'From the moment I crossed the mountain I fell in love. With the place, which was more beautiful than any place I'd ever seen. With the people I met there. And with a way of looking at life that was deeper, richer and wiser than any I'd known before. When I left I dreamt of clouds on the mountain. I kept going back.' We all lead very busy lives and sometimes it's hard to find the time to be the people we want to be. Twelve years ago Felicity Hayes-McCoy left the hectic pace of the city and returned to Ireland to make a new life in a remarkable house on the stunning Dingle peninsula. Beautifully written, this is a life-affirming tale of rediscovering lost values and being reminded of the things that really matter.

Proud Irish Heart is set in Ireland and in Miami, Florida in 1895. Kate Murray, seeking to escape a dismal life created by her cruel father, takes her sister’s place as the match-made bride of Michael Driscoll. She has loved him since she was fourteen, but he went to America to make his fortune. After arriving in Miami, Kate rejects Michael’s proposal of marriage, believing it is only based on duty and obligation, while she wants love. Kate starts a successful restaurant called The Proud Irish Heart, but she cannot free herself from her desire for Michael. She is unsuccessful in her attempts to get him to renew his marriage proposal. Her passion for him increases when she learns his body while caring for him during a life-threatening fever. She feeds him, saves him from death by the fever and the designs of a lying woman, and finally attempts a seduction of Michael all without success. Michael fears making a commitment to their marriage and desires only Kate’s friendship. Frustrated, Kate leaves Miami. Will Michael follow her and propose again?

The convents, asylums, and laundries that once comprised the Magdalene institutions are the subject of this work. Though originally half-way homes for prostitutes in the Middle Ages, these homes often became forced-labor institutions, particularly in Ireland. Examining the laundries within the context of a growing world capitalist economy, the work argues that the process of colonization, and of defining a national image, determined the nature and longevity of the Magdalene Laundries. This process developed differently in Ireland, where the last laundry closed in 1996. The book focuses on the devolution of the significance of Mary Magdalene as a metaphor for the organization: from an affluent, strong supporter of Jesus to a simple, fallen woman.