Ok so after reading what seems like every English website in China and the Chinese embassy in Dublin website 50 times I missed one thing out..........the embassy is not open on a Friday. So I got up at the crack of dawn for nothing. On the positive side we have everything booked and so do all of the other 6 people going on the negative side this was my only day I could go down and I was quite looking forward to it. Maybe one of the other group can go down ? Who knows we will have to have a rethink.
On a different note yesterday evening I went to a finish off of a project I have been involved with in the protestant communities in South Belfast I was speaking to a community leader in one of the areas and he was talking about St Patricks day, a few years ago I gave him a contact and he got loads of protestant children in the parade in Armagh. They have gone to parades down south before as well but this time he decided to watch the parade in Belfast. He said he has never seen such a sorry sight that the heart has been taken out of it, in fact you would not even know it was a St Patricks day parade it could have been for anything. Some years back there were issues around too many tri colours etc being displayed and many members of the unionist community feeling that the parade was not for them. However I found it really interesting that here was a man from Donegal Pass saying it maybe was time to participate in the parade in Belfast, to reclaim St Patrick. I also know of a group in Sandy Row that held St Patrick day events in their own community for the second time so that's progress people are realising that St Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, nothing more nothing less.
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