Political Beliefs And In-humanity

(1)One glaringly obvious aspect of the possible political futures for N.Ireland at the two extremes of the spectrum of such possibilities ( an enforced union with Britain or an enforced union with the Republic of Ireland ) is their lack of humanity (perhaps even hatred) with regard to the people in one of the two communities there.

Unionists only have to imagine themselves in an imposed United Ireland to appreciate the effects of an imposed internal ( British ) solution on Nationalists .
Nationalists only have imagine themselves in an imposed internal (British ) solution to appreciate the effects of an imposed United Ireland on Unionists.


(2)If people outside N.Ireland want to imagine the effect of an enforced United Ireland on the Unionist population or the effect of an enforced union with Britain on the Nationalist population they can imagine the effect on their own people of the occupation of all,or part, of their own country by some outside power. (* see below)

Americans , for example, can imagine the effect on their people of the occupation of some of their territory by , say ,Russia or China.

British people likewise can imagine the effects of occupation by , say, Germany or ,again,Russia.


(3)Anyone who believes in the importance of freedom and who understands how important freedom is to the well-being of a people has to accept the wrongness of trying to impose a political settlement in N.Ireland that leaves the people in one of the two communities unfree.
Politicians advocating either of the two extremes should take heed of the humanitarian costs involved.

It is time for all sides , including both Governments , to re-examine their long-held beliefs and to start consciously looking for a solution that is acceptable to both communities.

It is also time that the two governments acknowledged that neither of them has clean hands in this affair in that both of their official positions recognize the validity of only one tradition in N.Ireland and has thus contributed indirectly to the violence.

Back to "Cothrom Home Page"
Back to "Other Cothrom Documents"

Note: All pf these Cothrom pages that relate to Northern Ireland were originally created at the end of the '90's/early 00's.