How important are the separate histories to the different political parties?
We (Sinn Fein) really dont see it in that way. There are over a half million people in Ireland, and a majority do not trace their roots to Presbyterianism or Scotland, except for a few concentrated in the north east section of Northern Ireland. There has been over 300 years in which practices and traditions have been set up. It is all less stark than it appears. There is a social culture that is distinctively Irish, and the Irish language is very important to the Irish nationalists. Over all, there has been a lot of intermingling in the culture. In the Republic, it is only the most northern three that are Unionist out of the 33. In North Ireland it is much more evenly split. Q: What was your partys take on the Good Friday Agreement? A: There are a number of things. We were certainly involved; we consider ourselves to be some of the architects of the agreement. The main thing is this was a shared project; it was a result of collective ideas. Another factor is that this was the first tim
