My Dad, John Adams, died ten years ago today, on 30 September 2007. As my niece Riona says, he died “of smoking” at the age of 64.

He lived a full and interesting life, as a husband and father, school teacher, soldier, gardener and euphonium player, and lived through some of the most dangerous times in recent Northern Irish history.

But as a person, I still miss him. There are many conversations over the past ten years I would have wished to have had with him. About a wide range of subjects including gardening, music, politics, history and business. And of course he would have very much enjoyed seeing his granddaughters (my nieces) growing up.