Madam, - Reporting on the conflict (post-Belfast Agreement) in the North by your Northern Editor, Gerry Moriarty, has been fairly balanced over the years.
However, in your Opinion and Analysis page of July 13th, Mr Moriarty rebukes nationalist rioters in Ardoyne, "whatever about their complaints about being locked into their neighbourhood by British army and police to facilitate Orangemen and loyalists". He further states that they (nationalists) reacted with a "terrifying form of violence that no community would want to indulge or excuse".
What expletives would Mr Moriarty use to describe the appearance on stage in East Belfast on bonfire night of a number of armed and masked men who received a tumultuous reception from the massive crowd present, read a statement which surely sent a chill down the spines of all Catholics in the North, fired dozens of rounds of machine gunfire in to the air, and not one single word of condemnation from the PSNI? Neither, might I add, did The Irish Times make any reference to this outrageous public display of murderous intent. - Yours, etc.,
TOM COOPER, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.
Madam, - According to the website of the Parades Commission: "The Parades Commission determination is a legally binding document and defines the legality of a parade. Any action which breaks the law is a matter for the police." In its mission statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland states that one of its priorities is to "uphold the rule of law".
Yet on Monday evening the PSNI ignored the law in order to allow supporters of the Orange Order to pass the nationalist Ardoyne area on their return to Ligoniel and Ballysillan. Is that the way an impartial police force is supposed to act? - Is mise, etc.,
ROB WALSH, Clonard Park, Sandyford Road, Dublin 16.