Dear xxxxxx, 

I want to talk to you about the references you made involving Northern Ireland. For some (small) part what you say is true, however as with all things Northern Ireland’s problems are not simply black and white

I am an Irish man, I was born in Ballymena in County Antrim in Northern Ireland twenty seven years ago, to my Northern Irish mum and my Scottish dad. Two of the nicest people I know and who have worked long and hard for their entire lives in a country where normality packed its bags and left a long time ago

I want to tell you a tale of what life is in Northern Ireland, what it means to be Northern Irish and why I think that your references are perhaps a little shallow?

For more than 700 years the British government has held a presence in Ireland, but the roots of the now traditional groups can really only be traced back over the last 100 years

The IRA had a very important and serious role to play in the formation of the Irish nation. The 26 Counties known as Eire lovingly referred to as the ‘free state’ having been born out of a difficult campaign fought by Irish men and women to bring about the freedom they enjoy and deserve.

The remaining six counties known as Ulster lovingly referred to as the ‘Province’ have been in a state of flux ever since the Easter Rising. The problem from the perspective of Irish nationalists has grown beyond what the original goal was, that of a united Ireland.

In the 1960’s the IRA raised its head once more and detonated a number of explosive devices in Belfast without warning, my mother was there. She ran for her life that day and did not stop to look back despite the terrible screaming she heard behind her. In 1969 the IRA ordered the Protestant population of Ardoyne out of their homes.

My mum said goodbye to her friends and helped her father and mother pack up the few possessions they could carry to flats and any other places they could stay until they could afford a new home of their own. The houses they left were desecrated wiping their value out and only a very few of those people could afford new homes.

Shortly after that individual people started to disappear. They included some who spoke out against the violence, those who refused to co-operate with the terrorist organisations and even in some cases those who wanted out of said organisations. The people who vanished are known as the disappeared, and only now are the authorities recovering a few of the bodies of people who vanished in the seventies, eighties, nineties and even the 00’s. At the very least some of the dead can be left to rest and the grieving that so many families have suffered can come to an end.

In the 1990’s the ‘REAL IRA’ detonated a device in Omagh. It killed 38 people, have you seen the photos of the kids with burnt faces and bits of their bodies missing? Of course, what do Americans care, they are only Brits. Let me tell you this; Bombs are indiscriminate they simply explode, and when you are picking up bits of people you were talking to only a few moments ago you begin to realise that something is not exactly right.

The kids of Omagh have shown the world what a beautiful thing humanity can be. These people and the thousands of people who have suffered at the hands of shall we say 'internationally' funded terrorist organisations have suffered more and lost more as a society than most can ever imagine. Watching people picking up their lives, the woman whose husband didn't come home tonight, the man whose son was shot in the back in front of his very eyes, the kids of Omagh missing some parts of their bodies is heart-breaking.

In 2001 my dad received a paramilitary death threat, do you know what a death threat is? Someone hand delivers a sympathy card to your house at 4:00AM that contains a message not unlike ‘Next fucking time this will be lodged in your skull’ a reference made to the 9mm round of ammo enclosed in the envelope with the targets name etched into it.

Why hand deliver? This is to prove that not only does the organisation in question know where you live, but also that that knowledge has been passed to others. You will never know who is going to execute you but you know that it could be anyone you know and that it could happen at any time. Nice personal touch don’t you think.

I love my dad he is a good guy who has helped me when times are tough and I have helped him. He doesn't know why he has been targeted but at one point the IRA were even targeting milkmen so I guess who cares. I know that I could never repay him for my upbringing or thank him enough for helping me achieve what I think is a fairly balanced approach to dealing with things in a place as messed up as this. But you see, whether I love my parents or not doesn’t matter. Whether or not he is a good person who actually helps people out a hell of a lot more than he should doesn’t matter. Someone wants to kill him and that someone doesn’t think it matters either.

And now how about a slice of reality, Northern Ireland, a country that is filled to bursting point with problems and a hate so deep rooted (and I cant stress this enough) 'ON BOTH SUPPOSED SIDES' that it stretches beyond the borders of any normal society. Northern Ireland has in every city pockets of streets where normal society has broken down. It’s not just a question of breaking down; society stopped working in those areas long ago.

Kids run riot in areas of Belfast night after night, and are backed up by their hard-line parents and the paramilitaries. Night after night people’s homes are burned to the ground, people are shot at and sometimes fatally, blast devices and explosives are thrown at innocent people and the police. Ambulance crews have their lives threatened and have suffered serious brutal assaults with bricks being dropped on their heads and the hospital staff being told that they’ll be dead this time next week. Fire Crews having their equipment and appliances destroyed while responding to emergency calls, while kids are stoning and bricking them and throwing petrol bombs at them. All in a days work for Northern Ireland.

What the fight in the early 1900’s was for is forgotten, battles rage to control drugs that flow into the UK every day on a national scale. Innocent people get caught in the middle. I don’t know about you but I’m trying to live my life and be as decent a human being I can be. I have my wife to worry about and I really would like to have kids but you know I don’t think this is exactly a safe place to have them.

To be Northern Irish is to wake up every day and accept that someone you know and possibly even you yourself may not live to see the next day, but you will go to work, you will pay your taxes and buy the shopping, you will go out with your girlfriend/wife and visit your friends all the same. And you hope that the next news report you overhear isn’t about someone you love. This is what constitutes normalcy for over 2 million people.

It has always been my belief that there are two kinds of people in Northern Ireland, and they aren’t Catholic or Protestant. It is my belief that people are either criminals or everyone else. Religion is a bad reason to fight over a political issue, you campaign on one hand for the separation of the church and state and yet can make a call in your article that cheapens the majority of a population of a small country. I guess that’s what being American is all about.

I would like it to be known that not everyone who is protestant is a member of the government or any of its agencies. We are not all trying to (in your opinion) thwart a population when you take into account that Eire greatly outnumbers us. Our (Irish and UK) government’s have signed treaties that the US wouldn't dream of including the UN rights of the child don’t dare raise the spectre of in-equality we only need to look at American suburbs for that.  I know that I want peace because when I get it I want to have kids and I want them to be safe at night. But what price should I pay for it. Do I accept a government that has a dove in one hand and an AK47 (‘Widow-maker’ as they are lovingly referred to here) under the table? Would you accept that? Would you accept it knowing that the paramilitaries want to kill your dad? Forgive me please, if my opinion is slightly shall we say 'coloured' by that.

I believe that the process should involve everyone, and I believe that weapons should not have been involved anywhere in it. But with thanks to the terrorist organisations weapons are in there and have been a consistent stumbling block. The logic is simple if we have truly reached the end of the darkest days why do the UVF/UFF/IRA/Whatever need the weapons? If they didn’t have them at the negotiating table then the issue would not be there. There would be no excuse. Still who cares they are after all only Brits and sure it’s not as if they aren’t human beings either eh? And besides, what will the IRA use to put that bullet in my dads head if they didn't have their guns? Still you can at least laugh about it.

I am hoping you will respond to this because I would like to hear a real opinion from an American. I would like to thank you for your time in reading this and wish you all the best for your future.

Warmest regards,