08-07-2025
The next big thing in books? The ‘ceasefire babies' of Northern Ireland
The generation of people born in Northern Ireland in the 1990s are known, with varying degrees of affection, as 'ceasefire babies'. They are united by being too young to remember the Troubles — but they have got their own troubles to contend with. Suicide rates in Northern Ireland have jumped since the conflict ended. (In fact, 3,709 people killed themselves in the 16 years after the Good Friday agreement, compared with 3,600 people who were killed during the 30 years of fighting.)
And in the absence of an armed struggle, there can be a kind of identity vacuum: if your parents fought for what they believed was right, are you supposed to just live an ordinary life — and be grateful for it? The rap group Kneecap have recently presented one solution to this problem: to take the anger of their forebears and reinvent it for a new generation. This astonishing short story collection represents another: to process those feelings of anger, disappointment and rootlessness through fiction.
