Major put the maintenance of these privileges, in return for unionist support in the House of Commons ahead of a chance of peace. This was at a time when the government was totally discredited. Strange politics indeed. But the problems do not end there. The Peace Process never, at any time, addressed the huge problems that face so many people in Ireland today - both north and south of the border.
Unemployment is now at record levels, as are the levels of poverty and inequality.
This disastrous situation is one that has been created and 'presided over' by many of those central to the Peace Process, including, of course, the Irish and British governments. In this regard, they have never been offering anything else, throughout the last 18 months, other than more of the same. Very few people will welcome the return of the IRA's strategy of the 'armed struggle'. It is a strategy that is deeply flawed and a dead-end to all intents and purposes. It fails, even when it is at its most dramatic, to lay any basis for working class unity in Ireland, let alone within the North.