Taking the Irish Road to Peace in Ukraine
After one of those "Only in Ukraine" 4 am in the morning moments this weekend, between a quarrelsome British guy and a sharp minded Irish gambler, I started to think about it. While the nature of the war in Ukraine is amplified on a much bigger scale than "The Troubles" it may be useful to study what worked in bringing about Peace in Northern Ireland.
Ukraine is undergoing a massive painful disruption . They want some sort of normalcy and peace.
https://news.vice.com/article/eastern-ukraine-is-slipping-back-into-all-out-war
Maybe fixing this all comes down to the right negotiator ? With that perfect mix of street smarts and book smarts, where they know how each side thinks, but at the end of the day, they can bear down on the key issues of each side and cut a deal based that has some logic. I don't think they'll send Yulia Tymoshenko to the bargaining table, but she seems to know how Putin thinks, she can take a back handed compliment and return the favor. She is surely giving advice about a way forward.
Easter is, after all not that far away, it never hurts to copy something that worked in the past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/sunday-review/remembering-an-easter-miracle-in-northern-ireland.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
About the Troubles in Ireland, if you study all of the obstreperous characters involved, the messy history of bombings, killings, torching , bank robberies, religious rhetoric, clashes of social -economic categories and so forth, you realize at the end of the day, they like to talk, bluntly, but with some deference and that famous sense of humor that is really so different from the British.
This war in Ukraine came on so fast, public opinion is so susceptible to media based manipulations, distortion and uncertainty about who is actually doing what, as the news just gets worse and worse. It is Russia's goal to keep Ukraine off balanced, and on the defensive.
the vehemence of the quotes from the Irish troubles is intense:
On behalf of the people of Ulster I brand you a traitor and a liar.
Reverend Ian Paisley 22/02/1987 On Margaret Thatcher
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in some deft bit of diplomacy, the Irish did reach an agreement. I was hanging out with guys from Finland this week. They were able to deal with Russia, sort it out , and keep things on an even keel since the war in the 1940's. But geography, and other things worked in their favor. Militarily, Ukraine has a very weak hand in stopping Russia in a stepped up conflict. Economical leverage continues to be it's best asset in getting a deal worked out with Russia.
_http://www.cfr.org/peace-conflict-and-human-rights/northern-ireland-peace-process/p31552
Much is said about English severity, but not a word about Irish provocation.
Reverend Ian Paisley 22/02/1987 On Margaret Thatcher
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in some deft bit of diplomacy, the Irish did reach an agreement. I was hanging out with guys from Finland this week. They were able to deal with Russia, sort it out , and keep things on an even keel since the war in the 1940's. But geography, and other things worked in their favor. Militarily, Ukraine has a very weak hand in stopping Russia in a stepped up conflict. Economical leverage continues to be it's best asset in getting a deal worked out with Russia.
_http://www.cfr.org/peace-conflict-and-human-rights/northern-ireland-peace-process/p31552
Much is said about English severity, but not a word about Irish provocation.
Robert Peel 1833
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Now is not the time for sound-bites. I can feel the hand of history on my shoulder.
Tony Blair
On signing the Anglo Irish Agreement
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Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war.
Such decisions will be far reaching and difficult. But you never lacked courage in the past. Your courage is now needed for the future.
As I understand the story, the British Army was brought in to protect the Catholics from the Ulster Protestants. It was only later the IRA turned against the British as an occupation force
As I understand the story, the British Army was brought in to protect the Catholics from the Ulster Protestants. It was only later the IRA turned against the British as an occupation force
Ian Paisley :
“Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners”
– Paisley at a loyalist rally in 1968 following attacks on Catholic homes.
“They breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin”
– Paisley talking about Catholics at a loyalist rally in 1969.
Ian Paisley was highly critical of the Catholic Church. In 1988, he had to be physically removed from the European Parliament after interrupting a speech by Pope John Paul II – Paisely, never a man for mincing his words, denounced the Pope as the Antichrist
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