Sir, - At a recent debate in Belfast, your columnist Fintan O'Toole spoke of the sectarian nature of the Irish Republic. He gave one side of the picture. The other side was that when myself and my fellow students were looking for work in the early 1950s the best of the jobs advertised stipulated "Protestant girl" or "Church of Ireland only".
So the cream of the economy remained in a small number of hands, and those of us coming from Catholic schools felt very excluded indeed. This, of course, was a natural consequence of the colonialism which the 26 county state had so recently shaken off.
Honesty with regard to our present situation in the six counties will eventually put behind this whole country the malign and lasting wounds which are an inevitable legacy of any colonial situation. - Yours, etc.,
Springhill Close,
Belfast BT12 7SE.