By so doing they perpetuated it

By so doing, they perpetuated it.Had there been integration, it is possible, over time, Ulstermen might have voted according to their views on tax rates, nationalisation or nuclear weapons. Back in 1922, the majority of Unionists did not want a parliament in Stormont. What more would one expect when more than one third of the population would regularly vote to deny the state’s legitimacy, while its nearest neighbour claimed its territory, and it was regularly menaced by campaigns of terrorism?Yet many of Ulster’s problems could have been averted, but only if there had been a British government with foresight or an Ulster Protestant statesman of genius. a united Ireland who saw their representatives take their place in the partitionist assembly.” Does the PM really equate the grief of an RUC widow with the frustration of those who believed that they could achieve a united Ireland by murdering her husband and his colleagues?Mr Blair has also bought the Hollywood version of pre-1968 Ulster: an apartheid state in which Catholics were treated as second-class citizens Ulster certainly had its difficulties between 1922 and1968.

Now, Mr Blair has broken with precedent.It is paradoxical that he should have done so, for there has rarely – if ever – been a Prime Minister with less interest in history, less knowledge of history, or less patience with history. It often seems as if he believes that everything which happened until 1997 is BT, “before Tony”, a dark age when the Labour Party used to lose elections while no one even tried to run the public services properly.When HG Wells published A Short History of the World, one academic reviewer sniffed that Mr Wells had written rather more history than he had read. Apropos of the recent speech, the same charge could be levelled at Tony Blair. There are some dubious assertions, and some even more doubtful moral equivalents.”Who could not understand the anguish of the families of the victims of terrorism when they saw their dearest ones’ murderers given a rapturous welcome as they were released Or those who were prepared to die [for] …

Instead, they adopted the part of the Anglo- Saxon pragmatist, constantly urging the locals to forget the past and focus on the future, and constantly failing. Up to now, however, all of them have shared one characteristic; an absolute refusal to embroil themselves in Irish history.They all appeared to have concluded that this would be as wise as playing with lighted matches in a dynamite factory. The Real IRA’s collapse adds momentum to Tony Blair’s initiative.
It was a daring initiative. The 19th century historian Leopold von Ranke said that history was past politics. It does not matter if this is moral implosion due to guilt over the Omagh bombing, or a bid for an amnesty. Nor does it matter that Messrs Adams, McGuinness and the rest will be unmoved by the response of a breakaway faction, for which they deny all responsibility.