A truly beautiful piece about Ireland

Conchobar emailed me this NYT article.  It was written by Bono and is in response the the Saville Report issued the week before last, echoing my own sentiments but with an eloquence that I could never hope to achive.  I cannot even summarize the most imprtant thing I took away from it better than the man himself:

If there are any lessons for the world from this piece of Irish history ... for Baghdad ... for Kandahar ... it’s this: things are quick to change for the worse and slow to change for the better, but they can. They really can. It takes years of false starts, heartbreaks and backslides and, most tragically, more killings. But visionaries and risk-takers and, let’s just say it, heroes on all sides can bring us back to the point where change becomes not only possible again, but inevitable.


None of us must ever forget this.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank Conchoar for sending me the article, Bono for writing it.

PM David Cameron, Lord Saville and Northern Ireland

Although it’s not an American issue at all, I want to commend the handling of the inquiry into the event of “Bloody Sunday” in Northern Ireland, 30 January, 1972 by Lord Saville and British Prime Minister David Cameron. In their willingness to take a stark look at those tragic events, and take responsibility as a government for an event that led to over thirty years of increased violence, they have shown a level of class and character that many American Politicians and certainly most of the Punditry should learn a lesson from. As a note to the “blame America first” crowd of RW bed-wetters? THIS is what “taking responsibility” actually looks like. Great Britain was fighting TERRORISM. Terrorism that was on their own land and threatening their citizens every day, having cost tens of thousands of lives. The IRA represented a far greater threat to the English Citizenry (which the Northern Irish are a part of) that Al-Qaeda has ever come close to being to the Americans. And yet, they have still shown the ability to take an objective look at their conduct and take responsibility for the atrocities committed in the course of “defending their sovereignty.” Compared to these two men, whom he would call “traitors” were they American and looking into our own actions in the “war of terror,” Sean Hannity is no more than a puddle of pig’s urine.

As a side note, about the English… Many years ago I was in Leicestershire on business, at a test lab supporting the validation of some of our products for the European Market. Their senior test engineer and I were getting on rather well. We shared an interest in European History and he took me to Bosworth Field, to the spot where King Richard III fell in battle against the soon-to-be King Henry VII; fascinating stuff. Anyway… at one point he asks me about the national origin of my NAME. I explained that while the name (and my family) is Italian, being adopted myself I have no Italian blood in me. He then me asked about my own heritage and when I replied, “Irish, French and German,” he almost spit out his drink, laughed out loud and said, “Wow, I’m surprised we even get along!” LOL