In the News: Northern Ireland
As you may know... There has been an ongoing peace in Northern Ireland for some time now (1998 - thank you Bill Clinton). What you might not know is that the Northern Irish government has been unable to cooperate and govern Northern Ireland for over a year. As a result the British parliament has been directly ruling over Northern Ireland. The recent problem from the six counties came about during the last election when new Protestant Unionists were elected into power. The members of the party (known as the D.U.P.) refuse to sit down and work with the Republicans of the Sinn Féin . So... the government ground to a halt, and the English had to step in and restore order.
A lot has happened since this point. The IRA have decommissiond all of their weapons (a fact denied by the DUP), and efforts to restore talks have continued to fail.
Today, however, there is new hope for the Northern Irish Parliament. Tony Blair has been hosting the DUP's leader - Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin leader - Gerry Adams at a summet in Scotland. This summit has resulted in the St Andrew's Agreement. This agreement causes both sides to compromise and work together and gives a timeline for restarting the government of Northern Ireland (March 2007). The parties now have to decide whether or not to implement it, which means tough decisions for the DUP on power-sharing and for Sinn Féin on acknowledging the rule of law. Only time will tell if this agreement will be different from others in the past... and only time will tell if these two radically different sides will be able to work together.
A lot has happened since this point. The IRA have decommissiond all of their weapons (a fact denied by the DUP), and efforts to restore talks have continued to fail.
Today, however, there is new hope for the Northern Irish Parliament. Tony Blair has been hosting the DUP's leader - Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin leader - Gerry Adams at a summet in Scotland. This summit has resulted in the St Andrew's Agreement. This agreement causes both sides to compromise and work together and gives a timeline for restarting the government of Northern Ireland (March 2007). The parties now have to decide whether or not to implement it, which means tough decisions for the DUP on power-sharing and for Sinn Féin on acknowledging the rule of law. Only time will tell if this agreement will be different from others in the past... and only time will tell if these two radically different sides will be able to work together.
1 Comments:
this sounds very, very familiar...where have i seen problems with parties within a government working together and one drumming up weapons where there aren't any for political purposes? where have i seen this? oh yeah, in the US congress where it seems on the dominant party can pass a bill and where, unlike northern ireland, republicans insist there are weapons held by our enemies, namely iraq, which is an argument denied by the democrats and is not true.
it seems no matter where you go in the world, people are the same; always trying to get the upper, more powerful, hand. however, in the US, despite checks and balances, when one party is in the majority, the government operates in one direction and there is nothing anyone can do about it, especially our moderator, not tony blair but the UN because apparently our government believes we know better than every other country in the world.
well, now i'm just rambling so i'll stop. at least it sounds as if things are improving in northern ireland. it would be awesome if they could continue the peace.
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