When Justine McCarthy was a young freelance journalist in the early 1980s, she and another female colleague were prevented from entering the newspaper building where they worked. An NUJ chapel had passed the barring vote. They were getting too many bylines.
Such was the male-dominated culture in which Justine cut her teeth as a reporter. For over three decades since, her fearless journalism and commentary has challenged and smashed stereotypes as she, in her own words, 'grew up alongside my country'.
From exposing child sexual abuse scandals to reporting from the frontline of the Northern Ireland Troubles to covering the major reforming referendums of equal marriage and Repeal of the 8th amendment, Justine McCarthy has tracked Ireland's social, political and cultural journey through seismic change.
An Eye on Ireland brings the best of her work into a single volume, along with a long personal essay to open the book, in which she looks back over her life and career - her widow mother's words never far from her mind: 'A woman must be able to fend for herself.'
