Will Mummy Be Coming Back for Me?

In fifteen years as a child-protection worker, Shane Dunphy saw children growing up in horrific situations. He also witnessed their amazing ability to survive those unpromising beginnings. Shane is now a tutor on childcare courses, a broadcaster and a respected commentator on child-protection issues.

When childcare worker Shane Dunphy meets Jason in 1991, he is a tiny, frightened five-year-old who has stopped speaking and terrorizes even the older children in the care home with his angry, violent behaviour. Eleven years later, Shane is shocked to find Jason's file on his desk again. Jason has committed some horrendous crimes and is facing a life of incarceration. Can Shane rebuild what had been a delicate friendship, and help Jason to face up to who he is, where he has come from, and what he has done?

The Boy in the Cupboard

The bestselling child protection worker tells further startling true stories from the coal-face of despair

In fifteen years as a child protection worker, Shane Dunphy saw children growing up in horrific situations. He also saw their amazing ability to survive those unpromising beginnings. Shane is now a tutor on childcare courses and a respected commentator on child protection issues.

Three heart-stopping stories of children trapped by their parents' pasts ... 
 
Craig, the little boy who can't speak English, isn't allowed to use his real name and hides food around his playschool, afraid he'll be hungry again. His parents are trying to make a fresh start, but their gangland bosses are about to catch up with the family and Craig will pay a terrible price... 
 
Edgar is a twelve-year-old boy who nobody wants, not even the staff at the residential unit where he lives. Just when it seems that there might be a way of getting through to Edgar, his mother reveals a secret that changes everything ... 
 
Vinnie is a teenage boy who knows exactly what his gangster father is capable of, of how he makes problems disappear. He also knows that he had become a very big problem for his father ... 
 
... One man's fight to give these children the future they deserve.

Hush, Little Baby

Five heart-stopping true stories of terror and triumph

That rare beast: a serious work of non-fiction that reads like a thriller ... by turns funny, angry, touching and, ultimately, almost unbearably moving, it is a stunning achievement.

Five heart-stopping true stories of terror and triumph, told by the man who tried to make life better for these troubled children ... 
 
Clive, a thirteen-year-old victim of terrifying demonic visions, tells frightening stories of abuse and imprisonment. Could they be genuine? 
 
Patrick, twelve, bravely setting out to find the truth about his birth family - however painful it may be ... 
 
Six-year-old Johnny, tiny and undernourished, desperately tries to recover from a brain-injury inflicted by his drunken and violent father ... 
 
At fourteen, Katie is so aggressive that the authorities have put her in special care, away from other children. What could be the cause of such fury? 
 
And in a grim island prison, a lumbering bully ponders his crimes against his twin children, Larry and Francey - while his sadistic and conniving wife, the real monster behind his actions, tries to fool the state into returning the traumatised boy and girl to her care.

Crying in the Dark

Four heartbreaking true stories of damaged children and one man's battle to help them, this heart-wrenching new novel is positioned perfectly for the bestselling misery market

Four extraordinary true stories ... 
 
Bobby and Micky, six and four, controlled from beyond the grave by their evil father ... 
 
Mina, seventeen, who has Downs Syndrome, desperate to be like everyone else, falling into the hands of men who abuse her trust ... 
 
Sylvie, a fourteen-year-old mother being pimped by her father ... 
 
Twins Larry and Francey, ten, scarcely human after an upbringing of savage and unimaginable cruelty ... 
 
One inspiring account of how one man got to know these wounded children and tried to give them hope - and a future.

Wednesday's Child

Shane Dunphy worked in child protection in southeast Ireland for fifteen years. Wednesday's Child is a distillation of cases he encountered in that time to make a single, year-long narrative. Shane now tutors on childcare courses in Waterford City. He is a native of Wexford, where he still lives with his wife and two children.

In three amazing stories childcare worker Shane Dunphy reveals a world of hidden heartbreak and survival against the odds. 
 
When Shane meets her, Gillian is starving herself to death and in thrall to a mother more interested in abusing and manipulating her daughter than cherishing and protecting her. Though he tries to help, it seems Shane is just another adult destined to fail Gillian ... 
 
For the daughter of disturbed violent parents, Connie is an amazingly well-adjusted A-grade student. But when Shane finally gets behind the facade, he unearths a shattering truth behind her apparent normality ... 
 
Cordelia, Victor and Ibar are three loving siblings left with a hopelessly alcoholic neglectful father. It&rsquo;s a race against time to see if their father can ever become the kind of Dad he wants to be, or if they are destined to be split up and sucked into the childcare merry-go-round &hellip;

Shane Dunphy

Courage is sometimes found in the unlikeliest places ... 
 
Dominic is a sixteen year-old man-child: while he has the body of a prize-fighter, as a result of a terrible seizure when he was a small child he has been left with the mind of a child. In the centre where he spends his days, Dominic is a challenge and an inspiration: someone who struggles against the odds and whose every victory over his limitations is a cause for celebration. But when a new member of staff at the centre breaks a sacred trust, the fall-out is horrific and Dominic becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. Little Boy Lost is the story of Dominic's brave battle to face up to betrayal and show - one more time - that he is a survivor.

Shane Dunphy

Books by Shane Dunphy

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