This Bloodline

On the 18th of July 1996, I was born in Craigavon Regional Hospital, Northern Ireland, to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. A few days later I was brought back to a beautiful home in the suburbs of Armagh City. As far as I was concerned, my childhood was idyllic, with two parents who loved me and eventually, a brother and a sister who became my best friends.

However, as I grew older and began to learn more about the politics of my home country and the history of my family. I learned that Armagh, the setting for my childhood memories was known to the rest of the world through images of violence. After moving to England in 2015, I was confronted with the one-dimensional understanding (if you can even call it that) of The Troubles. My family history is a patchwork of the police, Orange Order, the IRA, and people trying to find peace.

This Bloodline of Mine tells the story of a family across generations and communities dealing with a society in conflict and trying to make sense of it post-conflict.