Madam, – As an Alliance insider, I can assure Fionnuala O’Connor (Opinion, August 20th)there is a very long way to go before Alliance would even consider accepting any justice and policing ministry which may or may not be devolved before 2011. And as for Alliance nominating itself for any such position, that is fantastic speculation masquerading as purported fact.
I don’t love David Ford as our party leader only because he, for instance, has just led us to our best performance in a European election since 1979. I respect and admire him as our party leader for many other reasons: his organisational competence, his lack of ego, his affability even when under pressure. And for me, as a nationalist and a republican, most importantly, for his consistent agnosticism on the question of either the union or a united Ireland.
Such genuine agnosticism is extremely rare in Northern Ireland. And it is one reason why Mr Ford is perfectly suited to lead a party whose membership includes unionists, nationalists and “others” working together to overcome sectarianism wherever we come across it.
Alliance and its members have been at the forefront of confrontations with unionists over issues such as flags in towns like Carrickfergus and Bangor for most of the past 40 years.
The threats and intimidation we have undergone as a result of taking such stands usually go unreported and unnoticed by those outside of our families. I work in a bomb-proof building because of threats from the unionist side for stands Alliance has taken in the past.
Even now, after Alliance MLA Anna Lo’s vocal support of the Romanians, as The Irish Times has reported, we who work in Alliance HQ do so knowing racists have threatened to destroy the building.
In point of fact, it was not just “small left groups and evangelical churches” which criticised the PSNI in the light of recent racist attacks on the Romanian community. Ms Lo herself has been most vocal in criticising the PSNI for its sluggish, inappropriate and ultimately, as the Romanians left Belfast, tragically unsuccessful response to the threats to the Belfast Romanians. – Yours, etc,