For politicians – and journalists – a posting to Northern Ireland is either an assignment to be endured, or the beginning of a lifelong fascination with the place and its people

“For British ministers to be successful in Northern Ireland they have to be completely even-handed. They must understand why and how the country has come to its present position – how it is that the two communities have come to live apart in such a small place. They must have a love and affection for the cultures and the humour. They must concentrate on the good things and blank out the awful. It’s not the fault of the people of Northern Ireland that they are where they are.”
This paragraph at the opening of a chapter of Richard Needham’s readable and thoughtful memoir, One Man, Two Worlds, shines a sudden shaft of light on the role of British politicians in Northern Ireland since the Troubles broke out in the late 1960s. It comes from a man who knows what he is saying. During his 18 years as MP for Chippenham, he spent seven of them as a minister in Northern Ireland; he is from an Anglo-Irish family and throughout his life has combined careers in business and politics; not surprisingly he believes that economic regeneration is the route map for the restoration of some sort of normality there.

Needham was responsible for Castle Court, one of the most successful shopping centres in the UK, built during his term of office at the height of the Troubles. It covers six acres of Belfast and is built of glass. “Glass!” everyone shouted when Needham demanded it, in preference to the metal and concrete of the original plans. “Are you mad?” There were 17 hoax bombs and “two or three” real ones, but Needham moved the offices of the Department of Social Security into the ground floor. That made a difference and he made his point. He was right. Needham is a former British minister who “gets” Northern Ireland.