By Brian Igoe
By Brian Igoe
San Lemass and Terence O'Neill had reckoned without Ian Paisley and Bernadette Devlin when they were planning the future of Ireland in 1965. It is arguable that these two between them, quite unintentionally, set the 'Peace Process' back 35 years. Neither one on their own could have done it, but between them they managed it. They, and the media. Not that they were associates - far from it. Paisley was then, in my own view, a somewhat blinkered Presbyterian cleric. Bernadette Devlin was a Psychology student at Queen's University Belfast in 1968, a nominal Catholic, and an extreme left wing political activist, a real Firebrand. And both would have been absolutely horrified if they had realised that the consequences of their expression of their deeply felt convictions would result in over thirty years of strife.
That is the first paragraph of the chapter, which then goes on to look at Ballymena, Cookstown, County Tyrone, Michael McAliskey, The Troubles, Time Magazine, Terence O'Neill, Martin McGuiness, GDP, EEC in 1973, Jack Lynch, San Lemass, Fianna Fil, Liam Cosgrave of Fine Gael, Charlie Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald, Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese, 'Celtic Tiger', Music, dance, 'Riverdance', Phil Coulter's 1995 Rugby Anthem 'Ireland's Call'.
The Book is called 'The Story of Ireland'.
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