Eileen Donohue

Eileen Donohue is a respected investigative journalist in her mid-thirties with two children and a husband who is an aspiring politician.  In the Cork community the Donohue’s are considered a “power” couple.  However, with the stress of two professional careers and two children their marriage has become an empty hull without love.  Their commitment to their professions leaves them without time, energy or interest in maintaining a strong marriage.

Eileen is attracted to Ian Murphy through his writing and she decides she must meet him by taking an adult learning course on literature from him at University College Cork.  Eileen is both selfish and self-centered.  She has no guilt in actively pursuing a relationship with another man and emotionally abandoning her marriage.

Middle aged bachelor Ian Murphy is fascinated with Eileen and astonished with her interest in him.  In a short time Ian is infatuated with Eileen which he believes is love.  Ian wants Eileen to divorce her husband so they can marry.  Eileen reminds Ian she is Catholic and Catholics don’t divorce.  Eileen needs Ian’s adoration and professed love but doesn’t make the same emotional commitment, she never considers it.

Eileen demands their relationship remain a secret and goes to extraordinary lengths to be discreet and secretive.  She fears the consequences to her career if her relationship with Ian is exposed.

Eileen accidently discovers handwritten drafts of what she learns are the Green Book.  Her curiosity and sense for a sensational investigative story drive her to expose Ian’s secret involvement with the Provisional Irish Republican Army.  She struggles with the decision to betray her lover or keep his secret.  Her selfishness and need to be the preeminent Irish investigative reporter have unintended consequences for Ian Murphy.