In the past few weeks the discussions around how to solve the Palestinian/Israeli crisis have sometimes pointed to Northern Ireland an example of an intractable conflict that was eventually settled peacefully. This is a fragment of hope some optimistic and well-meaning people extract from the miasma of hopelessness from time to time. I finally watched the third part of the excellent PBS series "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland." [https://www.pbs.org/video/so-many-broken-hearts-uysr6j/]. I couldn't handle more misery during the current state of the world and had been putting it off. The people they interviewed from opposite sides of the dividing line told stories that were obviously hard for them to tell. Young, seemingly compassionate, smart, sensitive people threw themselves off the cliff of radicalism. And I was struck not just by how much the survivors had changed - how could they not? - but also by how much they didn't. The 11-year-old girl whose father was a hunger striker was in a way frozen in time - forever that child sitting on her dad's knee on a prison visit in Long Kesh.  The lessons that people were taught about the other side have been seared on their psyches. You can see it in the eyes of those having an internal debate about what they know is right and what they still can't help believe. I look forward to the final chapter when the whole bloody mess ends and there is some kind of peace.