Peace process or just a ceasefire?

[jdaly]

A caller to Nolan got me thinking there (ok, this is his idea). While those in the peace industry are turning a tidy penny and bombs and shootings are now an unusual event, is there any real process towards real and lasting peace?

The inertia was short lived with tokenism being the currency of the time but we have republicans and loyalists running around left, right and centre, more often than not, known to locals and police alike, and the hate nurturing paranoia is still being fed to the children that have no knowledge of the dark days.

As my ma would have said, is it it all fur coat and no knickers?

Yes, it is, the same deal sold on two opposing premises, A, that it was a bulwark against a United Ireland and B, that it was the first step towards a United Ireland. It has become , as it was meant to do, little more than a club for the boys and girls who dole out spots on various boards and has neither the ability or desire to tackle the roots of division and sectarianism, much less tackle the constitutional future of Ireland.

[james toney]

Old schoolers from both sides would know.. that MI5 could start it up again if they wanted to.

[eskrimador]

Yes, it is, the same deal sold on two opposing premises, A, that it was a bulwark against a United Ireland and B, that it was the first step towards a United Ireland. It has become , as it was meant to do, little more than a club for the boys and girls who dole out spots on various boards and has neither the ability or desire to tackle the roots of division and sectarianism, much less tackle the constitutional future of Ireland.

Dear me!!! Without the sectarianism, they'd have to try real politics and they'd be totally lost. As Noel Thompson recently pointed out to David "Arrogance Personified" Ford, even by his party's supposedly neutral position, they are playing the sectarian game

[SeamusNapoleon]

I suupose it has.

"The fools the fools while there are cars there will always be joy riders and auto-theft." Can't see that being proven inaccurate either but it is no moral justification of the dirt that is involved in it.

It is a pity you felt the need to give a trite analogy to try and make the point that acceptance of the truth in this prophetic announcement is somehow a moral justification for what may come.

[former wesleyan]

It is a pity you felt the need to give a trite analogy to try and make the point that acceptance of the truth in this prophetic announcement is somehow a moral justification for what may come.

Eh ? Wasn't it ? Don't they dig up O'Donovan Rossa and re-bury him every Easter ? Don't anti-democratic, militaristic groups who still believe that the people have no right to do wrong stand around in Bodenstown on a regular basis ?

[SeamusNapoleon]

Eh ? Wasn't it ? Don't they dig up O'Donovan Rossa and re-bury him every Easter ? Don't anti-democratic, militaristic groups who still believe that the people have no right to do wrong stand around in Bodenstown on a regular basis ?

'Ireland unfree shall never be at peace'

- Until Ireland is free, there will always be young men and women who will decide to take up weapons to free the country. That is what Pearse was saying and I cannot see any change in that reality from Pearse's generation up until today. Like I said, one can question morality until the cows come home, however, the factual nature of this statement remains.

Edit: Sorryy, we might be getting each other mixed up.
I am saying that to acknowledge the truth of the statement is not to endorse violence and shouldn't be seen to be so.