14 Years Divided

From the BBC:
"14 years after deal NI 'still very divided' new report suggests"

Fourteen years after the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland remains "a very divided society," a new report suggests. Peace walls have increased from 22 when the agreement was signed, to a current total of 48 walls, according to the NI Peace Monitoring Report.The policing deal is not secure with a greater drop-out rate for Catholic officers, it says. The report stresses that the assembly is running and violence is down. However, against that, paramilitarism remains an active threat and Northern Ireland society is still very divided in terms of schools and housing, it says. The report, published by the Community Relations Council, said no solution for dealing with Northern Ireland's troubled past had been found. "The opportunity for reasoned discussion about how the past should be handled was lost in the furore surrounding the 2009 report of the Consultative Group on the past, largely because of a clause which suggested a one-off payment to all families who had lost someone in the Troubles regardless of whether that person was seen as a victim or a perpetrator," the report concludes.

^ I was in Northern Ireland for a few days two years ago (I stayed in Belfast and Londonderry/Derry) and saw just how divided the Protestants and catholics remain. Not only do they continue to stay away from each other, but the attacks and bombings continue to a lesser degree. Everyone I met in Northern Ireland stressed that there was peace and everything was fine, but you could tell just by driving around the city that there was an eery quiet on the surface and violence just waiting to come out at the slightest provocation. I don't know how bad it was during The Troubles (1960s-1998) except what I read in books, but when I was there you could see each side trying to "stick it" to the other whether it was through their murals, memorials, monuments or the simple fact of painting their territory (red, white and blue for the Protestants/Unionists or green, white and orange for the Catholics/Republicans.) All sides are guilty of continuing the division and violence. I remember feeling more uneasy when I was in Northern Ireland in June 2010 than I was in Bosnia in December 2010. To me Northern Ireland seemed like a powder keg ready to ignite at a moment's notice. People there can pretend that everything is fine when it's not really, but hopefully this report will help to really create a lasting peace between the two groups. ^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17198481