were nurses in the nhs. they d come overfrom ireland and had trained and worked in the north east latterly. so, they were really passionate about public services and about the role that they were doing, but we would have, particularly with my granddad, you d have a massive stack of papers. we d always argue hammer and tongs about what was going on in the world. he just liked to debate and discuss and to challenge. and then my grandma would, you know, get fed up and disappear off upstairs and listen to radio eireann for a while as we kind of argued it out. yeah. and your mum, it was tough. she was a single mum. relatively young in her mid 20s. yeah. when your dad disappeared. yeah. my mam brought me up entirely on her own. i never met my dad. he was never involved in my life. that s not a source of any particular sadness. we did well. it was a loving family. but i did. you know, you did always feel a sense ofjudgement about your family. it was, you know, less
was politics something you talked about at home, you argued about at home? we talked about it a lot. both my grandparents were nurses in the nhs. they d come overfrom ireland and had trained and worked in the north east latterly. they were really passionate about public services and about the role that they were doing, but we would have, particularly certainly with my granddad, you d have a massive stack of papers. we d always argue hammer and tongs about what was going on in the world. he just liked to debate and discuss and to challenge. and then my grandma would, you know, get fed up and disappear off upstairs and listen to radio eireann for a while as we kind of argued it out. yeah. and your mum, it was tough. she was a single mum. relatively young, in her mid 20s. yeah. when your dad disappeared. yeah. my mum brought me up entirely on her own. i never met my dad. he was never involved in my life. that s not a source of any particular sadness. we did well. it was a loving family. b
richness in the world, so much to learn, so much to understand and you can t do all of that at school. so a bit of political education, though, from quite a young age. you re getting healey, you re getting benn, you re getting labour history, a labour supporting family, i assume. was politics something you talked about at home, you argued about at home? we talked about it a lot. both my grandparents were nurses in the nhs. they d come overfrom ireland and had trained and worked in the north east latterly. they were really passionate about public services and about the role that they were doing, but we would have, particularly with my granddad, you d have a massive stack of papers. we d always argue hammer and tongs about what was going on in the world. he just liked to debate and discuss and to challenge. and then my grandma would, you know, get fed up and disappear off upstairs and listen to radio eireann for a while as we kind of argued it out. yeah. and your mum, it was tough. she w