Compare What Becomes of Us

Dublin, 1965. A city on the cusp of change. A country preparing to commemorate the 1916 Rising. Maria Mills arrives from London with only a suitcase and her young daughter. Scared but hopeful, she is intent on a new life, one in which she can hide from her past. She has carefully constructed a story, based on a lie that even her daughter believes is true. When she gets a job in the fledgling broadcaster Telifis Eireann, she finds herself working on a 1916 Rising commemoration programme. Maria meets Tess McDermott, a former member of Cumann na mBan, the Irish republican women's paramilitary group. Tess saw active service in the Rising yet angrily refuses to admit her involvement. Maria realises that Tess too is hiding a secret that must be told. Set against the backdrop of stifling social and religious mores, alongside a defiant new wave of women's liberation, What Becomes of Us is a beautifully told story of the struggle to carve out a new identity when the past refuses to let go. And for one young mother and widow, who has caught a fleeting glimpse of what her life, and love, might one day be, the past lurks closer than she knows.