Sir, - Des Fahy believes that it took the recent debacle involving the Taoiseach and the Carfin memorial "to kick-start the soul searching" with regard to sectarianism in Scottish society (The Irish Times, February 14th). I find this comment absolutely baffling. I suspect that what the debacle has actually done is alerted people in Ireland to the fact that this menace still exists over here.
I have lived in Scotland for over five years, and sectarianism is something that the Scottish public is very much aware of - certainly far more so than in my native Dublin. It may surprise people in Ireland that we have to endure Orange marches for half the year, and in the last two years senior policemen have objected to being asked to disclose membership of the Freemasons.
In my experience, the only people who would take the line that Scotland "had confronted and neutralised its culture of religious intolerance" are the very exponents of such intolerance. As Mr Fahy points out, there have been several stabbing incidents related to Old Firm matches in recent years. This includes the one he refers to where a 16-year-old boy was murdered for wearing a Celtic jersey. His killer later claimed membership of a loyalist paramilitary group and requested to be moved to The Maze (unsuccessfully). Does Mr Fahy honestly believe that a cancelled junket by Bertie has had more impact on Scottish society than such an abhorrent crime?
I do not mean to give the impression that I feel victimised or discriminated against; on the contrary I am made to feel very welcome by the vast majority of people, and enjoy life here very much. However, my point is that there are still bigots here and everyone knows it. We do not need a diplomatic fiasco (blown out of all proportion) to bring that home to us. - Yours, etc.,
Kilian Kelly, Partickhill, Glasgow G11 5AU.