A strangely reflective even melancholy day. Is that because unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

And we love to dance especially that new one called the Civil War Twist. The Northern part of you stands still while the Southern part tries to secede.

My goal is to ensure the Northern Border is safe secure and allows for the free flow of travel and commerce.

My grandmother was a teacher my sister was a teacher my daughter was a teacher and is now a superintendent in northern California and my son-in-law is a high school principal. I am surrounded.

Home will always be Northern Ireland but my schedule means for the next few years I won't be there as much. I can't do the same things that I did a year ago. That is I'm something conscious of but I'm not sad about it. It's fine.

Growing up in northern California has had a big influence on my love and respect for the outdoors. When I lived in Oakland we would think nothing of driving to Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz one day and then driving to the foothills of the Sierras the next day.

The need for peace in Northern Ireland goes well beyond political stability. It now speaks to regional Europe and even global stability.

Richard Hugo taught me that anyone with a desire to write an ear for language and a bit of imagination could become a writer. He also in a way gave me permission to write about northern Montana.

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist a woman in the audience stood up and said 'Yes but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?

What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass it is almost exactly 13 years since the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland voted in favour of the agreement signed on Good Friday 1998 paving the way for Northern Ireland to become the exciting and inspirational place that it is today.