AN ‘acceptable level of violence’ – that’s what we were told to hope for.

In 1971, British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling had such little hope for the north that he declared we’d have to settle for a steady rate of trauma.

A people damned to endure under a smog of viciousness towards each other forever.

People were outraged when he said it. The stench of British Tory condescension affronted people from Aughnacloy to Burr Point, Catholic, Protestant and dissenter.

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Although not in the way he meant it, old chap Reginald was right.

Maudling thought of us as savages who were beyond saving. That our hatred of our neighbour would continue forever, with no regard to who implemented the divide-and-conquer strategy that froze this place in conflict. A strategy implemented by his forefathers.

The “acceptable” level of violence he predicted has been meted out otherwise, against women and people of colour.

Last week it bubbled to the surface, and it tipped into “unacceptable”, which made politicians very sad and shocked.

It’s better to keep........

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