Madam, - Amid all the smoke, heat and light which has followed Fr Alec Reid's reported comments last Wednesday, the article by your Northern Editor, Gerry Moriarty (Opinion & Analysis, October 14th) stands out as an exemplary piece of thoughtful and careful analysis. Would that his words were compulsory reading for everybody rushing to judgment on this issue.
I would add only that it should not be forgotten that the incident in question occurred at a meeting convened and chaired by Rev Ken Newell, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and a man who has given much time to the unsung and unrewarded task of peacemaking and bridge-building in Northern Ireland. How it must have hurt him to see how others sought to foment divisions from his attempt to heal them through the Christian way of trying to see things from the other "side's" perspective.
It is so important for the future of Northern Ireland, and other places in this troubled world, that people of goodwill such as Ken Newell continue to do the hard, daily, invisible work of making peace, and that the powers-that-be and the rest of us acknowledge and support this vital work. - Yours, etc,
WILLIAM HANNA, Belfast 5.
Madam, - Fr Reid's comments were not the first time parallels have been drawn between unionism and Nazism, and are unlikely to be the last. Critics would do well to consider the remarks of Terence O'Neill, prime minister of Northern Ireland, speaking about Paisleyism in June 1969:
"To those of us who remember the Thirties, the pattern is horribly familiar. The contempt for established authority, the crude and unthinking intolerance, the emphasis upon monster processions and rallies, the appeal to a perverted from of patriotism. Each and every one of those things has its parallel in the rise of the Nazis to power. A minority movement was able in the end to work its will simply because most people were too apathetic or too intimidated to speak out. History must not be allowed to repeat itself."
It was the DUP that harboured George Seawright, who infamously declared that "taxpayers' money would be better spent on an incinerator and burning the whole lot of them [ Catholics]. The priests should be thrown in and burned as well". - Yours, etc,
JOHN STAFFORD, Chesterfield Grove, Dublin 15.
Madam, Garret FitzGerald deserves credit for his perceptive and fair-minded attempt to put the post-partition Ulster Unionist mindset in its wider, all-Ireland context (Opinion & Analysis, October 14th). Too often the unfair treatment of the minority population of Northern Ireland is viewed simply as malicious unionist oppression, and this narrow focus has nurtured the nationalist culture of grievance so clearly expressed in Fr Alec Reid's remarks last week.
As Dr FitzGerald reminds us, the sectarian ethos of this State in its formative years played a considerable part in fostering the siege mentality which underpinned unionist behaviour. If we are to make any further progress in resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland, nationalists north and south must try harder to understand and address unionist fears and concerns. Only then will it be possible to build a shared future based on mutual respect. - Yours, etc,
ROY STANLEY, Beechwood Park, Rathmines, Dublin 6.
Madam, - Like many others I was very dismayed by Fr Reid's recent comments. I was also struck especially by Gerry Moriarty's comment about Willie Frazer being a very troubled individual. I have been thinking about it ever since.
Much as I might disagree with Mr Frazer's campaign (and possibly provocative behaviour last Wednesday night), I have to say I'm not sure I would have done much better if I had lost as much as he has.
I think an incident such as this exposes the depths of hurt and anguish that many people have experienced in the North, and we all should think carefully how to respond to it. - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'CONNOR, Moira, Co Down.
Madam, - The headlong rush to peace is understandable, given the long drawn-out "war process" which precipitated it. But is this hot-housing of the peace process likely to lead to peace? The comments by Fr Alec Reid are a necessary reminder to us of the need to allow for a real process to happen.
Despite the desire for peace and the impatience we all experience at seeming diversions on the road, it is imperative that, in our haste to find closure, we do not repress genuine and honest manifestations of what is clearly still alive in the Irish psyche. Let us listen to the message from our country's unconscious of our country as expressed, in their anger, by Fr Reid and William Frazer, and allow its expression,rather than its repression.
Healing the hurt in the soul of Ireland cannot begin until the hatred which is being concealed by a political process is allowed to see the light of forgiveness.
If the country is railroaded by ambitious and immortality-seeking politicians into avoiding what in reality is not just unionist hurt, not just nationalist hurt, but everyone's hurt, we will not achieve a real peace. The unacknowledged and unexpressed issues will lie dormant under the surface and will come back to destroy us.
Far from criticising Fr Reid for opening up an embarrassing, shameful aspect of our past, let us see how we can make something of it. - Yours, etc,
Dr REAMONN Ó DONNCHADHA, Fenian Street, Dublin 2.