"Jim, some of the invective you have used against me."
Keith; I think you've nailed your particular colours to the mast clearly enough with recent statements to show us exactly where you are coming from, so perhaps we should move on.
A quick recap,
The six county state was set 80-odd years ago, under the threat of immediate invasion, giving the Unionist (Protestant) faction domination over the Nationalist (Catholic); this was never regarded as anything other than a temporary measure..
The Unionists abused the power they were given and prevented the Nationalists from having any effective say in the running of the State, by intimidating them with violence and the constant threats of violence, the threat and actual action of keeping them out of jobs, condemning them to poor-quality housing, rioting, house burning and general intimidation which persisted throughot the thirties, forties and well into the fifties, all backed up by massive triumphal, threatening marches and demonstrations by the Unionists.
This led to peaceful protest marches in the late 60s by the Nationalists which were met with baton charges by the RUC, who directed the marchers through screaming mobs of missile-hurling Unionists,
All this made it obvious to the Nationalists that they were never voluntarily going to be given a significant say say in the running of their state, so it erupted into open warfare throughout the 60s, 70s and into the 80s, causing massive suffering on both sides of the sectarian divide and on Mainland Britain - the latter more-or-less bringing about a huge opposition by a significant majority of the British people against the six states remaining in the Union.
It was early in the last period that British soldiers shot down unarmed Loyalist demonstraters, killing 13 a second BLOODY SUNDAY.
The 'Troubles' dragged the Unionists reluctantly to the conference table and some progress has been made on 'power sharing'; both sides have been forced into a position of accepting the situation as it stands, though in the long term, the Unionists wish to retain their dominance over the six counties and the Loyalists still wish for a United Ireland. A sort of peace has been arrived at, but it is so fragile that it could disintegrate into open violence at any time.
There has been violence on the streets of Belfast, and the Unionists are at present proceeding with intimidating triumphal marches, and are constantly demanding to take those marches through Nationalist areas thus stretching the fragile peace to breaking point.
The one significant thing that has happened on the Catholic side is that the Church has lost virtually all of its politial influence in the rest of Ireland due to the Clerical Abuse scandals - thus it has been removed from the six counties problem as a religious barrier.
That seems to be the way matters stand at the present time.
If you think that is 'peace' or 'settlement' or in any way a satisfactory position for a state to remain in for too long....... please tell us how?
Jim Carroll