Slugger O'Toole: Another temporary 'solution'?

That report in full -

Primate urges parties to 'grasp opportunity'
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent

The Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Seán Brady, has warned against making the pursuit of a perfect solution to the North's problems "the enemy of a good solution".

He continued that "a good solution can create the opportunity for better solutions to emerge."[my emphasis]

Speaking yesterday at a Mass to mark the reopening, following renovations, of the St John the Baptist Church near the Garvaghy Road in Drumcree parish, Co Armagh, he appealed "to all involved in the negotiations to grasp the good opportunity that now presents itself and to give us reasons to hope for new possibilities and for a new beginning to our shared future by reaching agreement".

"For, should these hopes be once more dashed, then the only winners will be the cynics, and the losers [ will be] the people who believed that locally elected representatives could take responsibility for our local situation," Dr Brady said.

Over recent years, he noted, "the people of Northern Ireland have made a remarkable journey."

© The Irish Times

Feel free to disagree, but there are too many loose ends still trailing in the mud for a 'perfect solution', whatever that may mean, to be served from the current pressure-cooker. Even if the two parties say 'Aye', expect a couple of items to be delayed.. and delayed.. and delayed.. after all, what would they put in next year's election pamphlets otherwise?

For starters Pete - I suspect that next years' election pamphlets will based
1) DUP vs UUP
2) UUP vs DUP
3) SF vs SDLP
4) SDLP vs SF

The DUP and SF will still need ammunition [pun intended] for those campaigns.

Policing, for example:

SF will still be 'holding out for devolved powers', while the DUP will still be saying 'not until we are convinced that their crimninal activity is ended' - that's just one item of course.

The principle is not pretty, but can be considered sound if it helps produce a relatively level ground to build upon.

This process has taken over 10 years to get here. I doubt if all problems will now obediently disappear in short order, no matter how perfect the deal.

Have you specfic worries in mind Pete?

The principle is not pretty and it's not sound either, Mick.

Hope and History have not rhymed in this political process and there is nothing to suggest that, by themselves, they ever will.

(Without the detail, which we're still not privy to, it would difficult to pick out specifics.. time will tell which ones they will be - apart from policing, of course.)

yeah and the Papists would not let the Protestants walk down the Garvaghy Rd.

God Save The Queen.

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