The reality of life in Northern Ireland is that if you were Protestant, you learned British history, and if you were Catholic, you learned Irish history in school.
The big missing part of the jig-saw is to get the assembly back up and running here in Northern Ireland, to get shared government back in business, that is my objective, and we await the IRA statement to see if this will trigger a new dawn.
That feeds anger, and I mean when we went and at last thank heavens got towards peace in Northern Ireland we went for justice within Northern Ireland as well as using security well, as well as a political settlement, but surely that is the lesson.
I’ve got my roots in Northern Ireland – my biological father’s side of the family were from Belfast.
Dragged out of your bed at the age of seven, my mother screaming, six kids under the age of 12. I’m not equating my experience with the people who lived in Northern Ireland. But my dad was always out and about late at night, and I could not go to sleep until I knew he was in.
Quite simply, I maintained contact with Sinn Fein and believed that there had to be a political, not a military, solution to the situation in Northern Ireland.
I looked at it, and it was like, ‘Can I push and make the Olympic squad?’ It is tough going from 18 players, including Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. I thought that might be a push too far for me. I had no Champions League with Chelsea. I lost my motivation.
While the E.U. Withdrawal Act ensures that Brexit will work for all the devolved nations and our U.K. devolution settlements, the special requirements of Northern Ireland, which uniquely shares a land border with another E.U. member state, present a more formidable challenge.
When the problems in Northern Ireland started, it was not a question of Protestantism or Catholicism, because the Catholic church was the only church at that time-it was a nationalist conflict.
A Canada-style deal for the whole of the UK results in a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. For that reason, it has never been acceptable to the EU without a permanent hard border down the Irish Sea.
Men, once enemies, are now jointly governing in Northern Ireland. And although there have been several hitches, by and large it’s working well.
I’m involved in Northern Ireland Screen and have been for a long time, so I keep my eyes open and ears to the ground.
Ever since I left Northern Ireland, I’ve always been pretty comfortable on my own, which contradicts a lot of people’s perceptions of me.
I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university.
My father was from Northern Ireland, and coming from somewhere like that, your faith defines you. That’s something we don’t really understand outside Northern Ireland, but because of my parents and grandparents, I’ve experienced it.
If Northern Ireland is in one customs regime and the Republic of Ireland is in another, why won’t a customs border be necessary, just as happens with every other land border of this type?
My dad was a keen actor when he was young; my auntie is heavily involved in amateur dramatics back in Northern Ireland, and my great aunt was a woman called Greer Garson.
I’ve never put Northern Ireland into a novel because it’s not my territory. I come from the South, so my imaginative territory is very much the Republic of Ireland rather than the North. Even though, if I wrote a novel about the North, it might sell more.
The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.
We’re nondenominational. I come from Northern Ireland, and we’ve had religious wars for years. I didn’t want to create an illusion that my God is better than your God. So our show is a spiritual show, not a religious show.
Northern Ireland has treated me well, you know?
‘Game of Thrones’ was a game-changer for Northern Ireland. There’s going to be a massive gap when it goes.
You can get on with your job. I’m going to get on with mine. And mine is to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland, that’s what they expect from me and I’m not going to be deflected by interesting academic or media speculation or attempts to take the whole debate back.
This is the great thing about Northern Ireland. I walk down the street and people stop me and say things like, ‘I know you. You’re that wee golfer, aren’t you?’ I say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ They say, ‘Keep it up, wee man.’ It’s very funny and that’s why I want to stay here as long as possible.
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