This post was written on Sunday. Since then there has been another murder, this time a police officer, in a different part of Northern Ireland but the sentiments expressed below still stand.

My visit to Belfast has just taken on a whole different perspective. I have just watched my first news in a few days to the news that two British soldiers were killed by the Real IRA in Antrim, just west of Belfast. I had read yesterday in the paper that in the past 12 months, attacks on NI Police had increased and the police chief had just employed a number of intelligence gathering techniques to stop an attack like the one that occurred last night.

I still believe that it was perfectly safe for me to visit Northern Ireland – I would be more likely to be a target for the drunken rage of some glass wielding idiot in Canberra or any terrorist indiscriminately targeting Australians or Caucasians than I would for the Real IRA or indeed any other group in Northern Ireland. It does, though, show that my feeling that peace in Belfast was hanging by a thread was correct. It is a sobering thought that makes me glad that I had the luck to be born in Australia.