Reconciliation

I took my car to Kwik Fit this afternoon, two new front tyres were needed to replace the worn ones which only just got through the MOT test. I was told I would have a 90 minute wait, so umbrella in hand I went for a very soggy walk in the rain.

I passed this spot and paused. It is a piece of public art, and here can be seen the faces and hand prints of young children. One of the faces in shot is that of Tim Parry, who with Jonathan Ball was killed here on 20th Match 1993 by a bomb planted by the provisional IRA. His father, and mother, Colin and Wendy Parry, went on to push for reconciliation, a physical feature of which is the Peace Centre in Warrington. People like them were influential in creating the pressure for reconciliation which eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Huge respect.

2021 is the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland through the 1920 government of Ireland Act. I really do hope that the government’s approach to Brexit does not undermine or even destroy what was achieved in 1998. The British government’s often disastrous record of handling Irish issues over the last 150 years, combined with this government’s peculiar hostility to Europe, is not one that instils a lot of confidence that they understand what they are doing when it comes to the divisions in Northern Ireland.