Every human community, from the family to the Nation, is driven to tell its story to the world it inhabits. The 'official version' is often censored, coloured, distorted and incomplete. The 'unofficial version' is often closer to the truth, and more compelling for that. And it is often in the unofficial versions that the universality of human experience that spans race, religion, gender, politics and geography are to be found.
The stories that come out of the people of Ireland - whether those people are native-born, the stranger within our gates, or the Irish Diaspora - are worth telling. In sharing them with the world, we also tell them to ourselves. When we do that we better understand ourselves, and in reaching that understanding find our place in, and our potential influence on, the wider world.
