If you’d asked me five years ago if I would ever be back living in Belfast again, I probably would have told you it was unlikely. I’m someone who left as soon as I could.

At 18, I joined the Irish diaspora in London, not planning to ever come back home permanently.

When I tired of London, I ended up in Liverpool and then Toronto before deciding to return to Belfast for ‘a few months or so’ after more than 15 years away.

This was only because I wanted some time to think about my next move.

David Adams: People ask me what a ‘New Ireland’ looks like. I saw it at the Fleadh last week

Brian Feeney: Sinn Féin cannot enter another Stormont Executive without progress on a border poll

However, not long after arriving back, I decided to stay put.

I never hated Belfast but I did think it was a hard place to grow up in and not somewhere I could see a real future.

I was lucky enough not to grow up during The Troubles. My memories of the times before the Good Friday Agreement are limited to seeing the army on the streets, something I thought was totally normal until I moved away.

Although I am part of the generation who supposedly ‘never had it so good’, the peace we achieved never seemed to give way to........

© The Irish News