Sir, - Your correspondent Brian Kennaway (Rite and Reason, June 10th) accused Fr Eamon Stack of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition of indulging in untruths and half truths. That calumny must not go unchecked. I have know Eamon Stack for over 15 years and I know few people less given to untruths than he is.
In a divided society it is virtually impossible for any individual from either side to appreciate the "whole truth". This is at least as true for Brian Kennaway as of Eamon Stack.
Brian Kennaway fails to appreciate the context that makes a simple "church parade" on the Garvaghy Road oppressive: namely, the fact that no equivalent Nationalist/Catholic parade would ever be countenanced in an exclusively Loyalist area. It would be simply unthinkable, for example, that a Catholic church parade commemorating 1916 would pass through the Corcrain area of Portadown.
Over many years Catholics "learned their place" and would never presume such a right. Also, it would never be given them. That is why the Orange presumption of a right to march through exclusively Catholic areas is felt as oppressive and offensive. Yours, etc.,
Jesuit Communication Centre, Lower Leeson Street,
Dublin 2.