#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 I have finished two children's book's as yet unpublished which I've illustrated myself and I am presently writing an adult novel which could be best described as being a cross between Puckoon and An Beal Bocht by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 - Ruth Dudley Edwards

The name on her passport is Ruth Edwards, but the men of the family had Dudley as a second name so it became the family name and she couldn't escape it.  Ruth was born Dublin 1944 and brought up there, though parts of summers were often spent with maternal relatives in rural north Cork.   

#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Justine McGrath

Justine McGrath was born in Zambia in Central Africa. Her parents were both born and brought up in Belfast. She can call upon a famous father, the late Jack Kyle OBE, Irish rugby legend and International Rugby Hall of Famer. Justine attended boarding school at Victoria College Belfast and Methodist College Belfast. Following school Justine enrolled at Stirling University and completed a degree in French and Spanish. She is now lives in Dublin and is self-employed, doing the following: career coaching, writing, freelance French and Spanish teaching and book reviewing.

#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Andy Pollak

Andy Pollak is 67. He was born in Ballymena to a County Antrim mother and a Czech refugee father. He was brought up and educated in London and has lived largely in Dublin since 1986. He is a retired Irish Times journalist and now is a former director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh.

Brian John Spencer: "When did you first learn about the Easter Rising of 1916?" Andy Pollak:

"Reading about it as a teenager in London."

#NorthernIreland2016 Interview Series - Jonathan Drennan

Jonathan Drennan is the classic Belfast and Northern Ireland émigré. Born in Dundonald and raised in East Belfast, he attended RBAI then and Trinity, College Dublin. From Dublin the call of work took Jonathan to London and latterly Sydney, from where he responded to this interview.

Brian John Spencer: "When did you first learn about the Easter Rising of 1916?" Jonathan Drennan: 

"Comparatively recently, at university in Dublin, where I took it on myself to read up on it myself. I had barely studied it at school which was generally focused on the second world war for GCSE History."