For those of us missing the sublime 'Derry girls' (and what a finale it was) Michelle Gallen's 'Factory girls' is, pardon the pun, very much cut from the same cloth. It has the same acerbic humour, banter and craic that were very much present in Lisa McGee's tv show.

A-levels

Meave, Caroline and Aoife are three girls awaiting their A-level results in a small town in Tyrone in 1994. Keen to get an early taste of freedom, Maeve and Caroline take on a job in the local textile factory and rent an upstairs flat across from its gates. Aoife also takes a job in the factory, more for the experience than the money, and remains living in her parents house, the redbrick by the river with its prime view of the eleventh night bonfire.

Maeve is the narrator, the wittiest and mouthiest of the group (I kept thinking Maeve was like Michelle from Derry girls, Aoife a bit like the wee lesbian). She's still dealing with the death of her older sister, and wants to study journalism in London. But she’s worried about getting the necessary grades to allow her to escape the hometown she terms a 'shithole.'

Maeve has a bit of a notion in the factory boss, Andy Strawbridge, but does her best to resist his advances. She also has to navigate the sectarian battlelines in the factory, with distrust rife between protestants and catholics. Not that Maeve doesn't know which side she's on.

Deadly accurate

'Factory girls' is deadly accurate in capturing a time and a place. I was a year older than these girls and remember clearly the climate of terror. Just like in the book, you were always conscious of which pub you went to, and where you were sitting. Ideally, not close to the front windows and with a view of the door. Not that these precautions always protected people, but it made you feel like you were at least being proactive and doing something.

As a student, you wanted to be allowed to get on with your life. Forget mortar bombs and indiscriminate sectarian slaugter in bars - you wanted to get drunk, to listen to Nirvana and most of all to get a ‘court’ with the opposite sex. A conflict wasn't going to stop you, and the book captures this brilliantly. You wanted to escape, but it was always there and you could find yourself in its maelstrom at any momment.

Factories

I also worked in a couple of factories during my time as a student. One was a meat production plant, and the other a textile factory, where I worked the nightshift. Not only does the book capture both the monotony and the camaraderie, but the importance of the factory to the local community. When the textile factory closed in my small town, moving to Morocco where it could pay lower wages (hello neoliberalism) the arse completely fell out of it. It was the biggest employer for miles around and most of the people had never worked anywhere else since leaving school. It had already been devastated by partition, the troubles and there's been no post conflict economic lift either. Like a lot of similar places, it will only begin to recover once the border vanishes forever (coming soon).

Dark humour

For all the humour, there is a dark undercurrent to a parts of ‘factory girls’, and Maeve Murray is far from just being a wisecracking character. There’s a lot of anger and frustration in Maeve and some of the other characters, a harshness that came from living through those times, a protective shell we all built around us. It also tackles issues such as religion, suicide, class and poverty.

There’s a countdown to the girls getting their results and a storyline of sorts about the factory, but it’s not really a plot based book. It’s very much character driven and all the better for that.

‘Factory girls’ has an edge that really captures the gallows humour of the place, a proper blackness to the comedy. Obviously Derry girls isn't just as dark, but Michelle Gallen captures that humour that was formed from living in those times and acted as an important escape valve.

This is a terrific read that I finished in just a couple of days, well written with a cracking pace that’s darkly funny and absolutely deserving of your time. I have another Michelle Gallen book (‘Big girl, small town’) that I’m already looking forward to.

Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy.

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Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen
320 pages June 23, 2022 by John Murray

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