Alix O’Neill, THE TROUBLES WITH US. 4th Estate, London (2021)
MANY of us have a strong recollection of what life was like growing up in West Belfast, some good, some not so good. While I may have been born seven months prior to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, picking up a copy of West Belfast born journalist and broadcaster, Alix O’Neill’s memoir ‘The Troubles With Us’, I felt a deep sense of connection as she expertly depicts growing up in West Belfast and everything that comes with it – from bombs, boys to Boyzone lyrics.
Throughout this book, Alix takes us through her childhood, right up to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and we get a strong sense of what her family life was like as they move from the Glen Road to Andersonstown and in later life, East Belfast.
Alix O’Neill writes in a way that is witty and sure to bring a smile to your face as she recounts her school days at St Dominic’s, the antics of her friend group to sneaking over to The Crescent Bar on Sandy Row for an underage drink.
It was “a place where sectarianism was checked in with your coat at the front door".
“Local kids and affluent Protestants and Catholics from the suburbs got drunk together, we retched together, squeezed one another’s body parts on the dancefloor rhythmically to Show Me Heaven. We were a shining example of cross-community spirit, a rejection of the tribalism that had dominated our city for too long. Also, the Cres was the only pub that let in underage drinkers and served 70p shots.”
However, this memoir is expertly crafted around a timeline of some of the worst atrocities in the conflict and peppered throughout the humour are tales of our troubled past from the barbaric murder of Ann Ogilby, Michael Stone’s attack on Milltown Cemetery to the murder of Lyra McKee in 2019.
One of the things that makes this memoir stand out is it’s relatability. While the stories take place against a backdrop of the Troubles, this is a book about a young woman finding her way in a world that is a bit mad.
While studying at Trinity College in Dublin, Alix is confronted with something she has never thought of before and is left questioning her identity when she is told that she isn’t Irish – she is Northern Irish.
“It was true. I didn’t grow up watching the same shows as Tom and Mr G, didn’t share their cultural references. Even Tayto crisps tasted different up north. We were from the same island, but to Tom, my Irishness was not the same as his Irishness.”
We can all relate with Alix’s annual trips to the Clonard Novena (which the author likens to Glastonbury for Catholics) to enjoying a poke from Fusco’s on the Andytown Road or a fish supper in Long’s but it is the journey of self-discovery from a young teenager to having children of her own that will resonate most with readers.
Reading this book, you will come across characters that you can relate to in your own life. You will either know someone like them or perhaps you are that person.
From an eccentric mother who instils the best in her daughters while doing the school run in her dressing gown, to devoutly religious grandparents, it is clear to see that on the face of it, Alix’s family are your typical Irish family.
Other reviewers have likened this book to Derry Girls meets Philomena and I can see why. As we come to learn of some family secrets, readers will be left wondering if blood really is thicker than water.
If you are a millennial who wants a sense of what life was like for a teenager growing up towards the end of the Troubles, or you simply want to relate to your own memories, this book will provide you with a greater understanding of life in West Belfast than any social history textbook ever will.
