Lettera a Lia

Lia Cianetti-Larkin was born into a post-conflict society in the middle of a global pandemic. The Belfast-born child of an Italian mother and a Southern Irish father, Lia has British, Irish and Italian passports. Northern Ireland is the strangest little corner of the UK – or Ireland – depending on who you talk to! A tribal place where the locals can’t even agree on the name – whether it’s Northern Ireland or the North of Ireland – it’s a place where identity is everything. British or Irish, Protestant or Catholic? But what will it mean to be Northern Irish for Lia’s generation, born long after the Good Friday Agreement? What does the conflict mean to the immigrants who’ve chosen to make their lives in Northern Ireland? And as Covid slowly recedes after two hard years, what will the long-term effects be for those born during the pandemic? How will we explain this strange time to them in years to come?