GERARD REYNOLDS,
Sir, - If you asked the rioters in north Belfast what they were rioting about, would they actually know?
The political situation is being used as an excuse for thuggery by a mob of cowardly layabouts with clearly nothing better to do than terrorise innocent people. - Is mise,
GERARD REYNOLDS,
Ballycullen Road,
Dublin 16.
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Sir, - The continuing appalling scenes near Holy Cross School in Belfast, coupled with the recent survey revealing that a majority of Northern Ireland adolescents (both Protestant and Roman Catholic) have never socialised with anyone from "the other side", surely now make the case for integrated education unanswerable.
Born in Derry in 1953, and educated wholly within the Catholic primary and secondary sector there, I never sat beside a Protestant in an educational environment until I went to Trinity College Dublin in 1972. How the hell can this be right, and how the hell can it not have affected my development, perspective and judgment (was that the intention?) almost irreparably?
What we continue to have in Northern Ireland - despite the peace process - is effectively apartheid in education, employment and social life. Let's at least start with the first of those and allow little boys and girls of all denominations and none to witness at first hand, and early in life, that "the other side" do not have horns. Then there might be some hope of an end to the nightmare. - Yours, etc.,
NIGEL COOKE,
Whyteleafe,
Surrey,
England.
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Sir, - Your front page of January 10th shows a photograph of youths in Ardoyne attempting to overturn a Land Rover.
The caption states that "the faces have been obscured by the photographer following threats made against him by the rioters".
I gather from this information that the rioters have been successful in intimidating the photographer and that The Irish Times, by publishing the censored picture, is a part to the agreement.
Under the circumstances it would have been better to leave the photograph out. - Yours, etc.,
DERMOT KIRWAN,
Kilbarrack Road,
Dublin 5.