Roslyn Dee: 'It brought me back to the day my father's workplace, a department store, was burned to the ground by incendiary devices and I stood watching with my mother'

"It's a midweek morning in the ­early 1990s and I'm on Pat Kenny's show on RTÉ. I've been invited on along with a fellow female Northerner to talk about what it's like living in the south: she as a Catholic and me as a Protestant. It's an illuminating, deep-dive kind of a chat, covering many ­dimensions of our lives and seeking to shine a light on how our advance conceptions - and our lived realities - might differ."

"In the course of the conversation I ­explain I am probably not your bog-standard Northern Prod because my father had been raised Catholic and my ­mother ­Protestant. While my sister and myself were brought up in my mother's faith, ­because my mother was an only child that meant that each and every one of my aunts and uncles and cousins was Catholic. In the context of that discussion I used the words "mixed ­marriage"."

Everyday sectarianism in 1970s Northern Ireland affected most families and shaped intergenerational religious identities. A midweek morning in the early 1990s finds a Northern woman on Pat Kenny's RTÉ show with a fellow female Northerner to compare living in the south, one as a Catholic and one as a Protestant. The conversation covers many dimensions of life and contrasts advance conceptions with lived realities. The Northern woman explains her mixed-parent background: a father raised Catholic and a mother Protestant. She and her sister were brought up in the mother's faith, yet most maternal relatives remained Catholic, reflecting mixed marriages and divided kin networks.

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