The Trouble with Northern Ireland
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If you would have told me two weeks ago that Gerry Adams and Rev. Ian Paisley would be in the same room together (even if the tables had to be rearranged so that they wouldn’t sit next to one another as NPR reported) I never would have believed it. However, it appears that even in blood feuds, economics trumps all things.
I think that peace in Northern Ireland will come only when the next generation takes power. One that wasn’t directly involved with nor directly affected by The Troubles. There’s too much bad blood (proverbial and otherwise) between the current leaders for anything real to happen. Sinn Fein announcing that they back the police was a nice gesture, but there hasn’t been any violence in years so it’s basically an empty statement. This deal was done for money and nothing more. It will be hard for the hardliners in either party to work with the other party simply for money. Something on a basic level has to change.
At some point I think the UK has to give up on retaining Northern Ireland. While I am Irish and obviously sympathetic to the Republican movement, I still believe that it is the only real solution. I don’t support violence to achieve a united Ireland, but I also don’t believe we would even be at this point without it. A lot of people don’t realize that Northern Ireland was segregated and that Catholics were literally a second class citizen that had no power and no rights. As in most cases, both sides were wrong during the Troubles and both sides need to admit that for there to be any reconciliation. The Republicans have done just that by disarming and supporting the police. The Unionists have done a little by letting the Republicans into the government in a small role, but as far as I know they haven’t done anything to admit wrongdoing during the Troubles.
If you have no idea what I am talking about, the BBC made a fantastic movie called “Bloody Sunday” a few years ago that took a lot of heat upon release. It’s a pseudo-documentary of what happened on Bloody Sunday, which sparked the Troubles and gave the title to a U2 song. The movie and the Wikipedia articles linked above will give you a crash course on the reasons behind the Troubles.