There is something genuinely heartening about a world event of this kind happening in Northern Ireland
There are plenty of reasons to be cynical about the G8 summit – including the improbability of effective agreements on tax or Syria in the communiqué. And the huge security lockdown and trompe l'oeil prettifications of depressed parts of Northern Ireland for the benefit of global visitors are reminders – if they were needed – that such summits have their civil liberty price and their shameless dimensions. All the same, there is something genuinely heartening about a world event of this kind happening in Northern Ireland. It goes without saying that such a gathering would have been unthinkable for much of the past half-century. Anyone who watched or heard the Belfast schoolchildren whom Barack Obama took time to address on Monday could not have been unmoved by the sense that these young people's future can be better than the province's past. Summits certainly have their dark sides, but they can be inspiring too.