Children of the Revolution: the Lives of Sons and Daughters of Activists in Northern Ireland

Children of the Revolution contains the stories of twenty people who had a parentpolitically active in Northern Ireland’s recent conflict, the majority deeply involvedin non-state combatant groups. Sons and daughters of republicans and loyalists, asadults now, they recount their experiences of childhood and how the activities of theirmothers or fathers impacted on their lives. They tell of police and army raids, prisonvisits, absent or deceased parents with honesty and emotion. Some reject the parentand the events that led to their own suffering, while others are completely supportiveof the parent and his or her politics; many are ambivalent. In the end, some individualswere clearly traumatised by their experience, but all display a remarkable level of resilience in the face of what violent conflict brought their way.