Outsider

Reviews / Votes

Written with extraordinary verbal and emotional precision, Outsider is a potent reminder that in Ireland the personal and the public are inextricably intertwined. In telling his own story of adoption, loss and discovery Paul Cullen also tells the inner history of a society in which a child like him could be labelled as illegitimate. While the truths of the past can never be fully revealed, the truthfulness of Cullen's account shines through his gripping narrative * Fintan O'Toole * Paul Cullen's Outsider is a beautifully written story of gradual discovery about his origins before his adoption, particularly the crucial early years of his life, and the people who played the most important part in them. Having looked at all the evidence, he calmly and rationally concludes that his was a forced adoption, contrary to the findings of the deeply flawed Mother and Baby Homes report.
This book is a very important contribution to the growing literature on Ireland's unholy alliance between church and state to interfere in fundamental relationships with life-changing effects on those involved. * Catriona Crowe * This true story reads like a thriller, with all the twists turns and ultimate redemption of a remarkable story, a real page turner * Joe Duffy * Moving ... a painfully honest memoir * Irish Examiner * Moving and compelling * Irish Times *