Monday notes

Nice sunny morning in the islands, just like yesterday. May it long continue.

Down in Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams and Rev Ian Paisley are due to meet later today. The two have never met face-to-face, and this would have been unthinkable until recently. Adams is the president of Sinn Fein, the republican party which was the political arm of the IRA until this disarmed. His voice was at one time banned from public broadcast. Paisley is the leader of the largest protestant party, and a vociferous critic of Sinn Fein. His fire-and-brimstone sermons are legendary.

I wish both men wisdom at this crucial time in Northern Ireland's history, as in this meeting lies an opportunity to finally put to rest decades of civil war and centuries of strife in the island of Ireland.