Irish Independent, The Review These Walls are Still Talking 25/07/26
These Walls are Still Talking By Sara Colohan Three years ago, I walked through a broken door into the derelict shell of St. Brigid's Hospital in Ballinasloe, my hometown, and picked patient records up off the floor. Some dated back to the 1950s, ruined by damp seeping through broken roofs and windows. I double-bagged what I could carry and took them away, not knowing what I'd do with them, only that leaving them there to rot felt like a final indignity for people who had already lost so much. This month, If These Walls Could Talk , the new book by Cork author Michelle McDonagh, was released, and my experience has become part of her fictional story. In its acknowledgements, she credits my reporting and the Facebook page I set up on St. Brigid's as a direct inspiration. Chatting to her this week, I understand just how directly. Michelle's connection to Ballinasloe goes back further than her research. Her late mother, Lucy, was born and reared in a terraced house on St M...
