Rosita Sweetman – författare

Feminism Backwards is part memoir, part documentary. A founding member ofthe Irish Women’s Liberation Movement Rosita Sweetman gleefullyrecalls the triumphs – and the tribulations – of trying to drag a reluctant Irelandinto the 20th Century, crucially, re-appraising Chains or Change the IWLM’sfamous pamphlet, detailing what life was like for women in 1970s Ireland - appalling. Feminism Backwards is also a howl of despair at how women have been treatedworldwide down through the centuries, and how misogyny and sexualrepression got such a stranglehold on Ireland.Having a survived a marriage break up Rosita re-found her feminismsadly buried, along with her chutzpah. She passionately believes feminism is notabout blaming men, or pushing a few women to the top so they can be ‘she-men’for the patriarchy. It's about creating a world fit for everyone.

Rosita Sweeman’s Fathers Come First is a coming-of-age classic set against a Dublin-city backdrop. Elizabeth is both gauche and perspicacious, walking the edge of her stereotypes while hobbled by the pressures of acceptance – social, physical and sexual. In a world informed by a Catholic upbringing, she wonders whether her indiscretions belong in the letterbox or the confession box. Curious, unflinching and disarmingly honest, teenager turned twenty-something Lizzie speaks to the changes and continuities in Irish society across forty years. It is a novel as relevant today as when it was first published.