A Lasting Peace AND a Future For Northern Ireland?

I’m somewhat stunned at the news that an agreement has been reached on power sharing in Northern Ireland. I used to think that Ian Paisley would “never, never, never” share power with the opposition whom he had continued to call Sinn Fein-IRA and refusing to recognise the political wing and the military wing as separate entities despite the ongoing ceasefire. It would be interesting to know what swung it for the DUP. Do they now begrudgingly trust Sinn Fein? , did they get enough concessions behind the scenes? Or, like Tony Blair, did they feel the “hand of history” on their shoulder and decided it was best to rise above the bigotry and share power than to acquiesce to continuing direct rule from London? “The troubles” , a peculiarly British term for the Northern Ireland violence years, had been around for most of the years I’ve lived on this planet. Growing up an irreligious Brit on the mainland it had always puzzled me as to the amount of hatred between protestants and catholics whilst recognising the role the British played in fueling the inequalities and the abuses of human life that took place on all sides. I often wished that we could all put the past behind us, admit the failures and wrongdoings and get over the years of personal hatred and bigotry for the sake of peace. Northern Ireland seems closer to that ideal than I thought I’d see in my lifetime.