Elizabeth Swords
The diarist and author, Elizabeth (Betty) Swords, spoke to 4th Years in the library on the 11th of October. Elizabeth talked about her life growing up in Dublin in the 1950’s and 60’s, which was very different to the life of a teenager now. She read from her autobiography, A Patchwork of Broken Pieces and shared stories about dress designing, dating and being a mother and grandmother. The students were enraptured and Elizabeth urged them to keep a diary because you can write down events that you wouldn’t tell your best friend which can be very helpful. Also,it can be amusing to look back at events that are dramatic today but become memories in six months time. On a different note, Betty said that if you can sew you will never be short of money and that girls nowadays take more care designing their Debs dress than they do their Wedding Dresses!
Paula Leyden
The author, Paula Leyden, spoke to 1st Years about her book, The Butterfly Heart which won the Eilis Dillon Award for best 1st novel in 2012. Paula talked about growing up in Africa and related snake stories that her father told her. She spoke about the characters in her book and what inspired her to write this book, which was that a school friend of hers disappeared when she was 15 and Paula and her school friends only found out afterwards that the friend had been sent 500 miles away to be married to a much older man. Paula said that it was very apt that she should be in Beaufort today as it was the 1st International Day of the Girl, whose focus this year is on child marriage. Her advice to young writers was to set aside 20 minutes per day to write and to watch and listen to everything! Paula posted information on her website about her Beaufort visit and she invites her readers to comment.
