Miss O’Friel was my A level English teacher at St Dominic’s School on the Falls Road in Belfast, writes Mary McAleese. Civil war was breaking out on our doorstep and not only was I at school in one of the prime flashpoints for the war, I was living in Ardoyne, where tensions remain high to this day.The contours of my life were descending into chaos. I was the eldest of eight children, with my mother expecting her ninth. My father had a pub in the Falls Road and was under huge pressure because of the sectarian dangers. A lot of the responsibility of the family devolved to me – getting the kids out to school every day, making their lunches, putting them to bed.I was going through such a tough time that I was contemplating not finishing my A levels, but leaving school and g