Hello, in this programme I'm talking face to face with one of the best known politicians in the country about her formative influences and experiences.

Michel O'Neill is poised to take up the post of Northern Ireland's first minister, but because the DUP is refusing to re-enter the executive, she can't take up her new job.

Michelle O'Neill, welcome to Red Lions.

Thank you very much.

Delighted to be here.

When you look back on your early life,

can you point to a particular moment

when you realised you were interested in politics?

I think, I mean, I was born in 77,

so you're born at a time where there was,

I suppose, a lot of conflict. You're born into a time where there was I suppose a lot of conflict you're born in a

society that was actively discriminating against Catholics I think that there are probably a number

of moments in time where perhaps I saw at first hand things like raids on your home my father was an

ex-prisoner um so that experience would have been something that

even though that politics wasn't been something that was discussed regularly in our home,

it was a very normal home. But I do think that the surroundings in which you're born into

obviously has an impact on perhaps what path you take in life. My father was elected as a local counsellor,

so I always thought that the role that he played was a very positive one.

He was a very reasonable man, a very practical man,

and someone who helped people greatly.

So I think perhaps that's probably,

it was the circumstance in which I was born into,

...