Protestant decline a result of sectarianism

IN response to PJ Feeney (Irish Examiner letters, July 24), the post-truce and indeed pre-truce killings of Protestants had an ethnic basis and were the outcome of a sectarian anti-Protestant strategy pursued by the IRA during the War of Independence.

WT Cosgrave made this quite clear in 1922, as pointed out by Robin Bury (Irish Examiner letters, July 10).

Much of the Protestant minority were at the mercy of prejudiced, lawless men, who subjected them to intimidation, persecution and expulsion.