The Way We Are

We, as in my good wife and myself, will be on the radio on Saturdays April 8th and 15th. The show is called The Way We are and will be broadcast on Radio Ulster between 11.30 and 12.00.

I also found out that my story "The Flying of Kites" will be printed in the Belfast Telehraph next week. So lots of positive things happening on the media front :) .

The Way We Are

We, as in my good wife and myself, will be on the radio on Saturdays April 8th and 15th. The show is called The Way We are and will be broadcast on Radio Ulster between 11.30 and 12.00.

I also found out that my story "The Flying of Kites" will be printed in the Belfast Telehraph next week. So lots of positive things happening on the media front :) .

What is in my Nintendo DS ...

What is in my Nintendo DS ...

Your National Identity and Peace

What does it mean to be you? Is it your upbringing? Is it your genes? Is it your spirit? Who are you?

These are some of the questions that my wife and I have been asked lately in a BBC interview for BBC Radio Ulster. Why were we asked this? Well we have spent a great deal of time not living in Northern Ireland. We lived in Sweden for eight years and then in Galway for two years. How does that change you? How does that affect who you are?

I think Northern Ireland today is a wonderful place to live. People are friendly (on the whole) and you are never too far away from beautiful countryside. Northern Ireland - because of its history - has been left behind the rest of the world in many ways. Some good and some not so good. On the good side of things - people still have time for each other. "How are ye?" "what's the craic?" would be heard on the regular basis... or "Acccch that awful.." When things are not so good and a compassionate shoulder is needed. On the bad side of things - sectarianism can still be found and if not sectarianism then racism....

On BBC's Sunday Sequence a story was told of a Roman Catholic church in east Belfast that was vandalised because so called "non-nationals" attended mass there. The community rallied round from all sides with a Presbyterian Minister even attending mass to show solidarity with the catholic community... There lies hope... Seeing past the labels society presses on us and seeing the humanity beneath.

The more we expose ourselves to other cultures and other nationalities the less tied up we get with our own national identity and the more we associate ourselves with being human - above all else.


Allen