Book excerpt: 'Jolts like jump-leads to the complacent heart ... an eye-opener. MIRIAM LORD FOR FOUR DECADES, JUSTINE MCCARTHY'S FEARLESS JOURNALISM AND COMMENTARY HAS HELD POWER TO ACCOUNT AS SHE, IN HER OWN WORDS, 'GREW UP ALONGSIDE MY COUNTRY'. The book opens with a long personal essay in which Justine recounts her early years as a fearful child who dreamed of being a writer, to cutting her teeth in the male-dominated newsrooms of the 1980s, where she faced down sexism and broke gender barriers in a determined career marked by excellence. From Mary Robinson making history as Ireland's first female president to a present-day RTÉ in crisis, over thirty years of stories are collected here. In her long career, Justine broke child sexual abuse scandals and reported from the frontline of the Northern Ireland Troubles; she documented political turmoil and charted the role of Ireland on the world stage. She followed the times the country let down its people, through its ailing health system, its legal system, the domination of the church, and its treatment of women. An Eye on Ireland maps a transformative era in Irish life towards a more progressive and just society, and one woman's extraordinary career at the forefront of change.