Northern Ireland Elections

One thing is certain - I am no politician. Also, I have not been closely following what led to the breakdown of the power sharing alliance in Northern Ireland.

As an "outsider" looking in I think far more things unite its people than divide. It is a staggeringly beautiful place - better than Eire in my view - and I just hope that after the elections today, the parties can find a way to work together for the common good. Sectarianism is so yesterday. Break down the old barriers and work hard for all the people. If you fall back to sectarianism, you have only yourselves to blame.

Catholic? Protestant? Who cares? What matters is the best for Northern Ireland and all its people.

Strangford Loch

This afternoon Jackie (of Jackie and Bill) called in for a chat and cup of tea. Their two sons work in the Far East, in Shanghai and Hong Kong.  Jackie is hoping they will move back to N.Ireland to a house not too far from her sister. 

N.Ireland is a very beautiful part of the British Isles, unknown to most in Britain. Recent political unrest did N.Ireland (Ulster) no favours. The distrust goes back centuries and make no sense in the modern world. 

Strangford Loch http://www.strangfordyachtcharter.com/images/stlview.jpg

Jackie and Bill hope to move to a place near the top of Strangford Loch, one of the best places in the Province.

See http://www.strangfordlough.org/ .

Politics in Northern Ireland

Politics in Northern Ireland continues to puzzle me.

I am in no position to say whether or not Gerry Adams was in any way, shape or form involved in the murder in 1972 of Jean McConville.  In many ways I hope he was not.

There is a kind of uneasy peace in the province. In many ways, the sectarian violence of a few years ago has gone, yet the fundamental sectarian bad feelings are still there simmering just beneath the surface. A visit to Northern Ireland still has reminders of the past: the barriers between Catholic and Protestant areas are still there in Belfast, the police stations still have huge barrier fences etc. The politics is divided on sectarian lines even now, not politics in the sense we know it elsewhere in the UK.

It seems to me very little would be needed to change the current (uneasy) peace back to violence.

Why cannot the ordinary folk of this most beautiful province cast the past aside and really embrace peace? True peace can only come when forgiveness has a chance to flourish. We are still some way from this.