Many families have a skeleton in the closet, but Stephen Shellard’s family had a portrait. His grandmother worked as a governess in the Dublin household of Casimir and Constance Markievicz in the early 1900s. According to family legend, Casimir offered to paint her in the nude, but the good lady insisted on being clothed. The portrait of Miss Pemberton was exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy and was for years a source of embarrassment to the unionist family, but now hangs in Shellard’s home in Scotland. The story of the painting is an example of the complicated relationships between different traditions in Ireland and how the barriers can be overcome.

Shellard was born in 1953 in Newry, Co Down. The family background was Church of Ireland with roots in the South. Shellard recounts family holidays where the Austin A-40 pulled a caravan all around the island. He was fortunate to grow up in the 1960s, the decade when old animosities seemed to be fading and a new generation, inspired by music and high ideals, aspired to a better world.

History took a different turn and Remembered Fragments records Shellard’s long quest for a meaningful role in life. The way led, after leaving school, to a sojourn in Canada, studying sociology in Reading, working in England and a period in west Berlin, but often returning to a Northern Ireland torn apart by violence. His story unfolds through a succession of fascinating chapters headed by his songs and rewritten versions of rebel and loyalist songs. The word Fragments in the title implies a broken story, but each chapter contributes to a seamless narrative of a life richly remembered, illuminating both the seeker and his situation.

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Shellard worked as a social worker during the Troubles at a young offenders’ centre in Ballycastle with boys in danger of being drawn into paramilitary activity. He would eventually find fulfilment and a permanent career as a teacher in Scotland. There is the occasional brush with history — notably with then first minster Ian Paisley at the Wigtown Book Festival in 2007. Shellard’s narrative is a compelling one, informative and entertaining. You won’t find this book displayed in your local bookshop, but it is well worth seeking out.

• Patrick Quigley is chairman of the Irish Polish Society and author of three non-fiction books on the Markievicz family and the Polish connection with Ireland.