Now that's some poem, Aine. And is it a song as well?

And that's a great song too Big Mick. What kind of tune is it?

I find it hard to take happy triumphalist songs about war, or the thought of people cheering it on from a distance. And I think that's what George H is on about in his question about where people live.

There's a different flavour to support for armed struggle when it's from thousands of miles away, or when it's from places where there've been bombings. That's something which the English and the Irish, both in Ireland and in England, have in common, whatever we think about the people who've been doing the bombing. It's something which neither of us share with the Americans, or the American born Irish for that matter. (And that's not saying that people in America haven't got a right to have a view and a role to play).

The war's been an awful thing. No one is free from blame, though the main blame lies on a succession of English politicians, mostly on the right.

Over the past century, they have used Ireland as an instrument for advancing their own domestic agenda, "playing the Orange card" whenever it suits them. Both sections of the Northern Irish community have been cheated and exploited, and trapped in a fratricidal civil war. And they have done awful things to each other. My father was 18 months in jail for fighting the Staters in the Civil War, and he was broken hearted by what was happening in the North during his last years before he died. He used to say they brought shame on the IRA.

It's a pretty shoddy peace deal in many ways; most peace deals are like that. But if it provides a space within which the two parts of the Northern Irish community can learn to recognise that they have far more in common with each other than with England, it can mean an end to the longest war on the planet.

God knows where it goes from here. Maybe when the Scots have broken away from England there'll be a confederation of Scotland and two Irish States within the European Union? Maybe King Charles will turn Catholic, and Ian Paisley will have to become a Republican...

On a more domestic Mudcat note - "You know, George, I'm really getting tired of you and your anti-Irish patriotism." That's hardly fair, Mbo. The man thinks that, while Cromwell did terrible things in Ireland he did some good in England. I don't agree with him, but it's not "anti-Irish". I know people who have been active in opposing the British involvement in Ireland would share that view. Tony Benn for example.

And as for "I don't hear anyone complaining about American & British nationalism!", well I'll be happy enough to do so anytime it gets out of hand and takes itself seriously.

Here's a song I wrote for the peace process a couple of years ago:

WHITE SNOW OF THE SPRINGTIME

Well it came like some angel before you could know.
Now the blossom is fallen, it's gone like the snow.
The blossom is fallen, now the white tree is green -
When the summer is over then the fruit will be seen.
White snow of the springtime, new hope once again,
Strength to us all, till we meet here as friends,
With hearts joined together, for all that is done -
Peace ever after, from here and now on,
Peace ever after, from here and now on.

Now it's time to remember the lessons we learn
As we walk down this road, on which there's no return.
Skies that are cloudy, the grass that is green,
We carry them with us, those sights we have seen.
White snow of the springtime, new hope once again,
Strength to us all, till we meet here as friends,
With hands joined together, for all that is done -
Peace ever after, from here and now on,
Peace ever after, from here and now on.

No greater love could a man ever show
Than to lay down his dreams for his friends and his foes.
Now and for ever, to stretch out those hands,
Peace to the people of these troubled lands
White snow of the springtime, new hope once again,
Strength to us all, till we meet here as friends,
With hands joined together, for all that is gone -
Peace ever after, from here and now on.
Peace ever after, from here and now on.