DAVID ROSE,
Sir, - Mick Finnegan (August 28th) claims I am "long on rhetoric and short on facts" and goes on to trot out the usual nationalist drivel. Predictably, nationalists are victims and loyalists perpetrators. The Holy Cross primary school gets a mention, as do "illegal loyalist armies". Mr Finnegan then raises "incessant marching from Easter to September" as well as an Irish News photograph of the "KAT" (Kill All Taigs) slogan.
Certainly the "KAT" slogan is outrageous. Just like "Brits Out"' it smacks of ethnic cleansing. I unreservedly condemn the slogan and those who wrote it. They are not true loyalists.
The other issues are a different matter. First, The Holy Cross primary school protest was a symptom of green imperialism. If nationalists in Ardoyne were not seeking lebensraum in the Glenbryn District, the protest would not have happened.
Second, as for "illegal loyalist armies" - that a citizen of the 26 secessionist counties should moan about illegal armies is laughable. The secessionist statelet was founded on the actions of an illegal army. For 30 years loyalists have struggled to resist violent green imperialism as practised by an illegal army. And today illegal armies seek to ethnically cleanse loyalist communities in North Belfast and Cluan Place.
Certainly, loyalists have illegal armies. The solution lies in the hands of those who continue to criminalise our culture ("incessant marching"), our heritage ("Union jacks") and our identity ("Red Hand paraphernalia"). Loyalists are not, as the fascist De Valera claimed, misguided Irishmen led astray by Big Brother. We are a legitimate people with the right to cultural expression and self-determination.
At the time of writing, the Loyalist Commission has admitted loyalist involvement in interface violence. Rightly it has called on illegal nationalist armies to come clean about their role. If past experience is anything to go by, loyalists will wait a long time for a reply. Irish nationalism is a political ethos that justifies imperialistic violence and sectarianism through victimhood. It will be slow to grow up and acknowledge its failings. Until then, conciliation will not be possible. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID ROSE,
Deputy Leader,
Progressive Unionist Party,
Shankill Road,
Belfast.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - The PSNI Assistant Chief Constable, Alan McQuillan, has, in what Basil Fawlty might term "a statement of the bleeding obvious", admitted that loyalists have been responsible for the significant majority of serious violence in the North over the summer.
Why, then, were 29 nationalists and only 27 loyalists arrested for rioting in North Belfast over the past three months? - Yours, etc.,
Dr SEÁN MARLOW,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9.
