He then began pleading with me not to publish the full account of this story. His self-assuredness vanished and he started to stutter. He came to my office. He told me that writing about his affair would torment his ailing mother and inflict pain on his wife and his children. At one point he promised that if I withheld the story he would abandon public life. On another visit he told me a story about a rabbi who as a young man wanted to save all the Jews in the world. In middle age he wanted to save the Jews of Poland, and when he had grown old he hoped to save just one Jew, himself. “I am that rabbi,” he said. The story being told through multiple narratives definitely adds to the mystery and intrigue of the story. The characters were all well developed and had a lot of depth to them - some a lot darker than the others. Utterly captivating . . . a story of love, war and how women will fight for the people they love' Cathy Kelly The violence and deprivation of wartime, the struggles of the men, the courage of the women who had to stand up for their families, their resistance in the shadows or prison, women's rights and the ravages of Spanish flu and tuberculosis are also covered.

Nevertheless I’m glad to have read this novel, and especially glad that it was featured on the Pigeonhole, since otherwise I would likely have missed it. Joseph's family shelter fugitives and transport weapons. Joseph would never ask Winnie to join the fight; but his mother and sisters demand commitment. Will Winnie choose Joseph, and put her own loved ones in deadly danger? Or wait for a time of peace that may never come? The Woman on the Bridge is an intriguing tale that sweeps you away to Dublin during the 1920s when Ireland is full of unrest and upheaval and the sweet, dependable Winnie O’Leary and her rebel husband-to-be, Joseph Burke, have to navigate a world full of simmering anger, violence, imprisonments, and tragic losses of life before finally making it to the altar.

'Powerful and heartbreaking:' Ireland reacts to story of young Traveller Patrick McDonagh

Winnie works in a haberdashery shop when she meets Joseph Burke, after a stone is thrown through the shop window. Joseph agrees to have the window fixed and it's not long before he begins to fall in live with Winnie. Joseph’s family shelter fugitives and transport weapons. Joseph would never ask Winnie to join the fight; but his mother and sisters demand commitment. Will Winnie choose Joseph, and put her own loved ones in deadly danger? Or wait for a time of peace that may never come? There’s a central theme to ‘The Woman on the Bridge‘ by way of toxic relationships in various shapes and forms. From the married couple to the life-long friends, to children and their parents. After all there is a reason why Maggie is on that bridge. Her story in particular often filled me with sadness. And Charlotte may not know it yet but there are quite a few events that led her to be where she is now. Both of their lives not entirely shaped by their own choices, but by choices made by others.

Dublin. The 1920s. As war tears Ireland apart, two young people are caught up in events that will bring love, tragedy – and the hardest of choices. Dublin. The 1920s. As war tears Ireland apart, two young people are caught up in events that will bring love, tragedy - and the hardest of choices. The characters in The Woman on the Bridge are all devious, unreliable and duplicitous and the irony is, the one I suspected most transpired to be the most innocent, but I can’t say more without plot spoilers.

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The novel grew on this reviewer. At first, it seems simplistic with broad brush strokes used to relate what is going on politically. And annoyingly, the burgeoning love story between Winnie and Joseph is signposted by that most formulaic of devices, namely sparring and arguing to indicate sexual tension. I do enjoy books like this, I never used to read Historical fiction but find as I get older I am enjoying it more and more. Plus my history isn't the best so I generally find within reading books like this I stop and research & O'Flanagan does a great job bringing to life the characters and a time period of history. Whilst I have to admit it was a slow start for me, not the story or the plot as such, just for me getting into it. But once I did, I was hooked and devoured it! s Ireland, civil unrest and a country at war wanting to be free and amongst that we have Winnie - working in a shop, can do measurements without tape and likes the simple life. When the shop is damaged it brings a meeting with rebel Joseph. We alone with Winnie are dragged into the cause and finding ourselves caught between sides in the war and the dangers of being a civilian within it let alone the partner of a rebel.

At the heart of the story is Charlotte’s childhood friend, Anne, who wants her out of the way. This made little sense…and as we uncover more details about Anne and her situation I felt it made even less sense.Soon Maggie is staying in Charlotte's home, safely hidden from the man that she was so desperate to escape. The immediate bond between the two women eclipses anything they've ever known and before long they will go to extreme lengths to protect each other. I turned down lots of them before my mother accepted one for me (I was on holiday at the time). It was in the Central Bank of Ireland and that’s how my career in financial services began.