'How did the Literature Centre start? It’s a very long convoluted story. I went to live in Ireland in 1987, when my husband, Bob, was the first professor of Australian History in Dublin. With no working visa and three young children, I decided I would steep myself in Irish Children’s literature. To my horror, I couldn’t find many Irish Children’s Books. There were no libraries in schools, just a little bookshelf at the back of each classroom. There were no children’s bookshops, there were no children’s metro libraries and no teacher librarians. ' (Introduction)