English by birth.
British by nationality.
Scots prod from my Dad.
Irish farmer from my Mum.
Irish in my heart.
Northern Irish in my head.
I have multiple names. I’m Matt. I’m Matthew. And I’m also known as Mr Johnston and, to my favourite humans, as Daddy.
I grew up in Lisburn and I live in Bangor.
I went to a Catholic Primary School and Grammar School.
I’m a humanist, my own strict interpretation. I think humans are great. I think anyone who tries to attribute this greatness to mythology is a charlatan.
At University, when I left home, I stopped going to Church and joined the TA.
I feel some kinship with the Catholics of Northern Ireland from family ties but that’s about as far as it goes.
I’ve been on the Internet for longer than I’ve been off it. I have an identity there. My partner also uses my internet name as much as my given name.
I feel allegiance to the Union flag. I have too much respect for it to let it hang in rags. I’m more interested in an independent Northern Ireland as an option on the constitutional question than abandoning our responsibilities to London or Dublin.
I’m from a mixed marriage. I had one male parent and one female parent.
I’ve been married twice – both times to women from the “other” culture.
I’ve lived here for fifty of my forty one years but I feel like an outsider. According to a guy on the radio, this means I’m not a local.
I try to define myself and others by what I or they do rather than what I “have been” or what they “are”. I’m more interested in tomorrow than today or yesterday.