Madam, - I read Kevin Myers's comments about a piece I wrote for RTÉ radio with some surprise (An Irishman's Diary, December 3rd).
That broadcast purported to be nothing more than an opinion piece, the kind of thing Kevin Myers does for a living, and the suggestion that my opinions should have been censored by a news editor is absurd.
He takes exception to a reference I made to those politicians who have always pursued an entirely legal, constitutional and political path to peace and justice in Northern Ireland without any bully-boy backup. He leaps to the defence of the DUP, and by implication Dr Paisley.
Well, the reason I was asked to write the piece in question is that I was born and raised in the North, a product of both traditions, and I remember events Mr Myers clearly chooses to forget: the riots in Divis Street following a Paisley-led protest, the counter demonstrations against what was then a broadly based civil rights movement, the Burntollet ambush led by Paisley's acolyte Major Ronald Bunting, the hooded legions marching up and down with pick-axe handles in Belfast and Newtownards. More recently, Northern journalists have referred to the DUP's courtship of the UDA in North Belfast for electoral purposes.
Yes, there was a "guerrilla war" in the North, one which it should be clear I did not support. Indeed, in Mr Myers's carefully extracted quotations he chose to ignore the reference to many Northern unionists who saw Sinn Féin as "those who, for 30 years, had murdered their kith and kin". He seems to deny by implication that there is a deep-seated anti-Catholicism in part of that community, an anti-Catholicism fostered by Ian Paisley, the leader of the DUP.
I am well aware that the DUP took part in the last Executive and, as stated, sit at the same table as Sinn Féin in local government, but their participation in the Executive was tactical. They always opposed the Good Friday Agreement, and now refer to it as "a dead duck".
Mr Myers also missed the tone of my piece. It was optimistic. I really believe the gun is redundant in Northern politics, and that Sinn Féin's vote would be a fraction of what it is if the Provisional IRA was still shooting and bombing. I also believe there is a significant number of young, intelligent, pragmatic members of the DUP who know there must be a way forward. I am aware that Kevin Myers has had some reporting experience in the North and I share his careful use of language but it wasn't me who described the torture and murder by the Official IRA of young Ranger Best as an "execution".
I've seen the handiwork of the Northern paramilitaries at first-hand. At one point I believe I nearly became a victim and can assure anyone who cares to listen that these abominations bring no credit to anyone except the grieving relatives who have chosen to forgive.
My thesis was and is that both sides have a long road to travel and they should be given every encouragement and facility to make that journey. Is that "the same old nationalist game again"?
Did Kevin Myers offend and insult me? Of course he did, but I don't believe that you, Madam Editor, should have corrected his many errors. He has the right to be wrong. He has the right to forget the bits of my piece that don't fit into his. He knows little about me but doesn't choose to enquire.
He doesn't know that my Protestant father died from a heart attack the morning after a republican bomb blew up his business for the fifth time. He doesn't know that the few mourners who made it to his funeral had to brave UDA roadblocks, powercuts, and intimidation.
I believe I am qualified to have an informed opinion on events in the North and a panoramic view from the top of the sectarian fence. "Same old nationalist game"? No, I've never played by those rules.
- Yours, etc.,
DEREK DAVIS, RTÉ, Dublin 4.