As many are either hung over or still drunk from yesterdays St. Patrick’s celebrating I’d like to bring up something. Ireland has seemed to get its shit together quite nicely over the past few years, Dublin particularly. Everyone knows how long the killing went on between the Catholics and the Protestants over whose invisible friends were better along with trying to gain independence from British rule. But now with much talk and compromise, tensions have eased and prosperity is being achieved by all who want it. What seemed to be a youth driven peace is taking hold in a city that has long been rocked with vengeance killings. In January 2005, Robert McCarthey was murdered after a pub brawl, by IRA members. After a high-profile campaign by his sisters and fiancée, the IRA admitted its members were responsible and offered to shoot them. The McCartney sisters turned down their offer, but the episode badly damaged the standing of the IRA in Belfast. In April 2005, Gerry Adams called for the IRA to lay down its weapons. It agreed on 28 July 2005 calling for its volunteers to use "exclusively peaceful means". It would not disband, but simply use peaceful means to achieve its aims. Julie was there just this past summer on business and saw first hand that corporations and investors are pouring in cash and products to help with this recent surge in prosperity. So have a bit of the dog that bitcha and throw down another pint of Guinness knowing that the Emerald Isle is shining.
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