This simple stainless steel teapot was a gift from Joyce McCartan to Hillary Rodham Clinton on her visit to south Belfast in 1995. Joyce had set up a women’s drop-in centre following the murder of her teenage son. Set in the Lamplighter, a traditional fish and chip shop, it was a place where women from both sides of the religious divide could talk of their experiences during The Troubles and share ...
July 1972
They were beating the living daylights out of the ‘big drums’. Dusk had now turned to blackness. Brenda knew there was no chance this tribal thunder would let up any time soon. It was set to continue well into the night. The narrow street she stood on only served to amplify the sound.
She breathed in the acrid smell of burning tyres. Rival gangs of young lads ...
As a teenager living in Northern Ireland at the height of the conflict, I spent my days desperately wishing for peace. By the time I finished university, and with the violence showing no signs of ending, I left. A cop out, some might say when others stayed.
Perhaps that’s why I made the main character in my book a young peace campaigner, determined to change things for the better. My alter ...
