Sure, Charley Noble; thanks. Um, got a stout by any chance? Murphy's, maybe? :)

Guest says, "So, the answer from the American side is--the real reason for the so-called summit is the propaganda war." Well, sure. But as to the question "Why in *Northern Ireland*?", one answer is: because Bush owes Blair, bigtime, & Tony is calling in some chips. Tuesday's agenda is NI -- at least after Bertie gets done with putting in his oar about a UN regency for postwar Iraq. Consider the AP except below. (Making allowances for the writer's vagueness as to distinctions among Hillsborough, Belfast and Derry.)


(by Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press) -

...Irish Prime Minister Bernie Ahern, invited for talks Tuesday on Northern Ireland, said he would tell Bush the United Nations should have a primary role in Iraq's reconstruction.

Bush added a complex set of issues by heeding Blair's call to meet in Northern Ireland and to back Blair's peace blueprint, due out later this week. Blair has racked up IOUs from Bush by backing the president on Iraq in the face of fierce opposition at home.

Following their meeting, the two leaders planned joint statements on both Northern Ireland and Iraq.

Blair hopes presidential backing will strengthen his hand when he publishes his government's new Northern Ireland plans by Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the so-called Good Friday accords. The pact sought to end three decades of sectarian conflict in the British territory.

The visit demonstrates Bush's support for Blair's approach, administration officials said.

``This is a very significant step in the life of Northern Ireland,'' Powell said.

The Iraq war undercut support for Bush among some citizens in Belfast.

In the Bogside district, a 50-foot-high wall that for more than three decades has read ``You are now entering Free Derry'' was painted solid black in a gesture of mourning for Iraqis killed in the war.

The area's veteran civil rights activist, Eamonn McCann, said most Derry Roman Catholics considered Bush a hypocrite for telling the Irish Republican Army that violence doesn't pay.

``Bush is saying to political leaders here: Give up the gun, don't use violence to pursue political ends, follow the rule of law. He is demanding that they do that even as he prosecutes the war in Iraq,'' McCann said. ``I doubt if I've ever encountered anything as grotesquely hypocritical as the exercise in Hillsborough.''

04/08/03 01:42 EDT