It just keeps going on and on, every year, the same marches, the same protests and then, the inevitable riots. They can say it's their tradition, or it's about remembering their dead but a lot of the time it's just about getting one over on the other side.
If we were as concerned in Northern Ireland with the present and the living, as we are with the past and the dead;
if we were as concerned with forging a new future as we are about honouring tradition; if the same people who were out rioting and protesting, could re-direct those energies into freeing their communities from the petty thugs who intimidate and terrorise those same communities; if the money wasted on policing these protests and marches could be re-directed into creating real jobs and better training, then maybe, just maybe, we would be European leaders in areas other than unemployment, emigration, alcoholism and suicide.
Belfast riots