Màiri’s story begins in August 1970, which was a very exciting time to be a woman – the world was opening up to us and we really believed that we could be agents of massive positive change.

The craziness of the Swinging Sixties was a memory, not how we lived our lives. We had sensible goals: family, work, community, education, style, self-realisation, prosperity, spirituality.

We were all mad for education in the Britain of the 1970s and that is reflected in Màiri’s attitudes; she is a child of her era.

We were far more prejudiced in the 1970s, without even being aware of it (fish don’t know what water is) than would be at all acceptable today, and to a lesser extent that also is reflected in Màiri’s attitudes.

There’s nothing sentimental in Màiri’s world; it was a time when the emphasis was on Doing. Also a time when Scots Irish Catholics were grateful to be permitted, at last, to follow our faith without active discrimination against us, although there was still a lot of prejudice.