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Belfast Days: a 1972 teenage diary
Belfast 1972. It's the bloodiest year of the Northern Irish 'Troubles', and 16-year-old Eimear O'Callaghan, a Catholic schoolgirl in West Belfast, bears witness in her new diary. What follows is a unique and touching perspective into the daily life of an ordinary teenager coming of age in extraordinary times. The immediacy of the diary entries are complemented with the author's mature reflections written 40 years later. The result is poignant, shocking, wryly funny, and, above all, explicitly honest. Belfast Days is unique book that comes at a time when Northern Ireland is desperately struggling to come to terms with the legacy of its turbulent past. It provides a powerful juxtaposition of the ordinary everyday concerns of a 16-year-old girl - who could be any girl in any British or Irish city at this time, worrying about her hair, exams, boys, clothes, discos - with the unimaginable horror of a society slowly disintegrating before her eyes, a seemingly inevitable descent into a bloody civil war, fuelled by sectarianism, hatred, and fear. Written by an experienced broadcaster and journalist who rediscovered her 1972 diary on the eve of the publication of the Saville Report (also known as the Bloody Sunday Inquiry), Belfast Days demonstrates how one person's examination of her own 'story' provided her with a new perspective on one of the darkest periods in 20th-century Irish and British history.
324 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 30, 2015
With the interest I have in memoirs written about the time and place in question (The Telling Year: Belfast 1972 and Watching the Door being particular favourites), I felt that I was always going to appreciate this book, and indeed I wasn't disappointed.
O'Callaghan started writing her journal as a 16 year old, living in a respectable 4 bedroom semi, part of a hard working family that just happened to find itself in the midst of the bloodiest year of the conflict in one of the areas whose name, Andersonstown, tripped off the tongue of many newsreaders due to it being the epicentre of much of what went on.
Her father, a postal worker, was an SDLP activist and member of the Catholic Defence Committee, and Eimear shows through her journal an excellent grasp of what is going on around her, her non violent, non sectarian (though this is tested as the year goes on) attitude striking, considering the daily events. While she writes about things you would expect to find in any teenager's diary, the effect of what is happening around her on her daily life is stark, so many walks home from school or half days or closures due to trouble, many nights listening to gun battles and bomb blasts. Many of the entries end with a tally of the day's fatalities, and as the year goes on, in the face of civillian deaths at the hands of Loyalist murder squads, IRA bomb blasts and Army action, the entries get increasingly desperate. It's not all doom and gloom though, with a 4 week trip to France and visits to her grandparents' home in Cooley, near Carlingford, providing the teenage Eimear with a break from the carnage around her. O'Callaghan also provides her thoughts on many of her journal entries looking back, giving the reader extra info where required about context etc.
What makes this book so fascinating is recognising how far the country has come in the 40 odd years since the journal was written. I know the setting quite well, as I often use the outer ring, which incorporates many of the roads shown on the map at the start of the book, as an alternative way home from work, and it's bizarre to imagine the events portrayed in the book, given these roads' non descriptness now.
A poignant epilogue notes the progress, and explains the reason for the author actually digging our her journal in the first place-the British government apology for Bloody Sunday-and gives thanks that, despite the despair that is recorded in the book, things became brighter.
This may not be an 'enjoyable' read, but it is definitely another book that can be added to the list of titles that I would recommend to anyone looking to understand exactly what the ordinary person in certain areas of NI endured during the conflict here.
O'Callaghan started writing her journal as a 16 year old, living in a respectable 4 bedroom semi, part of a hard working family that just happened to find itself in the midst of the bloodiest year of the conflict in one of the areas whose name, Andersonstown, tripped off the tongue of many newsreaders due to it being the epicentre of much of what went on.
Her father, a postal worker, was an SDLP activist and member of the Catholic Defence Committee, and Eimear shows through her journal an excellent grasp of what is going on around her, her non violent, non sectarian (though this is tested as the year goes on) attitude striking, considering the daily events. While she writes about things you would expect to find in any teenager's diary, the effect of what is happening around her on her daily life is stark, so many walks home from school or half days or closures due to trouble, many nights listening to gun battles and bomb blasts. Many of the entries end with a tally of the day's fatalities, and as the year goes on, in the face of civillian deaths at the hands of Loyalist murder squads, IRA bomb blasts and Army action, the entries get increasingly desperate. It's not all doom and gloom though, with a 4 week trip to France and visits to her grandparents' home in Cooley, near Carlingford, providing the teenage Eimear with a break from the carnage around her. O'Callaghan also provides her thoughts on many of her journal entries looking back, giving the reader extra info where required about context etc.
What makes this book so fascinating is recognising how far the country has come in the 40 odd years since the journal was written. I know the setting quite well, as I often use the outer ring, which incorporates many of the roads shown on the map at the start of the book, as an alternative way home from work, and it's bizarre to imagine the events portrayed in the book, given these roads' non descriptness now.
A poignant epilogue notes the progress, and explains the reason for the author actually digging our her journal in the first place-the British government apology for Bloody Sunday-and gives thanks that, despite the despair that is recorded in the book, things became brighter.
This may not be an 'enjoyable' read, but it is definitely another book that can be added to the list of titles that I would recommend to anyone looking to understand exactly what the ordinary person in certain areas of NI endured during the conflict here.
August 31, 2018
Although at first I found her teenage observations detached and removed from my life in Glasgow in 2015, as the diary went on I became more and more attached and involved in her life and could feel the fear when she scrawled down the death of another catholic teenager, reflecting how, had I been living there and then that could have been me or my siblings or cousins. It really made me reflect on how we still engage with the shadows of sectarianism; through the songs we sing, the words we use etc. however, her diary shows the brutal reality of sectarianism, no matter if it is just a bit of fun now. Thinking that this was just our parents generation, and many friends' parents grew up in Belfast, has really made me reflect on how the conflict still effects our lives now, and has certainly made me more resolute to watch my tongue, and actually think about what I am saying, where it comes from and what it really means.
June 20, 2025
How sad is that such a young girl had to live with the constant fear of her and her family possibly being killed every day. I had a very vague idea of the conflict between Great Britain and Ireland and I didn't know how catastrophic it actually was in Belfast. But reading about the impact of a war in every aspect of her everyday life was so shocking and sad.
Also, the last sentence "My children have no fear of saying their names out loud" had me completely in tears.
Also, the last sentence "My children have no fear of saying their names out loud" had me completely in tears.
March 5, 2024
This is a year in the life of 17 year old Eimear, a young Catholic girl from Belfast. It brought back a lot of memories for me because I lived in Derry at that time. I especially liked how the adult Eimear gave her opinions after diary entries. Highly recommended.
December 30, 2014
A reminder of how things were growing up in Belfast in the 70's and how far we've come. Makes me wish I'd kept a diary!
June 3, 2017
This is a unusually structured book consisting as it does of both memoir and diary. Memoir is a reflective practice, parsing past events through a more mature lens and seeking truth and understanding. Diary is a contemporaneous, spontaneous, unedited recording of life's events with no attempt to edit, refine or parse.
It is rare to find a memoir and a diary combined in this way, chapter by chapter moving back and forth between the angry/frightened/jealous/selfish/self-centred teenager of 1972 to the mature, sorrowful and grateful adult who is Eimear O'Callaghan in 2016. Some readers will no doubt be shocked by the seemingly "callous" or "one-sided" or "selfish" nature of some of the diary entries but I found them a fascinating and revealing snapshot of an ordinary life in an extyraordinary place and time.
I was born in 1972, which is always referred to as the worst year of N Ireland's Troubles, and like O'Callaghan I was lucky to grow to adulthood in a stable, loving, secure home with a great education and I found so much of her story resonated powerfully with me.
There were times when I found my heart pounding in my chest, my mouth dry as the young O'Callaghan's stark recording of events brought back deeply suppressed emotions and feelings. There were also occasions when she used EXACTLY THE SAME words that I have used in my own writings to describe similar experiences, which I found upsetting and comforting simultaneously (which is a very odd sensation.)
I recommend this book to anyone, you need have no personal experience/understanding of N Ireland's complex history to learn a great deal about life and society and the extraordinary thinness of the veneer of civilisation which prevents most of us from killing our neighbours, and what happens when we allow extremists to crack that veneer.
It is rare to find a memoir and a diary combined in this way, chapter by chapter moving back and forth between the angry/frightened/jealous/selfish/self-centred teenager of 1972 to the mature, sorrowful and grateful adult who is Eimear O'Callaghan in 2016. Some readers will no doubt be shocked by the seemingly "callous" or "one-sided" or "selfish" nature of some of the diary entries but I found them a fascinating and revealing snapshot of an ordinary life in an extyraordinary place and time.
I was born in 1972, which is always referred to as the worst year of N Ireland's Troubles, and like O'Callaghan I was lucky to grow to adulthood in a stable, loving, secure home with a great education and I found so much of her story resonated powerfully with me.
There were times when I found my heart pounding in my chest, my mouth dry as the young O'Callaghan's stark recording of events brought back deeply suppressed emotions and feelings. There were also occasions when she used EXACTLY THE SAME words that I have used in my own writings to describe similar experiences, which I found upsetting and comforting simultaneously (which is a very odd sensation.)
I recommend this book to anyone, you need have no personal experience/understanding of N Ireland's complex history to learn a great deal about life and society and the extraordinary thinness of the veneer of civilisation which prevents most of us from killing our neighbours, and what happens when we allow extremists to crack that veneer.
March 6, 2024
Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary
There was never any doubt that this diary was written by an adolescent surrounded by abject fear and total insanity, yet still managing to conduct life as if things were normal, pushing forward with hopes and prayers for all of those involved. imagine doing one's homework with bullets flying and bombs exploding outside your window. Most amazing to me is that her sixteen year old eyes were able to see beyond her own world and recognize that the sacrifices and sufferings of innocents were a reflection of the indiscriminate madness of conflict.
There was never any doubt that this diary was written by an adolescent surrounded by abject fear and total insanity, yet still managing to conduct life as if things were normal, pushing forward with hopes and prayers for all of those involved. imagine doing one's homework with bullets flying and bombs exploding outside your window. Most amazing to me is that her sixteen year old eyes were able to see beyond her own world and recognize that the sacrifices and sufferings of innocents were a reflection of the indiscriminate madness of conflict.
February 15, 2018
When I think back to my childhood at 16 I feel blessed not to have lived in NI. The terror of the guns and bombs, deaths and the fear Eimear felt all the time was dreadful. The disruptions to her schooling and the bus service not running, not being able to have a social life without fear of getting there and / or home safely. The book is interspersed with today's Eimear adding some extra details and context to the entries and finishes off with a glimpse of her scrapbook and diary. Interesting but sad account.
June 12, 2020
Amazing book, was astounded to see how blasé the author became at 16 years old at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. 1972 was the worst year of the troubles. The author kept a diary during the year and at first recorded faithfully the no of deaths, towards the end of the year though her entries became way less frequent. Gave me goosebumps and a huge appreciation for the people of NI managing to get on with daily life during that time.
July 27, 2025
I'd recommend having some knowledge of the Troubles/Northern Irish history before reading this, though the author does provide some context and additional information between the diary entries. It's the little details that make this come to life, like certain students at Eimear's school being allowed to wear non-uniform coats (i.e. ones that don't identify them as Catholic) because they need to go through mixed/Protestant areas of Belfast to get home.
June 10, 2017
A real eye opener
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February 9, 2021Nostalgia heavy for me. A trip down a difficult memory lane at times harsh, at times warm ...
December 29, 2024
I enjoyed every page of it.
August 7, 2025
An invaluable and honest account of the impact to a 16 year old Catholic girl living through the Troubles. An important record of the high price paid by everyone when violence becomes the norm.
May 15, 2020
Such a unique book. Loved reading the real-time diary entries interspersed with Eimear’s reflections. Belfast is such an exciting and interesting city. I hope that peace flourishes there. Should be required reading!
December 10, 2016
Wow, I was completely blown away by this fascinating and emotional account of the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland, as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl. My Mother was born in Northern Ireland, and so growing up I was well aware of the troubles, but I had no idea just how terrible it was. In this book the author shares extracts of her teenage diary, and we see first hand how families dealt with alienation and the horrors of war. What I found particularly moving was the end, where the author writes of a celebration of life, and freedom over adversity. Highly recommend as a thought provoking and incredibly moving read.
December 20, 2015
I cannot think of anyone who should not read this memoir. There is a very small shelf in my library for memoirs of note. Anne Franks Diary of a young girl resides there. So does Belfast Days. Really, this is one of the best books I've read in years.
November 26, 2016
A tough read subject wise. To just imagine how this teenager came through it all even a little bit sane might be a miracle....and I don't even believe in miracles.
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May 16, 2019Very interesting read. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews