Northern Ireland centenary service will be all the better without republicans, be they President Michael D Higgins or Sinn Fein

The fallout from President Michael Higgins’s refusal to attend the church service organised to reflect upon Northern Ireland’s centenary continues.

Personally, I fail to see what all the fuss is about over his subsequent absence.

More significant to me is his related criticism of those who referred to him as the President of the Irish Republic and his enraged response proclaiming to be the President of the whole of Ireland ... how much more insulting could he be to us in Northern Ireland and our Queen by usurping her royal status?

An usurpation that clearly signifies to me that he doesn’t recognise Northern Ireland as a country in its own right (nothing from the US either about upholding the Good Friday Agreement on this I’ve noted!)

Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein swiftly rushed forward to support his stance by claiming also that “the partition of Ireland was a catastrophe for our people and our country”.

What really has been catastrophic for this country and beyond, McDonald needs to be reminded of, is the barbarism inflicted by the IRA — all encouraged by those within the republican movement who now expect trust and respect from all else, including their victims!

A movement that is steered and revered by Sinn Fein and which loathes all things British, Northern Irish and now even its church services.

If the blinkered Republic’s two faced president doesn’t want to recognise our province and its pro-unionist peoples, so what, he’s shown his true colours and the service will be all the more sincere without him ... and his ilk!

Archibald Toner, Dromore, Co Down.

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