Writer Brian Keenan says imagination is key in Northern Irish politics

The stories that he told on the podium at the Hilton may not have been underpinned by demographics or theory but they touched a chord.

Afterwards, as he tried to escape to the bar for a pint with his friend Terry Anderson, former Associated Press bureau chief who was also held hostage in Lebanon, he was stopped again and again by people who wanted to thank him for his talk.

So why did Keenan, a Protestant by upbringing, speak at a Sinn Fein gathering?

“I was asked to do it,” he said. “And I thought, how could I do this? I needed to speak with a voice that isn’t normally heard. What we have in Northern Ireland now is a badly hobbled together thing,” he continued. “The issue is not about a united Ireland. It’s about imagination.”

​
Nster.com