It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?

To remember everything is a form of madness.

People with a culture of poverty suffer much less from repression than we of the middle class suffer and indeed, if I may make the suggestion with due qualification, they often have a hell of a lot more fun than we have.

Confusion is not an ignoble condition

The Troubles are a pigmentation in our lives here, a constant irritation that detracts from real life. But life has to do with something else as well, and it's the other things which are the more permanent and real.