“It’s our kith and kin and it’s our family that are being murdered.”
Micheál Martin is our guest on a brand new Ireland Unfiltered this week and he spoke with host Dion Fanning in an in-depth interview about coping with unbearable tragedy, his journey as a nationalist and how Brexit can be stopped.
He spoke of how he and three others made a journey to Northern Ireland on a learning experience and explained how the whole thing was an “eye-opener” for him in terms of learning about the realities of the conflict.
Martin: We met young Unionists in their homes. And I will never forget them really barking at us, giving a very forceful message to us.
‘People say it’s the uniform that they’re killing, it’s my uncle, it’s my cousin, it’s no uniform to us. It’s our kith and kin and it’s our family that are being murdered.’
That stuck with me, this idea of uniting Ireland by killing the uncles, the fathers, of people that we allegedly want to unite ourselves with. That jarred with me, it began to jar and it took me a while…
Dion: It was that trip that made it really jar?
Martin: It was a start, because I’d met Unionists face to face in their home
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Ireland Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with Carlsberg Unfiltered, will be available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Tuesday.
