The three members of Irish rap band Kneecap are ‘ceasefire babies’: they grew up on the streets of Belfast around the time of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. So did I. But the similarities between me and the band end there.
Despite what some of Kneecap’s fans might think, there was nothing glamorous about life as a ‘ceasefire baby’
On a November night in 2001, I was at the cinema with my brother. In Belfast, one of the best cinemas at the time was in Yorkgate. Unfortunately, it was situated at what is known as a ‘flashpoint’, where the Catholic New Lodge estate abutted the fiercely Protestant Tigers Bay. Riots were common. A thick steel fence was meant to keep cinemagoers safe, but it failed to stop the petrol bomb that was lobbed in our direction. A fireball erupted at our feet. I vividly remember the screams of those who were injured, the wailing of police sirens and, at one point, a huge explosion.
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