Madam, - Steven King warns off those tempted to describe racism in the north of Ireland as "a peculiarly Protestant disease" (Opinion, September 2nd). There is no allegation that racism is peculiarly "Protestant". I believe that the UUP adviser means "unionist".
The Irish Times and other media have reported that racist attacks on the growing ethnic communities in the North have been carried out by unionist paramilitaries. The attacks have been organised and systematic, often accompanied by fascist-type warnings against diminution of white British heritage and culture.
King concedes that media reports are "factually accurate", but "the unsubtle fingering of an ethno-political group is not just itself vaguely racist. It is bunkum." This is reminiscent of when Steven King said that defining "sectarianism as a purely Protestant phenomenon" was "reflective of a sectarian mindset" (Letters, December 3rd, 2001). He was writing in the wake of the sectarian blockade of Holy Cross School in Belfast and at a time when the majority of sectarian attacks were directed at nationalists by unionist paramilitaries.
Steven King is therefore consistent in warning at times of upsurge in unionist paramilitary activity that "Protestants" should not be singled out for blame - again he means unionists.
He draws unwitting attention to the interface between sectarianism and racism when he writes that "upwardly mobile Protestants up sticks" to the suburbs, leaving behind "cheap housing" that "immigrants seek". One of the reasons why ethnic minority communities move in is because nationalists cannot or will not. It was reported recently that the last 10 Protestant families had moved out of the Torrens estate. An area that once had 150 families now has none at all. As "upwardly mobile" Protestants left and Roman Catholic and mixed-marriage couples moved in, paramilitary thugs attacked them systematically, so they moved out again.
Roman Catholics constituted 83 per cent of the housing list in that area, but could not avail of the "cheap housing". The remaining poorer Protestants reaped the whirlwind of community breakdown and the sectarianism that affects interface areas.
Organised racism, like organised sectarianism, is not a problem for Protestantism; it is a problem for unionism. It is not exclusively a unionist problem. However, in the absence of internal recognition, it will continue to be highlighted from outside. Acceptance that there is a link between sectarianism and racism would be a good start for a re-think. - Yours, etc.,
NÍALL MEEHAN,
Offaly Road ,
Cabra,
Dublin 7.