Letter ignores long history of Catholic hostility to republicans

A few Catholic clergy were or are sympathetic to or ambivalent about republican violence; some gave active support. But I can also name Church of Ireland clergy who were at best ambivalent about republicanism — one ( now long deceased ) is known to have been a member of the Official IRA before his ordination.

But JF ignores the long history of Catholic hostility to republican extremism — a history that stretches back to the 1798 rebellion (an uprising in which, as JF may be unaware, many of the rebels were Protestants).

He ignores in particular the recent history of that hostility — Pope John Paul II’s condemnation of the IRA in 1979 and the deep abhorrence of the IRA and Sinn Fein shown by bishops such as William Philbin and Cardinal Cahal Daly, an abhorrence which was reciprocated by the republicans.

JF ignores also the IRA’s practice of murdering Catholics as well as Protestants.

The IRA was a sectarian and anti-Protestant organisation but it murdered all those it regarded as targets, regardless of their religious beliefs.

I fear also JF’s letter will do nothing to persuade Catholics of the merits of the Union; if the Union matters to him he would do well to give up his petty-minded sectarian remarks.

C.D.C. Armstrong, Belfast, BT12