Colm's take on The Troubles

I'm trying to avoid a daily digest of my activities. So here's a wrap up: Out to lunch twice last week with the woman from whom we are renting the townhouse and with Colm, a fellow student who is returning to get his masters after several years in the real world. I was at the house with pizza on Thursday to encourage the carpenters and brick masons, who are doing a great job on the windows dividing the conservatory and kitchen. David and I bought a laminate wood floor yesterday for the living room and dining room. Wood laminate floors are very popular here. They are very durable and easy to clean. The rest of the house will have natural wood floors, but the living room and dining room will have laminate, making the house better insulated (there is no basement, only a dirt foundation two feet below the floor). (Re. yesterday's post: Some people enjoy home renovation shows and may enjoy our step-by-step progress; some may find this minutiae the kind of self-indulgent claptrap I worry about. I'm trying to walk a line.)

My lunch with Colm saddened me because he doesn't want to live up north (he's from Tipperary). If it were just him, he'd be OK, he said, but he wants to have children and he said it wouldn't be fair to raise them in the north. He said every decision--what school to send his kids to, what football club they join--is coloured by sectarianism. His girlfriend, Emma, is from Derry and works in Belfast. I don't think she wants to move down south, so I worry about their future as a couple. He obviously adores her, so it's very sad. I know I'm naive about sectarianism--so many people have assured me it's confined to rabble rousing politicians and poor neighborhoods, where sectarianism is maybe an easier fight than looking at economic issues that keep unemployment high and educational attainment low. There are plenty of people in America focused on God, guns, and gays instead of a corrupted political system that rewards the wrong people and behaviours. If the politicians keep people focused on the wrong things, it certainly makes re-election easier. I think that has been true throughout history. Bread and circus, right?
2-1