Thursday, March 8 - 10 am 

Having spent a good few hours yesterday at the Northern Irish Assembly at Stormont just outside Belfast City one thing I have to say I was surprised at was the facilities available in the Assembly. It hasn't been open as an Assembly for the last four and a half years but there is a notably well-run and well-stocked canteen with great food at seriously low prices. Security men on the door tell me though that the two restaurants on the second floor have been closed now for some time; Still...

Another interesting little fact that the security personnel gave me: the Assembly is called Parliament Buildings with an 's,' when in fact there is only one building. Why? Well, the plan was to have two other buildings on the large flat sweeps of grass that border the front of it but money ran out before these could be constructed. A big dome should also have crowned the top of the building but alas the 365-foot long construction - a foot for every year - had already consumed its budget by the time it got to the fourth floor.

Another thing I noticed this morning - the national dailies of Ireland and England aren't giving any space to the Northern Ireland vote today. The British Guardian doesn't mention it at all, though they have run an article about the upcoming French elections with a piece on Ségolène Royal!

The Irish Times has it just as a brief on the front page and one article inside, unless I missed something. The British Times just gives it one brief on a left-hand page. Local papers here in the province are dealing with it but it's not taking over their full front pages either.

I've been busy all day doing liveshots for the newscasts, so I haven't had much time to reflect. But here are a few things people told me today as they went to the polls:

About the DUP's Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness

"They do get on behind closed doors. They do speak, so it should work."

About Northern Ireland and Europe:

"We've gone back in time, we've not come forward. If we stay in the past we'll be finished. Here the politicans are still talking about a United Ireland and that's out of date now. It's senseless. We're part of Europe now and need to, have to move on and get with Europe and become more a part of it or we will be totally left behind economically. We can't waste any more time."

About immigration: 

"Every other person here now is foreign, so they will force change. The parties won't be able to get them to vote along the same lines as they are campaigning now. They'll have to change, so so will Northern Ireland."