And yet here we are, fifteen years later, that we find only 6.97% of children in NI attending nonsectarian schools?
Be careful with that one...by nonsectarian, I assume you mean integrated? The integrated sector is still small (though growing), but the traditional split was the State Schools (seen as Protestant) and the Catholic sector. However, the State sector was never intended to be for one side of the community only. In fact. most State schools had a reasonable number of Catholic pupils. The integrated schools are proactive in drawing from both communities, but the State sector was always designed to be mixed.
In terms of McGuiness and the Queen...as someone who seen family and friends injured while serving in the RUC, any involvement of Sinn Fein in government is hard to take. But I also look at the future in NI for my little daughter...and it's much brighter than the outlook I grew up in. Also, I think personalities come into it. McGuiness seems to make a genuine effort in terms of reconciliation...while I detest where he came from, there is a grudging respect that (a) he admits what he was, and (b) he does seem to want to leave something better in place. Adams is a different matter!
On the question of whether the war was won...I think the combined efforts of the RUC, British Army and the Intelligence Services eventually wore the Provos down. I think those on both sides had become war weary; we got to a stage where everyone realised there had to be some concensus. Once the ceasefires happened, 9/11 sealed it. From then on, no American administration could allow the terror to reignite, so the Provos support in the USA dried up.
The sad thing is that it took 3,000 lives to get there, not to mention the many more injured or maimed. But any form of reconciliation now makes the process easier for the next generation.
PS. I should also say, NI was never as divided as the press would have suggested. The vast majority of us shared employment, socialising, and even family across 'the divide'. Sadly the few on both sides did the damage.