Paisley doesn’t play the race card as subtly as politicians in Dublin and London

TOM COOPER (Irish Examiner, July 6) is correct in his observation that Ian Paisley encourages racism and racial hatred in Northern Ireland — recently described as one of the race hate capitals of northern Europe.

However, this is not for the reasons that Tom Cooper, with the usual social republican perspective on events, would like to think.

Paisley does not, for example, encourage racism and racial hatred by appearing to defend Northern Ireland’s position in Britain. For all that, in fact, the kind of redneck ‘traditional’ unionism that Paisley represents poses a far greater threat to the union than does republicanism.