All the events in Belfast can be summed up nicely in this fable:
"On her way to work one morning, down the path alongside the lake,
A tenderhearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake.
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew.
"Poor thing," she cried, "I'll take you in and I'll take care of you."
"Take me in, oh tender woman,
Take me in, for heaven's sake,
Take me in, oh tender woman," sighed the snake.
She wrapped him up all cozy in a comforter of silk
And laid him by her fireside with some honey and some milk.
She hurried home from work that night and soon as she arrived,
She found that pretty snake she'd taken in had been revived.
"Take me in, oh tender woman,
Take me in, for heaven's sake,
Take me in, oh tender woman," sighed the snake.
She clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried.
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you truly would have died."
She stroked his pretty skin again and kissed and held him tight.
But instead of saying thank you, that snake gave her a vicious bite!
"Take me in, oh tender woman,
Take me in, for heaven's sake,
Take me in, oh tender woman," sighed the snake.
"I saved you," cried the woman. "And you've bitten me, heavens why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm gonna die!"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the grinning reptile with his breath,
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in!"
- by Al Wilson in 1968.