Human beings are capable of great things. They have landed on the moon. They have erected buildings that reach for the sky. They created Guinness.

Disappointingly they also regularly feel the need to kill one another. My Good Self has yet to understand this tendency.

In recent years many of our fellow human beings in Syria are no longer with us.

The conflict in Syria began in March 2011 and is ongoing. It started when anti-government protests were violently suppressed. In simple terms the conflict is between ruling President Bashar al-Assad and those opposed to him. However, it is a far from simple war.

Many countries have been drawn into the conflict, most notably the United States and Russia, although recently President Trump has decided to withdraw US troops from the area. Somewhere in the thick of things are the Kurds who are seeking independence for their people. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria. There are also a substantial number of Kurds living in Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

It’s a complicated, dizzying affair with many groups and factions involved.

For many years Northern Ireland was beset by violent conflict. Although it is not completely free of such matters, the six counties are, to a large degree, now peaceful.

Many people came together to bring about the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The person who deserves most credit for it is John Hume.

A committed, peaceful democrat and civil rights activist, Hume knew the only way to peace was through dialogue. In 1993, possibly earlier, he began talking to Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Although he was criticised in many quarters for sitting down with a representative of a terrorist organisation, John Hume knew better. The Hume Adams Initiative was the foundation of peace in Northern Ireland.

So what will become of Syria?

It desperately needs to find its own version of John Hume.