It's the onset of middle-age, innit. Those practical arguments chaps would've roundly dismissed only a short time before suddenly begin to ring true and make sense. I've seen it all over the world.
There always seems to come a point when a chap wants to just cash out, grab his girl and go off and live a quiet life. Very few want to keep running and fighting forever. The ones that *do* want to carry on quickly end up dead
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
Of course it's always necessary to make deals with the devil for peace. There's no such thing as unconditional surrender in conflicts like Northern Ireland, since the resentment such a conclusion would engender would only breed more conflict. So I don't condemn our politicians for ending the conflict by the means they did (although allowing murderers out of jail and general amnesties stick in the craw). However, I refuse to tolerate these airbrushed fond farewells of a man who has that much blood on his hands.