Writing ~ Re-connecting
Writing ~ Re-connecting
Ulster and Brexit: The pandemic distracted from the reality of Brexit. The threat of renewed violence and polarisation between British identity and Irish nationalism brings uncertainty. On the Ulster border no-one wants a hard border so hopefully compromise on customs and trade can avert this threat. Co-operation over the nature that binds us together on this island can offer new ways of exploring unity.
The Royal British Legion club is a centre of social activity and remembrance for British-Irish veterans in Ulster’s Castlederg in Northern Ireland. Our memories are long and bitter on the border foiling attempts to put history into museums, social clubs,…
In the violent confrontations in the 1970’s 80’s and 90’s, checkpoints manned by British soldiers at border crossings became another image of our polarised society. The „Troubles“ delayed the impact of UK and Irish joint membership of the European Union…
In Ulster, whether Irish or British or a mix, we all share a legacy of violence, death, exploitation, injury, and trauma in our families. Denise Blake’s poem Wild Horses celebrates a small victory over the British war veterans brought to…
#Strabane of the 1950’s and 1960’s was bombed and developed into history. The Town Hall, the Convent of Mercy, and many shops exist now only in my memory. Also gone is my father’s pub on Quinn’s corner with the old…
Strabane Customs Post on the #Strabane#Lifford bridge modernised in the 1960’s became an established feature of local life. The British-Irish borderline ran through my identity and my life – swinging between the stamp of fear and the pleasures of peace.…
#Ulsterborder has a history of violence with disagreement over the implementation of the treaty creating #IrishPartition. Between 1916 and 1921 disagreement about whether part of Ireland should remain British caused a savage civil war between different Irish factions which is…
#Donegal #Fermanagh #Tyrone enjoyed our common European times when our Ulster Border softened. The binary opposition of US and THEM seeping through religion and British/Irish identity was slowly dissipating along the border until the exit of the UK from the…
#Brexit coincides with the centenary of #IrishPartition a process extending from 1920 to 1925. Britain’s Government of Ireland Act became operational on 3rd May 1921. In #Pettigo in 1922, British and Irish armies marked formal agreement to the #UlsterBorder. Many…
The Harp and the Crown image here on the Kings Inn in Dublin conjures up many untold stories of the border and its history. In The Glass Shore, a collection of short stories by “Women Writers from the North of…
I was born under Knockavoe in #Strabane, in a “pocket of mountains” in the words of poet, #Maureen Boyle whose father was from Donegal but settled in Strabane as my parents did. I now live near the #Donegal #Tyrone #Fermanagh…