Author Claire Mitchell's book 'The Ghost Limb' to be launched in Derry

Claire is a writer and former sociologist at Queen’s University Belfast, who writes about politics and everyday life. She is the author of two books and a wide range of journalism, essays and prose.

Claire said: “I’m from a protestant background in Northern Ireland but I’m probably a bit different from the stereotype – I’m definitely not a PUL (Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist). My wider family were PUL but my parents were really left-wing, really Irish in their politics. We grew up in the Charismatic Movement in the 70s and 80s, where Catholics and Protestants were sharing their lives together. I got an email last week from my mum’s friend, who grew up in a loyalist estate in Dundonald and she married a Christian Brother and they got married in a Catholic church in Bangor. My parent’s church provided the music and they met together in their house every week after. So, I grew up with that really strong sense of anti-sectarianism, really left-wing, we always had Irish passports, we were never Unionists and we supported the civil rights movement.

"I’ve always lived, though, in areas that were very ‘red, white and blue’ like East Belfast and the Ards Peninsula and you have this sense of keeping your head down and not wanting to say too much and that’s where this book came from. It’s about the historical silencing of those kind of protestants and how a group of us were really fed up of being quiet.

"The book is a joyous rediscovery of our voice. There’s about 20 people in it and we’ve all got different stories with a similar pattern of wanting to break out of the silence.

"I do feel a sense of belonging to where I am, especially after writing the book. It’s not a typical protestant belonging, we sent our children to a Catholic school and our oldest has just gone on to a Catholic secondary school because she loves Irish. So, we’ve had to work very hard I think, at carving out a different sense of belonging. The book is a bit of a template of 20 people showing how we did it. Before I wrote it, the thing that came across in everyone’s interviews is that we all sort of thought we were carrying all this by ourselves and we were total weirdos but I really don’t think that is the case.

“In a nutshell, finding 1798 history right on my doorstep in Co. Down was kind of the lightbulb moment where I realised alternative Protestants have been here all along, for hundreds of years. That our stories were often just told quietly, not really reflected in the way our local histories are told, or in our current politics. I really liked a lot of the United Irish politics, and came to see that this was actually the tradition I belonged to. Finding this history gave me a much deeper connection to place, and helped heal the ghost limb”

The Droichead Project is based in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin but facilitates classes and workshops in predominantly protestant areas of the city to make the language accessible to everyone. Claire attends Irish classes in Turas, a similar project based in East Belfast.

“I started learning in Turas about four years ago and I love it,” she said. “I think the establishment of Turas was so foundational for so many of us. Growing up, I used to listen to Irish language radio all the time and I didn’t have a clue of anything that was being spoken! But I listened in bed under the covers, which is a weird thing to do, but I felt it had something to do with me and it was beautiful and relatable. But I grew up in Banbridge during the troubles so there was no access to Irish language classes. There’s people in the book who talk about how Turas and Linda (Irvine) have broken that barrier that a lot of prods have to get over. There’s a lot of blockages but Irish feels like a spiritual home.”

Claire will be launching her book in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin with Angeline King, an Ulster-Scots novelist and poet and Helen Henderson, Community Activist.

"I wrote the book during lockdown so it was seeped in being in those protestant or majority Unionist areas but I think it’s going to be different west of the Bann and I’m looking forward to seeing what those differences might be.”

The book launch will take place on Tuesday, March 14 at 12pm in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin.