Sir, – Gerry Moriarty errs on the side of charity in his assessment of the late Ian Paisley's last few years ( "Paisley took the road of redemption before the end", December 31st). He mentions the late Lord Bannside's acknowledgment that there had been discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland but he fails to refer to the former DUP leader's repeated and brazen failure to withdraw his own venomous anti-Catholic statements.
In an interview with him on BBC Radio 4 in 2010, John Humphrys referred to Ian Paisley’s comments about Catholics breeding like rabbits. When Ian Paisley denied having ever said any such thing, John Humphrys told him that the remarks were on tape (indeed a recording was played during the broadcast); Ian Paisley’s only response was to make a trite comment about how “that was then and this is now”.
In the interviews earlier last year with Eamonn Mallie to which Mr Moriarty refers, Ian Paisley actually tried to justify his highly offensive comments about how the late queen mother and her younger daughter had committed “spiritual adultery and fornication” by visiting the pope – a statement which suggests that Ian Paisley’s monarchism was hardly sincere.
Mr Moriarty makes much of Ian Paisley’s close relationship with Martin McGuinness. He doesn’t tell us that when that redoubtable critic of the Provisional IRA Cardinal Daly died six years ago, Paisley had nothing to say. The truth about the Chuckle Brothers act is that extremists mix very well – all too well. – Yours, etc,
CDC ARMSTRONG,
Belfast.