CAIN Web Service

Let's forget about the past, but at the same time
we have to learn from
our mistakes. There was a lack of proper
dialogue.

Not good enough/more politics including fringe
loyalist parties and sinn fein
everyone wants peace but
the IRA won't give in unless it is on their terms. We
will
not let them win and I think it is
obvious they never will.
Confused.
In the past, Britian has made many
mistakes and bloodshed in Ireland has
resulted in negative results for the sides concerned.
This
cannot be allowed to happen
anymore. ira should hand in all weapons and people
should learn to trust the british
government.
all the deaths and murders apear to have been
for nothing
because no government or political
party is prepared to
recognise them as being anything more. The fear
of death should be powerful enough to make
both sides talk.
All my life I
have never experienced anything but violence except
for the months of the ceasefire. I
have seen the pain inflicted needlessly on innocent
people and the hopefulness
felt by many
when it stopped.
Nobody wants to look to the past, everythings
in the future now
everyone lives in hope.
Unfortunately in Northern Ireland too many people
talk
about the past and kill for the memory of the dead.
Pointless violence which has achieved nothing but
heartache and bitterness.

I believe that during the ceasefire not
enough was done to find a solution. The politicians
are unable to have meaningful talks and now that
the ceasefire is over, I believe it is important that
peace talks are continuing and the
voice of the ordinary person is heard. If SF want
to go on he must be made contribute positively to
the process.
If there had been a
crackdown
on pira 25 years ago the country
would not be facing current problems.
Crusaders league championship success of 1994/5
was terrific.
Learn from it then forget it!!
The British have committed the
most horrendous crimes and
injustices in my country and they have got
away with this totally. Let's start treating Irish
people like humans.
None. Forget about the past
always look forward with hope.
Bollox on the politics and loyalist and unionists.
Load of bullshit.
Let's not dwell on the past.
Best forgotten.
Liked the ceasefire.
Forget it.
Depressing.
The past should be forgotten - the future looked
upon in
a positive manner.
None.
Glad I was too young to remember.
The past should be left as it is - the past. What's done
done and we should be looking
forward to the future.
That past was rotten
in that Northern Ireland was preoccupied with its past. Unfortunately
the past looks set to continue its terrible
policies into the future - if the UU and DUP
get their way anyway.
Caught in a rut for too long.
That the failure of unionist leaders to
acknowledge and accomodate the feelings
hopes and rights of
the nationalist community was the cause
of the political strife here over
the past
70 years.
Lets not go back to the violence of
the past.
Something to forget.

I believe we have grown
used to a violence and regard abnormality as
normal because we haven't had the
chance to experience
real peace.
Too much religious and class
divide.
The politicians have
been very
stubborn, I think.
The reason you should be in politics is that
if you are diplomatic and have time to talk
over politicians/parties.
For the politicians it is time to get off
your backsides and
sort it out.
The British Army treated the catholic
community apallingly bad and their unionist
bias was extremely unsettling.
The past should be
forgotten and more concentrated on
the present and
future.
I was brought up in a non-bitter
background so
religion never bothered to a
big extreme, but in some relationships religion
was quite a big issue.

To many grudges are
being held against each other for what has taken
place. People are not being asked to
forget about the past just accept it and
work toward the future

It has been so stupid, petty
fighting.
The past should not be
allowed to dominate the present in politics. People
should
put away
events of the past and look
to a better and brighter future.
Is over, it is now the present and
the future is ahead. Look to the future and we can
reach our goals.
Too many people with old views influence
today's politics.
I think that the past should be
put behind us and that there should not be a repeat
occurance of problems of the past such as
political status and religious
denominations in which you belong.
It should not have happened and it could
have been stopped.
Bad times. It all needs to change.
Wrong - forgive and forget.
Learn from it.
Troubles were uncalled for.
Past violence has caused
people to inherit bigoted
views about the other
community.

Too much has happened for it ever to
be forgotten but this does not
mean that we should lie back
and let the things of yesterday
repeat themselves today.

I bear no grudge against English. No-one else
should, the worst people to resent are your own
ie Northern Irish protestants and catholics
should work together - it's everyone's Ireland (except
the English).
Forget it and lets get on with the future.
We should only look to the past to learn
the past is the past. Nobody needs
another 25
years of violence.
forget the past, think
of the future.
I think the ira
are a disgrace to the catholic
community.
The political parties are not doing
much about trying to stop the ceasefire in Northern
Ireland.
Don't look back in anger.
25 years of saddness
and death.
I have known nothing but war, people I
know have been killed 'friends' I
hope my son will not have to live through this
hell also.
The younger generations were
not involved enough in political happenings.
25 wasted years.
Awful.
I moved back to Northern Ireland from Scotland
during
the ceasefire mostly because of my
experiences in the past. I
hoped life would be improved. I
am very disappointed in the failure of the
peace process and I hope for an improvement
in the situation

In my opinion I think that the
people of Northern Ireland should look to
the future and not the
past.
The past for me have been very mently
challenging as the troubles have broght
distress
to my and most other households in Northern Ireland.
Forget the past, I have to look to the future.

Unfair for most
nationalist areas
the politicians dwell too
much on the past and just keep firing
up things that has happened. They need to try to put
their differences aside, what's be
done is done and you can't
change it but they can
stop it
from happening again, I don't
think anyone wants to go through another 25
years of this.
I feel that all the shooting and
violence in the past was very horrific. They should
all sort out political matters and let there be
peace in Ireland.
Well all it has been is people
fighting against each other, but hopefully we
will get somewhere now.
No coment.
I'm originally from Glasgow so being a
catholic or protestant wasn't an issue. During the
peace it wasn't an issue either - it should
never be or have been an issue. We are all
human, we should all act
for the good of one another.
Pathetic.
Futile violence. We should never forget
the past but we need to put
things behind us before
we can progress.
No piece of land is worth
dying for. Dialogue between
all political parties should have happened at the
outset
of the troubles.
We should be looking to the future.
The time the army raided
my home went up into the garret ... fell through
on top of my sister and
wrecked our
home.
It all sounded terrible. We only saw it on tv
really but my granny won't
go to belfast because she is scared
of the bombs. She was in a
terrrible bomb
when they had just started in belfast. She made my
granda come to work
in Bangor and not
in Belfast after that.
I wish it wouldn't happen
again.
I think it was a terrible time. My dad lost
his friend who
was a policeman and
he says it should never happen
again.
I think it was sad. Why do people want
to hurt so many innocent
people they didn't even know?
Awful.
Events in the past should
never be repeated.
I grew up with the troubles and class
my self as Irish and always will even
though we are under British rule.
The troubles over the past 25 years
happened and nothing can be done about it but the
people who
live in Northern Ireland and Ireland should
ensure
that violence does not
continue for another 25 years.

When we wanted to go to Belfast we could
not because we were
scared
of bombs.
To try and put
it behind where
it belongs.
I feel that it took too long to talk
about the ceasefire and by the time they did
the ceasefire was over.
No comment.
The British government has been too soft with
the troubles in the past from both
sides of religion.

I believe that the killings
in Northern Ireland were
useless but we need
to show how we feel about
the Irish and the British government doesn't listen.
There was too much fighting for the last
25 years between the UVF and the IRA.
The past should be
forgotten, that was then.
We should be
thinking about our future and
leaving the past behind us, and stop opening
old wounds.
There has been far
too much troubles and no-one wants
to give in before more innocent
people lose
their lives for no reason.
It is awful the amount
of people that have died because
of these shootings, most
of these people are innocent.
It is awful the way
the family got
treated in the past.
25 years of
hell which could and should
have been avoided, all
politicians to blame.
Leave it behind where
it belongs, learn from it but don't
let it restrict progress towards a
more understanding and tolerant
society.
We keep looking
back to
the past thats the problem - look to
the future.

There has been a lot of conflict
both with paramilitaries but
also with politicians and it has been
difficult to find a way forward for the people
of ireland in peaceful terms.
The British gov was
at fault for the breaking down
of the IRA ceasefire.
I don't really know much
about the past but I
would like to.
I think the ceasefire should
never have broke.
It's a disgrace thank you.
People should remember
about the past.
The past has been bad and I
hope for the future.
The past was
terrible all people were interested in
was: who got killed, what religion they were/what
organisation done it.
What a way to live!
I hope that the past
can be forgotten but
traditions still kept. I
also hope the mistakes of the
past will not be repeated, but
learned from.
I am fedup seeing
people getting
hurt in violence and as a
result seeing Northern Ireland will be classed as
a bad place to live.
I think that all the fighting in Northern Ireland in
the past 25 years has
been stupid and should be
stopped as soon as possible.
Let there be peace.
Last 25 years has
been great, but it won't get us anywhere.
Peace was great, violence
and politics are pointless.
Far too much emphasis has been
placed on blaming the other
side instead of focusing on
the future of our island.
I never really got on well
at school so left and got
a job labouring on the building
site for a few months.
That the nationalists and
unionists have made no
progress it's going round circles.
I think the situation is stupid - people
dying from all sides because of
something that happened long
before we were even born (the nineties generation).
History shows the past shapes
the future so if that is
anything to go by,
god help us all.
We have seen 25 years
of killing uncompromise and political mismanagment.
Now is the time
to talk, let the people be heard.
My dad grew up
in troubles as I did, I
know only troubles.
The police force have
proven and shown that they racial towards
catholics and don't do their job right.
The past was violent
whats in the past should
remain in the past.
Its the past but I would not
like it to happen again
it appears that
politicians have no
consideration or respect for either of the cultural
traditions in Northern Ireland.
The past is something we have
to try and put behind us in
order for us to
develop ourselves for a new
and brighter future.
Unionists want to catch
themselves on to
the realism of the political situation in NI and
start
talking.

I think Bloody
Sunday was a bloody
decrise and an out
rage against all catholics and I
don't agree about the British army still
been here after what happened.
You cannot forget it but we
should learn to forgive and start again.
senseless waste of lives and suffering
more importance given to
the future, ni problems stemming
from the past
its a waste of time worrying
about it cos you'll never
get anywhere that way.
I'm so used to it so I
feel that any change in the drive
toward peace would be definitely
positive.

I think that looking at the past is
useful in so far as we can
learn from it, but I do feel
that holding onto the seeming
'tribalism' of 1690 etc only
serves
to narrow peoples visions. I
think we all need to look for peace in
areas of reconciliation and cross
community action.
People feel too bitterly
about the past. We can't
live with the same attitude. Just
as life goes on, attitudes should
change and the best made out
of every situation.
For too long the god fearing
unionist people have been
decieved by the British government and
intimidated and
murdered by nationalist/republicans
encouraged by
the irish republic.
Sad.
Proceeding with all party talks without
wrangling over
decommissioning prior
to them may have given better hope to
maintenance of the ceasefire.
I don't think it's right to say that Northern Ireland
has
had peace ... it was merely
just a ceasefire that we had!!
Politcal prisoners should stay where they
are - prison. They committed
a crime and should receive
punishment in exchange.
The past must be
the past and we must endeavour as
much as we can to live in spite
of the past.
It sucked - hit everywhere
else in the world - but why be
slaves to it? look
to the future.
Forget it.
Politicians have not represented
the desires of the people, they
are entrenched in the past.
I don't have any preference whether
or not we join with
the south.
We had nothing we should have had more fun.

Democratic Dialogue {external_link}
53 University Street, Belfast, BT7 1FY Northern Ireland
Phone: -44-28-9022-0050 Fax: -44-28-9022-0051
E-mail: info@democraticdialogue.org

Back to the top of this page