Opinion

Alternative facts about Alliance Party can’t go unchallenged

Jim Hendron (March 17) asserted yet more alternative facts that cannot go unchallenged. He wrote about my ‘assertion’ that Alliance was linked to the New Ulster Movement. That is not an assertion but a fact. Oliver Napier and Bob Cooper launched the Alliance Party on April 21 1970 and used the membership list of the New Ulster Movement to recruit members. Oliver Napier estimated that between 95 per cent and 99 per cent of the New Ulster Movement left to join Alliance, including 11 executive members. If Jim Hendron has a problem with that he can take it up with Thomas G Mitchell the author of Indispensable Traitors.


Ruaidri Ua Conchobair goes as far as saying the New Ulster Movement set up Alliance. Another aspect Hendron does not address is that the New Ulster Movement supported Terence O’Neill and his policies. Was he not the UUP premier who presided over a majoritarian Stormont?


He admits that Bob Cooper was once a UUP member but omits that the last Alliance representative at Westminster, why would they take seats at Westminster if they are not unionist, before Naomi Long was Stratton Mills a man who left the UUP to join Alliance.


Harry Hamilton and Paula Bradshaw are just two relatively recent examples of UUP members defecting to Alliance. Yet Hendron insists that there was no links between the UUP, NUM and Alliance. 

He tries to portray Alliance as genuinely neutral. This is nonsense. ‘Alliance Party: the “centrist” soft Unionist deception’ by Ruaidri Ua Conchobair demonstrates why this is the case clearly. Alliance support the six counties remaining in the British state, think it is best for economic and social interests (it’s not) and they think that the Free State’s old territorial claim damaged community relations.


The last point is complete nonsense as there were good community relations after the Belfast blitz and the Free State’s territorial claim had recently been asserted.


Another point Ua Conchobair raised was that Alliance attend all pro-Brythonic events but are absent for every republican and nationalist event such as the Easter Rising centenary last year.

While everyone remembers Anna Lo’s comments about a united Ireland prior to a Brussels election few remember her on the last episode of Hearts and Minds when she told Noel Thompson that Irish nationalists were not offended by British military flags.


I would not expect this from people who are genuinely neutral but I was not at all surprised that it was uttered by a representative from a unionist party.

EAMONNA MacGRIANNA


Beal Feirste BT11

Despair at double-standards of evangelical Christians

I sometimes despair about the double standards of evangelical Christians like Colin Nevin who praised Donald Trump’s speech at the joint meeting of congress (March 14). What stood out for him was Trump’s reference to the Bible and his praise of God. Trump is the very same man who boasts about groping women. He is talking about the man who refuses to disclose his tax returns and slashes taxes for the super rich, wants to abolish Obama’s healthcare programme and slashes government programmes for the poor and unemployed.

Of course Colin is not the only evangelical Christian who supports such an unprincipled man. According to statistics 81 per cent of those who identified as a white evangelical or white born-again Christians supported Trump. A pastor called Paula White spoke at Trump’s inauguration. She preaches the prosperity gospel, an approach to Christianity that is, shall we say, unorthodox. Prosperity-gospel preachers teach that God wants people to be rich and that He makes them wealthy as a sign of His blessing and favour – the richer you are, the more God loves you.

Trump claimed his phone was tapped by Obama, without producing any evidence and was misleading about the amount of people who attended his inauguration. The US has elevated to its highest office a fascist by any other name and it’s going to be terrifying. In 1933 Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, let’s hope history is not repeating itself?

ANDY BARR


Bangor, Co Down

Another case of shameful discrimination

In the midst of the recent election and, more recently, the sad passing of Martin McGuinness, the report of the Council of Europe (March 9) on the British government’s record in the protection and promotion of the Irish language in the north of Ireland may not have received the attention it merits. The Council of Europe is an integral part of the human rights protection provided by the European Convention on Human Rights 1950. The United Kingdom is a signatory to that convention. The council’s report is deeply critical of the UK government’s record. It accuses the British government of hiding behind  a sectarian driven policy which side-lines legislative protection of the Irish language, effectively leaving it hostage to the prejudices of political unionism. Coming as it does from the most respected human rights body in Europe, this is a serious indictment of the British government. In the present political stalemate, it is clear we should not allow the immediate provision of the Irish Language Act to become part of any negotiating or bartering process with the DUP or other parties. The British government, while it remains as a signatory to the convention, should be exposed for this breach of its human rights obligations in respect of the Irish language. Yet another example of its shameful discrimination against Irish citizens in the north.

PATRICK FAHY


Omagh, Co Tyrone

Funeral observations

I  am a former resident of Northern Ireland living abroad. I watched with interest the funeral service of  Martin McGuinness. There was a large crowd of mourners showing their respect to a popular politician.

The Irish tricolour was present on the casket during Mass. Is this permissible for everyone who is connected to a paramilitary organisation or any organisation that bears a flag for identity?


Former US president Bill Clinton gave a speech during the Mass. Is it permissible for a family member or politician to speak at the funeral service of a loved one? 

I believe it is important to have clarity on these issues as in past years families have been refused these privileges by local clergy. 

KIERAN McPARLAN


Australia

Cultural vandalism

Many congratulations to the Department of Transport for a spectacular success in environmental vandalism. The new A6 road carving through the flood plain of the River Bann, south-west of Loch Beg, will ruin both environmental and cultural heritage at the same time. What an achievement.

Thank goodness the department did not choose the route just south of the present A6 through a disused airfield and along a disused railway line; or to widen the existing A6 which would have been a great deal easier than the just completed road widening between Jordanstown and Greenisland on the A2. Either route cheaper and quicker to build than the chosen route but who cares there is money to burn in this country.

PHIL ALLEN


Carrickfergus, Co Antrim