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A funny, fierce, and unforgettable read about a young woman working a summer job in a shirt factory in Northern Ireland, while tensions rise both inside and outside the factory walls.. It's the summer of 1994, and all smart-mouthed Maeve Murray wants are good final exam results so she can earn her ticket out of the wee Northern Irish town she has grown up in during the Troubles. She hopes she will soon be in London studying journalism - away from her crowded home, the silence and sadness surrounding her sister's death, and most of all, away from the violence of her divided community.. As a first step, Maeve's taken a job in a shirt factory working alongside Protestants with her best friends. But getting the right exam results is only part of Maeve's problem - she's got to survive a tit-for-tat paramilitary campaign, iron 100 shirts an hour all day every day, and deal with the attentions of Handy Andy Strawbridge, her slick and untrustworthy English boss.