Few people would disagree that 2020 has been a year to forget,

and as we come towards the end of it,

attention inevitably turns to what 2021 might have in store for us.

So here's a straightforward question for my guests on this week's Red Lines.

Should we be preparing to celebrate next year's Northern Ireland centenary?

Pete?

Well, it's going to happen anyway, and I would hope that we would do it in a way that actually builds reconciliation.

Andre?

I think celebration would be a denial of the decades of systemic discrimination and violence,

and we need to be, as Pete says, build reconciliation, not do that.

But if we don't celebrate it, can we still market, Andre?

Absolutely.

We can reflect, we can explore.

And I think build an understanding of the two realities of experience that partition created.

Duncan.

Yeah, I agree.

You can't mandate feelings.

So not everybody's going to celebrate.

But you can't reverse history, so we will have to mark it.

Well, I said it was a straightforward question, but of course it's anything but a straightforward subject.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the Northern Ireland State is what we're discussing on this edition of Red Lines.

In the company of Professor Pete Sherlow, Director of the University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies,

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