Sir, - In the last number of weeks, you have published several letters in which your correspondents bitterly ridiculed what they described as "anachronistic Orangemen" for their many parades during the so called marching season. In today's (August 27th) Irish Times, the photograph on the front page bears the caption: "Hooded members of a Catholic confraternity in Guardia Sanframondi, Italy, celebrate the feast of the patron saint by beating themselves with nail studded blocks of wood as part of a centuries old tradition."
Many of your readers who are devout Roman Catholics will probably consider such celebrations, in honour of a patron saint, a perfectly normal expression of religious faith. This may explain why, given such a reference point for normality, they have difficulty in accepting what must seem to them a very strange and abhorrent sight, i.e. men soberly marching to a church service in their Sunday best suits, with orange sashes and bowler hats. Yours, etc.,
Knockbracken Crescent,
Carryduft,
Belfast BT8 8DB.