“Living Through It, Living After It: Personal Reflections on ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland”

Abstract

2023 is an important year in Northern Ireland, marking twenty-five years since the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Northern Ireland, at one point referred to as a place apart, such was the egregious impact of ongoing violence, is also a place where people tried to live life as normally as possible. This article opens a window into the experiences of living and working in a troubled Northern Ireland through the reflective and reflexive lens of a father and son, one whose life has been dedicated to peacebuilding through academic research, the other, born in 1991 as a ‘child of peace’ and educated in the integrated school sector. The article takes the reader on a pathway through the challenges and opportunities encountered through these two diverse but connected biographies.