I saw this morning in the paper that the Castlereagh interrogation center will be closed by the end of the year. This news evoked a visceral response in me being that a close friend had to endure ten days there years ago, along with her two little sisters, all of them minors at the time. She and her family still 'live with the nightmare of Castlereagh,' to paraphrase Alex Maskey; however, she is firmly behind the peace agreement and the eventual disarmament of all pm groups.

Knowing her background and her thoughts on peace, and now seeing the closing of the facility, give me a firmer hope that peace can come to the island, one step at a time.

Le meas, Áine