3,637 dead: what was it all for?

THERE is a new dawn breaking in Irish politics.

Democratic and non-violent politics has finally triumphed over the advocates of physical force and intransigence.

As the New York News said of John Hume on May 24, 1998, after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement: “More than 20 years ago, he first packaged the ideas at the core of the Good Friday Agreement: a new Assembly and shared powers between North and South. In the end, Hume never budged. Everyone else had to change their minds about killing and discrimination”.