Northern Spy Quotes
"We are born with a startle reflex. Apparently it’s caused by the sensation of falling."
"He doesn’t constantly think the ground is falling away beneath him. I do, though."
"The threat level is severe, but, then, it has been for years."
"This doesn’t look like a conflict zone, it looks like the place you’d return to after a war."
"My son is six months old. The conflict might be over by the time he can walk or read."
"The basic argument of the Troubles hadn’t been resolved: most Catholics still wanted a united Ireland, most Protestants wanted to remain part of the UK."
"How could anyone not have seen this coming? We were living in a tinderbox."
"Peace hadn’t suited them. They hadn’t made a success of it."
"You can’t live in Northern Ireland at the moment and not be interested in politics."
"Returning to work, I felt like Rip Van Winkle, like I’d woken after decades, except no one else had aged."
"Nothing at the office has changed, and I have to act like I haven’t either."
"The schools were still segregated. You still knew, in every town, which was the Catholic bakery, which was the Protestant taxi firm."
"I often have to reassure people that I’m not worried when I am, in fact, thinking."
"One morning a news crew from America was in the café around the corner from my flat. The reporter wore construction boots, jeans, and a bulletproof vest. I watched him with curiosity and scorn at his precautions, his self-conscious air of bravery. I thought, You’re only flying in, you don’t live here like I do."
"Happier, even. Nothing was dull anymore. Every act—stringing up wet laundry, buying a bottle of beer—felt significant, portentous."
"It’s easier to pay them the money than to complain. It’s easier to do a lot of the things that they ask, given the alternatives."
"It was exciting in the beginning, when the unrest started. No one wants to admit that, but it has to be said."
"I’ve often wondered what it would be like to live during the Blitz, and now I think I know."
"In the first few weeks, when the protests and riots and hijackings began, the conflict was disruptive, rippling across ordinary routines."
"I remember her arguing once with a security guard trying to evacuate a shop, saying, 'Hang on, I’m just getting my sausage rolls.'"
"My mother was always polite to the British soldiers, even though as teenagers, two of her brothers were beaten up by soldiers, spat on and kicked until they both had broken ribs."
"Marian and I were talking over breakfast last summer when the café shook."
"I understand now that she was trying to protect us."
"If I seem distracted or tired, slower than before, my bosses might decide that someone without a baby, or at least not a single mother, would manage the job better."
"If someone were to hurt my son, I would rise up and find them."
"Once you’ve done something terrible, you have to keep going, you have to win, or else the terrible thing was for nothing."
"I wasn’t a fast swimmer before, but now it’s like sprinting."
"Everything about him is more emphatic now. His preferences, his stubbornness, his humor."
"You can get used to anything. You can turn your attention elsewhere."
"Sometimes at night I feel homesick, this huge, inappropriate longing for my own mother, and to be back in my childhood bedroom."
"We’ve been reporting on a series of ATM robberies around Downpatrick, for example. Marian’s unit performed those robberies."
"No matter how amicable Tom and I are, he won’t have that."
"I’m informing on the IRA. Once she leaves, I’ll have lost my chance."
"Eamonn comes to our meetings in a fleece jacket zipped to his chin, and I bring a wetsuit."
"I press dough into a pie pan, then turn back to the cookbook for the filling ingredients."
"During my pregnancy, my mam said, 'It doesn’t have to be a priest, you know. Anyone can christen a baby.'"
"I’d expected three full nights of sleep while Finn was away."
"Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’re okay, mam’s here."
"I lean forward to kiss Finn, then turn down the path."
"I’m going to keep myself alive until the security service or the police find me."
"Please. Please don’t do this. Please let me go home."
"He might not find it frightening, he might be curious."
"I wonder about that as work, as something useful."