From: ard mhacha
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 02:45 PM

"Jimmy C is right, I can NEVER see the day when Paisley Robinson and the rest of the DUP will ever agree to sit down with Adams and co and using the language of diplomats discuss their problems in a reasonable manner."

Oddly enough Ard "mhacha", had this been 15 or 20 years ago, I wouldn't have thought it possible to see Sinn Féin/IRA sitting down and discussing problems in a reasonable manner.

Yet this is what has happened.


"It just wont happen, to reason with Paisley is impossible, I can still hear the loud guldering voice shouting, "NEEVARR,NEEVARR,NEEVARR, when he was asked would the day come when he would sit down with Sein Fein and work out a power sharing arrangment."

Mmm-hmmm .. easy to provide maxims and slogans and base a person's character on those, and ignore any complexities, eh? Its called blinkered thinking. For example, I could easily describe how I remember Adams addressing a crowd of nationalists and republicans in Belfast.. when one of them shouted out, clear as day, "Bring back the IRA!" Adams' reaction? A grin, a pause and then, "They haven't gone away, you know!".. to a cheer by the crowd.

Incidentally, I don't recall Paisley's "Never" speech being the answer to a question he had been asked.


"Again I agree with Jimmy C, the Unionists will never agree to a united Ireland,"

Indeed. And why should they? The very definition of the ideology of unionism is that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom. Is there some expectation that this ideology suddenly sprout wings and change into its opposite..?

As a unionist myself, I wouldn't mind seeing the Republic of Ireland re-unite as part of the UK. But I can't see that it would ever happen, so I don't spend a lot of time fretting about it.


"even when they [Unionists] eventually become the minority,"

Don't you mean "if"..?


"despite the fact that the economy of the six northern Counties are third world in comparsion to the Irish republic."

The "six northern Counties" (hereafter referred to as "Northern Ireland, being that this is its given name) do not have an economy as such. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, which has something like the 5th strongest economy in the world. Hardly "third world".

However, taken as a separate unit I'm sure that this region not having any natural resources worth talking about (other than manpower), and having gone through more than 30 years of political turmoil (which drove away both national and foreign investment by the way) has a long way to go to catch up with the Republic of Ireland's economic boom.

Its worth noting though, before the last major industrial revolution, Northern Ireland had THE biggest textiles industry in the world, one of the biggest rope manufacturing industries in the world, one of the biggest ship manufacturing industries in the world, had twice the GDP of the Republic of Ireland, produced the same number of new houses as the Republic (in the post-war period).. and had many other better statistics than the struggling, under-developed Republic.

The RoI has blossomed, and its good to see. I'm not sure how long it will take before the recession hits it, but let's hope it doesn't hit too hard (a boom is always followed by a relative collapse in economics apparently).



From: Peace
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 05:31 PM

"Just a bit off topic here--but not much. What were the names of the two women who (I think were nominated or maybe received the Nobel Peace Prize) tried to make peace so many years ago? I recall that one was Protestant and the other Catholic."

Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams. Both women were Roman Catholic, though Williams was the child of a mixed marraige and married a Protestant man. They shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.