“Patrick O’Dea’s reflections on his path, should be required reading for aspiring young social workers.”
Dame Louise Richardson
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, 2016–2022
“An endless retelling of the story of a garden, a fall and a restoration.”
It’s the story of the Bible, Dante and Marx.
What shaped this curious boy into a “Utopian”? Coming of age in an awakening decade that was 1970s Ireland, searching out Utopian visions of social justice, psycho-therapeutics and macrobiotics. then taking his place as a social worker, he grapples with real lives, while trying to keep faith with a self and a social work that aspires to the “the empowerment and liberation of people”. This is a story of illusion, delusion and disillusion, as he reflects on the journey.
“I devoured this and now want to go back and read it again and again. Beautifully written, full of hard-won wisdom, this short memoir asks us to reflect on hope in its many guises and how it has animated a life well lived.”
Brid Featherstone
Professor of Social Work, University of Huddersfield
“Patrick O’Dea’s memoir is a tour de force, a wonderfully idiosyncratic and entertaining account of a life devoted to care, love, relationships, equality, Dublin, Ireland and the central place of social work with in it.”
Harry Ferguson
Professor of Social Work, University of Birmingham