Letter: As we continue our religious squabbles, we add to these divisions by way of immigration

Your correspondent George Millar (‘There are questions for our religious and political leaders on their role in Troubles,’ July 1) has written an excellent letter on the troubling divisions among the Christian denominations, Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregationalist, etc, that still trouble us on the island of Ireland today.

Indeed as we continue our squabbles we add to these divisions by the addition of foreign religions to the mix by way of immigration, legal and illegal, in such numbers that make integration of peoples increasingly difficult.

We need to be honest with ourselves and solve our own religious problems before we address those of the rest of the world (a comforting task for many).

Perhaps we can find another word than Troubles to describe our divisions. It is a gentle accommodating word to cover hatreds that shame us all.

But we must also be positive in responding to this story of narrow-minded, ungenerous acts that defile the very name of the Christian religion.

Among the hatreds are acts of Christian forgiveness and repentance that we need to do more than we have done in the past to acknowledge.

For me the example of my former student from the 1980s ex IRA Shane Paul O'Doherty (Wormwood Scrubs and Dublin University) has been among the most inspiring in my time in the Fair City (1968 to the present day).

Shane Paul O'Doherty has led in the only way that is possible for us to recover the true legacy of Irish Christianity. He has led by the transforming power of his own life.

Dr Gerald Morgan, Dublin