Two articles of Irish interest in the New York Times today. Colum McCann on the "Sounds of Silence" in Northern Ireland. His memories of watching 1970s Northern Ireland terrorism from the physical and psychological distance of a child in the Republic are evocative. One might question his conclusion, though --
One of the reasons that center holds is that no one politician, or party, or popular figure is trying to own the peace. It is an international agreement that owes as much to the vision of political leaders as it does to the thousands of mothers and fathers who have brokered it from the inside.
There certainly was a rush of VIPs to Stormont today for the photo-op, and a devolved government led by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness is not what most people had in mind when The Peace ProcessTM* got started.
But anyway. An accidental but revealing juxtaposition comes with the 2nd NYT article -- about the mania of Irish investors for property in Manhattan. It's a good account, putting the apparent surge in Manhattan condo investments from Ireland in the context of an overall surge in Irish property investments abroad, the weak dollar, and the apparently higher rental yield on property in New York City than in Dublin. It's strange though -- it's not obvious that looking for better investments than overvalued property at home would lead one to invest in arguably overvalued properties overseas. There's something strange about the investment returns in the Celtic Tiger.
[* Slugger joke]
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