PAUL S.BURNS,
Sir, - Permit me to reply to Robert Greacen's letter of March 7th. The issue regarding Belfast's bid to be European Capital of Culture is, whether or not Belfast deserves such an honour, not that there reside in Belfast people who are not sectarian, provincial or philistine. Every city in Europe has such citizens. Their existence should not - indeed cannot - be highlighted as some sort of cultural achievement.
How can a city rent asunder by deep-rooted sectarianism and civil unrest and which now boasts sight-seeing tours of its "peace lines" and interfaces be seriously considered as Europe's cultural capital? The answer to this question will no doubt be highly politicised. If the EU and British Government want to invest in Belfast to help it overcome its "deprivation" and to improve its image then so be it, but to do so under the pretext that Belfast is some sort of cultural hotbed is a travesty and an insult to deserving title holders. It would also be a victory for the triumphalist "culture" for which Belfast is infamous, and a slap in the face for those who for years have campaigned to have Irish culture recognised in a city dubbed by the Rev J.B. Armstrong as "the necropolis of liberalism". - Is mise,
PAUL S.BURNS,
Cavehill Road,
Belfast 14.