Sir, - Contrary to what some of your correspondents believe, Ruth Dudley Edwards's journalism on the Drumcree crisis has been a source of enlightenment. For the first time in my memory a complex picture of Orangeism is being presented in the Southern press. In her efforts she has now been joined by Nell McCafferty in the Sunday Tribune (July 19th), Eilis O'Hanlon in the Sunday Independent and various articles by Nuala O'Faolain in your own paper.
All of these journalists are forcing us to confront members of the Orange Order as complex human beings, some of whom are undoubtedly bigots, though not necessarily the vast majority.
We must remember that the Orange Order was not going to march down the Garvaghy Road with the banner "Croppies lie down" as Paul Linehan suggests (July 15th). To characterise the members of the Orange Order in general by a banner held by a few people at Drumcree is as inaccurate as characterising GAA members by the recent burning of the British flag in Croke Park by a few spectators.
We must never forget the extraordinary courage shown by the Rev William Bingham and thousands of Orangemen when they realised that the tension created by events at Drumcree was a contributory factor in the deaths of the three Quinn boys. Not congregating at Drumcree on July 12th and insisting on marching down the Garvaghy Road was, in the phrase often used by Eoghan Harris, an "act of good authority". It was a pity it was not realised by them earlier and by other actors in the drama, including Breandan MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Association, that the situation being created at Drumcree was summoning up extremely destructive and atavistic forces.
Ruth Dudley Edwards et al are helping to remove the reflexive relationship that seems to exist in Southern political discourse between Orangeman and bigot. For that she deserves our gratitude and not tribal condemnation. She is in the true tradition of revisionism whose contribution to the moral and intellectual climate in the Republic has been immeasurable over the past 30 years.
Is it any coincidence that these journalists are women? Maybe the Southern Irish male psyche lacks the ability to empathise with and tolerate that which is different or the other. Food for thought, perhaps, for John Waters, whom Ms Dudley Edwards replaced with such distinction for three weeks in your columns. Pity it was not for longer. - Yours, etc., Eoin O'Neachtain,
Fulham Palace Road,
London W6.