Fifteen years ago Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and other statesmen mediated the un-mediatable and created the Northern Ireland that we know today. Some see the bargain as a grand failure. The creation of a parochial sectarian state suspended in a form of purgatory with a bloody history and no future.

While it would be wrong to suggest that the Irish are big fans of Thatcher, the majority want to see her off with respect. And a great many Irish have done so. Including the current Taoiseach Enda Kenny and current President Michael D Higgins.

Ever since the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, parties on both side of the divide have, albeit slowly, attempted to move things forward. And forward things have moved, as I explained at the start. However, a critical demographic have been left behind: the working class and the radicals within.

So little has been achieved and so much of the old has continued since 1998 - a year when Northern Ireland was supposed to have entered a new dawn - that we cant even share our greatest living son.

The ugly scenes of rioting that have returned to Belfast's streets 14 years after the signing of the peace agreement are a sorry sight. But they tell a story of poor political leadership and of a demographic section of society left behind.

The word 'fenian' has long been a sectarian term of abuse for Catholics in Northern Ireland. Its use is deemed to be increasingly shocking amongst many. It is a word stuffed with history, hardened down the ages.

Northern Ireland is in making the headlines again. So you know what that means: bad news.

In a cabinet reshuffle billed as the answer to Britain's economic ills, Prime Minister David Cameron went with the economic status quo: holding tight to the fiscally prudent and the ever-derided George Osborne.

For the young person in Northern Ireland current prospects are dire and as I look to the future, speaking directly as a young and disgruntled jobless person, I am filled with foreboding.

It is a momentous day in our country, a day when eyes of the world will turn to us and we can celebrate being British. We will no doubt take much pride in Team Great Britain, but across the Irish Sea, a contested corner of the United Kingdom remains troubled.

When the Queen shakes the hand of Martin McGuinness in Northern Ireland it will mark a significant moment in history. While opinion is divided over...

Last Friday's solution to the latest hand shake dilemma has laid the path for Wednesday 27 June 2012 to behold to the world a monumental handshake between Martin McGuinness and the Queen. A watershed event that will unequivocally change minds and lay an indelible landmark on Northern Ireland's long and winding avenue that has been the peace process.