News about the Irish & Irish American culture, music, news, sports. This is hosted by the Irish Aires radio show on KPFT-FM 90.1 in Houston, Texas (a Pacifica community radio station)

May 17, 2007

US Set To End Plight of 30,000 Illegal Irish

News about Ireland & the Irish

BN 05/17/07 US Set To End Plight Of 30,000 Illegal Irish
RT 05/17/07 Irish Ex-Pats Cheer US Immigration Deal
SF 05/17/07 SF Will Demand Joint Summit On Collusion
IT 05/17/07 Debate Sought On Twin 1974 Bombings
IT 05/17/07 SF To Co-Operate With Omagh Inquiry
IT 05/17/07 Ahern Says Coalition With SF A No-No
RT 05/17/07 Election: Ahern And Kenny Debate
SM 05/17/07 Blair & Clinton Enter Fray Of Tense Irish Election
BB 05/17/07 Paisley's Praise For Nationalist
GU 05/17/07 Outlawed UVF Reopens Disarmament Talks
NT 05/17/07 Opin: The Troubles: A Walking Tour
EN 05/17/07 Opin: ‘From ‘The Troubles’ To ‘Stormont Street’

*********************

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=311138&rss=rss2

US Set To End Plight Of 30,000 Illegal Irish

17/05/2007 - 20:37:29

US lawmakers could broker a deal next week to end the plight of
up to 30,000 illegal Irish citizens, it emerged tonight.

Under the proposed legislation, the undocumented can secure
residency status if they qualify for a new "Z visa" and pay a
$5,000 (?3,700) fine.

This would allow them to travel home for family occasions without
being barred upon re-entry.

The legislation will be voted upon by US politicians as early as
next week.

Thousands of illegal Irish people have been unable to visit
relatives in Ireland or attend important family occasions like
funerals of loved ones.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern tonight said he believed
the latest breakthrough could mark an end to the nightmare for
thousands of illegal Irish.

"I expect the deal brokered today between the Senate and the
White House may be voted on as early as next week.

"We have had false dawns before but from my contacts with those
on Capitol Hill, it appears we have agreement between the various
sides and support from the White House. "This is wonderful news."

Under the new proposals, illegal workers will be allowed to
return to their home country after first paying visa fees and the
fine.

They would then be able to freely return to the US.

Holders of the Z visa would have to wait between eight and 13
years for a decision on their permanent residency application.

*********************

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0517/us.html?rss

Irish Ex-Pats Cheer US Immigration Deal

Thursday, 17 May 2007 22:30

The White House and bipartisan group of US Senators have agreed
to a package of immigration reforms which could give legal status
to millions of illegal immigrants.

Under a new bill, they will be eligible for temporary work visas
while their applications for permanent residency are being
considered.

President George W Bush described the agreement as historic,
although the exact wording is yet to be finalised.

It must now be debated on the floor of the Senate,
which could happen as early as next week.

The chances of this bill becoming law are good as Senators who
opposed last year's legislation are now on board.

The bill would allow for the estimated 12 million illegal
immigrants in the US to obtain what's described as a
'probationary document' which would allow them apply for a
temporary four year work visa.

The permit will be granted if the applicant passes a background
criminal test, an English language test and pays a fine.

They will also be allowed to renew for a further four years but
will have to return home before applying for a green card.

The bill also contains a 'trigger mechanism' which means certain
things must be put in place to strengthen border controls before
the immigration reforms can be put in place.

This was described as a 'concern' by Niall O'Dowd of the Irish
Lobby for Immigration Reform, but overall he described the bill
as 'a huge step in the right direction.'

*********************

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/19106

Sinn Fein In Government Will Demand British Participation In
Joint Summit On Collusion - McDonald

Published: 17 May, 2007

Speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Dublin Monaghan Bombings
Sinn Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald has reiterated her party's call
for an Irish British summit on collusion. Ms. McDonald said if in
Government after the general election Sinn Fein would immediately
initiate a D il debate on collusion and make a demand on the
British Government for it to participate in a joint summit on
collusion.

Ms. McDonald said, "The outgoing Fianna F il/PD Government
promised a D il debate on collusion in the immediate aftermath of
the publication of the McEntee report on the Dublin/Monaghan
Bombings. That was another promise which failed to materialise.

"Sinn Fein met with many of the families affected by the tragedy
33 years ago today at a special conference here in Dublin in
February. It is clear from that conference that hurt felt by
those families is as strong today as ever and is driving and will
continue to drive their campaign to find the truth surrounding
the circumstances that took the lives of their loved ones.

"If in Government after the election Sinn Fein will immediately
initiate a D il debate on collusion and will make a demand on the
British Government for it to participate in a joint summit on
collusion.

"The lid must be lifted on the whole issue of collusion. The
families of all those killed down the years, not just in the
Dublin Monaghan Bombings but all of the victims of British State
collusion deserve the truth about their loved ones. Sinn Fein is
committed to the continual pursuit of that truth." ENDS

*********************

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0517/breaking46.htm

Debate Sought On Twin 1974 Bombings

Thu, May 17, 2007

Fresh calls were made today for a full D il debate into security
force collusion in paramilitary attacks at the height of the
Troubles.

At a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating the 33rd anniversary of
the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, campaigners said they would be
calling for a debate as soon as a new government was installed.

The names of the 34 victims, including an unborn baby, were read
out at the small gathering in central Dublin, also attended by a
number of election candidates who have supported the campaign.

"As soon as the new government is installed, we will be
requesting that a full debate on collusion be held in both houses
into all cross-Border attacks in the 1970s as recommended by the
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice last November, which the
outgoing Taoiseach has committed to holding," Justice for the
Forgotten chairman Kevin O'Loughlin said.

"We want to send out the message loud and clear on this 33rd
anniversary that our campaign for truth and justice will continue
until our aims are achieved."

On May 17th 1974, three no-warning car bombs exploded in central
Dublin, killing 26 people with hundreds more injured.

Just over an hour later, a fourth car bomb exploded in Monaghan
town, where a further seven people died.

The Dublin victims included a pregnant woman, and at a subsequent
inquest her child was recognised as the 34th victim of the
attacks.

Additional reporting: PA
c 2007 ireland.com

*********************

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0517/breaking65.htm

SF To Co-Operate With Omagh Inquiry

Thu, May 17, 2007

Republicans are prepared to co-operate with any independent,
international inquiry into the Omagh bomb atrocity, they
confirmed tonight.

Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein chief negotiator and Deputy
First Minister at Stormont, made the pledge as victims relatives
intensified their campaign for a cross-border probe.

The assistance would be to help expose alleged Police Service of
Northern Ireland incompetence and claims that officers knew of
the attack in advance, Mr McGuinness claimed.

He said: "Republicans would be only too glad to co-operate with
any independent, international investigation into the bomb
explosion, because we think the PSNI themselves have questions to
answer.

"There's a very strong belief within Irish Republicanism that the
PSNI not alone failed to investigate the Omagh bomb properly, but
the RUC actually knew about the bomb before it took place."

The families of some of the 29 people murdered in the dissident
Real IRA massacre viewed Mr McGuinness's declaration as a
significant advancement on Sinn Fein's previous position on the
bombing.

Michael Gallagher, who lost his son Aiden in the August 1998
attack, said: "This is progress and something we welcome.

"It was unexpected that he said that, and we would be interested
to hear now how Sinn Fein and the Deputy First Minister are going
to move this forward."

The families' demands for a full independent inquiry into Omagh,
a case plagued by controversy over what intelligence police
possessed and passed on to officers on the ground, comes amid
their protracted civil action against five men suspected of
involvement in the bombing.

The multi-million pound case which is due to be heard at the High
Court in Belfast has been hit by further delays.

Only one man has been charged with the Omagh murders, south
Armagh electrician Sean Hoey.

A judge is due to deliver his verdict later this year after
studying masses of evidence presented during Hoey's trial in
Belfast.

c 2007 ireland.com

*********************

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0517/breaking34.htm

Ahern Says Coalition With SF A No-No

Elaine Edwards
Thu, May 17, 2007

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minster for Defence Willie O'Dea said
today Fianna F il would not go into coalition with Sinn Fein
after the election.

When asked by reporters at the party's arts manifesto launch
whether Fianna F il form a government with Sinn Fein, Mr Ahern
shook his head and said: "No. No".

Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has said he would rather go
into opposition than enter a government with Sinn Fein.

Speaking at a Fianna F il press conference in Dublin, Mr O'Dea
said the party would discuss numbers on any possible coalition
after the May 24th election with "anybody but Sinn Fein".

Minister of State Brian Lenihan, speaking at same press
conference, said it was "all to play for" and that he sensed a
substantial number of voters who are still undecided.

Mr O'Dea said he had been told by multinational companies in the
mid-west that they would "seriously consider" pulling out of the
area if Sinn Fein and its stated economic policies gets into
government in "any shape or form".

"I'm certainly not going to assist that process," he said.

Asked whether Fianna F il would take "external support" from Sinn
Fein if in government, Mr O'Dea said the party could not prevent
Sinn Fein from going into the government lobby or the Opposition
lobby to vote in the D il.

But he added: "There will be no understanding, there will be no
agreement, there will be no formal agreement with Sinn Fein to
support us, or informal agreement with Sinn Fein to support us
from outside the government or inside the government or anywhere
else, and I don't know how [much] more clearly I can put it."

Mr Lenihan added: "We are not going to put ourselves in a
position where they are part of the majority, an essential part
of the majority which elects our leader as taoiseach.

"We are not going to put ourselves in that position because we do
not believe it is in the national interest of this country.

"And there is a fundamental difference between Northern Ireland
and this State. Northern Ireland has compulsory participation in
a form of devolved government by all parties. In this State,
like-minded parties form blocs to form governments. We don't see
them as a like-minded party, and I have to say there is very
little enthusiasm within our own ranks to form any kind or
arrangement or understanding whatsoever with them."

On crime, Mr O'Dea said he was "proud" of the Government's record
on crime. He said Ireland's rate of crime was 24.5 per 100,000 of
population. In Scotland, the figure was 54 and in England and
Wales it was 86.

But Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said: "After ten
years in power Fianna F il's record on crime is dismal. Violent
crime has remained consistently around 100,000 incidents a year.
Fianna F il promised that people would feel safer in their homes.
Clearly they do not.

"Fianna F il has failed to stop the relentless rise of gangland,
which has gone from strength to strength over the last ten
years."

c 2007 ireland.com

*********************

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0518/election.html?rss

Election: Ahern And Kenny Debate

Friday, 18 May 2007 03:03

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Fine Gael leader, Enda
Kenny, squared off in their only debate of the campaign.

In an opening statement, the Taoiseach said the best way forward
for the country is to vote for Fianna F il to build on his
Government's achievements.

Mr Kenny appealed to the public to vote for change or stay with
what he called a tired Government that does not keep its word.

The Taoiseach rejected suggestions that 10 years in
power is too long, saying he is as excited now as he was when he
took up the post back in 1997.

The Fine Gael leader said the Fianna Fail/PD Governement was
responsible for a litany of broken promises.

The issue of Bertie Ahern's personal finances also arose, with
the Taoiseach saying he did objected to answering questions on
the topic but said he did object to information being leaked from
the tribunal. He said he did nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, Mr Kenny has said no deal has been done between
himself and the Green Party over forming the next Government.

Asked about Green Party deputy John Gormley's comment yesterday
that the next government would be Fine Gael/Labour/Greens, the
Fine GAel leader said he welcomed it.

And with a week to go to polling day, Labour Party leader Pat
Rabbitte has said as far as he is concerned there will be no
coalition between his party and Fianna F il.

Speaking on RT Radio's Today with Pat Kenny, Mr Rabbitte said
that he had risked his reputation on the issue.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail Fianna F il is today focusing on
crime while Fine Gael is highlighting immigration issues.

Last night's four-way confrontation saw the Progressive
Democrats' Michael McDowell under attack from Mr Rabbitte, Sinn
Fein President Gerry Adams and the Greens' Trevor Sargent whom he
described as the left, the hard left and the leftovers.

Mr McDowell and the Green Party leader in particular traded blows
with Mr Sargent defending himself from charges that his policies
were anti-business.

The T naiste also said that the Sinn Fein stance on illegal drugs
was hypocritical, claiming republicans had been involved in a
$25m deal when they sold their terrorist know-how to cocaine
funded terrorists in Colombia.

In a measured performance Mr Rabbitte criticised the Government's
record on a range of issues but Gerry Adams seemed more
comfortable outlining his party's broad approach on economic
issues than discussing details of policy.

*********************

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=773032007

Blair And Clinton Enter Fray Of Tense Irish Election

By Paul Hoskins

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern called in
international support ahead of a television debate on Thursday in
which neither side landed the killer blow likely to tip the
scales in a close election race.

Despite his achievements after 10 years in office, Ahern faces an
uphill battle to win a third term in a general election next
Thursday after a furore over payments from businessmen forced him
to publish receipts to show he had not taken bribes.

Ahern turned for support to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who told
Irish voters in a political broadcast that Ahern had made an
"immeasurable" contribution to Ireland's dynamic economy, and
former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who praised him for helping
bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Ahern told viewers during Thursday's debate he had answered
"totally and completely" questions surrounding his own finances
and sought to highlight his track record on the economy.

"We're internationally recognised as being better than anybody
else," he said of Ireland's attractiveness to investors.

An overstretched health service, where nurses have been staging
work stoppages, and a creaking transport system that has failed
to keep pace with a fast-growing population have added to a sense
among voters that it may be time for a change, however.

"I agree with Tony Blair that 10 years is enough for anybody,"
opposition leader Enda Kenny said of the British premier's
decision to step down in June.

Ahern was guilty of a "litany of broken promises", he added.

"That's going to be the difference between your government and
mine because my government will deliver," Kenny said in a debate
characterised by picking holes in manifestos which make broadly
similar pledges on tax and spending.

CLIFFHANGER

As both sides claimed victory in the debate, commentators said it
had probably been too close to call -- something that could
favour the opposition given its momentum in the polls.

"If it was a debating competition, personally I would have scored
it narrowly in favour of Bertie Ahern but we're not talking about
a debating society, we're talking about politics and Bertie Ahern
needed a clear victory," Mark Hennessy of the Irish Times said
during post-debate analysis.

Kevin Rafter, political editor of the Sunday Tribune, said
Ahern's Fianna Fail party would be relieved to have its campaign
back on track after a shaky start but that Kenny had also done
enough to prove he had the wherewithal to be prime minister.

"This is a cliff-hanger of an election it's going to be a very
tight result and in that sense I suppose it's no surprise, given
everything that's at stake, that tonight in my view would be a
draw," said Rafter.

Recent polls show that despite Fine Gael's gains, neither side
has enough support to be sure of winning a majority.

That means smaller, undeclared parties such as the Green Party
and IRA political ally Sinn Fein could end up the kingmakers
while some believe Fine Gael's election partner, the Labour
Party, could switch to Ahern if there is no alternative.

Ahern will hope to capitalise on the 'Bertie-factor' as polls
show that while his party's support has slipped his own ratings
have held above 50 percent and ahead of Kenny.

"He is their most potent weapon," said Damian Loscher, managing
director of pollster TNS mrbi. "He has a remarkable capacity to
connect with the people."

*********************

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/6665413.stm

Paisley's Praise For Nationalist

First Minister Ian Paisley has praised the achievements of his
nationalist equivalent in Scotland, Alex Salmond.

The DUP leader commented: "People used to run him down like they
ran me down.

"He is a clever man and to do what he did in turning around
politics in Scotland is really a miracle."

Mr Paisley also revealed that the SNP leader, who on Wednesday
became the first nationalist first minister of Scotland, is to
visit Northern Ireland.

"I was talking to him last night on the phone and he's going to
come over to Northern Ireland and have a chat with us about
things.

"There are things Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have in
common that if we go to the British Government in harness, we
will get more out of them."

The 81-year-old also noted Mr Salmond wants "the Queen to remain
as Queen of Scotland".

"That shows the difference between their type of nationalism in
Scotland and our type of nationalism in Ireland," he said.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/05/17 11:13:34 GMT

c BBC MMVII

*********************

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6641645,00.html

Outlawed UVF Reopens Disarmament Talks

Thursday May 17, 2007 10:31 PM

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - A major outlawed Protestant
group reopened negotiations Thursday with international
disarmament officials, raising hopes that it could soon follow
the IRA's lead and surrender weapons.

The Ulster Volunteer Force waged a 1966-1994 campaign of terror
against Northern Ireland's Catholic minority that claimed more
than 500 lives. The group largely stopped attacking Catholics in
1994 but continued to target fellow Protestants and police during
criminal feuds and riots.

On May 3, the Ulster Volunteer Force announced it had renounced
violence for political purposes and placed its weapons under the
custody of senior members and beyond the reach of rank-and-file
members.

But the underground organization stressed it wasn't yet ready to
surrender arms to John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian
general who has been trying to oversee paramilitary disarmament
in Northern Ireland since 1997.

Britain, Ireland, de Chastelain and local Northern Ireland
parties all stressed that the group's actions, while welcome,
needed to be backed up by full disarmament.

Deputies of de Chastelain met Thursday at an undisclosed Belfast
location with two Ulster Volunteer Force commanders and a
politician linked to the group, Billy Hutchinson. Neither side
commented afterward.

The Ulster Volunteer Force was among the first of Northern
Ireland's armed groups to open talks with de Chastelain in 1997.
But the group cut off the dialogue six years later amid disputes
over whether it was fully observing a 1994 cease-fire.

The group is much more poorly armed than the Irish Republican
Army, the major Catholic-backed paramilitary group, which
renounced violence in 2005 and handed over an estimated 100 tons
of Libyan-supplied weaponry to de Chastelain's commission.

*********************

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/opinion/18self.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Opin: The Troubles: A Walking Tour

By Will Self
Published: May 18, 2007
Belfast

THE packet of Wagon Wheel cookies crushed into the damp grass on
the slopes of Black Mountain in the Belfast Hills bore a faded
illustration of a covered wagon traveling at speed, together with
the slogan: "Size Matters!" Indeed, it does. I was making my way
gingerly down this steep hill, which, along with the rest of the
massif - from Divis Mountain to Cave Hill - was imagined by
Jonathan Swift to be a giant, recumbent figure. Some say that
this was his inspiration for the distortions in scale with which
he opened "Gulliver's Travels."

I myself couldn't see it. When I'd arrived in Northern Ireland
three days previously, my flight skimmed past Black Mountain to
the north, and the day before I'd driven back into town from
Fermanagh over a spur of Cave Hill (the supposed nose of the
giant). Then, this afternoon, I'd quit my hotel in the center of
town and walked west along the Falls Road. The whole way up this
artery - which is imprinted in the national consciousness as the
very circulatory system of Republican terrorism - the landmass
loomed above me, its flanks dappled with heather and pitted with
old quarry workings. Big it may have been - but anthropoid, not
at all.

The last time I was in Belfast it was shortly after the Easter
Accords had been signed. I walked this way with my friend, the
writer Carlo G‚bler, then we stomped back into town via an
equally notorious Loyalist artery, the Shankhill Road. The time
before that it was the early 1990s, and I went up the Falls Road
to visit the Sinn Fein headquarters and interview its press
officer, Mitchel McLaughlin, who now represents South Antrim in
the Legislative Assembly.

On neither of those previous occasions do I remember feeling any
great anxiety along the Falls Road, despite the Republican murals
of H-block martyrs and gun-wielding paramilitaries, the gun-
toting Royal Ulster Constabulary foot patrols, and the armored
vehicles swishing past, hopeful "Crimestoppers" hotline numbers
painted on their camouflaged sides. But this time it was the May
Day holiday and the streets were empty; I suspected that if I
were to encounter loafing oafs they might well give me a casual,
nonsectarian thump. Then, the potential violence was so extreme
it was non-apprehensible; now the teenagers smashing traffic
lights with their hurly sticks suggested merely workaday
beatings.

At Milltown Cemetery I made a detour to visit the Irish
Republican Army plot. It was here, in 1988, that a Unionist
paramilitary member, Michael Stone, shot and threw grenades at
three Republican mourners at a funeral. Three days later, two
British Army corporals who accidentally ran into the funeral
cortege for one of these victims were dragged from their car,
beaten by the crowd and then summarily executed. So the Troubles
eked themselves out in grotesque dribs and drabs of human life,
adding up to more than 3,500 in all.

Even on a bright day, with sun and showers alternating, there
remained something minatory about Milltown. A couple of tight-
faced street drinkers loitered among the overgrown Victorian
graves. The I.R.A. plot is like an ancient chamber tomb: the
volunteers' black marble markers arranged in a boat-shaped
compound, while at the prow the declaration of the 1916 Easter
Rising is carved in stone.

I turned my back on the city and trudged up the Monagh Bypass,
then past the Irish travelers' camp and along the Upper
Springfield Road. Finally I reached open ground and headed on up
to the ridge. Public access to the Black Mountain has been
possible only for the last couple of years. Before that the
British Army held sway up here: it still has a huge listening
post on the summit of Divis.

The evening before I'd met a warden for the new park that's being
created here, and he told me that the hills were becoming well
used by the city's inhabitants. This didn't accord with my
experience: as the wind soughed over the heather I saw only a
posse of young travelers - indigenous Irish nomads - coursing for
hares, their track suits flapping as they ran after their
lurchers. And the heather itself was burnt to a crisp, while
fresh yellow blades of grass speared among the scorched roots.
The warden had told me that the children set fire to the heather
every year, and that really it wasn't such a bad thing, since it
provided one of the few remaining habitats suitable for the red
grouse to nest in.

It was beautiful up on the hills, with achingly long views
southwest to Strangford Lough and over 30 miles south to the
conical Mountains of Mourne. In the near distance, on the far
side of town, I could make out the pale, stone monstrosity of
Stormont: a Brobdingnagian Parliament built for politicians all
too often fit only for Lilliput. The following day would see Tony
Blair and Bertie Ahearn descend on Stormont to celebrate the new
devolved government of the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein
with plenty of mutual back-slapping.

But the arrival of these giants lay in the future; for the
meantime it was I who was slapping the back of the mighty hill
with my boots. Immediately below me I could see the enclaves of
Ballymurphy and Springmartin, Catholic and Protestant
respectively, still separated by 30-foot-high "peace walls"
topped by razor wire, and I wondered, which one would it be safer
to walk through, the Big or the Little Endians'?

Will Self is the author, most recently, of "The Book of Dave."

*********************

http://www.enidnews.com/opinion/local_story_136002911.html

Opin: 'From 'The Troubles' To 'Stormont Street'

By Jeff Mullin Commentary

A war ended last week, a war that had dragged on for centuries.

It was the war of Henry VIII, Hugh O'Neill, Oliver Cromwell and
William of Orange. It was the war of the Potato Famine, the
Fenians, Sinn Fein, the Black and Tans and the Irish Republican
Army. It was the war of Michael Collins, the Ulster Volunteer
Force, the Provisional IRA and Bobby Sands.

It was the war of the Battle of Bogside, Bloody Sunday, Omagh,
Shankill Road, Portadown and the Falls Road.

Ultimately it was the war of the Good Friday Peace accord and,
last week, the historic announcement Protestants and Catholics
would begin sharing power in Northern Ireland.

The war was known, euphemistically, as "The Troubles," but it was
a battle for control and domination with roots in the 12th
century.

But last week the two bitter enemies shook hands and agreed to
work together. Ian Paisley, an 81-year-old Protestant evangelist,
and Martin McGuinness, deputy leader of the IRA, will form an
administration to govern Northern Ireland.

Paisley is a former firebrand whose impassioned, hate-filled
rhetoric expressed support for outlawed Protestant paramilitary
groups, while McGuinness is a former commander of IRA cells that
carried out a campaign of terror.

Having these two agree to govern jointly is a bit like Robert E.
Lee and Ulysses S. Grant teaming up.

But they have agreed to bury the hatchet, and not in each other's
heads. And now "The Troubles" have given way to "Stormont
Street."

That's the nickname given to a planned new version of venerable
U.S. children's television hit "Sesame Street." Stormont is the
name of Belfast's parliament building where the historic power
sharing agreement was signed.

The show will promote peace and reconciliation between Catholics
and Protestants, and will feature two new, non-sectarian
characters to live alongside old favorites like Big Bird, Grover,
Bert and Ernie.

The new spirit of cooperation comes far too late for the more
than 3,700 killed and many more injured in the 30 years of "The
Troubles." Bombs and bullets became a way of life in Northern
Ireland.

Now residents of Northern Ireland, both Protestant and Catholic,
can turn their attention to matters such as the country's high
cost of housing (now the highest in the United Kingdom) and the
appearance of mysterious lights in the sky over County Down that
were said by some to be UFOs.

No bombs, no bullets, no bodies maimed, no lives snuffed, save
for the recent rash of fatal motorcycle accidents on Northern
Ireland's roads. The news in Northern Ireland these days is,
well, rather mundane.

Neither side can really claim victory. One side wanted Northern
Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland, the other
sought Protestant domination.

Instead the country will remain part of the United Kingdom,
governed by a coalition with representatives from both sides.

The real winners are the people of Northern Ireland, who can live
their lives without the fear of being murdered by a faceless
bomber or a masked gunman.

If the unthinkable, the unimaginable, has happened in Northern
Ireland, there might be hope for the Middle East yet.

----
To Subscribe to Irish Aires Google News List, click Here.
To Unsub from Irish Aires Google News List, click Here
For options visit: http://groups.google.com/group/IrishAiresNews

Or join our Irish Aires Yahoo Group, Click here

To Get RSS Feed for Irish Aires News click HERE
(Paste http://irishaires.blogspot.com/atom.xml into a News Reader)

To May Index
To Index of Monthly Archives
To Searches & Sources of Other Irish News
Posted by: Unknown / 10:06 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?