Eamonn MacGrianna appears to have become so obsessed with the use of the term ‘alternative facts’ that he is in danger of failing to recognise real facts.
In the second sentence of his letter (April 3) he misquotes me and in the process, misquotes himself.
The assertion I attributed to him (March 17) was not ‘that Alliance was linked to the New Ulster Movement’. What I did attribute to him was his statement (March 10) which reads: ‘The Alliance Party split from the UUP in the 1970s as the New Ulster Movement.’ Once again I say that statement is factually and historically untrue. The Alliance Party could not possibly have ‘split from the UUP’ since it was not formed and launched until at least one year after the New Ulster Movement was formed.
Furthermore the New Ulster Movement had no connection whatever with the UUP.
With the greatest respect to Eamonn MacGrianna and to the authors he quotes – Thomas G Mitchell and Ruaidri Ua Conchobair – I have advantages over all three relative to the real facts concerning the origins and development of the Alliance Party.
I was a member of the 16 person cross-community group which prepared for and launched the party on April 21 1970. I have been a member of the party’s governing council for 47 years.
I therefore should and do know what the Alliance Party is about.
The founding cross-community group was independent of the New Ulster Movement and was not answerable to that organisation. It is true that the group did comprise some persons NUM members. There were others who had been members of Terence O’Neill’s supporting parliamentary groups; at least one member of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and others such as myself, who had no formal political affiliation whatsoever.
Eamonn MacGrianna raises a number of other matters which are breathtaking in their total lack of logic or point, other than to try to characterise the Alliance Party as something it is not. He makes the incredible statement; ‘Why would they (Alliance) take seats at Westminster if they are not unionists?’ The SDLP take their seats at Westminster. Does that mean that their MPs are unionists? Of course not. In 2010, Naomi Long defeated the then DUP leader to take the East Belfast Westminster seat. Did that make her a unionist? Of course not.
In his desperate attempt to classify the Alliance Party as unionist he cites
a number of people who left the Unionist Party to join Alliance. That does not make the Alliance Party a unionist party, any more than the large number of those from a nationalist background, including me, make the Alliance Party a nationalist party.
Eamonn MacGrianna’s main theme seems to be to pigeon hole people as either unionist or nationalist.
From my late teens I have profoundly disagreed with similar attempts at pigeon holing. I firmly believe in trying to unite the people of Northern Ireland. This is precisely the reason I became one of the group of 16 people who prepared for and launched the Alliance Party.
JIM HENDRON
Belfast BT5
Always easier to say sorry when event is not on your watch
At a time when Pope Francis has begged forgiveness for his Church’s failings in the Rwanda genocide it seems inconceivable that anyone should attempt to blame the innocent for the Church’s culpability in other scandals.
Only for the persistence and diligence of historian Catherine Corless, who herself suffered vilification from religious apologists attempting to block the truth, we would not have been made aware of the true horrors of the Bon Secours mother/baby home in Tuam, Co Galway. To date the remains of almost 800 children have been uncovered, who died prematurely from neglect at the hands of the religious orders entrusted with their care.
In a letter to The Irish News (June 2014) I mentioned the Bon Secours home, expressing concern that, in the abortion debate, those shouting the loudest about first-time trimester foetuses, should display so little empathy (or sympathy) for fully formed human life. One respondent, Dr Owen Gallagher (14/7/14) condemned me for ‘accepting the fabrication about the mother/baby home in Tuam’.
Now that the truth has been uncovered (with perhaps more revelations still to come), Mr Woods (March 22), with an anomie that staggers belief, casts aspersions on those who brought this pathetic story to national awareness. He accuses them of shedding ‘crocodile tears’ and aligns them with the ‘advocates for the legislation of abortion’.This is moral cowardice at its worst.
The ultimate irony of course is not whether commentators were pro choice supporters but that those institutions and their acolytes, who claim moral guardianship over the unborn, have shown criminal neglect (or worse) for young, sentient life (and for the ‘fallen’ mothers).
I revert to Pope Francis’s apology on Rwanda. Perhaps you are not aware of the reasons for this public display of penitence. Over 1,000,000 people died in this frenzy of killing, incited by state and Church, perhaps
150,000 or more were children. Many of those slaughtered in the genocide were found in shallow graves on Church property.
Many praised Pope John Paul II for apologising to the Jews and Muslims for Christian intolerance, but he did not include Rwanda on his list. This was because it was too raw and the Church required more ‘distance’ to be put between the genocide (1994) and its confession. It is always easier to say sorry when the event is not on your watch.
The Church’s default position is to protect its own, which inevitably is at the expense of the truth. Thankfully there are those who are prepared to expose the deceit and the fabrications.
Sadly, too, there are the vestigial remnants who help perpetuate the atavistic mindset that seeks to distort or deny the truth.
DANNY TREACY
Templepatrick, Co Antrim
West has lost its moral compass
As often stated, the first casualty of war is the truth, that still rings true as we read of the one-sided reports from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Ukraine and everywhere the west has decided to bomb and interfere in. The insatiable hunger of the military might is endless and any pretext or excuse will justify –
so-called weapons of mass destruction, a chemical attack and of course that ‘gem’, national security, as they bomb poor countries back to the Stone Age.
Have we forgotten Vietnam and the 3,5000,00 dead? What was that all for? The west has lost its moral compass and like Donald Trump has surrendered to the hawks of war.
JOHN-PATRICK BELL
Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim
Bombing of Syria
In Syria almost 90 men, women and children are killed by a gas attack. The west goes ballistic. America launches 59 Tomahawk on a Syrian government airbase from where the alleged attack took place.
In Syria more than 300,000 men, women and children have been killed by ‘conventional bombs’ but has the west gone ballistic? Well no because they are the ones, along with Russia and Syria, who carried out the bombing.
TONY CARROLL
Newry, Co Down
Relevant economic questions
In Business Insight (January 31) Danske Bank economist Conor Lambe penned an article re, industrial strategies. Part of the content of his article included the comment – “since early 2012, around 40,000 employee jobs have been added in Northern Ireland” leading me to pose some relevant questions.
I would like to ask first of all how accurate is the figure of 40,000 and secondly what is the geographical distribution of these jobs? I would also like to ask which socio-economic groups benefit most from these jobs and how many of these have been filled by economic migrants? What predictions do you have post-Brexit for the economy of NI. I would also be very interested in finding out what type of economic growth (if any) does he envisage for the north-west?
EUNAN MORAN
Derry city
Expression of thanks
Friends of the Cancer Centre would like to thank the residents and visitors of Belfast for their support during the charity’s street collection on Saturday, April 8 and for their help in raising the fantastic sum of £733.31. The money raised will be used to support local cancer patients and their families.
CLAIRE HOGARTH
Friends of the Cancer Centre
Belfast City Hospital
