An outsider's view

Editorial Department • Published 1 Jul 2010 16:00 0 Comments

Dear Sir, - I recently overheard a conversation in a local hotel between a lady from Australia and a man from Cork. It went more or less as follows.

A. What is this sectarian problem you have in Ireland?

B. It's not a national problem but it is widespread here in the six counties. It's a mental weakness resulting in Catholics having an unhealthy dislike of Protestants and vice versa.

A. Do they realise they have a problem?

B. No, they think it's only on the other side.

A. What happens if one comes from a different country?

B. In that case it doesn't seem to apply.

A. Have you any examples of this local disease?

B. Yes and it's all quite strange - large numbers of rich and poor Catholics vote for a very wealthy socialist party. On the other side, large numbers of working class unemployed Protestants vote for politicians with extensive property portfolios.

A. I'm totally confused.

B. Don't worry as most outsiders are.

A. Are the government not trying to eradicate this disease?

B. The NI government is run mainly by two parties who use it all the time to maintain power.

A. Surely this is a distortion of democracy - does it not lead to incompetent government?

B. Correct but unfortunately the electorate are blinded by this disease.

A. I have read that one of the parties say a united Ireland could happen by 2016.

B. This could be classified as a sectarian tune and is being played to distract the gullible from their own real needs. I can tell you it won't happen in the lifetime of my children now in their first year of primary school. For a start we in the Republic have enough social problems without adding six sectarian counties. Secondly, we couldn't afford any of the £9,500 million tranferred annually from London to the NI government.

A. That's a huge sum - how is it spent?

B. Mainly to pay salaries and pensions of a massive public sector.

Yours faithfully,

Political ears,

Enniskillen

Tweet

This letter appeared in Impartial Reporter 01 Jul 10

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

You must be logged in to post. If you have not registered with us, please do so now.

Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users do not have to complete word verification once logged in and can also take part in competitions and other registered user only features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Opinion archives.