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.  "...the writing is extraordinary." —Stephen Dubner, author of Freakonomics "Brigid Jones in a war-zone." —Anne Cadwallader, author of Lethal Allies   "Eimear O'Callaghan's 1972 eloquent eye-witness testimony salutes the hard work, the persistence and the breathtaking courage of those who fought against tyranny and oppression for so many, many years!" — The Celtic Connection , September 2015 [Subject: Memoir, History, Irish Studies, British Studies] ‘A startling account of day-to-day life during the deadliest year of the Troubles…O’Callaghan’s memoir makes for a sobering and occasionally mind-boggling read’ — Irish News   ‘Compelling and alive… Belfast Days remains essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what it was like for ordinary families as they struggled to get through a nightmare not of their making’ — Irish Independent   ‘ Belfast Days is an unintended history. An extraordinary aspect is the contrast between the everyday lives of people (family, school-friends…) and the bizarre often terrifying series of events going on all around them. Her diary is more than merely worth reading, it is essential reading. If you want to understand an important aspect of life in Northern Ireland at a critical moment in our collective history, then read this diary’ — Belfast Newsletter   ‘Amid her expressions of terror and dread at the extraordinary events unfolding around her, O’Callaghan’s entries include mentions of boys, fashion and the odd night out, as she attempts to come of age in one of the worst years in the history of the North of Ireland’ — Irish Post   ‘The reader will enjoy the domestic details…but, in truth, this is a very uncomfortable read for anyone who lived through these years. It is difficult because it indicates so vividly not only the scale of destruction in 70s Belfast but also how ‘ordinary’ people can become alienated from people with whom they share the same patch of earth…To have published this book and laid bare unreconstructed thoughts and mixed emotions is very brave and highly instructive’ — Ulster Tatler   ‘O’Callaghan’s diary powerfully and touchingly conveys the destructive impact of war on adolescents..She has made an important contribution to the documentary record of the conflict’ — Irish Times   ‘Harrowing, moving and, at times, almost incredible, Eimear O’Callaghan’s observations of a year that was unprecedented in its brutality and bloodshed are compelling and vivid. Her unique and unadorned record stands testament to the resilience, solidarity and decency of thousands of ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances’ — Derry Journal   ‘ Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary is, in many ways, an extraordinary document…Even at 16, O’Callaghan was a chronicler of her time…She shows flashes of teenage angst, throwing the occasional tantrum, but any impulse towards self-absorption is quashed by the scale of violence around her’ — Sunday Business Post   ‘Whatever your generation…read this diary. In the process you may smile, you may be shocked, you may even see your own reflection. But most of all, read Belfast Days because this story is painful to remember, too important to forget’ — Presbyterian Herald     ‘Enlightening, troubling, and profoundly moving, this is a ‘must’ read’ ‘— Irish Examiner   Eimear O’Callaghan is a former BBC news editor with more than 30 years’ experience in print and broadcast journalism, notably with The Irish News, The Irish Times , RTÉ, BBC Ulster, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio Foyle. Eimear left