Hallo again, and welcome to the June edition of the Honest Ulsterman. These are very strange times to put it mildly. Many of our former certainties no longer hold fast. Over the years the HU has witnessed many important events, especially in relation to Northern Ireland but it's fair to say we've never seen anything like the Covid-19 Pandemic. However even during the worst of times we could go to the pub or see our families. It's inevitable that the pandemic and lockdown features prominently in this issue. Normally we'd have an interview on the landing page but we felt that in this instance a response to the current 'difficult time' would be more appropriate hence Clare Hayes-Brady piece is the first you'll see. Rosemary Jenkinson also writes on the current situation and it is inevitably mentioned in various interviews also. It's quite a surreal time so Adam Crothers conversation with starlings(!) fits pretty well into things. As always there's an eclectic range of features and interviews from writers and artists local and not so local. We hope you enjoy them. Black writers and others from ethnic minorities have featured regularly in recent HU editions but we have much more to do. We'll continue to try and improve in terms of representation and the cultural diversity of the material we present to you. Thanks as ever to our contributors, interviewees and everyone that submitted to our open submission call. And of course to our readership. We hope you're keeping safe and well in this difficult time. Image by Deirdre O'Mahony.