A DUBLIN hospital in the 1970's may seem an unlikely setting for a romance novel, but Delgany-based author Beatrice Aird-O'Hanlon decided that the drama of hospital life was the perfect backdrop for her debut novel 'Return to Coolavella'.
This book will bring many people back to an era when Irish hospitals were run like military operations by the nuns, according to Beatrice. It also features a steamy love triangle between a student nurse, a doctor and a racehorse trainer.
It was while the former nurse and midwife was working from home in clinical research that she began to pen the novel, after friends urged her to record all their experiences at St. Vincent's Hospital.
After going hammer and tongs at the book for three months at the end of last year, Beatrice decided that the best way to spend her SSIA windfall would be to self-publish the book.
'My friends told me that if I didn't write it all down, our stories would be lost forever,' explains Beatrice. All the experiences are based on things that actually happened. but the characters and names are different."
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