Sir, - Having read Garret FitzGerald's excellent articles on the Northern situation (July 25th), I feel moved to thank and congratulate you on recently publishing a number of pieces by your regular contributors which have shown a sympathetic insight into the Ulster Protestant/unionist people. (Here I would mention Andy Pollak in particular, who has always shown a remarkable understanding of things and people here.)
I write as an Ulster Presbyterian who has long and happy experience of our country both North and South, and can claim to be on record as opposing religious discrimination. I feel justified, therefore, in challenging those who continue to denounce Northern Ireland in a wholesale manner on grounds of institutionalised religious discrimination. And, in contrast to your recent articles, several of the letters which you received from the Republic and elsewhere seem to do this.
Frequently we are told that members of the Roman Catholic section of our community are "second-class citizens". I would suggest that those who do so be explicit in their criticisms. They should explain in detail the ways in which they are denied full citizenship in the following important spheres: political franchise (both local and parliamentary); national health and the "welfare state" generally; housing under the housing executive; employment, with the present fair employment legislation; policing in regard to selection of candidates and opportunities for promotion; education, primary, secondary and tertiary. In all these areas, criticism and complaints should be specific.
I am suggesting that those who denounce Northern Ireland as a sectarian state, with references to Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, tell us in detail what changes ought to be made. There is no doubt that religious discrimination is still widespread in some places both at the personal and group level, but those of us who oppose it should be helped by constructive criticism, not by blanket condemnation. One feels that those who go in for the latter resemble the gentleman who in a controversy said: "The issues are perfectly clear. Don't confuse me with the facts!" - Yours, etc., Rev Dr G.B.G. McConnell, Warrenpoint, Co Down.