Returning to London for his first Christmas break from college, he learned that his grandparents came from both Irish Catholic and Scottish Presbyterian backgrounds.
Living in Belfast exposed Turner to the sectarianism of the city and he experienced the initial years of the Troubles.
In 1976 he was made political cartoonist at the Irish Times,[5] where he still draws four cartoons a week and writes occasionally.
The Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate / New York Times distribute some of Turner's cartoons to over 200 journals and newspapers around the world.
He has also worked for British various publications such as The Scotsman, Business AM, The Business, The Sunday Express, The Independent, The Guardian and The Spectator and the Paris-based current affairs magazine Courrier International,[citation needed] as well as The Washington Post.