The Women on Platform Two

Dubliner Saoirse loves her partner but is reluctant to commit to having the child he deeply desires. When she picks up a dropped photo and chases after its owner, the encounter triggers the retelling of the daring actions of an intrepid band of women in the 1970s who risked everything to change the Irish laws forbidding all forms of contraception. Sitting on a train bound for Belfast, narrator Maura tells her own story—a fairytale marriage to a handsome doctor who becomes abusive when she fails to conceive—and the stories of her friends with five, eight, or 10 children who risked their lives with each pregnancy and dodgy home birth. When one friend manages to get contraband condoms, she ignites a firestorm of passion to change the oppressive Irish laws and grant women control of their bodies.