History / New Skerries book a ‘labour of love’ for local historian
Violet McQuade’s Out Skerries – The Forgotten Isles is getting a second launch event in Lerwick tonight
A NEW book has been released about the history and heritage of Skerries.
Violet McQuade’s Out Skerries – The Forgotten Isles is only the second book to have been written about the island community, which has a population of around 30 people.
It will have a second launch event at the Shetland Library in Lerwick tonight (Thursday) at 7pm.
It features “researched information, oral history, photos and illustrations in an attempt to ensure that Skerries’ history and heritage is not forgotten about”.
When local historian McQuade set out many years ago to try and find out more about the island, where she was born and raised, she did not imagine that she would manage to find as many newspaper articles, documents and stories as she did.
Countless trips to the Shetland Museum and Archives resulted in McQuade managing to unearth a wealth of information, with staff on hand to help.
She embarked on an Open University course in history around 15 years ago, which resulted in an honours degree.
The first piece of work McQuade did was to write a story about the peat boat disaster, a tragic event that happened in Skerries in 1842.
This had sparked the idea that she would try to write a book about Skerries if she got her degree.
Ten years later, and McQuade’s long-awaited book was launched in the Skerries hall at the beginning of July.
It was said to be a significant event for Skerries, as despite the 30-strong population around 60 folk turned up.
Shetland Museum curator Dr Ian Tait introduced the event and he said calling the book a “diligent piece of work is a serious understatement…it’s more than an amazing piece of work, it’s a piece of work that needs to have been written”.
Until now, there has only been one book published about Skerries, which was written by the late Joan Dey, a former local teacher.
McQuade’s near 500-page book is said to be a “labour of love”, and it was put together with the support of her daughter Louise and Craig Sim from Art Machine.
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