MICK FINNEGAN,
Sir, - David Rose, Deputy Leader of the PUP (September 9th) explains the Holy Cross Primary School protest as a symptom of "green imperialism".
Tell that to four-year-old girls, who were greeted by urine balloons, a bomb, bottles, bricks, spittle, pornographic pictures, grotesque masks, whistles, sirens and verbal abuse for three long months last year. All that simply to get to and from their school. These children were not seeking "lebensraum" in Glenbryn. Please don't sacrifice truth as well. - Yours, etc.,
Father AIDAN TROY,
Chair of Board
of Governors,
Holy Cross Girls' School,
Ardoyne,
Belfast.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - David Rose feels that four-year-old children walking to Holy Cross School in the company of their parents represent a green imperialist attempt to acquire "lebensraum". I, like many others, thought they were merely trying to get to school.
Mr Rose's reference to lebensraum, the Nazis' justification for their march on Russia, is instructive. He should take issue with his leader, David Irvine, who said at the time that the Holy Cross loyalist protesters felt so alienated they were prepared to brave the public opprobrium of "looking like fascists".
One year on, the PUP picture of reality has been inverted. Little girls going to school accompanied by their parents, braving blast-bombs, bags filled with urine and excrement, and vile sectarian slogans, are an example of "green imperialism" (and of the fiendishly clever "sectarianism through victimhood"), says Mr Rose.
The loyalist victimisers (looking like fascists) are not really fascists at all, just misunderstood people exercising their "right to cultural expression and self-determination".
Mr Rose should really try demonstrating his foolishness with fewer big words as they only exacerbate the unintended effect.
If loyalists could achieve the impossible - stopping the sustained sectarian campaign against Roman Catholics,young and old - it might put a stop to what he terms "the usual nationalist drivel" that he sees lurking behind explanations for such things as the right to live, or even walk to school, in peace.
- Yours, etc.,
MICK FINNEGAN,
Bannow Road,
Cabra,
Dublin 7.