Sir, - In his Irishman's Diary of August 18th, Kevin Myers attempts to justify the violence of the RUC on the Ormeau Road in Belfast last weekend. He states that he does not know a police force which "warbles lullabies to clear a road of linked protesters". He also asserts that there is "no alternative to physical force" (by the police).
Has he forgotten what happened in July 1996 when loyalists orchestrated the blocking of dozens of roads throughout the North in protest at the re-routing of the Orangemen's Drumcree parade? RUC members certainly did not use physical force on that occasion. They may well have sung lullabies, or other songs closer to their hearts, as they assisted the illegal protesters by diverting or turning back law-abiding motorists.
It seems to me that physical force by the RUC is inevitable only when it is used against nationalist protesters. - Yours, etc.,
Mark Urwin, Court, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15.