comment on theme

Through the fictional characters of Honor White and Bridie Sweeney, Donoghue illuminates the real trauma of the Irish Catholic residential school and institutions which brutalized marginalized poor Irish citizens. Although Bridie Sweeney and Honor White are fictional, Donoghue draws the details of their institutions from real testimonies complied in the 2009 Ryan Report on Irish Residential institutions. Donoghue thus uses their stories to educate the reader on the violence enacted by the Catholic Church and Irish government.