WHOEVER would have thought it possible?  At a time when it seems as if the rest of the world is hell bent on slaughtering each other, the Irish and the British have taken a monumental leap toward burying the hatchet.

I use the word monumental because the astonishing thing is that they are not trying to bury it in each other’s heads on this occasion! If ever there was a case of reverse psychology, then surely this is it.  Big time!

Everywhere else on the planet the cave men are out in force, hell-bent on proving that Allah or Jesus or Abraham or Christ or the Dali Lama or Jehovah or Billy Graham or the guy from Waco, or the apostle from Prosperous, Co. Kildare (Christy Moore) is the true God, and have the weaponry to prove it, enforce it, ram it down your throat and generally just wipe out all the heathens who don’t agree, won’t agree, can’t agree, refuse to see.

We Irish are definitely a race apart and have tried to teach the world in our own inimitable style, with books, music, poetry, sarcasm, wit, craic and a lot of bull that we can all live together and get along (as long as you don’t touch my pint!)

John Brennan
Garden City, New York