“Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together,” or so said Barack Obama in yesterday’s speech. Several references were made to “walls” by Obama, a subliminal reminder to one of Ronald Reagan’s greatest legacies. Unfortunately for Obama however, the wall in Belfast not only still remains, it has actually grown in size.

since Good Friday peace agreement in 1998, the walls dividing Belfast’s sectarian enclaves (known as the “peace line”) have been going up, not coming down.

Obama has no excuse for getting this wrong because his own Northern Ireland adviser Trina Vargo wrote an oped piece in the “Irish Times” in February that began with the words “Belfast’s so-called peace walls remain”. It quoted former Senator George Mitchell - who chaired the Good Fiday[sic] talks - as saying: “I hope and pray that I live to see the day when the peace line goes the way of the Berlin Wall: its destruction will be the symbolic end of an age of conflict.”

Aside from Trina Vargo, Obama could have just as easily consulted with any one of his 300 foreign policy advisors before once again setting himself up to appear naive on foreign affairs. Had he been aware the wall in Belfast still remained, he could have channeled Ronald Reagan by declaring “tear down this wall!”

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Barack Obama, Election 2008