Sir, - David Trimble said recently on the BBC's Breakfast With Frost programme that the UFF and LVF were "playing the republican game" by embarking on their most recent killing spree. The reality is, however, that loyalist assassins have been playing their own "game" of hate-driven terror and murder for generations.We know only too well the horrific outrages for which republican terrorists have been responsible and of which they, God forbid, are still capable.
Loyalist violence, nevertheless, must be seen as evil in its own right. Loyalist terrorists do not need to imitate the IRA, INLA or anyone else, because they have their own menacing agenda. Nor is their violence reactive.Throughout the history of Northern Ireland, pogroms against the Catholic community are well documented. They have been used as a means of instilling maximum fear among our people and of keeping them in subjection. Down through the years, sectarian bigots, some of them in religious garb, have fostered and encouraged the irrational hatred that drives some people to commit dark and terrible deeds.Unionist politicians must tackle and tame the monster of hatred in their own midst. While they were engaging in melodramatics and cynical posturing at Lancaster House, grieving families were burying their innocent dead.When it has suited their purposes, Unionist politicians have kept company with sinister figures within the loyalist camp. Their refusal, therefore, to negotiate with the elected representatives of Sinn Fein is hypocritical. They must reconsider what appears to be their callous refusal to engage in a process of dialogue that could spell the end of the appalling sufferings which have afflicted the peoples of these islands for far too long. - Yours, etc., Fr Patrick McCafferty,Holy Trinity,Belfast 11.