James Nesbitt: Border poll debate ‘has to be out there’

The actor, who also appeared in The Hobbit and Bloodlands, described growing up during the Troubles, saying it was a “backdrop to our lives”, despite being “slightly distant from the conflict” because “it was just up the road”.

He said: “If you were to ask me, the boy that I was many, many years ago, that I would ever stand in Dublin and make that speech, I would have said you were bonkers.”

“The debate is out there and it continues because it has to be out there,” he added.

“You can call yourself whatever you want. You can call yourself Northern Irish or from the north of Ireland, you can be nationalist or unionist, that doesn’t matter,” he continued.

“It’s just really about having an identity and a protected identity and feeling that you can be part of a shared island with shared identities in which we move forward for the best of everyone.”