Contemporary Authors

Ann O’Loughlin’s The Ballroom Cafe is surprise Irish hit on Amazon 2015 top 20
Debut novel about forced illegal adoptions from Ireland to the US has over 150,000 ebook sales in just three months, making it this year’s bestselling Irish digital book

Wed, Aug 26, 2015, 16:50 Updated: Wed, Aug 26, 2015, 17:36
Martin Doyle
Ann O’Loughlin: the journalist who works for the Irish Examiner and lives in Co Wicklow, is delighted with her novel’s success. “The path to publication is so long for a first-time writer that you think you will never get there. I am going to savour every minute of this. To be up there beside such big names for my debut novel is frankly overwhelming.”
Ann O’Loughlin: the journalist who works for the Irish Examiner and lives in Co Wicklow, is delighted with her novel’s success. “The path to publication is so long for a first-time writer that you think you will never get there. I am going to savour every minute of this. To be up there beside such big names for my debut novel is frankly overwhelming.”

A relatively unknown first-time Irish novelist is among the big names on a list just released by Amazon.co.uk of the top 20 bestselling ebooks of 2015 so far.
Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train is in first place and E L James’ Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as told by Christian second in a list dominated by female authors and household names such as EL James, Gillian Flynn, Lee Child and David Nicholls. Nadine Dorries’ Hide Her Name, in which the Tory MP continues her story about an Irish community in the 1950s and ’60s begun in The Four Streets, is in ninth place.
So far, so predictable. But the bestselling Irish author on the list, in 15th place, is not Marian Keyes, Cecelia Ahern or Maeve Binchy, but Ann O’Loughlin, whose first novel, The Ballroom Cafe, was published just over three months ago.
O’Loughlin, a journalist for over 30 years who works for the Irish Examiner and lives in Co Wicklow, is understandably delighted. “I am absolutely thrilled,” she said. “The path to publication is so long for a first-time writer that you think you will never get there. I am going to savour every minute of this. To be up there beside such big names for my debut novel is frankly overwhelming. It vindicates the huge belief my agent Jenny Brown and my publishers Black and White Publishing have had in me. I am incredibly lucky to have a great team behind me. To think so many people have enjoyed reading The Ballroom Café is a great feeling and makes all the 5am early starts to write before going to work worthwhile.”
Laura Nicol, press officer for the publishers, said that ebook sales had taken off soon after publication with more than 150,000 copies sold. “Print sales have only recently got going but are now 5,000-plus copies. More than 90 per cent of sales to date are UK sales, with Ireland just under 5 per cent and Australia the third biggest market.”
The Kindle version of The Ballroom Cafe retails for 49p, compared with £7.99 for the paperback, which is clearly a factor in the overwhelming success of the ebook. “Ebook pricing is something we look at on a title by title basis,” said Nicol. “We often offer new titles in e-book format at an introductory price for a fixed period of time and sometimes extend this, depending on the reaction. Occasionally we extend this for longer, particularly if ebook sales start off strongly and we then review it from time to time. For a debut author, this can be a good way to start building a readership and getting the author more widely known so that there’s an audience there for future work.”
Why does O’Loughlin think her debut has done so well? “Readers tell me it a good read and one they have to read in one or two sittings. I think The Ballroom Cafe strikes a chord with people. Not only is there the theme running through the novel of forced illegal adoption from Ireland to the US, but there are the elderly sisters who only communicate though notes. A story of heartbreak, tragedy and lives lived, The Ballroom Cafe is a story filtered through life in Rathsorney village, Ireland and the café, where people gossip and sip tea from china cups, but it reflects the tragedies of those ordinary lives lived under the shadow of a shameful secret.
“It is a reflection on the forced illegal adoption of the children of unmarried mothers to the US and I think readers identify with all the characters. What they like is that the story is examined from all sides. That is not to say it is a tough read; the one thing about The Ballroom Cafe is that along with the main story of heartbreak and tragedy and ultimately hope; there is humour, gossip and village life with all its ups and downs. They say fiction can often sheds a light of understanding and I hope this is the case with my novel.
“Book clubs all over the UK and Ireland have taken on the novel and it has also been featured on blogs all over the UK and Ireland which helped raise the awareness of the novel and garner such a following. It has got over 800 reviews on Amazon alone and on the strength of that the German rights have already sold.”
Nicol added: “When we first read the manuscript for Ballroom Cafe, the quality of the writing and the story really stood out. It’s exciting to find work that you just don’t want to stop reading, particularly when it’s a debut novel. As the sales figures show, the book has an incredibly broad appeal, especially in the UK and Ireland, and the reader reviews and feedback from the trade have been outstanding. We’re also now getting strong interest from overseas publishers, with a translation rights sale to Germany already secured with more to follow soon. It’s been a real pleasure for everyone at Black & White working with Ann O’Loughlin on The Ballroom Café and seeing the book find such an enthusiastic audience and Ann is not only a very talented writer but also a great person to work with. Seeing all her hard work come to fruition like this and being able to help make that happen is very special and everyone at Black & White is incredibly proud of the success of The Ballroom Cafe.”
The 20 bestselling ebooks on Amazon.co.uk so far in 2015
Ann O'Loughlin discusses The Ballroom Cafe

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Transworld)
2. Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as told by Christian by E L James (Cornerstone)
3. Silent Scream by Angela Marsons (Bookouture)
4. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey (Penguin)
5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
6. The Lie by C.L. Taylor (Avon)
7. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Picador)
8. The Little Shop of Hopes and Dreams by Fiona Harper (Mills & Boon)
9. Hide Her Name by Nadine Dorries (Head of Zeus)
10. Personal by Lee Child (Transworld)
11. Stranger Child by Rachel Abbott (Black Dot Publishing)
12. Us by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
13. The Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe (Head of Zeus)
14. The Year of Taking Chances by Lucy Diamond (Pan)
15. The Ballroom Café by Ann O’Loughlin (Black & White Publishing)
16. The Good Girl by Fiona Neill (Penguin)
17. Closer Than You Think by Karen Rose (Headline)
18. The Letter by Kathryn Hughes (Review)
19. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere)
20. Evil Games by Angela Marsons (Bookouture

Ann O'Loughlin
Ann O'Loughlin
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A leading journalist in Ireland , Ann O'Loughlin has covered all major news events of the last three decades. Ann spent most of her career with Independent Newspapers where she was Security Correspondent at the height of The Troubles, and a senior journalist on the Irish Independent and Evening Herald. She is currently a senior journalist with the Irish Examiner newspaper. Ann has also lived in India. Originally from the west of Ireland she now lives on the east coast with her husband and two children. The Judge's Wife has been shortlisted in the Epic Romantic Novel category of the 2017 RoNA awards. Find Ann on FACEBOOK @annoloughlinbooks TWITTER @annolwriter MY NEW BOOK THE LUDLOW LADIES' SOCIETY OUT JULY 2017 AVAILABLE ON PRE ORDER NOW.

The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel
We rated this book:
$25.99

Sisters Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan have lived in old, crumbling Roscarbury Hall for their entire lives; the house was once grand, but time and lack of care have taken their toll. Now in danger of losing the house, Ella decides to open a cafe, much to the displeasure of her sister. Tension between the two, who haven’t spoken to one another in decades, heightens with the arrival of Debbie, a young woman desperate to locate her birth mother before cancer takes her life. Debbie’s search soon creates a whirlwind as the scandalous adoption practices of the local convent are finally brought to light.

Author Ann O’Loughlin has spun a masterful tale with The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall, a story full of secrets and dark memories. This novel is full of twists and turns, as readers slowly learn the truth about the ugly family row that built such a wall between Ella and Roberta, as well as the truth about Debbie’s birth. There is a lot of sadness in this novel, to be sure–don’t be surprised if it brings you to tears a few times–but there is ultimately hope as well; readers will be left imagining how much better things will be for many families now that the truth is out in the open. Beautiful story.

Reviewed By: Holly Scudero
Author: Ann O'Loughlin
Star Count: 5/5
Format: Hard
Page Count: 332 pages
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publish Date: 2016-Oct-04
ISBN: 9781510713727
Amazon: Buy this Book
Issue: January 2017
Category: Popular Fiction

The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel
$25.99

Sisters Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan have lived in old, crumbling Roscarbury Hall for their entire lives; the house was once grand, but time and lack of care have taken their toll. Now in danger of losing the house, Ella decides to open a cafe, much to the displeasure of her sister. Tension between the two, who haven’t spoken to one another in decades, heightens with the arrival of Debbie, a young woman desperate to locate her birth mother before cancer takes her life. Debbie’s search soon creates a whirlwind as the scandalous adoption practices of the local convent are finally brought to light.

Author Ann O’Loughlin has spun a masterful tale with The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall, a story full of secrets and dark memories. This novel is full of twists and turns, as readers slowly learn the truth about the ugly family row that built such a wall between Ella and Roberta, as well as the truth about Debbie’s birth. There is a lot of sadness in this novel, to be sure–don’t be surprised if it brings you to tears a few times–but there is ultimately hope as well; readers will be left imagining how much better things will be for many families now that the truth is out in the open. Beautiful story.

Reviewed By: Holly Scudero
Author: Ann O'Loughlin
Page Count: 332 pages
At A Tulsa Library: Check It Out
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publish Date: 2016-Oct-04
ISBN: 9781510713727
Amazon: Check It Out
Issue: March 2017
Category: Fiction

#Review: The Judge’s Wife by Ann O’ Loughlin @annolwriter
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‘Can a love last forever?’

The Judge’s Wife is the second novel by Irish Writer Ann O’ Loughlin. Published by Black & White Publishing on the 1st July 2016, I received my copy recently and jumped right in!! It’s a novel that has been on my horizon so I was delighted with this opportunity to review it.

Book Info:

‘When Emma returns to Dublin to put her estranged father s affairs in order, she begins to piece together the story of his life and that of Grace, the mother she never knew. She knows her father as the judge as stern and distant at home as he was in the courtroom.

But as she goes through his personal effects, Emma begins to find clues about her mother that shock her profoundly.

A tale of enduring love and scandal that begins in 1950s Dublin and unravels across decades and continents, digging up long-buried family secrets along the way, The Judge s Wife asks whether love really can last forever.’

I made it to page 5 of The Judge’s Wife and I knew I was hooked in.

‘Scuffles of clouds framed by rectangular, dirt-encrusted windows danced overhead. The sound of laughter drifted up from downstairs, where the two attendants puffed on cigarettes and relayed to the staff canteen every detail of the committal of the judge’s wife to the asylum’

Grace is a striking young woman. It is 1950’s Ireland. Times were different. Facades were in place. Reputation was EVERYTHING.

Grace, at a young age, becomes the wife of a very eminent judge in Dublin, Martin Moran. She has the best of everything that money can buy. Her taste is fashion is impeccable. She lives in a beautiful house, where people vie for an invitation. Grace should be happy….but she is not.

Placed in an asylum in Co. Wicklow, Grace’s life changes beyond recognition. Everything and everyone she has ever loved is lost to her.
Meanwhile, the story jumps thirty years to the 1980’s. We are introduced to Emma. Emma is the daughter of Judge Martin Moran. She has returned to Dublin to sort out his estate. Her relationship with her father has always been very strained and, as Emma discovers, there is a history to this that she was never aware of.

Emma delves into the secrets of a past she knew nothing of and makes some astonishing and rather traumatic discoveries along the way.

Emma is at a juncture in her life where many changes are occurring and she now has to make some major decisions on where her future path will take her.
Finally, the book takes us to Bangalore. There we are introduced to Vikram, his sister Rhya and Rosa, a young lady who has, unwittingly, been part of a web of deceit and lies.

Living among the coffee estates of India, we are brought into a world of fragrance and colour. It is very obvious in researching this part of the book that Ann O’ Loughlin is basing her descriptions on her own experiences, You can almost smell the spices and feel the heat of the sun on your skin.

Vikram is a troubled man who is on a mission to correct a wrong of many years ago. He takes us on a journey into his past, where his pain is palpable within every word he speaks.
While The Judge’s Wife is a fictional book, the story does introduce you to the horrendous wrongdoing that was carried out against innocent young women in Ireland in the last century. The treatment of these women in many institutions around the country was deplorable and for many, still best forgotten. The authorities of the time closed their eyes to terrible injustices and the effects of these are still to felt in many families across the country today. Families were torn apart, never to be reunited.

Ann O’ Loughlin, paints a tragic story but still manages to instill beauty in the descriptions and colours of the clothes and fashion of the time.

It is a very moving story with enough interesting twists to keep the reader’s interest piqued at all times.

Have a read and do please let me know what you think.

Mxx

Book review: The Judge’s Wife

26

Saturday, July 23, 2016Review: Colette Sheridan
Ann O’Loughlin digs deep into the sins of Ireland’s past for her novels’ source material. She tells Colette Sheridan that her job as a legal reporter means she sees injustice every day.

Ann O’Loughlin

Black & White Publishing, £7.99

OPENING an old leather suit case that belonged to the mother she never knew, “Emma flushed with surprise to see the neatly packed contents: a silk nightgown rolled so it did not crease, a soft brush and comb, a small bottle of perfume help upright between powder-blue silk slippers and a small vanity bag for make-up.”

There are beautiful clothes there too including ruched linen skirts with tiny pleats and a white blouse with a lace insert.

Designed by Sybil Connolly in the 1950s (whose most famous client was Jacqueline Kennedy), the couture is an important detail in journalist and author, Ann O’Loughlin’s second novel which gives an insight in to Ireland’s history of incarcerating ostracised members of society in asylums or institutions.

Ann O’Loughlin at the launch of her second novel, ‘The Judge’s Wife’, in Dubray Books, Grafton Street, Dublin. Anne writes her novels while also covering legal issues for the ‘Irish Examiner’.
Emma is clearing out the contents of her estranged father’s house in Parnell Square in Dublin in 1984.

Her father was a judge, a cold man who dedicated himself to the law.

When his neglected and lonely wife, Grace, gave birth following an affair with an Indian doctor, the judge and a conniving aunt, sent her to an asylum.

The doctor, Vikram, was told that Grace died in childbirth. Heartbroken, he returned to India. Grace was told her baby had died.

The case and its contents, which had been locked away in the fictional Our Lady’s Asylum, Knockavanagh in Co Wicklow, is Emma’s only link to her mother.

She finds a note among the items, written by Grace to Vikram in 1954.

Grace writes that she is going to be sent away to recuperate but doesn’t know where.

“Please don’t give up on me. Please make contact, please find me,” are her poignant words.

But Vikram never received the letter that Grace put together from her note.

Through Grace’s diaries, Emma uncovers a mystery about her mother that she had never suspected.

Meanwhile, Vikram is planning a visit to Ireland with his beloved niece, Rosa, who knows all about her uncle’s long lost love. Vikram wants to visit Grace’s grave.

A legal affairs journalist with the Irish Examiner, O’Loughlin’s debut novel, The Ballroom Café, was the first work of fiction to come out of Ireland that focused on the forced illegal adoption of young children in Irish orphanages to the US.

Its eBook sales were in excess of a staggering 230,000 copies.

Now, O’Loughlin wants to shine a light on psychiatric ‘care’ in Ireland in less enlightened times.

By 1966, Ireland was incarcerating a higher proportion of its people in mental hospitals than anywhere else in the world.

Many were not mentally ill but were locked up for what O’Loughlin believes were familial, social and political reasons.

“The asylums were very important to the towns they were in,” says O’Loughlin.

“They gave employment and they were used to solve problems, problems for families and society. We have acknowledged what happened in the Magdalene laundries and we’ve acknowledged sexual abuse in institutions.

"Really, it is time someone stood up and said that people were wronged in the asylums which were State institutions. A lot of people were put in them by their families. I call these people ‘the unclaimed.’

“They lost the best years of their lives. My character, Grace, was only about 20 when she was left to languish in an asylum. It must have been awful.

"The thing is that these people became institutionalised and even when they were discharged back into the community, they didn’t really know how to live their lives.”

It was, says O’Loughlin, common practice for the belongings of those committed to asylums to be taken from them and thrown into the attics of the buildings.

The author was keen to include the Sybil Connolly clothes as they suggests Grace’ elegance and beauty before she was forced to put on a regulation flannelette night dress when she was signed into the asylum.

“When you’re writing about an asylum, you need something else to bring the story alive. I wanted to show all of Grace, what kind of woman she was before she went to the asylum.

"She had a life. We can often forget that people in institutions had lives beforehand.”

In her day job, O’Loughlin sees all human life.

“I’m in the High Court covering a lot of medical negligence cases. You see families suffering a lot because of injustices. I’m interested in ordinary people in extraordinary situations.”

The day job sometimes informs O’Loughlin’s fictional work.

Originally from Barefield in Co Clare, O’Loughlin has been working as a journalist since 1982. She studied journalism at Rathmines College.

“I feel I got diverted very nicely into journalism. I always wanted to be a writer and had been published in New Irish Writing in the Irish Press.

"My family wanted me to be a teacher but I wanted to do something in relation to writing.

"That’s how I ended up in journalism. I love it and have done for all these years. I’ve always written short stories and now that my children have got older, I have more time to go back to the fiction writing.

“I get up at 5am and do two hours. Then everyone gets up and I go off to work.

"The train to work (from Co Wicklow) takes about an hour and I sometimes edit my writing during that time. I like the discipline of getting up early.”

But O’Loughlin isn’t sure if she’d like to be a full time novelist.

“It’s a very lonely thing. When I get up early in the morning, the dog doesn’t even welcome me.

"I just sit there and wrestle, word by word, paragraph by paragraph and page by page. I like doing it in those time blocks.”

A fan of William Trevor and Jennifer Johnston, O’Loughlin is a resourceful writer who taps into her own experiences to give her work colour.

Some of The Judge’s Wife is set in India where O’Loughlin and her husband lived for a year in 1993/4.

“I was working for Independent newspapers and went out to India to cover President Mary Robinson’s visit there. I stayed there for a year’s sabbatical.

"I worked for the Indian Express newspaper, first of all in Delhi. I liked the look of Bangalore in south India so we moved there.

"I think if we had stayed in Delhi, we’d have become very much part of the embassy set. You could be a social butterfly there if you wanted to be.

“In Bangalore, we made Indian friends and had a really authentic experience of living in that city.

"Newspaper-wise, it was extraordinary. The reporters were like reporters back in Ireland in the 1950s when they used to go to Garda headquarters to be briefed.

"In Bangalore, you had to go to the police HQ for briefings. But in India at the time, newspapers were way ahead of us with regard to technology.”

O’Loughlin has no plans to give up her day job. She has already written a sizeable chunk of her next novel but won’t say what it’s about, adding that not even her publishers are privy to that information.

To date, she has written about an unforgiving society, particularly regarding unmarried mothers.

“Society has thankfully changed. Women are now trying to have it all.

"I don’t feel like that — but I’m glad if it looks like that,” says this versatile writer.

Thursday, 15 October 2015

Review – The Ballroom Café by Ann O’Loughlin
Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce

Ballroom Cafe 6 APPROVEDSisters Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan have lived at Roscarbury Hall all of their lives but they are in danger of losing their home. With mounting debts and no means of raising the money needed, Ella feels she has no choice but to open up the ballroom of their home and turn it into a café to earn some much-needed cash. Roberta doesn’t agree with the decision but as she and Ella haven’t spoken for decades, despite residing under the same roof, she can only communicate her disgust through angry notes. And when an American women starts to work at the café, Roberta’s note become more bitter and heated.

American Debbie has come to Ireland to search for her birth mother and finds herself being welcomed into Ella’s café and home. She doesn’t have much time to find her roots, but Debbie is determined to discover the truth about her birth mother and how she came to be adopted and raised in America. Unwittingly, her questions open up a whole investigation into the local convent and the community finds itself in the middle of an adoption scandal.

The Ballroom Café sounded like such an intriguing read and I was interested to find out why Ella and Roberta no longer talk but communicate only through notes. It’s such a bizarre way to live so I knew there must be some dark secrets from the past and I couldn’t wait to discover what these were. There are many layers to the secrets at Roscarbury Hall and the town of Rathsorney, which made for a poignant and sometimes bittersweet read. I did find that the pace was a little slow for my liking but the intrigue was always there.

I didn’t find myself really connecting with any of the characters, even though I felt I should under the circumstances, but I did find myself disliking Roberta more and more as the book progressed as she was such a selfish woman and always seemed to think of herself, despite the tragic events that unfolded around her.
7/10

Book review: The Ballroom Cafe

21

Saturday, June 06, 2015By Sue Leonard
High court reporter Ann O’Loughlin sees us at our most distressed moments and is particularly passionate about the plight of children put up for forced adoption, a thread in her first novel. She explains all to Sue Leonard.

Ann O’Loughlin

Black and White Publishing, €11.28; ebook, €0.69

‘Journalism informs my fiction writing’

HIGH court reporter Ann O’Loughlin is passionate about justice and she’s particularly exercised about the knotty issue of the forced adoptions of the past.

“About 2,000 Irish children were sent to America; that’s a conservative estimate,” she says, her distress evident.

“A lot went to unsuitable families, some who had been turned down for adoption within America. One girl went to a family in Ohio, where there was already a child. When she was 18 her parents said, ‘we’re finished with you now. We only wanted you so our daughter could have a playmate.’ They threw her out!”

It bothers Ann that whilst the Magdalene women have now received an apology and compensation, those whose babies were taken away have been largely ignored.

“These were young women who needed help and they were thrown out by their families. Their children were kept in orphanages and they were allowed to care for them until they were two or maybe three.

“It’s only now that these elderly women are prepared to say, ‘this happened to me.’ Some didn’t consent to adoption, let alone their children going to America. I remember hearing one woman on Joe Duffy who had never told her story before. When she told of how her child had been taken from her, her pain was raw.”

A court reporter for most of her journalistic career, Ann adores her job. But there have been times when she’s felt frustrated at not being able to delve into a story.

“I’ve interviewed women who have lost their children, but I’m always working to deadline. All the time they are talking I’m thinking of my first paragraph, my second and my third.

“This happens in the whole area of news,” she says.

“You might be sitting with someone who has just lost a loved one. You want to stay with them, but you have to apologise and leave, to get the story out. You don’t get the opportunity to delve into the background.”

And when, in 2008, Ann left the Irish Independent after 12 years to spend more time with her two, then young, children, she decided to try her hand at fiction writing.

“I sat down and tried all different kinds of writing,” she says. “I started a crime novel, but that didn’t work. I kept writing until I had found my voice.”

Four years later, she had completed The Ballroom Cafe, a sumptuous novel set in a crumbling mansion in County Wicklow, which has two sisters at its heart. Ella and Roberta haven’t spoken for decades, communicating, instead, through terse notes.

But when their bank manager threatens to turn them out, Ella decides to open a cafe in the ballroom. And that’s when Debbie, a young American searching for her birth mother comes into their lives.

It’s a great read, with feisty characters, and a realistic look at a rural community. And the author weaves nostalgia with the painful issues of the past quite beautifully. Secrets gradually emerge, and the book ends with a sense of redemption.

In 2012, when, the novel finished, and an agent secured, Anne joined the Irish Examiner, she decided to keep on with the fiction writing. She’s now 20,000 words short of her second novel. But as a mother of an 18-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, how does she find the time?

“I get up at 5am, and write until seven when I call the kids for school,” she says.

“I get 1,000 words done. I take the main line train in from Kilcoole, and go through the writing and edit it. I get to the courts at around 10am.

“The job is very busy,” she says.

“And very interesting. I work on a lot of medical negligence cases. They can be very hard, with children horrifically injured at birth. I’m not sure if people find justice; they find a form of justice, but it’s very hard for families to sit there wait for their cases to come up, then to be heard, and maybe not understand if the case is thrown out.

“I cover commercial cases as well. There are 23 High Courts, and it’s the one area where newspapers cooperate. The four of us — the others journalists are from the Irish

Times, the Irish Independent, and an Agency, share out the courts and exchange stories. You could write up 10 stories on a busy day. I rarely get home before 7pm or 8pm.” The skill of shorthand, Ann says, is vital for her job.

She’s grateful for her training at Rathmines School of Journalism, back when it was the only such course in the country.

“It was a big leap at the time,” says Ann. “My sisters went into nursing and teaching.” From college, it was off to the Irish Press as a freelancer.

“You would go in every morning and sit in front of the news desk waiting to be sent off somewhere. If you made a mistake, they would never use you again. It was a terrific grounding in journalism — the best ever.

"It’s a terrible pity that the Irish Press has gone!” Ann had joined the Irish Independent well before the demise of the Irish Press, working as the crime correspondent. She covered the O’Grady kidnap in 1987, working night and day.

Afterwards, she decided to take some leave and travel by rail from London to Hong Kong, passing through a lot of Eastern Europe. And that’s when she met her husband, John.

“He was on the same trip,” she says.

“We met in Moscow and by the time we reached Siberia we had decided to get married. We decided in four days, literally, and we’re coming up to our 25th wedding anniversary.” With a shared love of travel, the couple spent a year in India, back in 1993, first in Delhi, then in Bangalore.

“I worked for the Indian Express; it was strange and fascinating. Their technology was better than ours, but their news sense was like ours was back in the 1950s. In Bangalore, we went to the police commissioner’s office to be briefed.”

Then it was back to the Independent working as senior news reporter, then, after a stint with the Moriarty Tribunal, 12 years as a High Court Reporter.

Ann adores fiction writing. She’s finding the whole process new and utterly exciting. She loves the way her characters talk in her head, and become so real.

“I saw a woman in Greystones who looks exactly like Roberta,” she says. “She had the same handbag even — then I realised, with a jolt, that Roberta isn’t real.” For all that, she’s not ready to jack in the day job.

“I would miss my journalism,” she says. “And I think it informs my fiction writing.

You hear people as you go through your day, and often they’re talking about their pain or suffering. It teaches you empathy and if I lost that immediacy, I think my writing would suffer.

“My fiction will always include an important issue. I don’t sit down and say, ‘I will write about issues,’ but they seem to grab hold of me. I was never a fluffy journalist.

I have to write about something that I’m passionate about. And I am passionate about those children, and the mothers who have been carrying this huge burden.

“The Government Department for Foreign Affairs supplied passports to the children; the least they could say is, ‘sorry’. But they won’t. It’s like the nuns to the Magdalene women. They’ll sit in a convent with them and use the word transparency.

“Everyone wants to be transparent; they’ll do anything except say that they are sorry.”

REVIEWED: THE BALLROOM CAFE BY ANN O'LOUGHLIN.

The Ballroom Cafe was published by Black and White Publishing in paperback on June 18, 2015.

Goodreads | Amazon

Thanks to Janne at Black and White Publishing for sending me a copy of this book to review for the blog tour.

When I started reading The Ballroom Café, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the story. Ella and Roberta are sisters, sisters who haven’t spoken to each other for decades though we don’t know why. Any communication between them is done via short, snappy and terse notes they leave each other – and there was never anything nice they had to say to or about each other. I began this book finding myself frustrated with how childish they both were and I think I expected to find it quite tiring, especially with Roberta’s attitude as she was a character I just couldn’t warm to. But this is why I always keep reading because from about fifty pages in, The Ballroom Café turned into such a wonderful page-turner of a novel. Such extraordinary secrets were laced into the stories of the O’Callaghan family and there was another character, in Debbie, who charmed me and had an incredibly touching story herself, one that engrossed me and surprised me.

Debbie, an American in search of her birth mother, finds herself drawn into the Ballroom Café as she develops a lovely, endearing friendship with Ella who runs the place. Debbie is not in a good way and doesn’t have much time to find her mother but she couldn’t help but lose herself a little bit in the café and she so easily won over almost everyone who met her. She begins work at the café and my favourite part of this book was seeing her become great friends with Ella – there was good humour between them both but also the caring, supportive side which was needed between two women going through such a strong level of upheaval in their lives.

I think the friendship between Ella and Debbie was the reason I really struggled to like Roberta because although we don’t at first know the circumstances that has caused such an issue between the two sisters, we get to see a lighter and more friendly side to Ella whereas Roberta didn’t seem to have a good word to say about anything or anyone. Having said that, there were glimpses of the love and protectiveness Roberta did have for her sister in the occasional moment when she would ask after her to Ella’s friends and whilst I can’t say I ever liked her, I grew to get a better understanding of her character.

Judge a book by its cover and you will be expecting a light, delicate story within The Ballroom Café and whilst it is a very moving book, there is a devastating adoption scandal brought to light which left me stunned. It was so shocking and heart-breaking at the same time – such an incredibly powerful piece of the plot and this book was so very unpredictable – I could not guess what was about to be revealed next. Ann O’Loughlin’s writing was a thing of beauty – so mesmerising, so intriguing – and the way the tender tone to her writing contrasted with the harsh realities in the novel worked beautifully. I started the book feeling a little wary, a little anxious I wasn’t going to enjoy it and yet I ended the novel utterly enthralled and so disappointed it had ended! The Ballroom Café was a brilliant read.

A poignant tale of secrets which damage the bonds between families - told with an unpredictability that made this book impossible for me to put down.