A BOSTON city councillor who grew up in Northern Ireland has spoken of why there is more to her story than simply being "a Protestant from Fermanagh".
This was the description given to Liz Breadon last week from fellow Boston councillor Frank Baker during a heated debate.
His remarks in the council chamber caused an outcry after he accused her of “an all-out assault on Catholic life” over proposed electoral boundary changes in the American city.
She was quick to hit back, taking the comments as a personal insult and noting she had married “a nice Irish Catholic girl".
Speaking to the Irish News, Ms Breadon (63) talked about growing up during the Troubles in rural Fermanagh, struggling to fit in when being gay was still illegal and why Brexit reduced her to tears.
“Frank is a volatile character so I don’t think the dust has settled yet,” she said of last week’s clash.
“It's quite shocking.
"There was an audible gasp in city council when he said it...I felt I had to respond.”
She said it is the first time she has ever encountered that attitude towards her since moving to Boston in 1995.
With the city experiencing huge growth, she said redrawing electoral boundaries to protect minorities and redistribute housing was unavoidable.
Now used to the rough and tumble of politics at Boston City Hall, she adds: “Inevitably, people get upset".
It is a long way from when the only activism that remotely appealed to her in Northern Ireland was with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Growing up in the Fermanagh townland of Cooneen, she said the rural location somewhat shielded her from the intensity of the Troubles seen in Belfast and Derry that dominated the news.
She enjoyed a cross-community education at Fivemiletown High School, but said it was much harder to find acceptance in her personal life.
“I didn’t really come out to myself. I sort of knew I was different but didn’t really come out until I was in my mid-twenties and then I really felt very constrained,” she said.
“Knowing that you would be discriminated against in your job, you were just very careful.
“The churches were pretty much unanimously opposed to any sort of recognition of gay people. That was really hard.”
Having worked as a physical therapist in Whiteabbey Hospital, she left Northern Ireland in 1995 to work in Boston’s healthcare system.
She decided to stay after finding a community of progressively minded "new Irish" people and meeting her future wife.
Starting her activism in Boston on LGBT issues and saving a local library, she said a housing crisis gave her the push to run for office three years ago and become the first ever woman elected in her district.
“It was thrilling to be elected as a city councillor, as an immigrant, as a woman,” she said.
She remains frustrated about the current state of politics back home with the latest Stormont crash as the 25th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement approaches.
“The morning I woke up and heard they passed Brexit I cried, because I realised right out of the box that all of the effort that was put into the peace process, I think Brexit jeapordises that,” she said.
“It really frustrates me that politicians in Northern Ireland can’t work together to deal with the issues and work for the people.”
With Covid-19 and the recent loss of her mother and sister, it’s been four years since her last trip home.
“I do love getting back to see my friends and how things are going,” she said.
“I’m always astounded by how much Belfast has changed and I’m sure I’ll be even more astounded when I next go back.”
