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Derry launch for nurse's Troubles memoir: Class of '79

Stepping into the lion's den: Liz Laird (circled) travelled from rural Leitrim to join the January 1979 student nursing intake at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Many of the group, including Liz, would leave the troubled North after qualifying as nurses – at least eight went to Australia. Liz would later return from England to Derry, to raise her young family and become a staff nurse at Altnagelvin Hospital. She later took up a post of lecturer and course director at the School of Nursing at Magee and, while working at UU, studied and obtained her PhD.
Stepping into the lion's den: Liz Laird (circled) travelled from rural Leitrim to join the January 1979 student nursing intake at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Many of the group, including Liz, would leave the troubled North after qualifying as nurses – at least eight went to Australia. Liz would later return from England to Derry, to raise her young family and become a staff nurse at Altnagelvin Hospital. She later took up a post of lecturer and course director at the School of Nursing at Magee and, while working at UU, studied and obtained her PhD.

"As a southern Protestant nurse in Belfast, Liz Laird gives a vivid take on the Northern Troubles, treating kneecapped boys and seeking peace in the Mournes..."


Former Magee lecturer Dr Liz Laird will return to Derry next month to launch her memoir 'The Troubled Adventures of a Student Nurse' at the city's Central Library on September 26.

Recounting Liz's time as a trainee at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital from 1979 to 1982, the book has been described by Naomi Long as "a fascinating insight into the trauma to which people were exposed whilst working in healthcare during the Troubles".

The book follows the young County Leitrim woman as she navigates her journey through war-torn Belfast, and charts the numerous experiences she gathered on the road.

At its core, this book conveys the compassion and humanity that can be found in the darkest of times. Liz takes you into the anaesthetic room and into the theatres. She also takes the reader around the Shankill, the Falls and Ballymurphy in their darkest hours.

Nursing professor Neal Cook describes the book as "a gift".

"It is a portal to understanding how a young woman navigated a time in history that shaped generations," he said, "an immersion into a world of accelerated adulthood and the real-

life impact of that tumultuous journey. It echoes the perpetual, human and whole core values of nursing and what it means to translate those to an authentic, person-centred approach to caring for people. What’s more, it brings those experiences of

life and practise back to how they shape lives indelibly.”


Colmcille Press Managing Editor Garbhán Downey presenting Liz Laird with the first copies of her memoir.
Colmcille Press Managing Editor Garbhán Downey presenting Liz Laird with the first copies of her memoir.

Colbert Kearney, Emeritus Professor at the Department of English, University College Cork praised Liz's work as having "heart and soul".

He commented: "As a southern Protestant nurse in Belfast, Liz Laird gives us a vivid take on the Northern Troubles, treating kneecapped boys and seeking peace in the Mournes."


'The Troubled Adventures of a Student Nurse', by Liz Laird will be launched at Derry Central Library by Felicity McCall on Saturday September 26 at noon.



Millar's new Ulster-Scots book launched in Letterkenny


 ‘The Lost Isle of Saint Columba’, an exciting new poetry collection by award winning Donegal poet Alan Millar, was launched, as part of Heritage Week, in Letterkenny Central Library, on Thursday August 20. 

This latest collection, in Ulster-Scots, with English translations, builds on Alan’s inaugural collection, ‘Echas Frae the Big Swilly Swally’, published in 2023.  

The collection records Alan’s ACNI assisted journey from his native Ulster to the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay. There, he rediscovered the powerful legacy of Saint Columba and his 6th Century Columban mission, centred on Iona; for the first-time hearing of the monastic isle of Hinba whose location has baffled academics and scholars for decades.

Commenting, Alan said: “I absolutely revelled in poetically documenting my personal journey through the Hebrides. These poems and prose pieces are my imaginative glimpses into the daily lives of our hunter gatherer ancestors and the lives of Saint Columba and his followers. I raiked tae Colonsay wi a speirn heid, an her muse gied bak a hairtsome screed.”



Rias Buidh


Join Alan as he recreates his own Hinba of the mind, centered on the wonderful ‘Rias Buidhe Cross’, an early Christian stone carving, pictured on the front cover his book. Diffusing ancient with contemporary, he carries us beyond our geographical and cultural boundaries, the boundaries between real and imagined. 

Alan continued: “The ‘Mise Brither frae Raphoe’ suite of poems, inspired by Umberto Eco’s novel ‘The name of the Rose’, are set among monks on Hinba. I travel with Brither frae Raphoe on his creative journey carving the stone, having been commissioned to do so by Abbot Odhrán.” 

Millar’s ‘owersettins’ of Ulster-Scots aren’t quite translations, allowing the Scots and English to engage with each other, in the treatment of some challenging contemporary issues. 


First reviews


Initial reactions to the collection are immensely positive:

“‘The Lost Isle of Saint Columba’ is an important, complex piece of work that is up there with some of the best contemporary writing.” Wesley Hutchinson, Professor Emeritus (Irish Studies) Sorbonne Nouvelle.  

“Alan’s incisive poetry and prose proves a feast for the senses: texture, colour, taste, smell and outlook – whether you’re reading in English or Ulster-Scots or both.” Áine Toner, Features Editor, Belfast Telegraph.

Check out the National Heritage Week website at heritageweek.ie/event-listings for this and other events taking place across Donegal.  

To purchase your copy PayPal £12.50 (£10 = £2.50 p&p), to Alan Millar at amillar.reporting@ymail.com or go to the Colmcille Press website.  

The Lost Isle of St Columba is published by Colmcille Press, and is supported by the Donegal County Council Artists Bursary.



Review: A Bitter Harvest

Former Irish Ambassador Ray Bassett, pictured here with Seán Brown's widow Bridie, says the new book chronicles 'in great detail the long and winding road which has been forced on the Brown family in their quest for truth and justice'.
Former Irish Ambassador Ray Bassett, pictured here with Seán Brown's widow Bridie, says the new book chronicles 'in great detail the long and winding road which has been forced on the Brown family in their quest for truth and justice'.

Reviewed by Ray Bassett


The subject matter of this book, “A Bitter Harvest”, should be of major concern to us all. The murder of Seán Brown, a friend and neighbour of Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney. was carried out as a deep and dark operation. That an individual, who cultivated cross community links and described by follow club man, Laurence Diamond, as “a great human being”, should have been marked out for such an horrific fate, seems almost beyond comprehension.  Seán Brown represented decency and community which makes what happened to him all the more unfathomable...  




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