Peace At Last?

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 27 March 2007 17:45:04

Yesterday saw the possible end of one of the longest running conflicts in the world today. We finally had Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams sit down together and actually speak to each other. Now I know that many of you, outside the UK, may not understand the significance of this.

Ian Paisley has been the most outspoken critic against the Catholics in Protestant circles. He has maintained for 40 years that he would never sit down with the IRA or Sinn Fein, their political wing, as he would never talk to terrorists. They have been in the same room together or rare occasions but have never talked until yesterday.

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are the leaders of Sinn Fein and have also been senior leaders in the IRA, at one point or another. Though they've never been keen to admit their involvement in that organisation they finally admitted to it a few years ago.

What finally helped to unite them? Would you believe the imposition of Water Rates (a tax)? They decided that the time had come to bury the hatchet and work together for the good of Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein & the IRA agreed to everything that Ian Paisley demanded of them and they then sat down and signed the necessary agreements to allow the power sharing to begin.

I'm not going to get over excited and say that this will mean everlasting peace between the 2 communities. There are still too many guns and explosives lieing around to make that 100% certain. In addition they still need to turn the "former" terrorist organisations away from crime. The Catholic and Protestant gangs now run most of the criminal activities going on in the province.

You also have the problem that the Catholics still want a united Ireland and the Protestants still want to be part of the UK. However they also want to rule without interference, or the imposition of laws, by the British parliament. This is what united them in the end - a common hatred of the current British parliament.

Let's pray that they'll see sense and begin to work together to end the centuries of distrust and hatred.