Fascinating (albeit spinechilling) possibilities. Davebhoy - wasn't it something like "MacStiofainn"? greg son of stephens - re spelling "stakeknife" - it ain't no *Amurrican* usage. :) Several of mah fella Amur'kins be axin' me why it's spelled like that too. I dunno. Maybe it's somebody's idea of a pun. Stakes though the heart, something like that?? Maybe MI5/6 just can't spell. Ard - your political prediction confirms what I've read here in the US press. Polarization, in both directions. ("Things fall apart, the center cannot hold..." - Yeats) Maybe SF will gain on (surpass?) SDLP in part *because* of, not despite, perceptions re Brit dirty tricks?? And, I suppose Paisley (shudder) beats Trimble because the loyalist/unionist community (I'm trying to be PC here), being fed up, has reversed its always-shaky & reluctant acquiescence to the GFA itself. But, this all assumes that Blair ever gets around to *holding* the elections. I gathered that when he recently postponed them (again) he was fairly forthright about his reason, namely that he didn't like the forecast results. Does the GFA (or some other authority) establish any deadline for the voting, under these present lamentable circumstances (suspension of the Council, etc.)?? Dammit, I'm an optimist by nature but all this does not seem to bode well. Dammitall again. Kevin McG., reassure me (again!) wouldyezpleeze. Your analysis is, as always, highly instructive. Thanks for that Chesterton link. De Valera: somewhere I got the idea that the name is Spanish. True? False?
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