An Undiscovered Country

Michael Cumiskey was raised in the north of England. His grandparents on both sides were immigrant families one side from Ireland and the other from Italy/Sicily. The creative life he enjoys beside his writing includes the visual arts and this is the area in which he was trained. He has taught and lectured extensively throughout the UK and his sculpture and drawings are represented in a variety of collections in Germany, France, England, the USA, and Canada, including the national collection of Trinidad and Tobago.He was the first sculptor in the UK to be employed on staff with a new town development corporation where a number of his public works are still to be seen. In 1974 he was awarded the Ronald Tree Fellowship in sculpture to the University of the West Indies. He began writing whilst he was in the West Indies and since then has completed eight novels as well as large variety of the other works including poetry some of which has also been published. Currently, he lives and works in Devon with his wife Sue their three children are now grown and have long-since left home.

Initially the context of the story is the conflict in Ireland and in some ways the troublesof Lorna and her family reflect that situation. Lorna Donnelly is the eldest in a familyof four children: Catholics living in a Loyalist region of Belfast. The story originates at thetime of the first IRA ceasefire and culminates about the time of the Peace Accord some37 years later. Mr. Donnelly is killed by the IRA and his wife decides to migrate withher children to England. She meets and marries Jimmy Ungerside, a butcher. Jimmy is aserial child abuser and to varying degrees the whole family suffer at his hands, especiallyLorna. The effect on the girl's development and later on her career is seen as an echo intandem of the 'Troubles' The same is also true of her sister and two brothers. Each chapterincludes a contemporaneous news report and an excerpt from Lorna's diary each linkedby some similar notion of abuse. Lorna eventually marries but the episodes that tormenther psychology continue despite concentrated periods of treatment. It is not until she ismade aware of another significant cause that there is finally some hope of real recovery.