#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Thomas "Dixie" Elliott

I was born in Rickmansworth England in 1957. My Mother is a Catholic and my late Father was a Protestant. My Father was working over there at the time and my Mother later joined him. They returned to Derry when I was two years old. I went to Saint Joseph's Secondary School where I was really only ever good at art. I became involved in Republicanism at the age of sixteen and was jailed in 1976 at the age of nineteen. I was sentenced to twelve years in 1977 and went on the Blanket Protest, where I remained for four and a half years until it ended after the second Hunger Strike in 1981. I spent nine years out of the twelve year sentence in jail and was released in 1985. I was married in 1988 and it was around this time that I left Sinn Fein. I'm an artist and I also write. I have finished two children's book's as yet unpublished which I've illustrated myself and I am presently writing an adult novel which could be best described as being a cross between Puckoon and An Beal Bocht by Flann O'Brien.

#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Olwen Dawe

Olwen Dawe is a businesswoman and economics student, undertaking an MEconScience in Policy. She is based between Westport, Co. Mayo and Dublin City. She is a feminist, arts enthusiast, music obsessive and politics junkie.

Olwen was the former Project Director of Yeats2015 and President of Network Ireland. She is a graduate of the National College of Industrial Relations and is an advisor to economic and social development agencies, including cross-border projects.

#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Ian Acheson

Ian Acheson is married, is 48 years old and is living in south west England. He is a "council house culchie made good via amazing parents and grammar school." Born in Enniskillen he was educated at Portora. He is a former senior civil servant with the Home Office, now living off his wits in the private sector with the odd diversion into troubles poetry you can see here in a collection called '51% British: writing the Troubles out of my head'.

#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Conor Houston

Conor Houston is a 32 year old who lives in Holywood, Co. Down. Conor is a social entrepreneur, influencer, lawyer, change agent and active citizen. 

Conor born in Holywood but moved with his family to Surrey, England at the age of 3 where he spent 10 years of his childhood. Conor returned to Northern Ireland in 1996 and attended Our Lady & St Patrick's College, Knock.

2016 is a time for national embarrassment, Ctd

Kevin Myers wrote in the Sunday Times of August 11 2013:

"The surreal tone to this year's MacGill Summer School was established at its opening ceremony, as the Taoiseach declared: "To be a real republic, Ireland has to be a sovereign republic." What? Sovereign? After surrendering vast swathes of legislative and financial independence to Europe? Has the man gone mad?"

Previous post on this topic featuring Fintan O'Toole here.

Diarmaid Ferriter - 2016, a state bereft of meaningful sovereignty

Diarmaid Ferriter is professor of modern Irish history at University College Dublin and has authored many books including The Transformation of Modern Ireland, 1900-2000, Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the life and legacy of Eamon de Valera and Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. He wrote of the centenary of 1916:

"As we in Ireland edge towards the centenary of the events that comprised the revolution of the early 20th century, we face a stark conclusion: this is a state bereft of meaningful sovereignty due to its bankruptcy and a state whose governing culture has been exposed as rotten.

We may have little to cheer about in 2016."

http://www.opendemocracy.net/diarmaid-ferriter/state-of-ireland

Fintan O'Toole calls 2016 an occasion for national embarrassment