I don't think it's reasonable to lump Carson in with the bigots, Giok. I've never been a big fan of his (mainly because he was Oscar Wilde's prosecutor) but he was not responsible for putting Northern Ireland on its ruinous sectarian path, and would probably have been dismayed at the line taken by Craig and his successors.

The improved stability described by Jim, and the reddressing of so many wrongs, will not now be undone. Some of the credit for getting the place on to this improving trend should go to John Major and Bertie Ahern, who took one of the boldest steps of all in kickstarting the whole process.

I hope that fellow republicans will agree that this is the time for a little patience. It may yet take a while, but the future is ours (or as Brendy put it in a post a few weeks ago, the war is over because the IRA won it). Unionist recognition of that fact will inevitably make them as volatile to deal with as any minority would be when finding itself in such a no-win situation. Any on the republican side who favour the triumphalist approach need look no farther than the consequences of the Versailles treaty after WW1 to see that it is counter-productive.

The loyalist side are admittedly responsible for more than their fair share of the gangsterism that now threatens everyday life in Belfast, but this is not a peculiarly prod thing. And any police accommodation of it is not bias but corruption. Loyalists have had no part in the gangsterism, less often discussed, that Dublin has endured. Remember Veronica Guerin as well as Martin O'Hagan. But there's no point repeating stuff I've said here several times - except to say that those who believe in any dispute that all the fault is on "the other side" are usually wrong.