It is a bright spring morning here on the north coast of Ireland. The wind has died; the rain has dried up and the sun is shining with a little warmth. Midway between the saints' days of David and Patrick - and hard times notwithstanding - it should be a good day to be alive.
Except that two young British soldiers and one Ulster policeman are no longer alive -and two other soldiers and two pizza delivery lads - one Polish - are seriously ill. Various splinter groups - the "Real" and the "Continuity" and for all I know, the "Heroic" IRA - have, as they think, "succeeded" in reigniting "the armed struggle".
They are wrong. They are utterly, futilely, cynically and perpetually wrong. After the seismic upheavals of the past 40 years, when "Ulster says NO" meant first a refusal to grant civil rights, then a refusal to allow our neighbours any say in our affairs and finally a refusal to share power until all aspirant parties renounced violence, today Ulster says "NO" to a return to violence and division.
People: I write this blog to amuse, to inform and, admittedly, to promote. But I also write as one who refused to leave his native province and who stayed to try and rebuild civilised life here. And in contrast to the many who flounce and denounce from the outside, I and my motley crew do our damndest to bring some small measure of prosperity and pleasure to the entire island of Ireland and its many good-hearted friends in North America.
I tell you straight this morning: the twisted and evil few apart, no-one - but no-one - in this transformed corner of ours wants to return to The Bad Old Days. Now that both communities have learned so much about sharing - 'cos everyone loses in a domestic brawl while the bailiffs are knocking down the door - no-one wants to go back.
If you want a much more eloquent and no less impassioned analysis of recent events, I recommend a piece in today's Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/article5877219.ece
For myself and the rest of my generation who have come through so much, we say to the retards: "Your time is past. If you do not accept the rule of law, there will be no hiding place. Nor will there ever be an amnesty for you, for you want to destroy the good."
It is the height of irony that a policeman was killed on the night when BBC Northern Ireland aired a programme inspired by my good friend John McCann. "Over Here" tells the story of the US troops stationed in Northern Ireland in World War II with great humour and pathos. These boys become men fought and died to preserve the government of the people, by the people, for the people.
And that, my friends, is all we want.
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