It's only child's play. Some master it quickly while others never get the hang of it. The coordination between mind, hands and feet that make you a rope skipper is incredibly difficult but the accomplishment moves you, in some mysterious way, into a different place in the pecking order.
The toughs and the 'wee' hard men, who are usually the slowest at mastering the technique, would be quick enough to put it into the sissy bracket if it were not that every man's pub in the land has a black and white photo of one or other famous world champion boxer bedecked with a skipping rope. Individual skipping takes pride of place but group skipping is by far the most enjoyable and difficult.
One in, two out, three in, two out demands rhythm, synchronisation and timing that borders on the artistic. For group skipping you need a very long rope and two winders who are attuned to each other. The best winders are themselves good skippers because they instinctively adjust and adapt to the differing styles.
During the next few weeks we are going to be privileged to spectate at one of the greatest political skipping events that have ever taken place in these islands. Its significance and importance cannot be overstated.
I am on the side of those who claim that the next few meetings between Blair, Ahern and our political parties are of historical and transforming importance. All life and all events add to the flow of history.
However, some moments and some events have such a transforming impact that they indent the map of history. The next few weeks will have that impact. I think the people of Ireland, north and south, have gained the right to sit back, spectate and enjoy.
There will be many who will claim to be bored with the whole game, others who will say that it was all supposed to have happened five years ago with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the likes of myself who are pleasantly surprised that it is happening in half the time that I had predicted.
Part of the enjoyment is going to be the antics of the various parties. The DUP is going to stand outside the playground and shout insults. But all the time their noses are going to be pressed hard against the perimeter wire in case they might miss a trick. The Ulster Unionists are going to be in the schoolyard but determined to prove to everyone that they are going to do no skipping. The SDLP is in the difficult position of wanting to look enthusiastic and real good at this game while not wanting to reveal any coyness or softness. The smaller parties are going to huff and puff and pout while still dying to show off just how well they can skip themselves.
The rope on this occasion, of course, represents the hard issues that couldn't or were not resolved five years ago at the signing of the agreement. The standing down of the IRA, the normalising of security, the devolving of criminal justice and policing powers are the big headline grabbers. There is also a plethora of smaller but important issues that are unlikely to be deal breakers but will present their own quirks and difficulties.
The ones who will wind the rope for the greater part will be the two governments, but Sinn Féin are going to insist that they are given the odd go at winding the rope and making the others do their share of skipping. They will be particularly anxious and determined that the British take their fair share of the toil and sweat while showing themselves fully committed to the game. Sinn Féin's big anxiety will be the integrity and the stability of the institutions – the executive, the assembly and the cross-border bodies.
They are unlikely to settle for some gentleman's handshake that when the IRA leaves the game then the unionists will take part. Sinn Féin will want it chiselled in stone that no matter who puffs of huffs there will be no blowing down of the institutions. They know that this is the last time they will have the advantage of twirling the rope with a vote in one hand and a gun in the other. The British will agree that it is a fair quid pro quo and find a way of writing it into the legislation.
Chief Constable Hugh Orde and the GCO of the British army will have to come into the game at some stage and they will have to do some skipping themselves. They will have to show some fleet of foot between the old security obsessed agenda and a new approach that gives priority to a new reality. The securocrats will not go away without a fight and will find every opportunity to reassert the continuing threat from the Real IRA and the UDA. The difference this time is that the experienced skippers will take a few minutes to hear what they have to say, wipe the sweat off their own brows and get on with the game.
It is going to be a fascinating few weeks.
At its best it is not going to solve every problem that the Anglo-Irish nexus has conspired to create over many centuries and there will be other problems to be faced and more skipping to be done, but I believe the outcome will be so creative and liberating that it will find resonance in the words of a fine Ulster poet, John Montague:
Ancient Ireland, indeed! I was reared by her bedside,
The rune and the chant, evil eye and averted head,
Fomorian fierceness of family and local feud,
Gaunt figures of fear and of friendliness
For years they trespassed on my dreams
Until once, in a standing circle of stones
I felt their shadows pass
Into that dark permanence of ancient forms.
