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The Belfast Express
Dublin, 1971. Free spirited 18-year-old Brianna Robinson defies her Mother’s expectations, her neighbour’s judgment and the authority of the local Parish Priest by enrolling in nursing college in London. But made to stay in Dublin by her father, she befriends fellow nurses Muriel, Iris and Shauna and the four friends are assigned midwifery in the grim slums of Dublin.
Corporation Place was home to large families, cramped spaces, hidden violence, desperate poverty and perpetually pregnant women. The four friends soon learn that it’s not just ”girls with loose morals” who have unwanted pregnancies.
When Brianna is assaulted by her parish priest she finds herself needing to end her own pregnancy. From then on, she finds the strength to champion the rights of Irish women against the Catholic Church. A raucous trip to Northern Ireland gives access to contraception unheard of in the south and The Belfast Express train becomes a regular arrival at Dublin’s Connolly Station.
Brianna finds her power, purpose and love in this heartwarming story of being a young woman in 1970s Ireland.
Corporation Place was home to large families, cramped spaces, hidden violence, desperate poverty and perpetually pregnant women. The four friends soon learn that it’s not just ”girls with loose morals” who have unwanted pregnancies.
When Brianna is assaulted by her parish priest she finds herself needing to end her own pregnancy. From then on, she finds the strength to champion the rights of Irish women against the Catholic Church. A raucous trip to Northern Ireland gives access to contraception unheard of in the south and The Belfast Express train becomes a regular arrival at Dublin’s Connolly Station.
Brianna finds her power, purpose and love in this heartwarming story of being a young woman in 1970s Ireland.
- GenresFiction
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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March 25, 2026Brigid brings so much knowledge regarding nursing, poverty and women’s rights to this debut novel. It is set in 1970’s Dublin and touches on many issues including the challenges experienced by a heavily Catholic influenced government and society. Women’s rights to work, contraception and body autonomy are covered. It is a fiction based on true events of which she has lived and experienced firsthand. Listening to Brigid discuss her book via a local book club event was very enlightening and I’m grateful to her and others like her for caring for and educating women, and fighting for women’s rights so we enjoy the freedoms we have today. Well done Brigid.
Trigger warning: sexual assault, rape, pregnancy termination.
Trigger warning: sexual assault, rape, pregnancy termination.
February 28, 2026
The author clearly had good intentions but the writing is pedestrian. The characters are one dimensional and the dialogue extremely wooden.
June 12, 2026
Engaging story and characters against the background of addressing issues with serious social consequences.
August 5, 2026
Brigid Carrick’s first novel ‘The Belfast Express’ grips readers from start to finish.
In the 1970s young Brianna Robinson, an eighteen-year-old Irish girl with a burning ambition to be a nurse, is held back by her sex, church, government and culture.
While her parents are middle class and could find money to educate their one son, Declan, to become an engineer, they do not consider the need for any of their three daughters to go past secondary school.
An intelligent young woman, Brianna questions why the Church preaches female bodies are temples of purity but not the boys’. When she asks Declan about it, he just laughs.
Most readers will be sympathetic to her wish to lead her own life and not be forced into an office job because that’s what nice girls do, followed by a future of marriage and baby-bearing and rearing a family.
Though she doesn’t seem to know it, Brianna has the strength of character of her mother even if it takes her passion in a different direction. With her nineteen-year-old sister Virginia like my mother’s deputy––always looking to pounce, the odds are stacked against Brianna. However, when the local priest and her father become drawn into the battle for Brianna’s future and alter the odds, Brianna can move forward with compromises.
The reader shares her experiences as she trains to become a nurse. After a visit to women and families living in poverty because the women keep having children their families can’t afford, senior nurse Sister Carroll says to the trainee nurses with her, “These poor women are like slaves of baby factories. Between the government and the Catholic Church they’re brainwashed into thinking there’s honour in poverty.”
Occasionally fate brings Brianna into contact with Declan’s friend Philip who is training to become a doctor at Brianna’s hospital. This gives a male slant on things.
Reading this book explains a lot about why it takes so long for Ireland to catch up to the rest of the world in allowing contraception and family planning.
A social history, ‘The Belfast Express’ tells how Irish women wanting contraception catch the train ‘The Belfast Express’ to Northern Ireland to pick up contraceptives where they are legal and available.
Brigid Carrick’s fiction book weaves in and out a backdrop of a tumultuous social period in Ireland. It culminates in an actual train journey in which women arrive back in Dublin’s Connolly Station and openly challenge the authorities.
Near the end of the book, Brianna and her friends figure hugely in real life events that unfolded in Ireland. Readers might be left wondering how much of this part of the book is fact and which fiction. Given historical facts, how could the book’s fictional protagonist be as heavily involved as she is, or is the climax of the story mostly fiction, and Carrick’s depiction of Brianna’s responses the result of the author’s imagination?
Some readers might question the behaviour of some of the characters in Belfast. However, some might see their behavior as a reaction to the tight reins of Church and State on the role of women.
The book’s cover has echoes of ‘Call the Midwife’. A nurse of the 1970s looking up at a high-rise development with washing hanging from rails and lines and two young children in the foreground sets the scene, time and atmosphere of the book.
I highly recommend The Belfast Express to readers who enjoy novels interwoven with social history and serious issues. Skilfully-written in an autobiographical style with humour and moments of epiphany, it well deserves a 5 out of 5 rating and an award for a novel on a historical social issue.
In the 1970s young Brianna Robinson, an eighteen-year-old Irish girl with a burning ambition to be a nurse, is held back by her sex, church, government and culture.
While her parents are middle class and could find money to educate their one son, Declan, to become an engineer, they do not consider the need for any of their three daughters to go past secondary school.
An intelligent young woman, Brianna questions why the Church preaches female bodies are temples of purity but not the boys’. When she asks Declan about it, he just laughs.
Most readers will be sympathetic to her wish to lead her own life and not be forced into an office job because that’s what nice girls do, followed by a future of marriage and baby-bearing and rearing a family.
Though she doesn’t seem to know it, Brianna has the strength of character of her mother even if it takes her passion in a different direction. With her nineteen-year-old sister Virginia like my mother’s deputy––always looking to pounce, the odds are stacked against Brianna. However, when the local priest and her father become drawn into the battle for Brianna’s future and alter the odds, Brianna can move forward with compromises.
The reader shares her experiences as she trains to become a nurse. After a visit to women and families living in poverty because the women keep having children their families can’t afford, senior nurse Sister Carroll says to the trainee nurses with her, “These poor women are like slaves of baby factories. Between the government and the Catholic Church they’re brainwashed into thinking there’s honour in poverty.”
Occasionally fate brings Brianna into contact with Declan’s friend Philip who is training to become a doctor at Brianna’s hospital. This gives a male slant on things.
Reading this book explains a lot about why it takes so long for Ireland to catch up to the rest of the world in allowing contraception and family planning.
A social history, ‘The Belfast Express’ tells how Irish women wanting contraception catch the train ‘The Belfast Express’ to Northern Ireland to pick up contraceptives where they are legal and available.
Brigid Carrick’s fiction book weaves in and out a backdrop of a tumultuous social period in Ireland. It culminates in an actual train journey in which women arrive back in Dublin’s Connolly Station and openly challenge the authorities.
Near the end of the book, Brianna and her friends figure hugely in real life events that unfolded in Ireland. Readers might be left wondering how much of this part of the book is fact and which fiction. Given historical facts, how could the book’s fictional protagonist be as heavily involved as she is, or is the climax of the story mostly fiction, and Carrick’s depiction of Brianna’s responses the result of the author’s imagination?
Some readers might question the behaviour of some of the characters in Belfast. However, some might see their behavior as a reaction to the tight reins of Church and State on the role of women.
The book’s cover has echoes of ‘Call the Midwife’. A nurse of the 1970s looking up at a high-rise development with washing hanging from rails and lines and two young children in the foreground sets the scene, time and atmosphere of the book.
I highly recommend The Belfast Express to readers who enjoy novels interwoven with social history and serious issues. Skilfully-written in an autobiographical style with humour and moments of epiphany, it well deserves a 5 out of 5 rating and an award for a novel on a historical social issue.
June 20, 2026
This was a warm & feelgood story about the restrictions of life in the South of Ireland compared to the North in the 1970’s. We follow Brianna along with her strict & controlling mother as she navigates her career & her family after school & heading towards her nursing degree. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
May 18, 2026
A heart-breaking story that was all too real. Well written and engaging. I became very invested in the main character and admired her drive and commitment.
August 27, 2026
Important read for all guys ! X
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews