FOR centuries the rights and interests of the people of this country, nationalists and unionists, have been subject to the interests of the British government, irrespective of the collateral damaged caused to the people here.

On January 21 the Irish government marked the establishment of Ireland’s first national, sovereign, parliament – An Chéad Dáil.

Heroes are not born. They emerge from the circumstances of their lives and their times – circumstances which are extraordinary, challenging and in some cases life-changing and life-threatening.

Soloheadbeg is a little village situated northwest of Clonmel, Tipperary’s main town, in the province of Munster.

If the stakes were not so high for the people of Ireland and Britain it would be an enjoyable experience watching the British prime minster, Theresa May, scuttling around Europe begging for help for her Brexit plan, only to be shown the door.

Even though I know the general story about the massacre by the British Army of eleven people, 47 years ago in Ballymurphy, Dermott Hill and Whiterock Road - known as ‘The Ballymurphy Massacre’ - and I had heard family members speak about their harrowing experiences, there was something profoundly different sitting in courtroom number 12, in Belfast’s law courts last week at the start of the inquest into the massacre.