Parcels in the Post

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It's the early 1980s and Fiona Neary and her family have recently moved back from England to the family farm. Fiona's huge-hearted mum decides to take in foster children – a decision that will change all their lives.

 Over the next decade, a procession of faces passes through the house. Every child has their own story, and each story claims a little piece of Fiona's heart. Some stay a few weeks; some months, and then years. All these children, as well as Fiona and her family, must pass through a chaotic system: where a judge's decision can alter a child's life, for better or worse; where emergency placements can break up siblings; where the foster family are often left in the dark and with little back-up.

Filled with pathos and humour, Parcels in the Post is both a memoir of a loving household and snapshot of the fostering system in Ireland, from someone at the very heart of it all.



FIONA NEARY went on to work in social care herself, cofounding the Rape Crisis Centre in Castlebar in 1993, and later acting as National Coordinator and Executive Director of Rape Crisis Network Ireland. She is currently co-director of the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar. Parcels in the Post is her first book.



Written in the present tense Parcels in the Post is a sober chronicle of the Neary’s fostering journey and what it told young Fiona about her community… Neary writes with a powerful sense of time and place… it deserves great credit for shining a harsh light on some murky corners of our society.



Parcels in the Post is an inspirational, compelling read… This warm story of family life is both funny and heart wrenching… After reading this story, I feel inadequate, heartbroken but above all inspired.  It shines a light on a broken, struggling foster care system that over relies on the goodness of foster families who endure much to help others while providing a vital resource to our society… You will love it.



A NEW book filled with pathos and humour gives an insight into fostering in Ireland in the 1980s by someone at the heart of it... 

A book filled with pathos and humour, Parcels in the Post is both a memoir of a loving household and snapshot of the fostering system in Ireland.

Neary writes through the eyes of her teenage self, trying to navigate those most intense years, working part-time in a local chip shop, studying for the Leaving Cert and heading away to college. Hard enough for anyone without coming home each day not knowing for sure if another child would be at the dinner table.

Full of tender and poignant recollections, at time hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking, Neary's book is at all times compelling.