BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Wolfgang
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 12:19 PM

Don,
I agree with most, but I'd rather see IP live longer (as long as he walks the present way) for a very simple reason:

This man with his hardline track record is at present an insurance against more extreme Loyalists shooting down all agreement or compromise as many of them would like to. He's needed to bring a majority of Protestants to step upon a way the Nationalists have gone first.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 07 - 02:14 PM

Northern Ireland has a new power-sharing government in an historic day at Stormont.

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness took office as first and deputy first ministers as five years of direct rule ended.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern witnessed the creation of the new executive.

Mr Blair said that the day's events offered the chance for Northern Ireland to "escape the heavy chains of history" and "make history anew".

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 08 May 07 - 02:28 PM

At long, long, last it begins to look as though peace is possible, though it will be IMHO a couple of decades before trust can be rebuilt between the segregated areas of catholic and protestant dwellings.

I suspect that two years ago none of us really believed this were possible.

Now, while we are on a roll, what can we do about Afghanistan, and Iraq?

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 May 07 - 08:39 PM

"Love" will take a little longer to achieve but "peace" is still worth cherishing.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 May 07 - 09:46 PM

The best of luck to them, but I have to be skeptical. Please, someone, tell me about *one* ethnic pest zone that has ever been healed. Experience seems to show that once you get two or more groups of people who have given each other, over the years, ample reason for mistrust, nothing can be done, because even if majorities on all sides would be amenable to a settlement, extremists hold the balance of power; all they have to do is set off one more bomb, and everything falls to pieces. It used to be you could pacify such people with a heavy hand, but once the lid was taken off (India, Yugoslavia), everything boiled over again. And these days, not even the U.S. Army has a heavy enough hand to pacify Iraq. Partition sometimes quiets things for a while, but eventually it leads to irredentism & war.

I have sometimes amused myself with the idea of forging & leaking a U.N. memorandum concerning a plan to use hydrogen bombs to sink Northern Ireland and the Balkan peninsula into the sea. No sane person would believe such a thing, but I think plenty of insane people would, and they are the ones who most need demoralizing.

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 10 May 07 - 07:39 AM

"Please, someone, tell me about *one* ethnic pest zone that has ever been healed"

How about:
Anglo-Saxons v Norman French
Celts v Vikings
Boers v British-descended South Africans
Highlanders v Sassenachs
Finns v Russians

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 10 May 07 - 10:28 AM

I must admit I too am sceptical about this one. Let's just hope and pray that peace will finally lay on this trouble ground.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 May 07 - 10:53 AM

Why oh why oh why (Do I sound like someone on points of view?) are people resurecting this thread when there is a perfectly good one on peace in Ireland?

It's almost as if people don't want to believe that the two parties have actual got together at long last. Come on you people. If Messrs Adams and McGuinness can talk to Paisley why can you lot not forget the past and look towards peace in the future?

Is it beyond the scope of anyone who wrote such things of Paisley like "can anyone possibly believe that the Paisley Party will sit and debate with Adams and co like everyday normal governments" or "If he's a Christian then I'm the sugar plum fairy. He just hates the IRA he's a bigot that all." to believe that he is trying at long last?

The biggest problem that I have seen in all the debates about the troubles is that everyone seems to have been stuck in the past. The Bastard Brits starved our people. The IRA scum murdered children in shopping centres and so forth.

We should never ever forget the past and the sacrifices that people made, but to resurect a thread that will cause old wounds to be opened at a time when all other parties are trying to heal the wounds is cynical beyond belief. Will someone please close this one and ensure that diplomats on all sides get the support they deserve. I am not a great respector of any politician but in this case I think they deserve a break.

Many thanks

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 May 07 - 10:23 PM

> "Please, someone, tell me about *one* ethnic pest zone that has ever    > been healed"

> How about:
> Anglo-Saxons v Norman French
Was there much strife after Harold's defeat, or did the natives just settle down with their new upper class?
> Celts v Vikings
Same question, mutatis mutandis.
> Boers v British-descended South Africans
How well *do* they get along? That's something I've never heard about.
> Highlanders v Sassenachs
Not many highlanders left.
> Finns v Russians
Partition seems to have worked in that case. Likewise Poles v Russians.

Subject: RE: BS: Paisley pulls out - no big surprise.
From: GUEST,The grand wazoo
Date: 13 May 07 - 02:16 PM

I thought it was only Catholics that pull out.