I was born in Bradford in 1971, my Da was from Laois, and my mother was from Bradford with ancestry in Laois and Mayo. The first ‘grown up’ book I remember reading was called ‘Heroes of Kilmainham’, when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Irish identity, and pride in it wasn’t overt in our family, it wasn’t even tangible at times, but I can’t ever remember feeling English, there was always something lacking, like the feeling of belonging somewhere itself was displaced .

My Da used to tease my accent, ‘ah, you’re only a little Yorkie’, and I think he was bemused by my obsession with Irish music, literature and politics, but he’d laid the foundations in my young head without ever really realising it. As an adult I did have a British Passport for a few years, but when it was robbed from a car I decided to apply for an Irish passport.

It felt like an official expression of something I’d always known to be true, at least to me, and that feeling has not diminished down the years. Brexit reinforced it, but only superficially. I’m still obsessed with and love Ireland, it’s people, politics and art. I visit often, I lived in Waterford for a couple of years in my twenties but circumstances brought me back to England.I’ve forged long lasting friendships in Waterford, Kilkenny, Laois and Kerry over the years and one day I know I’ll go back for good’