Draw Breath

Greetings from Texas. I got in at all hours last night on the first part of a whistlestop tour of the US. Off to Boston over the weekend and then to Washington DC.

As always, the people here are wonderful and friendly. I only hope I don't bewilder them when I deliver a short paper tomorrow on the Parades Commission (being rewritten now in the light of this week's events).

Just one thing: reading Martin McGuinness's speech in yesterday's Irish Times, I noticed that the transcript, as is also the case on the BBC, has him beginning "I am proud to stand here today as an Irish republican who believes absolutely in a united Ireland."

But listen to the speech (you can listen to all the speeches here). What McGuinness actually said was that he "believes in the unity of Ireland." Which is a very different thing, symptomatic of Sinn Féin's slight shift from a united Ireland policy to an all-Ireland policy.

And it's very welcome. Nothing like the recognition that politics is the art of the possible to actually develop a politics that works.