Born in 1970

The Troubles intensified, and the Arms Crisis shook the Irish government — two ministers were sacked amid allegations of helping smuggle arms to nationalists in the north. Jack Lynch survived but the episode revealed deep divisions. In the south, daily life continued — shopping, farming, GAA, the pub — but the north was always present, on the news and in conversations.

The generation that had grown up with television was more politically aware than any before it.