Billy, a young Loyalist kid, answers back a man at a roadblock – “Who are you calling wee man?”. His Belfast accent is like a strong cup of builders tea, firm and direct. It’s one of the many great scenes in the fantastic film ’71.

Photographing the Troubles began for me in 1993, about a year before the IRA declared their first ceasefire. Belfast felt tired and war-weary at the time, although I drank the greyness in. It was my first taste of being in a place which normally only existed on the TV news.

The film describes a period at the start of the troubles when British soldiers were beginning to be targeted by Republicans, and were replacing their berets with helmets and riot shields. The North then descended into decades of tit-for-tat, and ‘whataboutery’.

One of the first visible signs of change after the August 1994 ceasefire was soldiers on foot patrol wearing their Regimental soft caps on the streets of West Belfast. This of course lasted only until the next riot, of which were were many in the years to come.