Anyone born and bred in Northern Ireland can't be too optimistic.

Loyalism, or Unionism, or Protestantism, or whatever you want to call it, in Northern Ireland - it operates not as a class system, but a caste system.

I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university.

A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really. But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders. I really do.

Look at Northern Ireland and how long that is taking. Look at Sinai and Lebanon, and you see how difficult that is,

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.