off his shoes and socks, and they searched the car and so on. It is true that same stuff goes on today, and I do not think it will end in my life time.” But even as the Protestants had the power of the police, the Catholics still had the IRA, which has been a “thorn in the side of peace since its beginning.” With the all of the steps toward peace and the centuries that have passed since the conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants began, the violence endures. The violence seems to transcend time: a permanent fixture in the battle for freedom from religious persecution in Northern Ireland. Neither side seems to be willing to budge. In 1998, David Trimble, a Protestant Northern Irish official was awarded the Nobel peace prize during the peace talks that took place. Still, with groups like the Democratic Union Party (DUP) and the IRA fueling the fire of conflict, it is hard to see peace in the near future. “The DUP is basically the Protestant IRA, but to me the IRA seems ten times more evil then the DUP. That might just be my Protestant roots showing through.” It seems that as long as there are groups taking to violence to solve the problems of the region there will never be an agreement and peace in Northern Ireland. While the two main groups of this conflict are classified by religious denominations, very few of the issues today have anything to do with their beliefs in God. They take on a much more political standpoint. “It seems that very few people actual talk about the groups as religious anymore, but while they are political groups now they still have the background of the religion. It reminds us how it all started and how the true separation of beliefs all began.” ...
