No need to revisit past

Northern Ireland is, once again, going through a bad patch as the struggle for identity and culture goes on.

Enough bricks and other masonry have been thrown over its troubled history to house all the homeless people in Northern Ireland 10 times over.

It is a serious issue and may plunge Northern Ireland into civil war, if any proposal came on the table to remove the Union flag entirely, which cannot be guaranteed not to come on the table at some stage.

It is surely time for all to have a long hard think about whether they want 2013 to be a year of peace and calm for Northern Ireland or another year of murders, injured and permanently disabled police officers, riots, explosive devices viable or not, bomb warnings, evacuations, inter-community aggression and tension, burnt out vehicles, smashed shop fronts, vandalism, sectarianism, hatred, anarchy, chaos, and crass apathy for the law in any shape or form? Let’s all hope it does not slip too far back into the past.

The pressure must be kept up to keep it moving away from its disgraceful and shameful violent history.

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork