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Now that the Republican movement has all but surrendered to the Loyalists, failure to accept them as full partners as an integral part of the nation can only have one consequence. Return to square one including everything that implies, horrible as that might be to contemplate. Paisley is right, it's now or never. If this isn't the very end, it will be just the beginning. Every bit of slow painful progress will be undone. There is no shortage of guns and bombs in this world. How foolishly Lilliputian this all looks to someone from the outside who has no vested interest one way or the other in the outcome. NI deserves in full measure whatever it gets.

Im outside NI too Mark, but I hope I've a little more appreciateion than you are showing here. Policing isn't an easy thing to get the IRA to support ... they have been killing each other for years. Then there's the DUP who are easy to charicature but they are asking for something you take for granted in your country: every political party wishing to form a government needs to support the courts, the police and prisons. IS that too much to ask for?

Mark:

Get real!

Ian Paisley to Gerry Adams?

When I first saw you
with your smile so tender
My heart was captured,
my soul surrendered
I'd spend a lifetime
waiting for the right time
Now that your near
the time is here at last.

I don't think so!

Peace,
Maureen

As I recall, all of the IRA's weapons have been put beyond their reach and that has been independenly verified and monitored. What alternative do they have except to trust the police and what reason would the police give them for not being trustworthy? If the police demonstrate that they are not impartial and will enforce the laws selectively against the Catholics and former IRA members, they will find that very shortly afterwards, the IRA will find new weapons and new recruits and NI will go right back to the hell it came out of. Now who isn't being real?

I concur with Kathy from Dublin.

Mark if you check the IMC website closely you will see that it has actually been verified that the IRA has retained some weapons, for the record.

In Gerry Adams' biography man of war, man of peace, it shows how he wanted to pursue this road decades ago but knew he had to bring people with him slowly.

In Crossmaglen about five/six years ago Louth SF TD Art Morgan told a massive crowd that history shows that without British withdrawal young republicans take up arms every 20 years or so, despite developments.

I wonder if the wounds of British injustice against Ireland through centuries (testified to by no less than John Wesley) can be healed with such a light dressing as the St Andrews and GFA agreements.

This is not for a second to justify republican murders either, of which the IRA carried out 2000 during the most recent troubles. An absolutely tragic bloodbath, and their biggest target was fellow Catholics! (BTW, loyalist murders are no more justified).

I fear the current republican dissident foment is the beginning of the old war again. Solution? Deep repentence and forgiveness - both ways!

For the record Mark, I can never quite get my head around the double standard American approach to terrorism in Ireland and terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The only explanation I can see is that Al Qaeda did not have such a strong lobby on Capitol Hill and the IRA never bombed New York!

I dont expect the world to revolve around NI but I do hope for more considered comment from Americans who offer it.

Thank goodness I didnt happen to be born in Iraq!

;-)

PB

PB, I am sure both sides have their stories to tell. I am no fan of either side. I am not Catholic or Episcopal and I'm not Irish except on St. Patty's day when we all are. I'm sure all that marching is nothing but a deliberate provocation. Why is there a double standard for the IRA in the US? One possible answer is that tens of millions of Americans can trace at least part of their ancestry back to Ireland and most of Ireland was Catholic. Another reason is that American history is strongly biased against Britain. If you liked Micahel Moore for his film about Iraq, you'd like him a lot less if you saw his movie called "The Patriot." It is very anti British. As for comparing the IRA with Al Qaeda, the IRA never attacked the US and as far as we know, never plotted against it, certainly never threatened to destroy it. Things might be different if they had.

If both sides don't give it all up now and look ahead instead of back, they never will. This is probably their last best chance. Orpheus looked back and so lost Eurydice who fell back into Hades forever. So did Lot's wife?

Genesis 19:23 KJV

"But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."

It's easy to become transfixed on the past. And when you do, you will never escape from it.

dont agree Mark - those who dont learn from history are destined to repeat its mistakes.

I am not a cynic, I am all for progress here, I am just saying history does not forecast that this is the final solution.
PB

PB I don't think you understood what I meant. I didn't say you shouldn't learn from history, quite the opposite. In fact what I mean is that you shouldn't keep fighting the same useless war over and over again. The Protestants won, the Republicans have given up their military struggle for independence. Often what happens directly in the aftermath of a war determines what will happen next. Much of the racial problem the US had in the 20th century was the result of events during the 25 years after the Civil War known as Reconstruction of the South. Much of the reason for WWII stemmed from the way Britain and France treated Germany in the aftermath of WWI. Will NI make the same kind of mistake. If the Catholics are not fully reintegrated into society, it won't be very long before the resentment starts the cycle with all of its twisted logic all over again. I look at it as a test to see how stupid people are.

Re 6 & 7:

Really great men and women rise above 'history'. It remains to be seen if Paisley, Adams et al are such men. Paisley's age may force him - what Adams has going for him I know not.

Regards,
Michael

I love when PB learns a new word like "foment" and then finds a way of incorporating it into his comments. His dictionary is well-used. Be careful you don't wear it out, PB!