As the song says “Someday these will be the good old days”; so in years to come people will be regaling future generations with nostalgic stories about how they coped during the Covid!

You think?

I’ve always felt folk of my generation look back with rose-tinted spectacles at a past that was never as good or as simple as we now like to think.

Any reflection of the past in this part of the world will be bookmarked by seminal moments, events defined as strongly influencing later developments.

The date of October 5 went past last week almost without notice, and yet it was a day that is often referred to as the start of the Troubles.

It was, in fact, the day in 1968 that a civil rights march in Derry saw protesters being beaten by the police, scenes which I remember being shocked by as I watched them as a teenager on our old black and white television.

That year saw a lot of trouble and turmoil in many countries, with 1968 once being described as “the year that shook the world”.

But even with so much going on elsewhere, the images of an RUC inspector whacking people with a blackthorn stick and unarmed marchers being hit with batons flashed across screens internationally.

In an excellent piece in last week’s Irish Times, journalist Freya McClements interviewed key people from the day, included one of the demonstration’s speakers, Eamon McCann, now 78 and Bernadette McAliskey, now 74 but then a student, Bernadette Devlin who would become a Westminster MP.

Interestingly, they both used a similar phrase when recalling the significance of the day: they knew “things would never be the same again".

A teacher friend told me that he was taking a class recently when the events of the period in Northern Ireland were being discussed, which is sobering to think that events from my lifetime are now being taught as history in school.

And perhaps even more sobering to wonder if anything was learned from the lessons of the period.

I often reflect when we consider the situation in Northern Ireland that some people think the world here started in 1968 or 1969, or even later when they reflect on circumstances.

But October 5, 1968 didn’t just happen in a vacuum. It could be argued that it was hundreds of years in the making, and was certainly intensifying since the formation of Northern Ireland less than 50 years earlier.

For much of that half century, the Catholic/Nationalist community felt aggrieved at their status when it came to housing, jobs and votes and by 1968 their widespread sense of injustice saw the rise of the Civil Rights movement.

Unionists didn’t see the big picture.

Even though Sir Edward Carson warned his fellow Ulster Unionists that it would make Northern Ireland unstable if they alienate the Catholic community, that’s exactly what happened and it was significant that rather than address the underlying causes of unrest, the response was to crack down on protest.

This lack of vision, of ignoring the big picture has bedevilled Northern Ireland for the 100 years of its existence; even more so today in my opinion, which I will return to later.

Since that day in 1968, there have been many seminal moments, from Bloody Sunday to the Good Friday Agreement. In this area, we had the election of Bobby Sands in 1981, which changed the electoral dynamic across the whole island, the repercussions of which both parts of the island are struggling to adapt to.

In 1987, the Enniskillen bomb was so horrendous that it was a catalyst in making people realise that the violence was leading further down a vortex of despair.

For many individual families, they will have their own seminal moment when loss or trauma meant that for them “things would never be the same again".

This oft-unacknowledged hurt can mean it is passed down generations.

A lot has happened and this is certainly not 1968 anymore. We are in very different circumstances.

It’s surely a truism that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

To begin with, the internal dynamics within Northern Ireland have changed. When it was formed Unionists were in a 2-1 majority; these days it’s estimated that they are less than 50 per cent of the electorate.

And within that, there are nuances. The once all-powerful Orange Order does not have the influence on the Protestant population, while it is important to many of its members. The churches are not full every Sunday, and as well, many Unionist voters are attracted to the centre ground.

Younger people from Unionist backgrounds are less attracted to the identity issues of the past, and more and more Unionists of all ages are more comfortable with social change, including abortion and same-sex marriage. And flags are less important to many of them than reducing hospital waiting lists and many other issues that affect their everyday lives.

Furthermore, the much-referred to east-west and north-south dimensions have, to coin a phrase, changed utterly.

Aside from the future unity of the United Kingdom looking to be on a shakey peg with Scotland and Wales eyeing independence and English Nationalism taking hold, there is an increasing sense that the present Tory establishment wouldn’t die in the ditch for Northern Ireland.

And despite the political tension between the north and south of Ireland now, relationships across a virtually invisible Border are better now than ever. It’s estimated that there are 156 official points of north-south co-operation, with an alignment in a range of issues and interests from business, workers rights, sport, waterways, climate change and much more.

Also new communities, people from all over the world who have come here to make this their home, are making vital contributions in creating a more diverse society which is better for everyone.

Yet this very different scenario isn’t grasped by the Unionist leadership who concentrate in short-termism, perhaps hemmed in by the cycle of elections.

So the focus is on how to remain top dog at the next Assembly poll, how to ensure there isn’t a Sinn Fein First Minister and how to get rid of the iniquitous Protocol. The stunted thinking of some Unionists is to bring Stormont down and scrap the Good Friday Agreement.

And then what?

We can’t deny these are important issues to them in the short-term, but where’s the vision? Where’s their strength in saying we’re here and we’ll look at how we can contribute to a new, shared relationship across the island, whatever that may be.

Winning an election is one thing; then how do you bring a better society forward?

Opponents of Unionism, too, need to think big and be generous to their neighbours.

It was interesting in that interview with Eamon McCann that the lifelong socialist insisted that the advances made here were made by masses of people on the ground getting together, not by using guns and he repeated that in a lively interview on RTE on Sunday evening with Joe Duffy.

McCann also suggested that it will be the young people of Ireland, and particularly young women, who will shape the future of Ireland. And, McAliskey added, not necessarily white.

The lesson of 1968 is that ignoring the big picture won’t hold back the tide of change, and we need leaders of vision and strength to dream big dreams so that our children and grandchildren can have a brighter future.

The Greek proverb says: “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit.”