More Lanyon

Yesterday I showed one leg of the U-shaped Lanyon Building. This is the other side of that leg.

After this afternoon's class, I attended a lecture by the attorney general on the stability and validity of the Northern Ireland Constitution. Not far in I realized his audience was law students, particularly constitutional law students. I am neither. I felt like I was doing one of my readings as information sailed over my head.

I did pick up a few things that I found interesting, partly that any interpretation of N.I. law is based on four documents from 1914, 1973, 1998 (Peace Accords), and 2006. Hence the interest in stability--the constitution is evolving. This topic is timely, given Scotland's recent breakaway attempt. I was interested because the N.I. parliament in Stormont is run by a bunch of yahoos--they are like boys arguing in a playground (and they are widely held in contempt here by Catholics and Protestants). While their contemporaries in Washington have no real alternative to figuring out how to govern, the power over N.I. has gone back and forth between Belfast and London. London would love to be rid of the responsibility for (and cost of) Ulster, however Stormount hasn't shown any real talent for running the affairs of the state.
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