Sir, - Pol O Muiri (December 10th) branded La, the Belfast weekly, as a nationalist newspaper. I have before me the issue of December 4th. The story on page 1 carries a report from Conradh na Gaeilge's delegation to Bob Cooper of the Northern Ireland Fair Employment Commission, in which the Conradh president, Gearoid O Caireallain is quoted as saying: "We said that the Irish language was part of the heritage of all groups in the Six Counties . . ." No barking nationalism or sectarianism there, I would have thought.
A cursory glance at page 2 reveals an article on Myra Hindley and my own international haiku column. Page 3 features Proinsias De Rossa's concern about immigrants. Page 4 contains news stories from Zimbabwe, Iran, Israel, China, Algeria, etc.
The literary supplement features a tribute to the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal by Dairmaid O Grainne, who also writes about Padraig de Brun's translation of Dante's Divina Commedia. And so on . . .
Knowing their limited resources, I thought the staff of La put together a varied and interesting issue. I was saddened that Pol O Muiri may have given the impression to some of your readers that La was no more than a mouthpiece for one political or ideological enclave.
La has always tried to represent a broad view and differing philosophies, which is why the undersigned contributes to it - gratis, by the way. - Is mise,
Gleann na gCaorach, Co Atha Cliath.