Sir, - Douglas Bain (November 16th) objects to my assessment of David Trimble, whom he sees as "a besashed little man capering along the Garvaghy Road hand in hand with his then friend Ian Paisley, partners and leaders in an odious piece of bigotry". He has his facts wrong.
At the end of the 1995 Drumcree stand-off, by agreement with the residents, only members of Portadown District walked down Garvaghy Road. Neither Paisley nor Trimble was qualified to participate, so they joined Portadown District in Carleton Street afterwards outside the Orange hall. Orangemen lined the street and Harold Gracey, the District Master, went up and down the lines shaking hands. He was followed by Paisley and Trimble, both wearing Orange collarettes and with their hands linked above their heads.
Whatever about Paisley, who is very media-conscious, Trimble has no media sense at all. Exhausted after days and nights of negotiation, delighted by the outcome and relieved that everything had gone off peacefully, he was in the middle of a happy, exclusively Protestant crowd and gave not even a passing thought to the television cameras, which sent the image around the world. Of the journalists who knew what had actually happened, few have bothered to try to correct the widespread perception that this event took place on the Garvaghy Road.
Trimble realised he had made a stupid mistake and in interviews has expressed his regret. However, Sinn Fein spokesmen frequently repeat the lie that Trimble and Paisley were on the Garvaghy Road when they held hands, as do such innocent victims of Sinn Fein propaganda as Douglas Bain. - Yours, etc., Ruth Dudley-Edwards,
Ealing, London W5.