Madam, - Fr Alec Reid's extraordinary outburst in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Belfast has perhaps served to expose just how distorted and exaggerated is the sense of grievance felt by some nationalists. For the "800-year men" among us, there can never have been any greater injustice in human history than that inflicted on us by the perfidious Brits.
Never mind centuries of religious and territorial warfare in Europe. Never mind the often brutal colonisation of entire continents, destruction of native populations, slavery etc. Never mind more recent horrors such as the Holocaust, two World Wars, Rwanda, Srebrenica, etc, etc - nothing compares with our suffering at the hands of those terrible Brits.
The reality is that our historical grievance is the pimple on the backside of the elephant of man's inhumanity to man. It is time we all challenged the Fr Reids among us when they spout this grossly over-the-top nonsense. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY, Haddington Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.
A chara, - The outraged reaction by unionist politicians to Fr Alex Reid's comments about past treatment of Catholics in the North beggars belief.
For years, Catholics lived in the closest thing Europe had to an apartheid state, underprivileged and discriminated against in almost every sense, considered as lower than scum by some and hated with a religious fervour by their fellow Christians who then dominated Northern Ireland.
This deep and visceral hatred was ingrained into many Protestant families, and driven by both unionist politicians and loyalist paramilitaries, both in their own distinctive ways. It still manifests itself to this day in the thugs who attack and vandalise Catholic churches, and who terrorise little girls on their way to school, and there are still plenty of unionist politicians who only grudgingly accept having "a Catholic about the place".
To say that this poisonous atmosphere gave rise to the Provisional IRA is not to justify or celebrate the fact, but simply to acknowledge it as a contributing factor and to emphasise that its likes must never be allowed develop again.
This terrible hatred was and is a reality, and if Reg Empey wants to talk about racism or Nigel Dodds wants to be outraged, that is where their focus should lie, because until people like them acknowledge and accept the wrongs of the past, true reconciliation will never be genuinely achieved. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL, Castle Gate, Dublin 2.
Madam, - I was appalled at the reported words of Fr Alec Reid in Belfast on Wednesday,when he accused unionists of treating Catholics "in the way the Nazis treated Jews", and "like animals".
I was born and bred in Northern Ireland and many of my family still live there; and I know that there were never any concentration camps, that Catholics were never made to wear any distinguishing marks or forbidden, among other things, to board buses.
There were few Catholics attending my secondary school - not by any government or school law, but by the policy of their own church. There were many Catholic graduates of Queen's University. This cannot be described as treatment "like animals" nor in a Nazi way.
Fr Reid has claimed he lost his temper at questions he was asked. His intemperate answer casts serious doubt on his objectivity as a witness at the IRA disarmament procedure. - Yours, etc,
GERALDINE WATTS, Lawnswood Park, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Once again we listen to the predictable outrage from unionists with regard to the recent comments by Fr Alex Reid who compared unionist treatment of the nationalist community to the actions of the Nazis toward the Jews.
We listened to the same outrage when President McAleese made a similar comparison based on her experience growing up in the North.
The point that both were making is that the mindset of unionism in Ireland was similar to that of the Third Reich. The Nazis behaved as they did towards other groups because of an inherent belief in their own superiority. Unionists too have been guilty of this attitude towards the nationalist community. This is a bald truth and something that unionists need to engage with.
They will not engage with it if credible individuals such as President McAleese and Fr Reid apologise for highlighting the failings of the unionist state. Apologies allow unionist to disengage from their responsibilities and give credibility to their outlandish belief that they are the only victims.
When respected individuals tell the truth about unionist culpability they should stand over that truth, forcing unionists to engage with their past and the appalling situation they created for nationalists in the North.
It is time to stop handling unionist sensibilities with kid gloves. - Yours, etc,
KATE O'DWYER, Carrowmanagh, Oughterard, Co Galway.