"We know not what a day may bring forth"
It's taken to get to this moment, but was perhaps the most significant day in the entire political history of Northern Ireland. We now have a power-sharing government that is.
began with a paraprased Bible text. The full version (in his favoured Authorised Version): "Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1). He returned to the Bible at the end of his speech, in an optimistic flourish, with words from the book of Ecclesiastes:
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to break down and a time to build up.
A time to get and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to cast away.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time of war and a time of peace."
Then this conclusion:
I believe that Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule. How good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing in our province. Today we have begun to plant and we await the harvest.
Martin McGuinness also turned to poetry in his first speech as joint head of the new executive. In his case it was not a biblical poet but a fellow Derryman, Seamus Heaney:
Ireland's greatest living poet, a fellow Derry man, Seamus Heaney, once told a gathering that I attended at Magee University that for too long and too often we speak of the others or the other side and that what we need to do is to get to a place of through otherness. The Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers is a good place to start. This will only work if we collectively accept the wisdom and importance of Seamus Heaney's words.
Comments
One bunch of idiotic politicians departs and we're stuck with another bunch prancing around pontificating to the rest of us.
Sorry if I can't get too excited by the event.
SG
Talking of books, authors and words did anyone spot the deluded book being handed over? I’m afraid that Dawkins had to take a back seat.
With all the positive developments today, a few weeks ago when Paisley met Adams and planned for the future at the Boyne etc. something has occurred to me.
Can these public displays of partnership and (in some ways) reconciliation, help create a less hostile environment in Northern Ireland for those of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, sex, sexual orientation and for persons with disabilities?
On one hand I feel that the two largest parties will be keen to keep the sectarian divisions alive but, from recent personal experiences, I also feel that divisions will collapse and Northern Ireland now looks forward to a more harmonious future.
Whilst both may be keen to keep sectarian divisions alive and the DUP keen to stand against gay equality etc. the knock on impact of partnership government will cascade down to the people on the streets who will see such role models of reconciliation and respect and seek to emulate such.
Views?
I agree Andrew. There's more openness in the air. I hope that is translated generally into more tolerance and more of a willingness to celebrate difference. I love the new multicultural belfast. Gay people are part of our future as much as any other group.
"...the most significant day in the entire political history of Nothern Ireland."
And what did anyone have to say about it. Words that were so unoriginal, so uninspired, so uninspiring, so unimatinative, so pale and bland you almost wonder why anyone bothered to speak them at all and why anyone would bother to listen. And from a land known for its poets. Gray, gray, gray, gray, gray. It's the way all of Europe is becoming it seems. One place looking like another, sounding like another, almost indistinguishable, lacking any vitality, any distinctiveness. How depressing, resignation to homogenious mediocrity. France knows it, Sarkozy's election was highly symbolic to them. They held their noses when they chose. Germany won't think about it, nirvana for them comes from collective amnesia after a nightmare which lasted the better part of a century. Even Italy, the last place you'd think of as dull has dumped the flamboyant Silvio Berlisconi merely because he is a criminal (that never bothered anyone there before) and elected that whatshisname socialist Prodi or whatever who will be so predictable.
An American who'd like to get to know Europe would do as well to watch TV travelogues saving the cost and effort of going there only he should remember to turn off the color. West meets East...or West is East? The Soviets may have lost the political battle but they won the cultural war hands down. If you have to experience the physical contact of the place, one would do just as well to travel the canals of Venice in a gondala in Las Vegas where there is no stench coming from the water. The hotel rooms are probably cheaper there too.