DAVID ROSE,
Sir, - I am writing in response to Father Aidan Troy, Mick Finnegan and Damien Flinter. All three raised issues relating to my recent letter.
Father Troy and Mr Finnegan (September 11th) took particular exception to my assertion that the Holy Cross primary school dispute was a "symptom of green imperialism". To counter my position, both focused upon the experience of the children. They simply ignored the fact that the protest was a reaction to the expansionist campaign against the Glenbryn community.
Now that the dispute has ceased it would be interesting to analyse those who walked with the "parents" and just how well they conducted themselves. As Mr Finnegan rightly pointed out, my party leader, David Ervine said that the Holy Cross Loyalist protesters felt so alienated they were prepared to brave the public opprobrium of "looking like fascists". I invite Father Troy to comment on the parents issue. It may well explain why loyalists were so angry.
Damien Flinter (September 16th) also doubted the validity of my equating "KAT" ("Kill All Taigs") with "Brits Out". He says "Brits Out" means the removal of "an occupying military force". I invite him to consider the slogan from the loyalist viewpoint. Please remember we consider ourselves to be "Brits".
On the subject of Eamonn de Valera being moulded in the "Nazi" or "Spanish Falangist" tradition, I concede Mr Flinter's point. Mr de Valera does not deserve to be remembered as a criminal lunatic, when he was merely a pragmatic fanatic.
In making his last point Mr Flinter said the Irish retain their "loyalty to the veracious rather than voracious use of the Queen's English". I will believe that when the Dublin-based political class acknowledges that the Irish Constitution was the source of justification for the Provisional IRA's campaign against the loyalist/unionist people.
In conclusion I must admit a mistake. In an earlier letter I said that The Irish Times was part of the "green press". I now believe this to have been at best a hasty judgment. In tracking the progress of this letter-writing spat I have had the opportunity to read more. Whilst contrition runs counter to my Calvinist instinct, it is necessary. Gerry Moriarty is not, as I asserted, a "green propagandist"; his reporting from Northern Ireland is actually more balanced than that of the Belfast press. And Joe Humphreys's article on teachers (An Irishman's Diary, September 16th) should be required reading in both the "26 secessionist counties" and the "sterling area". - Yours, etc.,
DAVID ROSE, Deputy Leader, Progressive Unionist Party, Shankill Road, Belfast.