Sir, - Responding to the very welcome increase in the number of Catholics applying to join the ranks of the RUC, Mr Alex Attwood said that the issue was not the number of Catholics but the number of nationalists (The Irish Times, January 12th).
At last, a senior member of the SDLP admits that not all Catholics are nationalists. Tim Pat Coogan, please note.
Without asking them their views on the merits or otherwise of a united Ireland, we have no way of knowing how many nationalists there are in the RUC. Like Mr Attwood, I expect the number is small though the real issue is how professionally and impartially individual RUC men and women conduct their duties, regardless of their private beliefs.
Assumming that Mr Attwood is not claiming that the RUC discriminates against applications from nationalists, perhaps he should address what he and his party have ever done to encourage nationalists to join.
The nationalist parties' non-recognition and vilification of the RUC would surely be enough to put any Catholic RUC officer off nationalism. -Yours, etc., Steven King,
William Street, Newtownards, Co Down.