Letter: Notre Dame Cathedral provided backdrop for massacre of thousands of Protestants in 1572

The French Catholic authorities realised that this would bring all of France’s top Protestant families into Paris for the wedding. This was their opportunity to destroy the leaders of the French Protestants (known as Huguenots).

What happened was pre-meditated. The Catholic authorities shut the gates of Paris, trapping the Protestants inside. They proceeded to kill 8,000 of them. This became known as the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre.

Thousands of French Protestants were massacred at Notre Dame Cathedral, now recently reopened.

Historians excuse this event by claiming it was part of ‘the religious wars of France’. This so-called war was one-sided – its objective was the extermination of French Protestants, many of whom fled to Ulster.

Joe Kyle, Cullybackey