"Northern Ireland factions reach deal but hurdles remain; Government will take control of justice system" by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press | February 6, 2010
HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland - A breakthrough deal yesterday to save Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant government has given a new lease on life to an awkward partnership of former foes that still must overcome many obstacles to survive....
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain told Irish Catholic leader Martin McGuinness and British Protestant leader Peter Robinson they had completed an unlikely journey from warlords to practical politicians....
Interesting. That route is available to western war criminals, huh? Available for Israelis like Sharon.
However, when it comes to a Muslim warlord in Afghanistan or some Taliban in Pakistan it's the devil incarnate, huh?
McGuinness’s Sinn Fein party had threatened to withdraw from power-sharing, shattering the central institution of Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord, unless Robinson’s Democratic Unionists stopped blocking plans to create a new Justice Department in Belfast that would oversee law and order in this long-divided society....
The governments of Britain, Ireland, and the US long have pressed for this to happen as the last logical step in building a unity government that majority Protestants and minority Catholics can support.
Only in Northern Ireland, right?
Irish overwhelmingly Catholic, aren't they?
Protestants opposed the move, in part, because they loathe the notion of former IRA figures having any role in overseeing justice.
Britain eased the Protestants’ concerns with a staggering promise to give an extra $1.3 billion to cover the costs of establishing the Justice Department and a range of exceptional policing costs.
Oh, so the BRITS BOUGHT 'EM OFF, huh?
Not that I'm opposed to peace, but doesn't Britain have financial troubles of its own?
“In finalizing this deal, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness and their teams displayed the kind of leadership that the people of Northern Ireland deserve,’’ said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Still tipping them back, 'eh, "lady?"
Yet Belfast political analysts agree that trust, the critical glue for real cross-community cooperation, remains in dangerously short supply. Yesterday’s deal sets a series of diplomatic and security hurdles that the Catholic-Protestant coalition must clear in the high-pressure weeks ahead to avoid another breakdown.
The Protestant side agreed to drop its veto on forging a Justice Department only on condition that Sinn Fein reopened negotiations on the most divisive tradition in Northern Ireland society - summertime marches by tens of thousands of hard-line Protestants in the Orange Order brotherhood.
That's what this is all about? That's the sticking point?
We call that a straw man or a red herring.
The Democratic Unionists, whose leaders themselves are mostly Orangemen, want restrictions imposed by British authorities a decade ago to be lifted, so that Protestants can resume their tradition of parading past the most hard-line Irish nationalist parts of Northern Ireland.
Kind of like Ireland's version of the Klan, huh?
The practice triggered widespread rioting when last permitted in the mid-1990s. This year’s first restricted parades happen at Easter, the bulk in July.
And CUI BONO, 'eh?
“There is always in a peace deal like this an outstanding issue, something that is deferred until later. In this case it’s the parades issue,’’ said Belfast commentator and author Malachi O’Doherty.
I hate a parade when it's a bunch of inflammatory Protestants!
;-)
--more--"
Can we HAVE PEACE NOW?
