Can he make a chicken supper?

Hmmm...I wish I could say something knowledgeable or constructive....Perhaps, never having lived in NI, I cannot. I just...I just wish that the "old guard" of Adams/Paisley etc would hurry up and just die, and that time would fast-forward, and that a new generation of leaders would emerge, with both sides truly wanting peace and willing to compromise in order to secure it. While these old leaders remain in place, I can't see much progress occuring.
I'm an English Catholic, the product of a mixed marriage (Mum = Eire born Catholic; my late Dad was London-born C of E) and I have sympathy with both sides. I can see that the whole island of Ireland belongs to the Irish at its most basic level (I mean, just look at the map for heaven's sake. We Brits were wrong to ever take control of it, though that's a long time in the past). But the trouble is, if the Brit gov't pulled out now, it would leave a whole section of the NI population disenfranchised, and at the mercy of gang warfare. The past may be flawed, but it's too late now to simply leave them to their own devices. Both Cath's and Prot's have a right to live in peace, and I assume that most people in NI don't give a f**k who rules them, so long as they can carry on their lives/businesses in peace.
But y'know, what do I know? I've been subject to decades of BBC reporting after all. So please educate me. I'm listening.

> I wish I could say something knowledgeable or constructive.

What, like a restaurant review?

He really is a chef, you know.

I think making a smug joke about Bobby Sands after Nationalists start posting comments in your blog is not only in bad taste, but rather petty.

What does it take to move you, Two? Do you have any heroes? George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, top free marketeer General Pinochet and that tireless human rights campaigner Arial Sharon perhaps. Let me know if anyone doing something out of the ordinary for their beliefs has ever taken your breath away, and I'll make a shitty little sub "Have I Got News For You" joke out of it.

(I'm not Tom, btw).

And the other thing people fail to realise about Northern Ireland is that people here have a great sense of humour.

Sorry to disappoint your sense of your own importance to me, Linstead, but the timing of my post had nothing to do with your turning up and everything to do with it being the day after I'd heard it.

It's very tiresome to have to do this, but I draw your attention to this piss-take of the other side, again a true story. Feel free to be outraged by my seeing the funny side of antisemitism, but please don't bother boring me with your thoughts.

Linstead lets not overlook the minor detail of Bobby Sands being a terrorist sh*t.

Oh, don't. You'll set him off again.

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I feel quite sorry for Gerard Sands. Must be awful trying to get on in life if you can't mention what you do for a living without your dad's fans jumping down your throat about it. I wonder if he gets this from prospective employers when he hands in his CV?