24: Here

Today, the U.V.F. (Ulster Volunteer Force) and Red Hand Commandos (different name for the same thing) are said to have totally decommissioned their arms. The U.D.A. (see Red Hand Commandos) also claim to have begun following suit. You can read all about it here.

I never thought I'd see the day, but the same went for the I.R.A.'s 2005 disarmament. Why the guarded tone, then? It's "an historic day.... further testimony to the transformation in Northern Ireland", according to Secretary of State Shaun Woodward [featured BBC article.] Well, as we witnessed in March, paramilitaries Here are not unlike your average Hollywood ghouls; beheading one doesn't mean two won't pop back up in its place.

It's more than that, though. Just yesterday I watched a newly unfurled U.V.F. flag rippling in the breeze, as I walked through neighbouring streets. It, of course, wasn't alone. Moments later I passed a man wearing a U.V.F. shirt. Not a D.I.Y., Primark plain white tee later deformed by a home-made print, a genuine "I'm in the U.V.F" shirt. That this is probably that man's "job" and "uniform" (outside of 501's, a black bomber jacket, and balaclava, of course) appalls me on a level beyond concision.

Watching that clown walk around with impunity in the middle of a sunny Friday afternoon was, at once, infuriating and enlightening; it's our problem in microcosm. Too many people still don't see the abhorrence of their ways. His demeanour was not that of a man finally being dragged into civility along with his cohorts, nor was it a man afraid for his future; rather, it was the same nonchalance exhibited by the sectarian mooncats I went to high school with, the guys who drew Loyalist murals during classes, hummed and drummed Loyalist tunes on the tables with their pens, and used used the terms "Fenian" and "taig" in much the same breath as Nazi - a swagger (or saunter, as we say Here) that said "the more things change...."

Flying your country's flag, or whatever flag you wish, from a pole on the front of your house and flying terrorist - again, terrorist - flags (plural) on streetlights around your area are not the same thing.

I'm not ignorant enough to accuse the police of being ineffectual, but, in these matters, question marks arise as to their conviction. Any such flag spotted or reported to an officer should be removed instantly. The same must also go for murals, no matter which acronym they champion. If we are, indeed, progressing, then there can be no alternative, least of all the shameful "that's just the way it is" attitude so prevalent in society to this day.

I hate the fact that I thought better of reporting this offensive behaviour for fear of the inaction it would likely meet. I hate the fact that, after so long, these issues still annoy me this deeply. But most of all I hate the fact that the good people of Northern Ireland seem consigned to pessimism as long as it's "Us VS. Them" Here.

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Ian Pratt finds "the bright side" of life increasingly hard to look upon.