The dilemma of Northern Ireland

Today, Northern Ireland will have been without a government for 593 days because Protestants and Catholics can't agree on the terms of cooperation

It’s back to square one. If Ireland with its overwhelming Roman Catholic majority is Hindu India, British-ruled Northern Ireland where this is being written — the six counties of Ulster to be exact — is the contrived Protestant homeland resembling Pakistan. On Saturday, Northern Ireland will have been without a government for 593 days because Protestants and Catholics can’t agree any longer on the terms of cooperation.

That they should have cooperated at all seemed a miracle to me for the two religions were fighting a nasty battle when I was last here in 1969. There’s been a pitched battle in