It’s time to tackle the North’s peddlers of hate

THE killing of Michael Mcllveen is the result of sectarian incitement by people who claim to be delivering God’s message and upholding constitutionality in public affairs.

They must not be allowed to evade responsibility for the acts of evil caused by their words of hate.

The British government is guilty of protecting, aiding and abetting the promoters of sectarianism for over two centuries in Ireland, and they too must accept ultimate responsibility for the cancer they have cultivated permanently to divide the people of this island.

Despite the strong words of Northern Secretary Peter Hain, and the possible action of the PSNI in the arrest of the dispensable few responsible for the killing of another Catholic, nothing will change unless the British government acts to change it. Their failure to get loyalist paramilitaries to disband is exceeded only by their lack of focus on this time-bomb under the Good Friday Agreement.

They must act also to deter those whose provocative statements have ignited sectarianism throughout Northern Ireland for decades.

John J Hassett

Croke Street

Thurles

Co Tipperary