In the latest of our Northern Roots series, where we speak to people originally from Northern Ireland but currently living elsewhere – or vice versa – our interviewee is Nathan Stewart in Brussels. You can follow Nathan on Twitter at @nathanjstewart.

 

1. Tell us about yourself. When did you leave Northern Ireland, and where did you go? What do you do now?

It’s been almost ten years since I last properly lived at home. I grew up in east Belfast and always fancied moving away at some point. Not really out of any desire to get out, just because it seemed like fun. Despite always being on the cusp of moving back, I still haven’t quite managed it yet.

I left to study French and Politics at the University of Glasgow in 2008 and found the city to be like a bigger Belfast with a bit more going on. From there it seemed to make sense to actually use my French in France and I moved over to Paris after graduation without any real plan.

I was an Au Pair for a bit and worked in a few Parisian kitchens and Irish pubs before getting into Sciences Po for a Masters in Communications. It’s where all the most recent French Presidents studied and I felt a bit out of place as a Belfast man. It was fun though, and I got to work at EDF Energy’s headquarters and at the United Nations Environment Programme for a bit off the back of research I’d done during the COP21 Climate Conference in 2015.

As beautiful and weird as Paris can be, I needed to calm down a bit so found myself moving to Brussels at the end of 2017. I now work for a public affairs consultancy in the famously ugly EU Quarter. It’s going well so far, but I’m keenly aware that moving on to a new city entirely is sort of the opposite of moving back to Belfast.

 

2. What do you think when you see the Northern Ireland of today, in the news and on social media?

It’s probably just frustration at being away. I get homesick when I see my friends dicking around online and I feel powerless when I see the state of things at home. To counter this, I started a website called Fly By Those Nets when I was in Paris as a way of avoiding getting too disconnected. It helps, and has been pretty exciting to be a part of, but if anything it’s just given me more reason to head back at some point and have a real go at it.

So it’s mostly a sort of longing really. Especially with all the chat around the recent referendum down south and the momentum for change in the North, I wish I could be in the mix of everything again. My news feed and timelines have been full of Irishness and silly memes for months and without social media I’d really have no clue what’s happening. While it’s sad to miss out on the atmosphere in person, it’s been really inspiring to see all the activism online recently.

NI Twitter can get dead weird though. There’s the kind of parochial negativity that pervades everything on the surface, and that can be pretty tiring, but then there’s the odd flash of the bizarre that reminds me of what I’m missing out on by being over here in EU-town.

3. Are you hopeful for Northern Ireland’s future? Will Brexit make a difference?

Yes. You have to be hopeful otherwise what’s the point. I’m not too optimistic for the near future however, which is a different thing. Brexit is a mess. Stormont doesn’t look like it’ll be up and running any time soon. But in the long run, we’re probably still on the way to everything being OK.

Regardless of the ‘big P’ political situation at the moment, things are certainly looking better than when I last lived at home. I have a younger brother doing his GCSEs right now and even anecdotally from him, school seems like a much better place to be these days. We’re all just a bit more accepting and relaxed about difference, and his generation are already starting to mess everything up for all the older people in charge.

Of course, I still get pretty anxious when I think about climate change. Rising sea levels don’t care if you’re Catholic or Protestant. But I’ve noticed I’ve been sleeping a lot better since I stopped working in the environmental sector.

 

4. Do you think you will return to Northern Ireland? What could convince you to come back?

I’ve touched on this above, but yes. I want to. That doesn’t mean I will, but having it in the back of my mind as a possibility keeps me connected to my homeland and family anyway. I have a nice old map of Ireland on the wall above my desk at work and it’s definitely calling to me.

Practically though, finding a job that I’d want to do would be what would finally lure me back. I’ve had this whole thing about ‘making the most of’ my degrees and international experiences while I’ve been away, and I think I’ve been a bit weird about seeing home as step backwards. But yeah, I definitely would move back if I saw something worthwhile. There’s also this deep felt desire to actually get into politics one day, but I’d rather rack up a bit more life experience first.

 

5. What can Northern Ireland learn from the place you live now?

It’s funny because I recently saw some old briefings for Tony Blair that were made available under Freedom of Information laws, and top civil servants had warned him off emulating Belgian-style devolution. So I guess that advice still stands. Belgium broke the world record for the time taken to form a government with 541 days back in 2011, and we’re catching up fast.

More positively, one of the main things I do notice every day are the bilingual street signs. Obviously, Northern Ireland has its own reasons to be wary of rolling out bilingualism everywhere but it works pretty well on a practical level here in the Belgian capital. Once you head out into Wallonia or Flanders they mostly go back to French or Dutch anyway, so there’s definitely compromises to be found. I’d love for Northern Ireland to be able to move away from thinking about how things could be bad for us, and think about the good they could be for them. It’s not all zero sum.

6. If Northern Ireland had a president with sweeping powers, and it was you, what would you do?

I’d just put checks in place to ensure that this level of power could never be amassed by one person ever again. Then I’d resign.

The Northern Irish people know what’s best for them, just so long as the parties get out of the way.

 

7. What would you like to see more of on Northern Slant?

Northern Slant has got its own niche which is great. I’ve really enjoyed the in-depth pieces on here and would like to see more of that.

I think it goes for every media organisation, but there needs to be a real commitment to platforming diverse voices. Diversity in Northern Ireland, particularly in 2018, has to mean more than just representing both sides of the community. It’s something we do struggle with at Fly By Those Nets though, and it’s nice to see efforts being made elsewhere.

I love the state of the local independent media scene at the moment, with other sites like ChallengesNI, The Jist and The Last Round really complementing the more established stuff like Slugger O’Toole. So yeah, keep it up!

 

8. If you could ask three Northern Ireland politicians (past or present) to dinner, who would they be? And why?

I’d just want to listen to Anna Lo and Bernadette McAliskey talk.

And I’d invite Hugh O’Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone because I’m re-reading Brian Friel’s Making History at the moment and it’d be fun to see what he was actually like. Failing that, I’d just go for a pint with Stephen Rea who played O’Neill on stage and ask him about Field Day and dubbing Gerry Adams back in the 90s.

9. Do you have a favourite quote, or mantra?

“You might be preaching to the choir, but sometimes the choir need a song to sing.”

It’s something like that anyway. I saw Guardian journalist Gary Younge do a Q&A and he was asked about gun violence in the US and about what the point of his new book was. It seemed pretty apt for Northern Ireland. We all know what the deal is, but sometimes we need guidance or reassurance to keep going.

 

10. What’s your message for people back home?

Stop feeling so guilty about stuff.

This may just be me speaking to my younger self so excuse me if it’s a bit condescending. But yeah, that’s the main thing I’ve learnt since moving away. We seem to get too caught up in our own stuff sometimes, and there’s the tendency to cut the legs out from under ourselves any time we get ‘notions’. Stay home, move away. Whatever. Just go have as much fun as you can while allowing other people to have fun too.

Also published on Medium.