Politics is not really my thing, if you want to read about politics being discussed by experts who understand the spin and jargon then you will find sites far better than this to do that. I take such issues at grass roots level, I hear what politicians say rather than what they mean even though the two rarely relate to each other.

At last we have agreement on some very contentious issues here in Northern Ireland, whether the people of this province will breath a sigh of relief rather than frustration over the coming weeks remains to be seen as the agreements are yet to be put to the population. What the DUP and Sinn Fein went head to head over involved Policing and Justice in NI – it will now be controlled by  Stormont rather than an independent authority. Parading – parades here are not the same as anywhere else for obvious reasons (it is not just a catholic/protestant thing) and despite the fact that the July 1st and July 12th parades proceed all over most of Ulster each year without incident and are a great day out, there are a few ‘contentious’ parades in areas where feelings run into the extreme. These parades were the problem and as such parading and policing were issues that are connected – a parade cannot proceed without police approval or surveillance. Let’s hope that progress has been made in this area.

There was much talk of the Assembly collapsing under the weight of disagreement, of bloodshed and mayhem returning to the streets of Ulster but I disagreed with that – the people here have come too far to go back to those dark days, too much has been gained here to risk such a step backwards. Right now Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams are speaking to the media and will continue to do so over the next few days in their attempt to assure the people of Northern Ireland – and the world -  that the future here is in hand, it is secure and it will be a forward-moving progression towards even greater stability and peace. Right now the only voice of contention is that of the Ulster Unionists who did not have representation in the negotiations and are stating their refusal to sign up to anything unless they agree with the proposals – but what would NI politics be without someone digging their feet in somewhere? Martin McGuinness’ dream of a ‘united Ireland’ is still a very long way off yet, we need a ‘united Northern Ireland’ first and foremost…and hopefully we are already well on the way to that.