So, yesterday a deal was done in Northern Ireland. I guess I now know how Chris and Eva felt when the Berlin Wall came down in early November 1989. Richard and I were visiting them in Köln and watched the events on the television whilst our two friends cried and hugged each other. They swore we were watching scenes which they had never dreamed of seeing in their lifetimes.
I guess, like many people on mainland Britain who have mostly been untroubled by The Troubles, you get to despairing about the situation in Northern Ireland. You get to wondering how and why such anger and bitterness can fuel communities for so long. And, in the long run, isn't it just so much easier to live at ease rather than in dispute.
Any yet, I do believe that the British Army in Ulster has been an army of occupation. And I do believe that we have heard and are told little in any of the official media as to what has been happening in the six counties. And I do believe that the Unionists have been sheltered from public scrutiny and that their beliefs would be repudiated by most people on the mainland to which they wish to be securely bound. In fact, if this chance of peace is not seized, then I do believe that mainland Britain should inform the Unionists that we shall no longer continue to subsidise their bigotry.
If you think that I exaggerate on that point, you might do well to ponder a placard held by an Ulster Unionist as photographed in this morning's Guardian. It read Trimble is Ulster's De Klerk. Ponder on that. Ponder on the link between the mindset of an Ulster Unionist and a right-wing Boer. The latter believes that his leader sold his country down the river and handed it over to the blacks - that majority who he would rather have simply kept enslaved. I think it was a slogan that was too revealing by half. But then you'll remember from my comments about the UVF that I have little time for certain brands of (so-called) Loyalist politics.
One small news item does give me a glimmer of hope. Ian Paisley <spit> - how can that man pretend to be such a man of god with a certificate that he purchased from an American college and a gut full of bile and bilge? - has been heckled and jeered at by crowds who would normally have been adoring. Maybe a worm has turned.
I hope so. I was never so startled in all my life as when I came upon troops in Belfast. To me, the situation was completely alien. To the inhabitants of the city around me, the men in uniform were as wallpaper, just part of the background. Living without that pressure will take some getting used to.