sandwich for a fiance; there's a boy and the silence; her BFF will stop at nothing to go viral; and the chickens are missing. It's enough to make any girl cantankerous. But she'll fix it all. Easy, right?

Children today grow up in an increasingly volatile, complex and uncertain world. Theirs is a generation disempowered from steering their lives while society’s systems are failing to provide the support they need. Yet, a country only prospers when its children—from all walks of life—thrive, meaning that the United Kingdom now faces some consequential choices. Raising the Nation builds a compelling case showing why we must nurture smart, strong and kind children to one day inherit the stewardship of society.

As the daughter of a well-known matchmaker, Catríona Daly is no stranger to the business of love—and sees it as her ticket away from the sleepy village that only comes alive during the annual matchmaking festival. When Andrew, son of Lord Osborne, returns to the festival after being disappointed by a rival matchmaker’s failed setup, Catríona seizes the opportunity to make a better match for the handsome man—and for herself! Cattle farmer Donal Bunratty is in desperate need of a wife after loss left him to handle the farm and raise his daughter on his own.