Northern Ireland is again facing violent disturbances, political instability and worrying uncertainty, writes @TimesONeill thetimes.co.uk/article/northe…
“It feels like Northern Ireland will never move on from Protestant-Catholic, nationalist-unionist, and Brexit has just started a whole new conversation around the same old subject,” says Mary O’Neill, an 18-year-old A-level student
“Mary is my niece. It is hard for me to believe that, almost a quarter of a century after the Good Friday Agreement, she is wrestling with the same choices I faced back in the early 1980s”
“The poison of the past — sectarianism, distrust, bigotry and simmering violence — continues to blight this society as it has done for 100 years and more”
“As we catch our first glimpse of life after the pandemic, and indeed life after the political paralysis of Brexit, the neverending tussle between the Union and a united Ireland is again demanding our attention”
“Amid all this gloom there are optimists who see the green shoots of progressive change”
“Brussels more than any other actor at the moment has the ability to defuse the tension which threatens stability and peace. Its next steps should be motivated by responsibility rather than recrimination."
Read the full essay: thetimes.co.uk/article/northe…
Read the full essay: thetimes.co.uk/article/northe…
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