Red Dock

Historical background: In the Republic of Ireland, for most of the 20th century, orphanages, known as "e;industrial schools"e;, were run by the Catholic Church. Children were forced to work in child slave labour camps. Physical and sexual abuse were commonplace. Children grew up believing their families were responsible for all that had befallen them. Some were driven insane; many went on to a life of crime. For decades, the majority of prison inmates in Ireland were ex-industrial school. Only in the mid-1990s were these institutions exposed as "e;the gulags of Ireland"e;.In 1949, on the night of their birth, Robert "e;Red"e; Donovan and his twin Sean are placed in such an institution and given the surname Dock. Aged nine, Red witnesses the kicking to death of Sean by a Christian Brother. At his twin's deathbed, Red vows to one day return his body to their birthplace for reburial. Red's life is consumed by this vow. It is his driving force to the exclusion of all else.His family, and a garda constable Winters who put the twins into "e;care"e;, will be made to pay.Red Dock kidnaps Winters' new-born daughter and leaves her on the steps of an orphanage to be raised by nuns who name her Lucille Kells. 22 years later, he blackmails a notorious psychopath and ex-industrial school inmate, who's evaded the law's best efforts to capture him for nine years, into killing the Donovan family and framing Lucille, whose father then brings her to justice unaware she's his daughter.The poignancy of the story is all the more pronounced when delivered in Red Dock's aggressive style.A powerful novel about monstrous by-products of a brutal system.