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Pick up a gun? 'I always drew the line there'

Actor Ciaran Hinds told HARDtalk what it was like to be a teenager in Northern Ireland in the 60’s when the Troubles began.

Asked whether he became close to being pulled into sectarian violence, he said “I did” but he added “we have to differentiate, between what was happening in hard-line Republicanism that was starting to happen, and the idea of the movement of civil rights.”

He explains “the basis of challenging the state of Northern Ireland was about gerrymandering, and one man, one vote. We'd already seen what it happened in America with Martin Luther King and the right for civil rights.”

And he was clear, “there were movements in the university talking about how left wing do you want to be? How radical etc. Does that mean you would pick up a gun? You know, I always drew the line there. That’s just not my nature.”

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2 minutes