Sir, - The letter of Tommy Murtagh, Trinity College (July 20th) is so slanted that the truth slips off it. The fact is that these sashed, swaggering marches are a truculent assertion of outdated, tribal 17th century Protestant supremacy and ascendancy. "Croppy lie down" is the boot boy message. It was inevitable that, for survival, they produced. mirror images across the sectarian divide.
The Orangemen are welcome to their colourful identity. Indeed their quaint antiquated parades are matters for carnival; Mardi Gras perhaps, as July 12th is the anniversary of the unhappy Battle of Aughrim, not the bloody Boyne.
The letter is another reminder that academics should not be left within an ass's roar of the formulation of foreign policy. That goes for quirky David Trimble, too. - Yours, etc,
Mount Merrion
Co Dublin.