Sir, – Tom Hartley claims that Victoria Cross awardee James Magennis was denied a civic dinner in Belfast City Hall in 1945 because he was a Catholic (“Marking VE day in the North: ‘The tensions of our politics seep, into remembrance‘, News, May 8th). In common with others who have asserted over the last 25 or so years that there was resentment on the part of Protestants and unionists towards the awarding of the Victoria Cross to Magennis, Mr Hartley adduces no evidence in support of his assertion.
On the contrary, James Magennis was not only given a reception by the unionist lord mayor, Sir Crawford McCullagh, when he returned to the city but he was also praised in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland by two Ulster Unionist members, Dinah McNabb and Edmond Warnock, then minister of home affairs. (Warnock represented the government at the corporation reception for James Magennis in December 1945). It should be noted also that Sir Crawford McCullagh helped James Magennis’s mother to get an air flight to London for her son’s investiture – hardly an indication of resentment on his part. (Even after the end of the war, air travel was still difficult). Sir Crawford also organised the raising of a financial gift from the people of Belfast to Magennis.
Magennis was not awarded the freedom of the city but so far as I am aware Belfast Corporation never awarded the freedom of the city to the three VC winners from the first World War who were connected with the city through education or residence: William McFadzean, Robert Quigg, and John Sinton (all, as it happens, Protestants). It would appear that James Magennis was not singled out for ill-treatment in this respect.
The claim regarding unionist and Protestant resentment towards James Magennis has been often repeated and it appears to have attained canonical status. But it is a claim which has no support in the relevant evidence and it therefore deserves to be rejected as a myth. – Yours, etc,
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COLIN DC ARMSTRONG,
Donegall Rd,
Belfast,
Co Antrim.
