Hi,

I have nothing against talking about the troubles at home. My problem is with the sort of comment above which only help to fuel the hatred that is always there, sometimes below the surface, sometimes not.

I personally do not care what category other people fall into. It shouldn't matter if they're protestant, catholic, buddhist, muslim, or bug-eyed alien they all have the right to be treated equally, and have the right to express their point of view. It's when that point of view is taken to be the only true and right one that I have the problem.

As Mick (I think) said earlier there are generations of kids in Ireland who have been brought up to be (at the very least) suspicious of the opposite side of the community. eg. don't trust him, he's a protestant / catholic. Until we start to build up trust in each other it's going to be very difficult to get anything accomplished.

I was one of the lucky ones, my family was not bigotted. I have friends both protestant and catholic. My sister and I attended a mixed (religion) school. I will admit that there were areas of Belfast that I would prefer not to go to, in case of trouble. This is not a good thing but it's just part of the nature of what was going on. People were very wary of each other, often you felt that you needed to be careful of what you said in case "someone was listening." Having said all that I find it's the same in most big cities... there are areas you just don't go to because they're "bad areas".

Having painted that picture, Belfast is a lovely city, it was a great place to grow up. There was very little in the way of street crime, kids were able to walk to school on their own or go to the park without fear of being abducted. I miss the friendliness of the people.

Don't apologise Joe, I don't mind having a discussion, it's the nastiness that it could bring out that I don't want.

Slainte

alison