Belfast exhibition will celebrate NI’s Irish language revival

He was among the original Irish speakers who built and lived in the houses in Shaw’s Road from the beginning, and he still lives there.

Seán dug out as much memorabilia from the period as he could find to show the pupils.

“The Troubles had an effect on it alright, there’s no doubt – there was trouble here every other day of the week,” he said.

“But we lasted through that.

“The only thing we had, and I don’t know whether you’d call it a rule or not, was that Irish would be the language of the home.

“I was explaining to them the importance of community – it’s very, very important.

“If you lose sight of that you more or less lose everything.

“You have to know where you come from.”