Sir, - In response to Kevin Myers's article which was not about Bloody Sunday ("Selective memory" January 25th), I could start waxing lyrical about the two giveaway signs of a unionist sympathiser. One is the use of the hyphenated phrase "Sinn FeinIRA", coined by unionist spokesmen. The other is that when British Government and British Army crimes are raised, he replies by cataloguing IRA crimes, rather than addressing the immediate issue. But, instead, I will make the real point briefly.
There is one important distinction between Bloody Sunday and all the other crimes which Mr Myers lists. The surviving perpetrator of the IRA's Shankill bomb massacre was arrested and is in jail. The loyalist perpetrators of the Greysteel and other massacres are also in jail. The RUC tells us that it is actively seeking the perpetrators of the Loughinisland and other unsolved mass killings.
The perpetrators of the Bloody Sunday massacre, by contrast, got medals from Her Majesty's Government, while the shootings themselves were whitewashed at the highest level. That is why Bloody Sunday is such a deep wound. Were it not for these facts then I suspect that what Kevin
Myers called the "Bloody Sunday industry" would be a small affair indeed. As it is, the grieving and commemoration still belong primarily to the relatives and the people of Derry rather than just Sinn Fein or the IRA.
There is one thing which Mr Myers might ask himself. Does he think that bile (which frequently negates some very valid points in his articles) will contribute to the resolution or the perpetuation of the Northern conflict? If the former, how? If the latter, why does he persist? - Yours, etc.
Coleraine,
Co Derry.