My heartfelt thanks to the extremely patient Susan Houlden, Emma Byrne and everyone at The O’Brien Press who had faith in Mollie after I abandoned another book and told them I wanted to write about teenage suffragettes instead; Lauren O’Neill, for a cover so perfect it made me cry with happiness; Sarah Webb and Marian Keyes, who gave me much-appreciated advice when I was struggling with post-Rebecca writing; Helen Carr, as ever, for encouraging me (and listening to me whine); everyone on Twitter who cheered me on; and Elizabeth Gilbert, whose book Big Magic had a huge effect on me when I was really struggling with starting this book.
This book could not have been written without the generosity of two people. One is Sister Catherine Gibson, who allowed me to spend a fascinating morning in the Dominican Convent on Griffith Avenue eating delicious biscuits and going through the first few years of the Dominican College yearbook, The Lanthorn, from 1913 to 1917. The other person is Doctor Senia Paseta of Saint Hugh’s College, Oxford, who very patiently answered many, many questions by phone and email about the Irish suffrage movement and provided me with lots of wonderfully useful and inspiring information that I would never have discovered otherwise. Any historical inaccuracies are entirely my own. Thanks also to Ciaran O’Neill, who kindly put me in touch with Doctor Paseta. I hope they all enjoy reading this book.
And thanks as ever to the extended Carey/Freyne family, and to Patrick, for everything.