When Kevin Met Sadie

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Summary

Chris Page explores the influence of Joan Lingard's Kevin and Sadie novels on young readers, hearing from readers in Northern Ireland about how the stories have shaped their understanding of the past. He explores how the five novels progress, visiting students at Integrated College Dungannon who have studied the books in class and tell him what they think Kevin and Sadie would have made of Northern Ireland today

Review

David McGillivray

All conflicts produce voices of reason. When the Troubles were at their bloodiest in Northern Ireland, Joan Lingard (1932—2022), who believed children could overcome violence and bigotry, provided one of the most measured. From 1970, she wrote five novels for young people about a Catholic boy and a Protestant girl who, like Romeo and Juliet, didn’t care about their parents’ issues.

BBC Ireland correspondent Chris Page read the stories as a boy, never forgot them, and now finds he’s not alone. Among those he meets are students at an integrated college, who have read the books in class. There’s also a wealth of regional archive not everyone will have heard.

When Kevin Met Sadie

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