For most of my 47 years the army has been deployed in the six counties. Now they have come home. Tony Blair (my hero ) carried on with the John Major initiative and then some, with the Good Friday agreement. A triumph over terrorism.

It is an irony of history that one of the reasons troops were sent to Northern Ireland was to defend Catholic communities from attacks by Protestants. Their early welcome soon soured, however, thanks to continuing loyalist unrest, an increasingly repressive approach by the military and the revival of the IRA.

It culminated in an event that perhaps more than any other throughout the 40 years wounded the army's authority in Northern Ireland. Fourteen unarmed Catholics were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment during a civil rights march in Derry on Bloody Sunday - January 30 1972.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_I...138980,00.html

Just shows what is possible, if the will is there. Well done all involved.